Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The diagram illustrates the modifications made to a college café and its infrastructure before redesign.

Overall, the university café has undergone several considerable redevelopments, with several original facilities being removed or relocated. The most notable changes are the introduction of an area for outdoor seating, salad bar, section for take away food, coffee bars and a barbecue section, while tables and chairs remain same in the central position. While the serving area has been replaced by a section specified for hot meals.

Before redesign, the café contained a kitchen with serving area offering all food and drinks, a big hall room containing tables and chairs also had three sections, one area is designated to bin and two joining rooms both were designed for staff dining rooms, third section was for toilet.

After redevelopment serving area is upgraded by hot meals, while staff dining rooms are replaced by two separate rooms, one is for takeaway food and the other is coffee bar both have doors opening into the hall room. The bin area has been upgraded to recycle bins section and a salad bar has also been introduced on left side of main hall. One of the main changes is the introduction of for benches for outdoor seating and a barbecue section connected to down left corner of the room.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The candidate successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the college cafe before and after the redesign, making appropriate comparisons. The overview captures the general trend of redevelopment well. Key features such as the outdoor seating, barbecue section, salad bar, and changes to the serving area and staff rooms are correctly identified and contrasted with the original layout. Although some minor descriptive details could be more tightly phrased, the response covers all required aspects well and presents a clear picture of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall progression, moving logically from an introductory overview to the past layout and finally the current layout. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different stages of the information. Cohesive devices are generally well managed, with phrases like 'Before redesign' and 'After redevelopment' helping to guide the reader. However, some referencing is slightly mechanical and occasional transitional links are missing, which prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Overall, the arrangement of ideas is coherent and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, including topic-specific terms such as 'infrastructure', 'redevelopments', 'relocated', and 'recycling bins'. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, though some word choices and collocations are slightly awkward, such as 'hall room' instead of 'main area' or 'main hall'. Spelling is generally accurate, but occasional lexical inaccuracies occur, such as 'the introduction of for benches' instead of 'four tables'. The range is sufficient for precision, but control over less common items prevents a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, incorporating subordinate clauses effectively in places, such as in the introduction and overview. However, there are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, including missing articles ('a salad bar', 'the coffee bar') and preposition errors ('connected to down left corner'). A few sentences are slightly ungrammatical or run-on, such as 'While the serving area has been replaced by a section specified for hot meals.' Despite these errors, they rarely impede communication, and the majority of simple sentences are accurate.

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