Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-07
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 diagram illustrates the look of the college cafe before it was redesigned and change after the development.
As it can be noticed from the diagram, the cafe before designing was spacious it consisted of a kitchen area and serving area in the top left corner. The room had table and chairs for people to sit and do their work and have their meal. Moreover, there were two separate dinning area for the staffs. Restrooms and bin were situated in the bottom right corner of the cafe's plan.
On the flip hand, cafe today looks more functional and developed as staff dinning rooms are now replaced with take away food and coffee. There has been an addition of Salad bar in the west side of the cafe. Also as compared to the cafe before redesigning, the new cafe consist of outdoor seating and barbecue. Nevertheless, the cafe in past had 1 entry and 1 exist which is now increased to 2 entry and two exist which could contribute in managing the crowd at the cafe
Overall, the diagrams represent the cafe prior to development was quite spacious and had all the required facilities. On contrary, cafe after the designing has become much functional had additional facilities like outdoor seating, increased number of bins, salad and barbecue corner making the place more comfortable.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers the main features of the cafe redesign, including the kitchen, seating areas, and new additions like the salad bar and outdoor space. However, the description of the changes is occasionally imprecise. For example, the claim that there are now '2 entry and two exist' is not clearly supported by the visual evidence, and the description of the kitchen area is slightly vague. To reach a higher band, ensure that all comparisons are clearly linked to the visual data and avoid making assumptions that are not explicitly shown in the diagrams. The overview provides a good summary of the general transformation, which is a positive feature of the response.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is logically organized into an introduction, body paragraphs, and an overview. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the 'before' and 'after' states. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly unnatural, such as 'On the flip hand' (which is an incorrect idiom) and 'On contrary'. While the progression of ideas is generally clear, the transition between sentences could be smoother. The referencing is mostly clear, though the flow is occasionally interrupted by awkward phrasing, which prevents the response from reaching a higher band in this criterion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to describe the layout and changes effectively. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'spacious' and 'functional'. However, there are several instances of inaccurate word choice and collocation, such as 'change after the development' (should be 'changes after the redevelopment'), 'dinning area' (spelling error: 'dining'), and 'cafe in past' (missing article). These errors do not impede communication, but they indicate a limited control over more sophisticated lexical items. Improving precision in word choice would significantly enhance the quality of the report.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'the cafe before designing was spacious it consisted of...' (run-on sentence), 'the new cafe consist of' (subject-verb agreement error), and 'which could contribute in managing' (incorrect preposition). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with missing commas in several places. While the student attempts complex structures, the frequency of errors in basic grammar and sentence construction limits the score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and correct sentence boundaries would be beneficial.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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