Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-01

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The diagram below shows the process for making a water clock.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN WATER CLOCK

HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN WATER CLOCK

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The diagram illustrate about the formation for creating your own water clock into 7 differant stages.

Overall, For building your own water clock take seven different process beggning with tap water till empty and repeat method for timing things.

To start with, In first stage tap water is collecting into a plastic bottle. Then, cover hole with finger and fill top bottle to overflow till level constant. Top bottle has a small hole at the bottom which drain out water into an neck cut off plastic bottle.when finger away from top bottle hole. Moreover, Both bottle are attached with a stand. where first bottle is hand with help of tape while another one just place on the base of stand.

In 6th stage, the collected water which is stored in second bottle was messuared level with the help of pencil per minute. in final part the process of empty and repeat method for timing things help to figure out the time

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the task partially by outlining the seven stages of making a water clock, but the overview and development are limited. The summary in the second paragraph is somewhat unclear and contains awkward phrasing ("take seven different process beggning with tap water till empty and repeat method"). While the writer manages to capture key aspects of the process—such as the top bottle, the overflow straw, the connection to a stand, and the lower measuring bottle—the information lacks clear, logical progression. Some steps, particularly the explanation of the water level and the calibration process in stage 6, are under-developed and rely too heavily on lifting fragments from the prompt rather than synthesizing the visual information into a well-structured academic report.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation in the text, with an introduction, an overview sentence, and subsequent body paragraphs attempting to follow the sequential stages of the diagram. However, there is no clear overall progression, making the flow disjointed. Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or inaccurately, such as starting sentences with repetitive or unnatural connectors like "To start with, In first stage" and "Moreover,". Paragraphing is attempted, but referencing between sentences is frequently unclear—for instance, pronouns and demonstratives like "Both bottle" and "another one" lack precise antecedent control, which disrupts the logical arrangement of information and makes the overall progression difficult to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and barely adequate for an academic task of this nature. There is noticeable reliance on basic terms and direct copying from the diagram's labels, such as "plastic bottle", "stand", and "tape". The response contains several noticeable word choice, word form, and spelling errors that cause some difficulty for the reader, such as "differant", "beggning", "messuared", and "hand" instead of 'hung'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary are absent or unsuccessful, and terms like "neck cut off plastic bottle" demonstrate awkward phrasing and a restricted lexical range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates a very limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple sentences or faulty attempts at complex forms. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing articles ("The diagram illustrate", "in first stage"), incorrect verb forms ("water is collecting", "which is stored... was messuared", "is hand"), and subject-verb agreement issues ("Both bottle are"). Punctuation and capitalization are also inconsistent, with lower-case beginnings for sentences and missing commas. These frequent errors across basic and complex structures cause noticeable difficulty for the reader.

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