Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The plans below show the site of a farm in 1950 and the same site today.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.



 

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Here in the image a map view of location Beechwood Farm is shown in 2 different timelines. One is from year 1950 and other image is from present view. There are major differences happened in this span of years, the location has become very modernised with new infrastructure. I will describe the previous and current view of how this place was and currently is now. In the Year 1950, their was a curved river flowing and a road crossing through it. Their itself was the farm built starting from the farmhouse near the waters and in the right a barn followed by a chicken farm at left. Their were farms of Vegetables, Soft fruits, Fruit trees behind the farmhouse and middle of the river and a track. Opposite of this was a huge place of sheep farm spreading in a large area. In the present time the only changes happened are the Track developed into a road connected to the barn. In the place of barn their are holiday cottages now. Opposite to it is parking, followed by solar panels for saving electricity. Aside it is now a camping field and another parking just touched to the main road.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response attempts to summarize the main features of the maps, noting the transition of Beechwood Farm from 1950 to the present day. However, it falls short of a fully developed Task 1 response in several ways. Firstly, the overview is weak, consisting largely of meta-language such as 'I will describe the previous and current view' rather than a clear summary of the main trends. Secondly, the description of the 1950 layout is somewhat disorganized, with statements like 'Their itself was the farm built starting from the farmhouse' lacking clarity and precision. Furthermore, the description of current changes misses several key features shown in the modern map, such as the replacement of the vegetable and fruit areas by solar panels and a camping field. While the response addresses the prompt generally, the delivery places it at Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response suffers from significant issues in organization and paragraphing. The text is presented as a single dense block rather than being divided into logical paragraphs (such as an introduction, overview, and body paragraphs for past and present). Cohesive devices are either misused, overly simplistic, or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'In the present time the only changes happened are...' does not effectively guide the reader through the data. Additionally, referencing is frequently unclear, as seen in phrases like 'Opposite of this was a huge place of sheep farm', making it difficult to follow the spatial relationships between features on the map. This level of organization aligns with Band 4.5, rounded to 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive, with frequent word-choice and collocation errors. For example, the student writes 'their was a curved river' (confusing 'there' with 'their'), 'chicken farm' instead of 'chicken coop' or 'poultry area', and 'another parking just touched to the main road'. There are also frequent spelling and grammatical word-form errors, such as 'modernised' used awkwardly, and misuse of prepositions like 'in the right' instead of 'on the right'. While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey basic map features, the noticeable errors and restricted range place this criterion at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

Grammatical control is weak throughout the response, featuring a high frequency of errors that occasionally impede communication. There are persistent basic errors with subject-verb agreement and existential 'there', such as 'Their itself was the farm built' and 'Their were farms of Vegetables'. Sentence structures are largely limited to simple sentences or faulty complex attempts, and punctuation is inconsistently applied. Articles are frequently missing or misused ('in image a map view'). Because errors occur in almost every sentence and affect basic sentence architecture, this performance meets the criteria for Band 4.5, rounded to 5.0.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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