Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · 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 4.5)

This chart demonstrates the huge difference in a college cafe. The chart depicts the cafe before any renovation and after the renovation. As we can see, there are so many new things that have been added after the construction, like a coffee bar, salad bar, takeaway food and so on.

Before any kind of design, there were staff dining rooms, but there is quite a difference. Now, these rooms get converted into akeaway room and a coffee bar. There are three things has not been changed which are

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response is severely under-length, containing only 88 words compared to the required minimum of 150 words. This significantly impacts the coverage of the task, leading to a penalty under Task Achievement. While the student attempts to highlight some general changes, such as the addition of a coffee bar, salad bar, and takeaway food, the overview is incomplete, and the response breaks off mid-sentence before describing all major modifications. Consequently, the task is addressed only partially, warranting a band score of 4.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text demonstrates a basic attempt to organise information by introducing the plans and noting specific changes. However, there is a distinct lack of proper paragraphing due to the unfinished nature of the text. Cohesive devices are minimal, relying mostly on basic repetition ("The chart demonstrates... The chart depicts..."). Crucially, the response breaks off abruptly mid-sentence at the end ("There are three things has not been changed which are"), which severely disrupts the logical flow and overall arrangement of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive, such as "huge difference", "new things", and "added". There are noticeable lexical errors, such as misspelling "takeaway room" as "akeaway room". While the student attempts some task-specific vocabulary related to the visual data (e.g., "coffee bar", "salad bar"), the limited range and lack of precision constrain the lexical score. Communication is hindered by the lack of development and incomplete final sentence.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The student uses a mix of simple sentence structures with some attempts at complex forms (e.g., "As we can see, there are so many new things that have been added after the construction..."). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, highlighted by a clear subject-verb agreement error: "There are three things has not been changed". Furthermore, the text cuts off incomplete, leaving a dangling relative clause. This frequency of basic structural errors and the failure to complete the response pulls the grammar score down.

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

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