Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The plans explain the college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now. There are some changes between the old and new cafe which needs to be reported. Overall the redesigned cafe is more developed with great facilities as serving areas are different for each item and more variety of menu is available now. In old college cafe, all the food and drink items are available in a single place and there are separate dining rooms for the staff. Tables and chairs are available for the customers in the hall. Redesigned cafe has separate serving areas such as salad bars, barbeque, coffee bar and hot meals. Take away option is also available in the new cafe. Bin is replaced by recycling bin and outdoor seating is also present for the people sp they can enjoy their food sitting outside as well. Toilets are present in the same location in both cafe.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all key features of the two plans, fulfilling the requirements for a Band 6.5. You provide a clear overview outlining the main developments, such as the diversification of serving areas and the addition of outdoor seating. You appropriately contrast the old layout—noting features like the single serving area, staff dining rooms, and indoor seating—with the updated version, which includes a salad bar, barbecue, coffee bar, and recycling facilities. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed; for instance, the exact locations of certain newly added elements like the barbecue relative to the outdoor seating could have been more precisely integrated into the comparison. Nevertheless, the response clearly addresses all parts of the task and presents a relevant selection of visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay achieves a coherent overall arrangement that sits comfortably at a Band 6 level. Information is logically grouped into an introduction, an overview, a body paragraph describing the past layout, and a final paragraph detailing current features. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the response. However, cohesion is at times a bit mechanical or repetitive in its referencing, and transitions between sentences rely on simple structures rather than sophisticated cohesive devices. For instance, moving from the description of the past layout to the redesigned cafe could benefit from smoother linking phrases to enhance the overall progression and ensure the text flows more naturally from one idea to the next.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

Your vocabulary range is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the changes shown in the diagrams, which aligns with Band 6 expectations. You attempt less common vocabulary items and phrases, such as 'redesigned cafe', 'diversified serving areas', and 'recycling bin', with reasonable success. There are, however, some minor word-choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as writing 'sp they can enjoy' (a typographical error) and referring to the dining spaces somewhat simply. Spelling and word choice remain clear enough that communication is never impeded, but to reach a higher band, a greater variety of more precise, sophisticated lexical items linked to spatial changes and structural modifications would be necessary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating the control characteristic of Band 5.5. You attempt various structures to compare the past and present layouts, but there are noticeable errors in grammar, articles, and pluralisation. For example, you wrote 'the college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now. There are some changes... which needs to be reported', where 'needs' should be plural ('need') to agree with 'changes'. Additionally, phrases like 'In old college cafe' lack necessary articles, and there is a typo ('sp they can'). While these errors occur regularly throughout the text, they rarely impede overall communication, though mastering article use and subject-verb agreement will greatly improve accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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