Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-24

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 two plans illustrate how cafe has changed.Overall, Cafe has become more developed and customer oriented. As many customer friendly item had been added such as barbecue, salad bar.

At first the cafe has a large area allocated for tabel and chairs for customers to dine in with an attached bathrooms for them to freshen up. To the north ofthe washroom, there was a bin. Moreover, just above the dinning area their an another eating place reserved for the staff. On the extreme north-west side, there is a kitchen connected to a small area where food is served after it's cooked.

After the redesign, the large area was utilised more efficiently as salad bar section is added. Moreover, satff dining room was replaced with take away and coffee bar. To keep the enviroment clean, normal bins were removed and recycling bins were included. However, the toilets and kitchen remained, where as hot meals section replaced the serving counter. The biggest upgrade is the outside barbecue area along with comfortable sitting space.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses the task by summarising the main changes between the two plans, noting key alterations such as the addition of the salad bar, outdoor seating, barbecue, and changes to the staff dining rooms and serving counter. An overview is attempted in the introduction, though it is quite brief. Some features are described accurately based on the visual data, such as the retention of the toilets and kitchen, but there are minor omissions and grammatical inaccuracies in referencing positions. Overall, the response covers the key features required for a satisfactory task achievement score.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text is arranged into four paragraphs, which helps structure the comparison between the past and present layouts. Cohesive devices and transition markers such as 'At first', 'Moreover', and 'After the redesign' are used to guide the reader through the comparison, although some linking is mechanical. Paragraphing is generally appropriate, separating the introduction, the original layout, the redesigned layout, and the concluding remarks. However, referencing is occasionally imprecise, which slightly hinders the logical flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing a map or plan, including terms like 'redesigned', 'utilised', 'recycling bins', and 'outdoor seating'. There are, however, several lexical and spelling errors, such as 'tabel' instead of 'table', 'satff' instead of 'staff', and 'enviroment' instead of 'environment'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with mixed success. While communication is not impeded, these frequent errors prevent the lexical score from reaching higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response includes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'As many customer friendly item had been added...' and 'After the redesign, the large area was utilised more efficiently as salad bar section is added.' There are noticeable grammatical errors throughout, including missing articles ('how cafe has changed', 'as salad bar section'), subject-verb agreement issues ('item had been added'), and tense inconsistencies. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader, though the overall meaning remains largely clear.

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