Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)
The given two map plans show the infrastructure of the college cafe before and after the renovation.
Before the redesign, cafe has only indoor sitting area with a small bin on the left side of the entrance as compared to the new design outdoor sitting is also available along with large area for recycling bin. Staff dinning area is replace with seperate food take away area and coffee bar. Addionally, there is isolate area for hot meals and salad bar which was displayed together before transformaion. In new design salad bar is along the left wall of cafe. Although hot mean is now served in the old serving region.
There is no particular change in the kitchen and toilets zone. Barbecue area is also form in the new design on the left wall outside the cafe near the sitting area where three large tables and two small tables are place.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers the main features of both plans, noting the key changes such as the addition of the outdoor seating, barbecue area, salad bar, and the replacement of the staff dining rooms with a takeaway food counter and coffee bar. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in reporting the spatial details, such as stating that the barbecue area is on the left wall rather than south-west, and some minor spelling/grammatical confusions. Nonetheless, the overall comparison is clear and the main trends are successfully identified, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptor.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The text has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to sequence the changes logically by comparing the past layout with current additions. However, paragraphing is weak; the entire response is clumped into two overly dense blocks rather than being separated into a clear introduction and structured body paragraphs. Cohesive devices are somewhat mechanical or repetitive (e.g., 'Before the redesign', 'In new design', 'Addionally'). Referencing is mostly clear, but the lack of proper paragraphing limits the score for Coherence and Cohesion to Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing a map, such as 'infrastructure', 'redesign', 'renovation', and 'recycling bin'. There are, however, noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'sitng' (sitting), 'dinning' (dining), 'seperat' (separate), 'Addionally', 'isolate' (isolated), 'transformaion', and 'mean' instead of 'meals'. While these do not completely impede communication, they reflect a limited control over spelling and lexical precision, pointing firmly towards Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as concessive clauses ('Although hot mean is now served...') and comparative structures ('as compared to the new design...'). Grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several errors including missing articles ('cafe has only indoor sitting'), subject-verb agreement issues ('cafe has', 'Staff dinning area is replace'), and incorrect word forms ('place' instead of 'placed'). Because these errors recur and cause some minor difficulty for the reader, the response fits the Band 5.5 descriptor.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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