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 two plans illustrates the modernization of structure of a college cafe.
Overall, there is a major development in the college cafe to make the place more modern, improve customer service and expanding the seating capacity.
At first, the cafe had kitchen with serving area on the top north west corner of the building. The converted the staff dinning area at the front into Takeaway food and a coffee bar to make it more convenient for the customers to get a meal and drinks. They use the vacant space to make a new outdoor seating for the students and staff who want to enjoy their meal at the very bottom of the college cafe.
Additionally, they added a salad bar on West of the hall, along with it they have developed a barbecue at the bottom southwest corner where people can have grilled food. The toilets remains at their place and they replaced bins with recycling bins because to collect the garbage and recycle it so they also make the environment clean.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response covers the main features of the two plans well, noting key transformations such as the replacement of the staff dining area with a takeaway food and coffee bar, the addition of a salad bar, outdoor seating, and a barbecue area. An overview is provided in the second paragraph, outlining the general modernization and expansion of the cafe. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in spatial referencing, such as locating the kitchen in the 'top north west corner' when it occupies the upper-left, and minor lapses in covering all data fully. Nonetheless, the task is addressed competently and the main spatial and functional comparisons are clearly highlighted.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response maintains a logical overall progression, moving from an introductory overview to specific spatial changes in the interior and exterior of the cafe. Paragraphing is used, though the second paragraph is quite dense and could be broken down further. Cohesive devices are generally functional, with phrases like 'At first', 'Additionally', and 'along with it' used to link ideas, although some transitions feel a bit mechanical or repetitive. Referencing is mostly clear, though occasional slight ambiguity in pronoun use ("They converted") slightly affects the flow.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The candidate demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms related to architecture and food services such as "modernization", "seating capacity", "takeaway food", "salad bar", and "recycling bins". However, there are some instances of imprecise word choice and awkward collocation, such as "structure of a college cafe" instead of "layout of a college cafe", and spelling/form errors like "dinning" instead of "dining". Less common items are attempted with some awareness of style, but occasional inaccuracies prevent a higher score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses ("for the students and staff who want to enjoy...") and introductory prepositional phrases. Grammatical control is moderate, with several noticeable errors present: subject-verb agreement issues ("The two plans illustrates"), article omissions ("on West of the hall"), and tense inconsistency ("The converted"). While these errors do not impede overall communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from reaching Band 7.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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