Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-10

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The plans below show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

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

The plans below show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The plans show the previous and present look of college cafe

Overall, the major changes are arranging the barbecue and outdoor seating in open area. Instead of staff dinning rooms they will make take away food counter and coffee bar.

Firstly, when we are entering into the cafe there was a bin and toilets on the left hand side. Moreover, there was a staff dinning rooms are there straight to the entrance, beside that tables and chairs are arranging customers. Furthermore, there is a kitchen all food and drinks are serving from there.

Secondly, on the left side of entrance the bin replaced with recycling bins. On the one hand the staff dinning rooms are replaced with take away food counters and coffee. At the straight to that point newly introduce the salad

bar the tables and chairs are unchanged. Moreover, the kitchen is same and serving area is remodeled as hot meals area. On the otherhand, they introduce barbecue and outdoor seating with plenty of tables and chairs.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main overall changes: the former staff dining rooms become takeaway and coffee facilities, and outdoor seating with a barbecue is added. You also note that the kitchen and central tables remain, and that the serving area changes to hot meals. These are relevant comparisons and give the response a clear overview. However, some details are inaccurate or unclear: the bin and toilets were on the right/eastern side, not the left, and the new salad bar is along the western wall rather than “straight to” the former rooms. The entrance and new southern doors are not clearly described. To strengthen the report, locate features precisely and cover the key changes more fully, while avoiding unsupported descriptions such as “plenty” of tables.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an overview followed by two sections comparing the earlier and current layouts. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “Moreover” help signal movement through the description. However, the progression is not consistently clear because the account shifts between viewpoints and locations, and phrases such as “On the one hand” and “On the otherhand” do not establish a meaningful contrast. Some sentences run several features together, particularly the description beginning “At the straight to that point,” making relationships between details difficult to follow. Organise the body by area or by what changed versus what stayed the same, and use clear location references and sentence boundaries to make the comparisons easier to track.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant layout vocabulary, including “replaced,” “unchanged,” “outdoor seating,” and “recycling bins,” which helps communicate the main transformations. There is some repetition of basic terms such as “tables and chairs” and “area,” and several word choices or collocations are imprecise: “previous and present look” is less natural than “before and after the redesign,” while “arranging the barbecue” does not accurately describe adding a facility. Spelling and word-form errors such as “dinning” and “otherhand” also reduce accuracy. Build a more precise range for describing plans, using terms such as “located,” “converted into,” and “along the southern wall,” and check spelling and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentences, and the overall meaning can usually be understood. However, control of sentence structure and verb forms is inconsistent. For example, “there was a staff dinning rooms are there” combines incompatible structures, while “tables and chairs are arranging customers” does not form a clear grammatical relationship. Tense also shifts between past and present in descriptions of the former plan, and articles and agreement are often missing or incorrect. Some punctuation and sentence boundaries make the longer comparisons harder to read. Practise using a consistent past tense for the old plan and present tense for the current one, and build each sentence around a clear subject and verb before adding location details.

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