Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · 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 4.5)

The plans show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now. Overall, the cafe has changed a lot . cafe before redesign staff dinning rooms have been removed,and cafe today provide facilities have been added, including take away food and coffee bar. cafe before resedign,there was lift side loacted kitchen and bottom was one holed serving area all food and drink and right side staff dinning rooms and around some tables in the middle any tables and chairs and left side with one bin amd his bottom toilets. Today cafe the kitchen was still loacted its under hot meals and right side was changed take away food and coffee bar and middle come tables and chairs and left side saladbar

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You identify the plans as a before-and-after redesign and note several genuine changes, including the removal of the staff dining rooms and the addition of takeaway food, a coffee bar and a salad bar. However, the response covers the layout only partially: it does not report the new outdoor seating and barbecue, the recycling bins, or the continued toilets, and some locations are difficult to interpret. The overview that the café “has changed a lot” is too general to summarise the main changes clearly. The response is also 111 words, below the required 150; 13 words copied from the task prompt were excluded from that count. Develop a clearer overview and describe the most significant changes and retained features.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

There is a basic attempt to organise the response chronologically, moving from “cafe before redesign” to “Today cafe,” and the opening gives the reader a general topic. However, most information is compressed into two long, loosely connected sections, with little paragraphing or clear progression within each description. Repeated use of “and” makes relationships between features hard to follow, while phrases such as “right side was changed” do not clearly explain what changed or where. Use separate paragraphs for the overview, the former layout and the current layout, and connect comparisons explicitly—for example, explain that the staff dining rooms were replaced by takeaway and coffee facilities.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The response uses some relevant vocabulary for describing a plan, including “kitchen,” “serving area,” “staff dining rooms,” “tables and chairs,” and “coffee bar.” This gives it a basic range, but vocabulary is repetitive and several spelling or word-choice errors make details difficult to understand, such as “dinning,” “resedign,” “lift side,” and “one holed serving area.” The phrase “cafe today provide facilities” is also imprecise for describing the new features. Aim to use accurate plan vocabulary and vary location phrases, such as “along the western wall” or “in the south-east corner.” Proofreading spelling and choosing precise terms would make the layout easier to picture.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

You attempt both a general opening and descriptions of the two plans, but sentence structures are mostly simple or run together, and frequent errors sometimes obscure the relationships between features. For example, “cafe before redesign staff dinning rooms have been removed” lacks clear sentence structure, while “Today cafe the kitchen was still loacted” has an unclear subject and tense construction. Articles and sentence boundaries are also often missing, as in “and middle come tables and chairs.” Use complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and check tense consistency when comparing the past with the present. Short, accurate sentences would help establish control before you attempt longer comparisons.

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

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