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 map illustrates a college cafe how it used to look before renovation and how it looks now.
Overall, todays cafe has barbecue and outdoor seating area which was not in the before cafe. Furthermore, the cafe today is equipped with sustainable bins and many entry points .
At cafe before redesign, the kitchen and serving area(all food and drink) shared a common room in the upper left corner. The main hall consist of Tables and chairs, Staff dining rooms in the central northern side. Cafe before renovation consits of only one entry point and a single coridoor connecting kitchen and seating area. The toilt is located a bottom right corer beside a Bin. The Staff dining rooms have the capacity of 12 people with 2 tables , 6 at each table.
After the renovation, the cage had undergone major changes such as Barbecue nation and outdoor seating. The barbecue is situated in the bottom left corner facing outdoor seating . The table and chairs area remained the same. The serving area is replaced by hot meals area . A new salad bar had been introduced. The bin is upgraded to recycling bins. Additionally the staff dining rooms are transformed into take away food and coffee bar . No changes have been introduced to toilets. Outdoor seating area consists of 5 tables with 26 seating capacity in total.
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 student covers all major changes between the two plans, successfully identifying key alterations such as the addition of the outdoor seating area, the barbecue, the salad bar, and the conversion of the staff dining rooms into a take-away food area and coffee bar. An overview is present in the second paragraph, highlighting the main additions like the outdoor seating and sustainable bins. However, there are some inaccuracies in detail compared to the source text, such as referring to 'Barbecue nation' (a likely typo or misinterpretation) and stating inaccurate capacities like '26 seating capacity'. The response meets the task requirements well overall, but minor observational errors keep it at a Band 6.5 level.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is divided into logical paragraphs covering the introduction, overview, the first map, and the second map. Progression is generally clear as the writer moves systematically through the features of the college cafe. However, paragraphing could be structured more effectively, and cohesive devices are sometimes repetitive or basic. Phrases like 'At cafe before redesign' and 'After the renovation' help guide the reader, but referencing and linking could be smoother. There are also formatting issues with spacing, such as double spaces between words in places like 'the cafe today is equipped'. Overall arrangement is coherent, earning a Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing a map and comparing changes, using terms such as 'renovation', 'equipped', 'replaces', and 'transformed'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('coridoor', 'toilt', 'corer', 'cage'), word choice issues ('Barbecue nation'), and awkward phrasing ('the before cafe'). While less common vocabulary is attempted, these lexical inaccuracies and spelling mistakes prevent the response from achieving a higher band. The vocabulary is minimally sufficient to convey the intended meaning, corresponding to Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and passive structures such as 'which was not in the before cafe', 'The serving area is replaced by hot meals area', and 'A new salad bar had been introduced'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors with articles ('at bottom right corer', 'the cage had undergone'), subject-verb agreement, and tense consistency. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they are frequent enough to pull the score to a Band 5.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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