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 plans illustrates a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it appears at pesent.
overall the cafe has changed from a single serving area into several serving food outlets,and a outdoor seating area has been added. where as the toliets and kitchen,also the main steating area stays at the same palce.
Before the redesgin the all food and drinks were served from one place and a staff dining rooms with a round table were next to it,and bins were present at west side of the entrence close to the exit.
After the redesign there are several serving food outlets were present at the cafe the salas bar is present at the north side of the cafe entrence a hot meals stall right side of it, an addintional enternce and a exit have been implemented, over the new exit a barbecue stall is present and an outdoor seating with several tables have been built out side the cafe below the main seating are
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, successfully identifying key changes such as the transformation of the single serving area into multiple outlets (the salad bar, hot meals, coffee bar, and take-away food) and the addition of the outdoor seating and barbecue area. The main static features like the kitchen and toilets are also mentioned. However, some areas are under-developed or imprecise; for instance, the description of the new food outlets contains confusing spatial references, such as placing the salad bar 'at the north side of the cafe entrence' when it is actually along the western wall. The overview successfully captures the main trends of added seating and diversified food stations, placing the response securely in the mid-range for this criterion.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The text has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to organise information into logical paragraphs covering the introduction, overview, and specific details of the before and after states. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and faulty. Basic cohesive devices and transitional phrases are occasionally misused or absent, such as 'where as' and 'over the new exit'. Paragraphing is attempted, but sentences run into one another with weak logical progression between clauses. Referencing is sometimes unclear, which requires the reader to work harder to follow the spatial comparisons between the two plans.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but the range is limited and contains noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and word forms. Examples include 'pesent' instead of present, 'redesgin', 'toliets', 'entrence', and 'salas' instead of salad. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary such as 'implemented' and 'redesigned', but these are offset by recurring lexical inaccuracies like calling the food stations 'serving food outlets' rather than counters or bars. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the score from rising higher.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but attempts at complex structures frequently contain errors. There are issues with subject-verb agreement, missing articles, and awkward prepositions, such as 'the plans illustrates', 'a outdoor seating area', 'at west side', and 'below the main seating are'. Punctuation is also weak, with run-on sentences and comma splices, such as joining independent clauses without proper conjunctions or full stops. While these errors rarely completely obscure the meaning, they are frequent enough to detract from the overall fluency and accuracy of the writing.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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