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 maps illustrate the changes that took places in a college cafe at present.
Overall, it is clear that the cafe underwent several transformations, becoming more built up, and making better use of the availabe space. While some facilities remaind identical, others were renovated or replaced, and several were added.
Initially, the cafe had two main areas including kitchen in north west, table and chairs in the south, and toilets in south east. These facilities were remaind unchanged. Likewise, serving area on the opposite of kitchen has been shifted to hot meals.
Moreover, staff dinning room at the middle in the main hall has been replaced to take away food and coffee bar. Although bins in the east has been modrenized to recycle bins, while salad bar and bar bechre in the west and outdoor seating in the south has beed constructed to fill the space of a cafe.
In conclusion, the changes made the cafe more modren and provded additional facilities for the users.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task by covering both the past layout and current features of the college cafe. The overall changes are identified, and relevant key features such as the kitchen, serving area, and newly added outdoor seating and barbecue are reported. However, some aspects are under-developed or superficially treated. For instance, the transition from staff dining rooms to a take away food and coffee bar is mentioned rather briefly, and minor inaccuracies occur in the spatial descriptions, such as placing the kitchen in the north-west while it occupies the upper-left (which aligns correctly) but missing some nuances of the internal layout. The overview outlines the main transformations appropriately, satisfying the requirements for this level.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response exhibits a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure separating the introduction, overview, body details, and conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. While transition markers like 'Overall', 'Initially', and 'In conclusion' are used, internal linking within paragraphs feels disjointed at times. For example, the sentence 'These facilities were remaind unchanged. Likewise, serving area on the opposite of kitchen has been shifted to hot meals' uses cohesive devices that do not logically signal the exact nature of the relationship between the ideas. Referencing and paragraph transitions could be smoother and more logically sequenced to elevate the progression of information.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
An adequate range of vocabulary is deployed for the task, enabling the student to describe spatial changes and modifications effectively. Words and phrases such as 'transformations', 'renovated', and 'modernized' show an attempt to use less common items. However, there are noticeable word choice, collocation, and spelling errors that detract from precision, such as 'availabe' (available), 'remaind' (remained), 'dinning' (dining), 'modren' (modern), and 'bar bechre' (barbecue). These lexical errors and awkward collocations do not heavily impede communication, but they keep the vocabulary profile firmly at this level because they demonstrate recurrent slips in basic descriptive terms.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and introductory prepositional phrases. However, control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent, featuring frequent errors in verb forms, voice, and agreement. Examples include 'changes that tok places' (took place), 'facilities were remaind' (remained), 'bins in the east has been modrenized' (have been modernized), and 'outdoor seating... has beed constructed' (has been constructed). Passive voice structures and subject-verb agreement are particularly problematic throughout the text. These frequent errors require the reader to occasionally pause, though the intended meaning remains understandable.
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