Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-07

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 5.0)

The plans illustrate a college cafe before and after its renovation.

Overall, the cafe has restructured itself to provide more space to the students with increased in seating area and more food options.

The cafe before used to have a serving area which has been updated to hot meals. The staffs dining rooms has been changed to take away food and coffee bar. The renovated caffe has salad bar inside it and barbecue residing outside the caffe.

The added outdoor seating for their redesigned caffe.The caffe now looks more spacious than before by offering more variety of things to be purchased.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, which significantly impacts the ability to fully develop the response. While you have identified some key features of the cafe redesign, the description is quite brief and lacks the necessary detail to provide a comprehensive summary. For instance, you mention the salad bar and barbecue but do not provide enough comparative detail regarding the layout changes or the specific shifts in seating capacity. To improve, you must expand your analysis by describing the spatial changes more thoroughly and ensuring you meet the length requirement to allow for a full exploration of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is organized into very short, fragmented paragraphs. While there is a basic attempt at an introduction and a summary, the lack of development makes the overall flow feel disjointed. Cohesive devices are minimal, and the transition between ideas is abrupt. For example, the jump from discussing the serving area to the outdoor seating lacks a logical connector. To achieve a higher score, you should use a wider range of linking words (e.g., 'furthermore', 'in contrast', 'consequently') and ensure that each paragraph has a clear, unified focus that contributes to the overall progression of the report.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is somewhat repetitive and basic. You frequently use the word 'caffe' (which is also misspelled as 'caffe' and 'caffe' throughout) and 'more'. There is a lack of precise terminology to describe the changes in the layout. For example, instead of saying 'restructured itself', you could use 'undergone a significant transformation' or 'been reconfigured'. The spelling errors, such as 'caffe' instead of 'cafe' and 'staffs' instead of 'staff', also detract from the quality of the writing. Expanding your vocabulary to include more descriptive adjectives and precise verbs related to spatial changes will improve your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains several grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. There are issues with subject-verb agreement, such as 'The staffs dining rooms has been changed', where 'staff' is plural and requires 'have'. Additionally, there are awkward phrasings like 'barbecue residing outside the caffe' and 'variety of things to be purchased'. The sentence structures are mostly simple, and there is a lack of complex sentence forms. To improve, focus on mastering basic subject-verb agreement and attempt to incorporate more complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses or passive voice, to describe the changes in the cafe's layout more accurately.

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