Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-12

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)

Given two pictures illustrating the cafe before and after the renovation at an unnamed college. Where there are new counters were introduced after the renovation.

Overall, the kitchen got sufficient space after the renovation, as the serving area from the kitchen was relocated to the staff dining room. While the recycling bin and toilets remain the same. Interestingly, the salad bar and barbecue are new counters.

Before the renovation. The kitchen had a serving area for food and drinks, and a huge section for tables and chairs, with staff dining rooms, toilets and a recycling bin in it.

After the renovation, the cafe today has a dedicated kitchen area, while the previous staff dining rooms were replaced with a food and coffee bar, and surprisingly, there is a salad bar right at the entrance to the kitchen and a barbecue at the outdoor with seating facilities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

Your response attempts to summarise the main features of the college cafe before and after its redesign, noting key alterations such as the new salad bar, barbecue, and food and coffee bar. However, your response has a negative impact on Task Achievement because the length requirement is NOT met: the student's response contains 146 words, falling short of the 150-word minimum. Furthermore, the opening sentence 'Given two pictures illustrating...' is a sentence fragment rather than a complete clause, which impacts your ability to fully develop an overview. While you correctly identify several key features, the lack of word count and incomplete introductory overview prevent the response from achieving a higher band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

Your writing displays an attempt at logical organisation, breaking the information down into an introduction, overall summary, and separate paragraphs for before and after descriptions. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical. For example, your use of 'Where there are new counters...' creates a grammatical break that disrupts the flow between your introductory sentences. Paragraphing is used, but the progression of ideas feels somewhat disjointed due to isolated fragments like 'Before the renovation. The kitchen had...' where a full stop is incorrectly placed before completing the independent clause. Cohesive devices are minimal, and referencing between the past and present states could be smoother to establish clearer logical progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating specific terms related to the diagram such as 'renovation', 'recycling bin', 'salad bar', and 'barbecue'. However, your vocabulary choice is sometimes imprecise or awkward, as seen in phrases like 'the kitchen got sufficient space' and 'a barbecue at the outdoor with seating facilities'. There are also minor lexical lapses, such as using 'pictures' instead of 'plans' or 'maps'. While the vocabulary is sufficient to communicate basic information about the redesign, the limited control over collocation and occasional unnatural phrasing restrict your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

Your response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but it is heavily impacted by significant grammatical errors, particularly sentence fragments. The opening lines—'Given two pictures illustrating the cafe before and after the renovation at an unnamed college. Where there are new counters were introduced after the renovation.'—lack main verbs or contain double-verb errors ('Where there are... were introduced'). Additionally, you wrote 'Before the renovation. The kitchen had...', which incorrectly punctuates a fragment. While you attempt complex structures such as relative and subordinate clauses, the frequency of structural errors and punctuation issues causes noticeable difficulty for the reader and prevents communication from being fully smooth.

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

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