Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The layout shows college cafe of how it looked before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Overall, new areas like outdoor seating, barbecue station and salad bar have been added while some of the previous rooms have been remodeled.

To begin with, serving area which served all foods and drinks was infront of kitchen has been remodeled to hot meals. Also, a salad bar has been opened adjacent to hot meals where students can find nutritious meals. Additionally, the previous staff dining rooms have been remodeled to take away food and coffee bar. The space of recycling bin has also been increased. The kitchen area remained the same

In the south of cafe, a new outdoor seating area has been added to accomodate more people. Furthermore, a barbecue station has also been opened beside the entrance from the salad bar side. Toilets remain at the south-west of the cafe.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by presenting an overview of the key changes between the two plans and making relevant comparisons. The introduction outlines the main transformation, and body paragraphs describe specific modifications such as the addition of the outdoor seating, salad bar, and barbecue station, as well as the conversion of staff dining rooms into a take away food area and coffee bar. However, some details are slightly under-developed or imprecise, such as the inaccurate placement of the toilets in the final sentence, noting them at the south-west rather than the bottom-right corner. To reach a higher band, the student should ensure all spatial references are entirely accurate and extend descriptions of key structural changes with more precise comparative detail.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression from the overview to specific details. Paragraphing is used adequately to separate the introduction, overview, and specific features. Cohesive devices are employed to guide the reader, using transition signals like 'To begin with', 'Also', and 'Additionally'. Nevertheless, cohesion occasionally feels somewhat mechanical or repetitive, and referencing is slightly faulty in places, such as missing articles. To achieve a higher band, the student could use a more sophisticated variety of cohesive links and ensure smoother transitions between sentences to make the structure less formulaic.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to incorporate less common items related to map descriptions, such as 'redesigned', 'remodeled', 'adjacent', and 'accomodate'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors, including spelling mistakes like 'accomodate', and awkward word choices such as 'infront of kitchen' or 'The space of recycling bin has also been increased'. These errors do not impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score. To improve, the student needs to expand their range of functional vocabulary for describing spatial changes and pay closer attention to accurate spelling and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over grammar. Structures such as relative clauses and passive constructions are attempted, as seen in 'salad bar has been opened adjacent to hot meals where students can find nutritious meals.' However, there are frequent errors in articles, prepositions, and noun-phrase structures, such as omitting articles ('shows college cafe', 'infront of kitchen', 'Toilets remain at the south-west of the cafe'). While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they prevent the text from achieving higher accuracy. To progress, the student should focus on mastering article usage and prepositional phrases in descriptive writing.

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

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