Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-21

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 6.0)

The plans illustrate the changes made to college cafe before and after its redevelopment.

Overall, the cafe has been modernised, with several new food and drink facilities introduced. The most significant changes are the replacement of the staff dining rooms with customer-oriented facilities and the addition of an outdoor seating area. However, the kitchen and the main seating area have remained largely unchanged.

Before the redevelopment, the kitchen and serving area are located in north-western part of cafe. The serving area provide both foods and drink. In the centre of the cafe, there was a large setting area, while two staff dinning rooms occupied the northern section. Toilets were situated in south-east side of cafe, and main entrance was on eastern side.

Following the redesign, the serving area was converted into a hot meal sections. The two staff dinning rooms were converted into take away food and coffee bar. A salad bar also added along the western wall. In addition, the cafe gained a new entrance on the southern side, together with barbecue and outher seating arrangement. The former bin area was replace by recycling bins, while the kitchen and main indoor seating area remained in their original location.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The student covers all key features of the two plans well, providing a clear overview in the second paragraph that highlights the general modernisation, the introduction of customer-oriented facilities, and the addition of outdoor seating. The details regarding the transformations—such as the staff dining rooms becoming a take away food and coffee bar, the addition of a salad bar along the western wall, and the inclusion of a barbecue and outdoor seating area—are accurately reported. However, there are minor lapses in verb tense consistency when describing the 'before' state (e.g., "the kitchen and serving area are located" instead of "were located", and "there was a large setting area" with a typo). Despite these minor errors, the task is fully addressed with well-selected comparisons and an appropriate overall summary.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introductory paragraph, moves into a well-crafted overview paragraph, details the 'before' state, and concludes with the 'today' state. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different temporal stages of the plans. Cohesive devices are employed adequately to guide the reader through the comparisons (e.g., "Before the redevelopment", "Following the redesign", "In addition"). Although referencing and logical flow are generally clear, the mechanical transition between ideas occasionally feels a bit formulaic, keeping the response at a Band 7 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate to good range of vocabulary appropriate for an Academic Task 1 response, using terms such as "redevelopment", "modernised", "customer-oriented", and "relocated/converted". There are some minor lexical and spelling inaccuracies, such as "setting area" instead of "seating area", "dinning rooms" instead of "dining rooms", and "outher seating" instead of "outdoor seating". Less common lexical items are attempted with some awareness of collocation, though occasional errors in word form and spelling prevent the response from achieving a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and prepositional phrases effectively (e.g., "The plans illustrate the changes made to college cafe before and after its redevelopment"). However, there are noticeable grammatical errors, particularly tense inconsistencies ("the kitchen and serving area are located" mixing past and present) and minor prepositions or articles missing (e.g., "to college cafe", "in north-western part of cafe"). While these errors do not impede communication, they occur with sufficient frequency to place the grammar firmly in the Band 6 category.

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.