Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-25
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 5.0)
The map shows a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks in present day. The plans have been changed with time and a new cafe was constructed now.
Overall, hot meals, take away food, coffee bar, salad bars, barbecue and sitting area was added on the other hand, toilets, kitchen, tables and chairs remain same at their sites. only bin is converted into recycling bins.
In wetern part, serving area (all food and drinks) were replaced by hot meals, Take away food and the coffee bar were present now a days at the site of staff dining rooms at middle. Tables and chairs site remains same in center. Recycle bins was seen there at bins site.
In South western corner, there was barbecue site seen there outside the cafe. Previously there was no outdoor seating arrangments but now a days outdoor seating was also seen in front of barbecue shop.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student attempts to address the task by summarizing the main changes between the two college café plans. An overview is provided in the second paragraph, mentioning additions such as hot meals, takeaway food, a coffee bar, a salad bar, a barbecue, and seating areas, while noting that toilets, the kitchen, and tables remained unchanged. However, there are some inaccuracies and omissions in the reporting of features; for instance, the staff dining rooms were actually replaced by the takeaway food and coffee bar sections rather than remaining in the middle, and the salad bar was added on the western wall. The response covers the main features of the transformation, but the lack of precise spatial referencing places it at Band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The response is organized into four paragraphs, following a logical layout of introduction, overview, western and northern changes, and southern additions. However, the progression between ideas is sometimes awkward due to repetitive structures and vague referencing, such as 'present day' and 'at the site of staff dining rooms at middle'. Cohesive devices are basic and occasionally used incorrectly (e.g., 'on the other hand' is used inappropriately for contrast when listing additions). Paragraphing is attempted, but paragraph breaks feel slightly disjointed. Coherence suffers from a lack of smooth transitions between the internal features of the café and the newly added outdoor elements.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary is generally adequate for conveying the basic transformations, employing functional terms like 'redesigned', 'constructed', 'addition', and 'converted'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'sitting area was added', 'barbecue shop', and spelling/capitalization mistakes like 'wetern'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary related to map description ('serving area', 'recycling bins'), but overall the lexical range remains limited and repetitive, with frequent reliance on basic verbs and nouns.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The text displays a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Previously there was no outdoor seating arrangments but now a days outdoor seating was also seen...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring persistent errors in subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'serving area... were replaced', 'sitting area was added', 'Recycling bins was seen'), tense inconsistency, and punctuation. Prepositions and articles are also misused in several instances. While communication is not completely impeded, the high frequency of errors across basic sentence patterns prevents the response from achieving a higher band score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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