Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-04

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 illustrates the plans of college cafe before and after the modifications made to its design. The design is kind of L shape but after redesigned it grows more towards bottom with outside space.

Overall, more things are added in the new plan with respect to old plan and giving it a modern touch by providing recycling bins. And take away instead of staff dinning rooms.

First of all, the old plan contains the toilet at the bottom of south west corner with the same in new plan. The bins in new plan are specific for recycling instaed of ordinary bins in the old plan. Two small staff dinning rooms of equal lengths are now converted for two diffent purpose such as, for take away food and coffee bar.

Secondly, the kitchen area remains the same in both the plans but serving area which contains all food and drink is now specifically dedicated for the hot meals only. And the cafe now have a salad bar which is missing the plan. Moreover, now cafe have entrance from bottom for Barbecue with outdoor seatings.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by summarizing the main features of the college cafe before and after the redesign, and includes some comparisons. For instance, the writer notes that the kitchen remains the same while the staff dining rooms have been converted into a takeaway food area and coffee bar. However, some ideas and features are under-developed or imprecise, such as the inaccurate description of the toilet location ("bottom of south west corner" instead of the bottom-right corner) and some vague statements about the overall shape. An overview is attempted, but it lacks complete clarity. To reach a higher band, the response would need to select and report all key features more accurately and provide a fully developed overview without factual misreadings.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to organize the information using paragraphing and transitional markers such as "First of all" and "Secondly". However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is not always clear, leading to occasional disjointedness between sentences—for example, "And the cafe now have a salad bar which is missing the plan." While there is a logical attempt to contrast the past and present layouts, the flow of information could be smoother and more sophisticated. To progress further, the writer should employ a wider range of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure clearer referencing throughout the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to incorporate less common items such as "modifications", "redesigned", and "recycling bins". However, there are noticeable word-choice errors, incorrect collocations, and word-form inaccuracies, such as "staff dinning rooms" (spelling/form), "instaed" (spelling), and "diffent purpose". These errors reflect an adequate rather than fully controlled lexical range. To improve this criterion, the writer needs to expand their control of spelling, word forms, and precise collocations to ensure that vocabulary is used more accurately and naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, but control over grammar is inconsistent. There are several errors in subject-verb agreement, articles, and prepositions, such as "college cafe" missing an article, "the cafe now have" instead of "has", and "missing the plan" instead of "missing from the plan". While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to restrict the score at this level. To achieve a higher band, the writer must demonstrate greater accuracy across a wider variety of complex sentence structures and carefully check basic grammatical agreements.

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

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