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 plans show a college cafe's map before and after redesigning. The new cafe has more new features including outdoor seating and barbecue area. Serving area in the kitchen that served all food and drink is changed as hot meal.
In newly designed kitchen food and drink are served according to respective category. In front of hot meals a new salad bar has been designed. Take away food and coffee bar constructed instead of staff dining rooms. There is a separate open-air dining space for barbecue behind the cafe. The toilet is in th same area as it was. The bin had slightly changed as 'recycling bin'. The dining area remains same and there are two new doors are opened to go to outdoor dining area. The barbecue has dining facilities with short and long tables which allow groups or small family can be seated together.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses the task only partially and falls slightly short of the minimum length requirement of 150 words, containing 146 words. While the student attempts to highlight key changes between the two plans—such as the modification of the serving area into hot meals, the addition of a salad bar, and the introduction of outdoor seating and a barbecue—some details are under-developed or inaccurately described. For instance, the reference to staff dining rooms being replaced by a take-away food and coffee bar is somewhat confusingly phrased. An overview is lacking, and the bullet points or paragraphs do not flow into a cohesive summary of the overall transformation of the college cafe.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
There is some basic organization in the response, but it lacks a clear overall progression. Ideas are presented sequentially without a strong overarching structure to guide the reader through the spatial changes from the original plan to the updated one. Cohesive devices are minimal, mechanical, and occasionally repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on simple transition-less sentences ('In newly designed kitchen...', 'There is a separate...'). Paragraphing is poorly handled, as the text is clumped into two abrupt blocks rather than logically grouped paragraphs that compare specific zones of the cafe. Referencing between the old and new layouts is sometimes unclear, making it difficult to follow exact spatial relationships.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey basic ideas about the changes. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'respective category', 'open-air dining space', and 'recycling bin', but these attempts are accompanied by noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation (e.g., 'Serving area in the kitchen that served all food and drink is changed as hot meal'). Spelling is generally acceptable, but awkward phrasing like 'The toilet is in th same area' and 'The bin had slightly changed' causes some difficulty for the reader and restricts the lexical score to a modest level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writer uses a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside a few clumsy attempts at complex forms. Frequent errors are present throughout the text, particularly regarding articles ('the college cafe's map', 'in th same area', 'the dining area remains same'), prepositions ('changed as hot meal'), and subject-verb agreement or missing verbs ('Take away food and coffee bar constructed instead'). Punctuation is basic, and sentences such as 'which allow groups or small family can be seated together' exhibit faulty clause structures. These persistent errors demand extra effort from the reader.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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