Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-22
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 plan shows the map of a college cafe before redesign and how it looks now after redesigning. Many new additions have been made to the cafe in the today's design of cafe.
Overall, the map of the cafe before redesigning had limited facilities as compared to now. The new design has advance facilities and is becoming eco-friendly. For instance, there was a bin in old design but as of now it has been replaced by recyling bins which will promote recyling in society.
The staff dinings rooms were redesigned to take away food and coffee bar. The Kitchen in the north-west remained at same place, however, the serving area below the kitchen has now been turned into hot meals. There is also a new salad bar in the west of the cafe.
There was an enterance door on the north-east direction of cafe, beside the bin, in addition to that, two new doors have been built, one is on the south-west side of of cafe while the other is on the south-east side of cafe, beside the toilets. Through these doors we can get access to the new outdoor seating, in the south, that did not exist before. While there is also a barbecue area on the west of outdoor seating, Well, the centre of the cafe remained the same with tables and chairs.
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 successfully covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the college cafe before and after the redesign and making relevant comparisons. Key transformations are identified, such as the replacement of staff dining rooms with a take away food section and coffee bar, the addition of a salad bar, and the introduction of outdoor seating and a barbecue area. An overview is provided in the second paragraph, contrasting the limited facilities of the past with the advanced, eco-friendly features of today. However, there is some minor unnecessary interpretation regarding recycling 'promoting recycling in society', which slightly shifts from purely reporting visual data, leading to a Band 6.5 or 7.0 performance.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organized into logical paragraphs, moving from an introduction and overview to specific structural changes on the western and eastern sides of the cafe. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader through the comparisons (e.g., 'For instance', 'However', 'In addition to that'). However, paragraphing could be structured more cleanly, and referencing is occasionally slightly repetitive or conversational (e.g., starting a sentence with 'Well, the centre...'). Progression is clear overall, but the transitions and logical flow place it solidly at Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully employing terms related to architectural layouts and amenities, such as 'redesigned', 'facilities', 'eco-friendly', and 'recyling bins'. There are some spelling errors, such as 'recyling' instead of 'recycling', 'dinings rooms' instead of 'dining rooms', and 'enterance' instead of 'entrance'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with moderate success, but these lexical inaccuracies and minor spelling lapses keep the score at Band 6.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and prepositional phrases (e.g., 'The staff dinings rooms were redesigned to take away food and coffee bar'). There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as 'map of a college cafe before redesign', 'in the today's design of cafe', and punctuation or preposition slips like 'on the south-west side of of cafe'. While communication is not impeded, the frequency of minor structural and prepositional errors prevents a higher score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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