Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-28

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 map illustrates the college cafe before it was redesigned and after reconstruction what changes was done. The cafe was modernised to provide more collaborative and student friendly spaces.

Overall, the maps shows the kitchen area remained unchanged but serving area had transformed into hot meal.In bottom building several changes had taken place on the west there was a addition of new area as salad bar. The staff dinning rooms was replaced by take away food and a coffee bar. The tables chair area remained unchanged. On the right bottom bin was upgraded and toilets remain unchanged.A new barbeque area and outdoor seating were added on the bottom providing studies with spaces to relax and socialise. The changes made to cafe

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, which significantly impacts the ability to fully develop the task. While you have identified some key features of the cafe redesign, the summary is incomplete and ends abruptly mid-sentence. To improve, ensure you provide a more comprehensive overview of all changes, including the outdoor areas and the specific layout shifts. Because the response is under-length and lacks a concluding summary or a fully developed analysis of the visual data, it does not adequately cover all parts of the task.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay lacks a clear paragraph structure. While there is an attempt at an introduction and an overview, the body paragraphs are not clearly delineated, and the abrupt ending disrupts the flow of information. Cohesive devices are used sparingly (e.g., 'Overall', 'On the right'), but the connection between ideas is often mechanical. To improve, use clear paragraph breaks to separate the overview from the specific details and ensure that each sentence logically follows the previous one. The lack of a complete final sentence makes the overall progression feel unfinished.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision required for a higher band. You use basic terms like 'changed', 'replaced', and 'upgraded'. While these are accurate, they do not demonstrate a wide range of vocabulary. There are also some awkward collocations, such as 'transformed into hot meal' (which should be 'transformed into a hot meal service area') and 'providing studies with spaces' (which should be 'providing students with spaces'). To improve, focus on using more descriptive verbs and nouns related to architectural changes, such as 'converted', 'relocated', or 'expanded'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There are several grammatical errors that affect the clarity of your writing. For instance, 'what changes was done' should be 'what changes were made', and 'staff dinning rooms' should be 'staff dining rooms'. You rely mostly on simple sentence structures. To achieve a higher score, you should incorporate a wider variety of complex sentence structures, such as using relative clauses or passive voice to describe the changes (e.g., 'The area, which was previously used for storage, has been converted into a salad bar'). Pay closer attention to subject-verb agreement and pluralization.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.