Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)
The plans depict the old design and the new one for a college cafe.
Overall, the cafe developed to spread the services instead of making them in one area , and also add new places for this sevices, further more it expands even more to the outside.
The old cafe contains a main place for tables and chairs, it is directely connected to the serving area where you can get all the food and drinks, the staff have their own room to eat, and there are toilets.
The new design shows the changes in the cafe the serving area become just for hot meals and they create salad and cafe bars and also a place for take away food, and they add a facade for more tables and chairs in the outside.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student addresses the main aspects of the task by identifying the key changes between the old and new layouts of the college cafe, such as the division of the serving area into hot meals, take-away food, and coffee and salad bars, as well as the addition of outdoor seating. However, the response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, coming in at 132 words. This under-length impacts the depth of the overview and reporting of features, leading to a penalty under Task Achievement where some details are presented rather superficially.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The text is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs discussing specific features of the plans. However, the progression is sometimes disjointed due to run-on sentences and inadequate cohesive devices. For instance, sentences like 'Overall, the cafe developed to spread the services instead of making them in one area , and also add new places for this sevices, further more it expands even more to the outside' string multiple clauses together awkwardly with excessive commas and basic connectors. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal cohesion needs much stronger linking.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive ('place', 'area', 'design'). There are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'sevices' instead of 'services', 'directely' instead of 'directly', and 'cafe bars' rather than coffee bars. While the student attempts some less common phrasing like 'spread the services', the control over word choice and collocation is weak, and these inaccuracies occasionally cause difficulty for the reader.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response contains a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences or poorly controlled compound-complex sentences linked by commas. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding tense consistency and punctuation. For example, 'the serving area become just for hot meals and they create salad and cafe bars' mixes past and present tenses incorrectly. Punctuation is also problematic, resulting in run-on sentences that lack proper terminal punctuation or subordinate clauses.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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