Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-28

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 4.0)

The maps illustrate the changes that took place in college cafe prior it was redesigned ni the cafe.

Overall, the area underwent significant changes during the period. The most noticeable changes were the addition of kitchen,hot meals,take away food,coffee bar,outdoor seating etc the replacement of serving area (all food & drink), staff dinning room,tables and chair etc and the development of barbecue,toilets However, kitchen,recycking bins remained unchanged.

In was relatively simple. There was a [feature] in the [north/south/east/west] of the area, while [feature] was located in the [direction]. In addition, [feature] was situated next to [feature]. A [road/path] ran from [place] to [place].

By [year 2], several changes had taken place. [Old feature] had been removed/replaced by [new feature]. Furthermore, [new feature] had been constructed in the [direction], while [existing feature] had been expanded. The [road/path] had also been extended/relocated. However, [feature] remained unchanged.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response falls short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 144 words. Furthermore, the second half of the essay collapses into generic template placeholders such as '[feature]', '[north/south/east/west]', and '[year 2]'. While the overview attempts to highlight some changes, the actual reporting of specific spatial relationships and data points is incomplete and relies heavily on template text rather than fully describing the provided maps. This results in an underdeveloped response that only partially addresses the prompt, leading to a band score of 4.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The response is divided into brief paragraphs, but the heavy reliance on fill-in-the-blank template structures in the body paragraphs severely disrupts the logical progression and coherence of the text. Cohesive devices are either missing or awkwardly applied, and referencing is unclear due to incomplete sentences like 'There was a [feature] in the [north/south/east/west] of the area'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the structural integrity of the essay is compromised by the uncompleted template sentences, resulting in a low score for this criterion.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The student attempts some task-specific vocabulary in the introduction and overview, such as 'redesigned', 'significant changes', 'serving area', and 'coffee bar'. However, spelling and word formation errors are present, such as 'ni' instead of 'in', 'dinning' instead of 'dining', and 'recycking'. The rest of the essay consists almost entirely of template bracketed prompts rather than student-generated vocabulary, severely limiting the lexical range demonstrated and making it difficult to award a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.0

The grammatical structures attempted are very basic and frequently marred by mechanical errors, such as missing prepositions ('prior it was redesigned ni the cafe'). The inclusion of raw template placeholders like '[feature]' and '[road/path] ran from [place] to [place]' indicates a failure to construct grammatically complete sentences for the body of the response. While simple sentences in the opening have basic subject-verb control, the pervasive presence of unfulfilled template slots and errors results in a weak grammatical performance.

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

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