Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-30
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 plan illustartes the current look of a college cafe and how it look before it was redesigned.
Looking for an overall perspective, the cafe developed a lot with additional recreational space for outdoor seating, barbecue, and a salad bar. The only thing which remain unchanged was toilets and kitchen. Moreover, dustbin keep its place same, but it was replaced by large recycling bins.
The college cafe become more developed after redesigning. The hot meals area was converted into food and drink serving area, while take away food and coffee bar was replaced by staff dining rooms. Furthermore, a salad bar is created at the left side of plan. A barbecue area with outdoor seating was constructed on additional space outside the main hall.
There was some things that reamin unchanged after renovation, which include kitchen and toilets. The table and chairs in the main hall also kept there place, whereas area for bin on the right side of map become large and is replaced by recycling bins.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student addresses the prompt by outlining the main changes between the two plans of the college cafe. An overview is attempted in the second paragraph, mentioning key features such as outdoor seating, a barbecue, and a salad bar, while noting what remained unchanged. However, there are several inaccuracies regarding the specific changes shown in the visual data. For instance, the student states that the hot meals area was converted into a food and drink serving area, whereas the original plan showed a general serving area and the new plan specifies 'Hot meals' and 'Take away food'. Additionally, the previous staff dining rooms were actually replaced by the take away food and coffee bar, not vice versa. Despite these misreadings, the main features are generally covered, resulting in a Band 5.5 performance for Task Achievement.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs detailing the changes and constants, and a concluding body paragraph. There is a basic structure with some logical progression, utilizing cohesive devices such as 'Looking for an overall perspective', 'Moreover', and 'Furthermore'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or repetitive, particularly in the final paragraph which reiterates points about unchanging elements and bins that were already mentioned. Paragraphing is attempted, but the overall logical arrangement lacks seamless progression and precision, placing it firmly at Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using terms such as 'recreational space', 'unaltered', 'renovation', and 'constructed'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'illustartes', 'remain' instead of 'remained', 'dustbin keep its place same', and 'reamin'. Furthermore, some collocations are awkward or inaccurate, such as 'kept there place' instead of 'kept their place' or 'remained in the same position'. The lexical range is minimally adequate to convey the basic message, but frequent errors in word formation and spelling limit the score to Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and subordinate clauses (e.g., 'The plan illustartes the current look of a college cafe and how it look before it was redesigned'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors such as tense inconsistencies ('how it look' instead of 'looked'), subject-verb agreement issues ('The college cafe become', 'There was some things'), and prepositional errors ('at the left side' instead of 'on the left side'). These recurring errors cause occasional difficulty for the reader, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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