Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-02

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 maps illustrate the site of a farm from 1950 to the present day.

Overall, it is cleared that the farm experienced significant changes. While it changed from simple farmland to a residential farm.

In 1950, farm was sourounded by a river across the bridge. Two sides of the farm were seperated by a track. One side was left for sheep while the other side had vegetables, soft trees, and fruit trees in line near the bridge. The bridge was located at the left side on the river. At the North-East corner of the farm, some space had permited to barn and farmhouse that was opposite to each other. Behind the farmhouse, there was an area for chickens alongside the river.

Now the farm has camping field, parking area, and solar pannel facilities. Track has changed into road. Fruit trees have farm shop along with. Barn has shifted from their place, now it is attached with road. Holiday cottages replaced by barn. Farmhouse, chickens area, Fruit trees, soft fruits, and vegetables remain same.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response partially addresses the task by identifying some major changes between the 1950 map and the current plan, such as the addition of a camping field, parking areas, and solar panels. However, the overview sentence ("While it changed from simple farmland to a residential farm") is grammatically incomplete and under-developed. Furthermore, there are several inaccuracies in reporting the spatial details and modifications; for instance, the text claims that "Holiday cottages replaced by barn" and that the barn was shifted, whereas the layout shows holiday cottages newly built near the eastern road alongside a relocated barn structure. The selection of features is limited, and some descriptions lack clarity, keeping the response at this level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response displays an overall arrangement with a clear division into an introduction, an overview, the 1950 layout, and current changes. However, logical progression is occasionally disrupted by mechanical or faulty cohesion, such as abrupt transitions between sentences and sentences that start without clear contextual links (e.g., "Now the farm has camping field..."). Paragraphing is attempted, but some paragraphs are awkwardly constructed, such as the single-sentence overview fragment "While it changed from simple farmland to a residential farm." Referencing is occasionally unclear, which prevents the writing from achieving a higher level of cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for describing basic map features. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as "cleared" instead of "clear", "sourounded" instead of "surrounded", "seperated", "permited", and "solar pannel". Collocations and word formations are frequently imprecise (e.g., "soft trees" instead of "soft fruits"). While the writer attempts some less common vocabulary items related to the visual data, the spelling and word-choice errors cause some difficulty for the reader and restrict the score to this band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text relies on a limited range of sentence structures, mostly simple sentences alongside a few faulty attempts at complex forms (such as the incomplete dependent clause starting with "While..."). There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the response, including missing articles ("farm was sourounded", "track has changed into road"), preposition errors, and subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., "Fruit trees have farm shop along with", "Holiday cottages replaced by barn"). These frequent errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, although the general meaning remains partially retrievable.

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