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 diagram show a university's cafe before and after redesigning.Overall there has been some major changes made such as salad bar, barbecue station, and outdoor seating were introduced.

The kitchen is same as before. Whereas the serving area which contains all drinks and food was replaced with hot meals located beside the take away food counter. One of the major change is the university's cafe before had staff dining rooms which has been removed after redesigning. It has been replace with take away food counter and a coffee bar.he toilets are at the same location as before, beside the recycling bins. The tables and chairs are at the same place in the middle of the cafe just as before redesigning.

Another major change was adding a salad counter in the cafe located opposite to the recycling bins. It also included an outdoor seating just in front of the coffee bar outside. It can hold upto 26 people at once with a barbecue station at the side. The previous university's cafe had only bins but after redesigning it became a recycling bins.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses the main requirements of the task by identifying key features of the college cafe before and after the redesign, such as the introduction of the salad bar, outdoor seating, and the replacement of staff dining rooms. However, some parts of the task are handled more fully than others, and certain details are slightly under-developed or imprecise. For instance, the overview mentions the main additions, but could be integrated more smoothly, and some spatial relationships or changes—such as the exact repositioning of counters—are described with minor inaccuracies. The report successfully highlights the most significant transformations, placing it securely at this level where relevant ideas are presented, though some lack full extension.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The text demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to contrast the past layout with the current one. Information is generally grouped logically, moving from structural features like the kitchen and serving areas to new additions such as the outdoor seating and bins. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, seen in abrupt transitions between sentences and awkward paragraph breaks, such as starting a new section mid-way through a thought ('he toilets are at the same location...'). Referencing is also occasionally unclear, and cohesive devices are overused or repetitive rather than fluidly managed.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms relevant to the diagrams, such as 'redesigned', 'counter', 'recycling bins', and 'barbecue station'. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, but these are sometimes accompanied by inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, or form, such as 'redesigning' used as a noun where 'the redesign' is more appropriate, or 'upto'. While spelling and word choice errors occur, they do not impede communication, allowing the reader to easily grasp the intended meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at relative clauses and passive structures, such as 'which contains all drinks and food was replaced'. However, there are noticeable grammatical errors throughout, including missing articles ('The diagram show', 'such as salad bar'), subject-verb agreement issues ('The diagram show', 'it became a recycling bins'), and punctuation slips. These errors persist and require some effort from the reader, though they rarely obscure the overall meaning of the report, placing the grammatical control firmly at this standard.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.