Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-02
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 map shows the current layout of a college cafe and how it look before it was redesigned.
In general it can seen that, current design has undergo considerable addition of several facilites includes. The most noticable changes are addition of new facilities: outdoor, seating salad bar , barbecue and serving area has been replaced by hot meals.
Before redesigned, College cafe has limited amount of facilities, Tables and chairs were placed in the center of the cafe with bin and toilet on the right side, while the Staff and dinning room were located in the north of cafe. Kitchen and serving area contains all food and drink were located in the north west of cafe.
At present, several new facilites have been added in the south of outside the cafe with addition of five outsoor seating arrangements and a barbecue located next to salar bar inside the west of cafe. Dinning rooms were replace by cafe bar and take away food services. Table and chairs position were remained unchanged with the upgradtion of recycling from a bin. Incontrast, serving area was replaced by Hot meals and kitchen remain same.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| 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 attempting to compare the two plans, presenting an overview and selecting main features such as the kitchen, outdoor seating, and food options. However, some aspects are under-developed or unclear. For instance, the overview contains awkward phrasing and grammatical errors ('current design has undergo considerable addition'), and details regarding specific locations are occasionally confused, such as placing the barbecue 'inside the west of cafe' when it is outside. The selection of features covers the most salient points, but the lack of clarity in some descriptions prevents the response from achieving a higher band.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The overall arrangement of the text is coherent, with a logical division into an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs discussing the past and present layouts. Paragraphing is used appropriately to structure the comparison. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. Referencing and transitional links are occasionally awkward or repetitive, such as the abrupt transitions between sentences in the final paragraph ('Table and chairs position were remained unchanged with the upgradtion of recycling from a bin. Incontrast, serving area was replaced...'). While the progression of ideas is generally easy to follow, these occasional mechanical errors keep the response firmly at this level.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common terms such as 'redesigned', 'facilities', 'upgradtion', and 'arrangements'. However, there are noticeable word choice errors, incorrect word forms, and spelling slips, such as 'look' instead of 'looked', 'facilites', 'noticable', 'outsoor', 'salar bar', and 'Incontrast'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they reflect a limited control over less common lexical items, which prevents the score from rising further.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and passive structures (e.g., 'serving area has been replaced by hot meals'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors in verb forms, tense consistency, and prepositions within grammatical patterns. Examples include 'how it look before', 'has undergo', 'Before redesigned', 'Dinning rooms were replace', and 'Table and chairs position were remained unchanged'. These errors require some effort to decode at times, though they rarely obscure the overall meaning entirely.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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