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 given architechural plans illustrate the cafe transformation before and after its modifications.

Overall, the kitchen area remains almost identical in position in both plans. The contrasting feature of changes shows that the cafe is now developed in the terms of dining, food and seating facilities.

The kitchen has been placed in same location where the serving area facility has been replaced with hot meals in the bottom of kitchen. There are some significant changes have been done in staff dining rooms. Both have been converted with takeaway and coffee bar facilities.

The toilets remained in same area while bins have been replaced with recycling bins. Furthermore, a salad bar has been allocated at the southwest of the cafe. The most noticeable changes have been seen at exterior of the cafe where seating chairs along with tables kept in a well manner way with a barbeque placed in the west side.The entrance features are now been fully developed.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The candidate attempts to cover the main features of the two plans, noting the unchanged position of the kitchen, the conversion of staff dining rooms into takeaway and coffee bar facilities, and the addition of outdoor seating and a barbecue. However, there are some minor spatial inaccuracies, such as placing the salad bar at the southwest rather than along the western wall, and describing the hot meals counter as being 'in the bottom of kitchen'. The overview is somewhat weak, as it consists of isolated sentences rather than a fully developed summary statement. Nevertheless, all parts of the prompt are addressed, fulfilling the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response is organized into a four-paragraph structure, including an introduction, overview, and body details. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'Overall', 'Furthermore', and 'The most noticeable changes'. However, referencing and progression are sometimes awkward, as seen in the abrupt transition between sentences in the second body paragraph. Paragraphing is present, but the logical flow between sentences could be smoother. Overall, the arrangement is coherent enough to follow the comparison easily, placing it firmly at a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with attempts to use less common items such as 'architechural plans', 'transformation', and 'modifications'. However, there are several lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'architechural' (spelling error), 'developed in the terms of', 'kept in a well manner way', and incorrect prepositions ('at exterior' instead of 'on the exterior'). These errors do not impede communication, but they restrict the score to a Band 6.0 due to noticeable inaccuracies in word choice.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The candidate demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The contrasting feature of changes shows that the cafe is now developed...' and 'There are some significant changes have been done...'. Grammatical errors are present, notably 'There are some significant changes have been done' (double verb structure), missing articles ('at exterior', 'in west side'), and passive voice issues ('are now been fully developed'). Despite these errors, the meaning remains clear, supporting a Band 5.5 score.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.