Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The masterplan of an agricultural farm illustrates the conditions in 1950 and the changes that are evident today.

Overall, the masterplan of the farm has been developed with more architectural functions and some sustainable energy sources over the years. However, road infrastructure remains same.

In 1950, a track road started from the main road and went through the farm, and it was bent changing the direction creating a triangular track inside it. The land is confined between a river and the track, and divided primarily by the cultivations of fruit trees, soft fruits, and vegetables in the north side. The south land is for barn, farmhouse and chickens. The another side of the track is for sheep.

After development, today the land of fruit trees contain a farm shop. Holiday cottages are beside the farmhouse. Two parking areas are designed: one the in the east corner of the track road where it started from the main road, another is on the south side of a camping field that was once used for sheep. The camping field has four solar panels on the south side of the field to produce energy from the sunlight.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response successfully covers all key aspects of the task by comparing the farm site in 1950 with its layout today. The student provides a clear overview and correctly identifies major changes, such as the addition of the farm shop, holiday cottages, solar panels, and parking areas, alongside features that remained unchanged like the road infrastructure. While some spatial relationships and descriptions could be slightly more detailed or polished to fully extend the comparison, all parts of the prompt are addressed competently. The main features are appropriately selected and reported, meeting the expectations for a Band 6.5 or 7.0 level of task completion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The text demonstrates a clear overall arrangement with an introductory paragraph, an overview, and separate body paragraphs for the past and present layouts. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader through the comparison, such as 'In 1950' and 'After development, today'. However, referencing and cohesion occasionally feel slightly mechanical or awkward, as seen in phrases like 'The another side of the track'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the information logically, leading to an overall coherent piece of writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing a map and spatial transformations, including terms like 'agricultural farm', 'infrastructure', 'cultivations', and 'camping field'. There are some awkward word choices and minor lexical inaccuracies, such as 'The land of fruit trees contain' instead of 'contains', and 'track road'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with mixed success, but communication is never impeded by these limitations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writing includes a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses and prepositional phrases ('a track road started from the main road and went through the farm'). There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('the land of fruit trees contain', 'road infrastructure remains same') and article misuse ('one the in the east corner'). Despite these errors, the sentences remain largely understandable and communication is not severely impaired.

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

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