Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-27
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)
This Map illustrates how college cafe look before modifying its infrastructure and is now.
Overall, the cafe shows that there is no organized setup of cafe. It has a compact seating place. On the other hand, the cafe today shows that there is an organized setup of cafe has has proper spacious seating place.
Here, as we see that in cafe before redesign has one kitchen and there is only one counter for serving all the food items and drinks and there is two staff dining rooms and only has only indoor very limited seating area for customers.This also has toilets nearby the bins.
As we see, in cafe today it has one kitchen and the kitchen counter only served as for only hot meal. There are seprate counter for each food category. In today's kitchen we clearly see that staff dining rooms were replaced by the food take away and coffee bar counters and also has recycling bins and toilets.
As we see, in cafe before redesign there is very limited area for seating and in cafe today that there is indoor as well as has the outside dining area and there is proper barbecue setup for customers as well.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student attempts to address the task by comparing the layout of the college cafe before and after its redesign. However, the response falls short of fully satisfying the requirements of Academic Task 1. While some key changes are mentioned—such as the addition of a salad bar, outdoor seating, a barbecue area, and the conversion of staff dining rooms into a take-away food and coffee bar—the overview is extremely weak and subjective, stating incorrectly that the previous cafe lacked an 'organized setup'. Furthermore, there is a lack of precise detail regarding the spatial layout, and some descriptions are repetitive or vague. To improve, the student needs to present a clearer, more objective overview of the main global trends and integrate more specific data points from the maps.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is divided into short paragraphs that attempt to separate different sections of the comparison, which gives a basic structure to the essay. However, coherence is hindered by a repetitive and mechanical reliance on conversational fillers such as 'Here, as we see that' and 'As we see, in cafe today'. Progression between sentences lacks sophistication, and referencing is sometimes ambiguous, making the flow feel disjointed. Paragraphing is attempted, but the individual paragraphs are fragmented rather than unified thematic blocks. To achieve a higher band, the student should use a wider variety of cohesive devices and remove conversational filler phrases.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive, heavily relying on words directly lifted from the prompt such as 'cafe', 'kitchen', 'redesign', and 'tables and chairs'. There are noticeable word choice and collocation issues, for example, 'compact seating place' and 'the kitchen counter only served as for only hot meal'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary are minimal. Spelling is mostly accurate for common words, but the limited lexical range restricts the score to a 5.0. Incorporating precise spatial and architectural vocabulary would elevate this score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('how college cafe look', 'cafe today shows that there is an organized setup of cafe has has proper'), incorrect prepositions ('for seating', 'in cafe today'), and awkward phrasing. Punctuation is also sparse and sometimes incorrect. While meaning is generally recoverable despite the errors, the frequency of structural inaccuracies prevents the response from reaching a higher band.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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