Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The map illustrates the changes that took place in a college cafe in the past and present.

Overall, the college cafe has undergone significant changes in its layout and facilities. Several areas were relocated and replaced, while new facilities, such as hotel meals, takeaway foods, and a coffee bar, were introduced.

In the past, the cafe had a kitchen and serving area in the northeast corner, while the toilets were in the southwest corner. In the centre of the cafe, there were tables and chairs, and the staff dining rooms were on the north side of the cafe, while bins were on the west side of the cafe.

At present, the serving area has been replaced with hot meals, while staff dining rooms have been replaced with takeaway food and coffee bar. The bins have been replaced with recycling bins and a salad bar has been installed. A barbecue and a outdoor seating have been installed on the south side of the cafe.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student provides a clear overview of the changes in the college cafe and selects and reports the main features effectively. However, there are a few spatial inaccuracies when describing the original layout. For instance, the student states that the kitchen and serving area were in the northeast corner and toilets were in the southwest, whereas the visual data shows them in the northwest and southeast corners respectively. Despite these minor misreadings of the directional data, the overall response covers all parts of the task well, providing adequate comparisons between the past and present layouts. The bullet points of new features such as the salad bar, barbecue, and outdoor seating are appropriately included and contrasted against the previous arrangement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introductory paragraph, moves into a clear summary overview, describes the past layout, and concludes with the present modifications. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate these distinct functional blocks. Cohesive devices such as 'In the past', 'At present', 'while', and 'Meanwhile' are used adequately to guide the reader through the spatial transformations, though referencing could occasionally be tighter to improve the overall flow between sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for an Academic Task 1 response, employing terms such as 'relocated', 'replaced', 'layout', and 'facilities'. However, there is a notable slip with the phrase 'hotel meals' instead of 'hot meals', and a minor grammatical article error with 'a outdoor seating' instead of 'outdoor seating'. While less common lexical items are attempted, inaccuracies in word choice and phrasing prevent the vocabulary score from reaching a higher band. Overall, the lexical range is sufficient to communicate the main points effectively.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and compound-complex structures adequately (e.g., 'Several areas were relocated and replaced, while new facilities... were introduced.'). There are several grammatical errors present, such as the incorrect article usage ('a outdoor seating' instead of 'an outdoor seating' or simply 'outdoor seating') and minor prepositional inconsistencies. However, these errors do not impede communication, and the majority of simple sentences are clear and well-structured, supporting a solid Band 6 performance.

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

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