Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

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 plans illustrates the changes made to redesign a college cafe. Overall, the cafe has been significantly redecorated particularly by adding outdoor seating arrangement, barbecue, and salad bar. Several features have also been replaced by new features, especially in kitchen and dining areas whereas toilets remained the same.

The staff dining rooms, situated on the right of the kitchen, are being replaced by take away and coffee, bin is updated by recycling bins, and the serving area in the kitchen has been replaced by hot meals. A new salad bar has been added in front of the kitchen door, adjacent to the left wall, aligned in the middle and in straight opposit direction of the bins. The toilet is remained unchanged and is situated next to the rec

The significant addition to the cafe is the outdoor seating arrangement where three six seather and two four seater tables have been decorated. I also includes a Barbecue on the left side, next to the new entry gate to outdoor part. Another new exit door ahs been constructed towards the main cafe, adjacent to the toilet.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all main parts of the task by identifying key changes between the two plans, such as the redesign of the kitchen counter into 'hot meals', the addition of the salad bar, the introduction of outdoor seating, and the barbecue area. An overall summary is provided in the opening paragraph. However, some areas lack complete clarity or development. For instance, the description of the staff dining rooms being replaced is slightly confused, and details about the tables in the outdoor area are slightly inaccurate compared to the visual data. The response meets the requirements for a solid score in this area by presenting an overview and selecting relevant features, though extending the comparisons and ensuring tighter precision in reporting details would elevate the response further.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the information into an introduction, a body paragraph covering internal changes, and a final paragraph detailing external additions. Paragraphing is used, but transitions between ideas can occasionally feel mechanical or abrupt, as seen in the sudden shift to the outdoor seating in the final section. Referencing devices are sometimes unclear, such as the incomplete sentence ending with 'next to the rec' at the end of the second paragraph, which disrupts the logical flow. While organizational markers are present, improving the seamless integration of cohesive devices and ensuring every sentence is fully completed will enhance the overall progression and readability.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing changes, employing terms like 'redecorated', 'replaced', 'adjacent', and 'arrangement'. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, but some word choices and collocations are slightly imprecise, such as 'seather' instead of 'seater', 'straight opposit direction' instead of 'opposite direction', and 'entry gate to outdoor part'. Spelling and word-form errors, such as 'illustrates' combined with a plural subject 'plans', occasionally occur. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but to reach a higher band, a wider and more precise range of lexical items with fewer slips in spelling and word formation is required.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasing throughout the response, including subject-verb agreement issues ('The plans illustrates'), inconsistent tense usage ('are being replaced' versus past tense forms), and missing articles or prepositions ('bin is updated by', 'The toilet is remained'). Punctuation and sentence boundary issues also appear, most notably the trailing sentence fragment at the end of the second paragraph. These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret fully. To improve, the student needs to increase grammatical accuracy, maintain consistent tenses when describing visual data, and ensure complex structures are formed without frequent basic errors.

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