Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-29

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 both plans illustrates the comparison of Cafe design how it looks in the past and now.

Overall, there is a significant change in the design of cafe with an addition of salad bar and replacing of staff dining rooms with take awy food and coffe bar. Outdoor seating is now introduce on the front of cafe. Moreover, Barbecue and Hot meals also become the part of new design.

To begin with, the main hall of cafe consist of Tables and Chairs and staff dining rooms before the change of design. The large space for kitchen also had food & drink area as well in past.

While, the huge change in the main hall with addition of salad bar and conversion of staff rooms into take away food and coffe bar as well as space for Recycling bins is bigger now. The

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response attempts to summarize the main changes between the two plans, noting key features such as the addition of the salad bar, outdoor seating, and the conversion of staff rooms. However, the response is incomplete and trails off abruptly at the end ('The...'), failing to provide a fully rounded conclusion. Furthermore, the length requirement of at least 150 words is not met, as the student's text contains only 142 words. This negative constraint violation directly impacts the task achievement score, as the overview and body paragraphs are cut short.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay uses some basic cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'To begin with', and 'While', attempting to structure the response. Paragraphing is initiated with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs. However, the overall organizational flow is disrupted because the essay stops abruptly in the final sentence. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the mechanical transition 'While, the huge change' creates a fragmented structure. Paragraphing needs to be more fully developed to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, with attempts at topic-specific lerase like 'significant change', 'conversion', and 'outdoor seating'. However, there are several spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'The both plans illustrates' (grammatical agreement error affecting lexis), 'take awy', 'coffe bar', and 'introduce' instead of 'introduced'. These lexical slips and spelling inaccuracies limit the range and precision of the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but basic grammatical errors are frequent throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement errors ('The both plans illustrates'), incorrect verb forms ('is now introduce'), and missing articles or prepositions ('on the front of cafe'). Additionally, the sentence structure breaks down completely at the very end of the response. These errors occasionally strain the reader's comprehension.

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.