Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)
The map below illustrates a colleg cafe before redesign and how it looks today.
It is clear that the caffee underwent a significant facilities being added such as hotmeals,salad bar and others. While kitchen,toilets, tables and chairs remaind unchanged. In addition, there is some parts of the area expanded and changed during the years.
looking the northern part, Firstly east kitchen remaind unchanged, serving area (all food & drink) exchanged by Hot meals. In the middle of the area, the eastern side, Salad bar has introduced. staff dining room tronsformed to take away food and coffee bar, tables and chairs remaind the same.
turning to the sothern side, in the east, bins has expanded and become recycling bins, also toilets remaind stable durnig the period. There is some outdoors seating being added and also barbecue in addition the coffee has constructed for instance the two doors located behind the toilest and barbecue.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The response attempts to cover the main features of the two plans, noting key changes such as the addition of the salad bar, hot meals counter, and outdoor seating. However, the overview is rather superficial and contains several inaccuracies in spatial referencing. For instance, the writer misplaces the kitchen to the east in the body paragraph ("eastern kitchen") when the visual data clearly shows it in the upper-left, and incorrectly refers to the southern side while describing eastern features. While the overall transformation is addressed, the lack of precision in reporting positions and features prevents the response from achieving a higher band. Ideas are presented, but development is limited and occasionally confusing.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The essay is divided into short paragraphs corresponding to an introduction, overview, and body paragraphs, which shows an attempt at logical structure. However, progression is frequently hindered by awkward transitions and confusing spatial markers, such as "looking the northern part" and "turning to the sothern side". Cohesive devices are basic and sometimes mechanically applied, with punctuation and capitalization errors disrupting the flow. Reference pronouns and substitution are occasionally unclear, making it difficult for the reader to follow the spatial relationships between the various features of the cafe without constantly referring back to the prompt.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, with frequent spelling errors such as "colleg" for college, "caffee" for cafe, "hotmeals" for hot meals, and "sothern" for southern. While the student attempts some less common topic-specific vocabulary (e.g., "redesign", "facilities", "recycling bins"), word choice and collocations are often awkward or inaccurate, such as "staff dining room tronsformed to take away food" and "bins has expanded". These lexical errors and limitations mean the range is minimally adequate for the task, causing some difficulty for the reader.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5
The response demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures. Most sentences are simple or attempt complex forms that result in severe structural errors and missing auxiliary verbs, such as "there is some parts of the area expanded" and "outdoors seating being added and also barbecue in addition the coffee has constructed". Subject-verb agreement errors are frequent ("facilities being added", "kitchen ... remaind unchanged"), and punctuation is erratic throughout the text. These persistent grammatical errors impede communication and demonstrate poor control over basic sentence patterns.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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