Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-19
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 plan shows the changes made to the college cafe before and after it is redesigned.
Overall, there are significant changes that has been made to the plan. But kitchen, toilets and bins remain same at the exact location as it was before redesigning. Athough new plans are also added to the cafe area.
In the north west of the cafe, the kitchen is unchanged, whereas serving area is replaced by hot meals. In the centre of the cafe, there is new coffee bar and take away food introduced adjacent to each other. On the east side of the cafe, Recycling bins and toilets stay same. A salad bar has been constructed newly on the opposite side of the recycling bins.
While, there are new outdoor seating arrangements has been made for the visitors in the south of the cafe, including a barbeque just near the entrance to the outdoor seating on the right side.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response successfully addresses the main features of the task by comparing the layout of the college cafe before and after the redesign. You provide a clear overall summary of the spatial transformations and highlight key features such as the unchanged kitchen, the addition of the salad bar, the coffee bar, take-away food, and the outdoor seating with a barbecue. However, there are minor inaccuracies in detail; for instance, the original staff dining rooms were replaced by the take-away food and coffee bar sections rather than being entirely untouched, and the toilets are located in the bottom-right corner rather than on the east side alongside recycling bins. Despite these slight misinterpretations, all parts of the visual data are covered adequately, and the comparisons are relevant.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is arranged logically into a four-paragraph structure that includes an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs detailing the modifications from west to east and south. Cohesive devices are generally used to guide the reader through the spatial changes, with expressions such as 'In the north west', 'In the centre', and 'On the east side'. However, referencing and transitions are at times mechanical or repetitive, as seen in the frequent use of 'of the cafe'. Paragraphing is handled reasonably well, providing an overall coherent progression of information, though paragraph divisions could be more polished.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully incorporating topic-specific lepra such as 'redesigned', 'serving area', 'coffee bar', 'salad bar', 'recycling bins', and 'barbecue'. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary ('transformed', 'constructed newly', 'arrangements'), but some word choices and collocations feel slightly unnatural or awkward, such as 'plans are also added' and 'constructed newly'. Spelling is generally accurate, but lexical control lacks the flexibility and precision required for higher band levels.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including subordinate clauses and prepositional phrases for location. However, grammatical errors occur throughout the text. There are subject-verb agreement errors ('there are significant changes that has been made', 'new outdoor seating arrangements has been made'), missing articles ('kitchen', 'serving area'), and awkward phrasing ('stay same'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the response from achieving a higher band score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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