Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-06
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 college cafe undergoes significant changes throughout the period.
Overall, it is clear that botam left side of the college cafe Barbecue is built and also outdoor seating area is created that was not avalible before.Moreover, staff dinning rooms replaced with take away food and coffee bar.However, bin changed with Recycling bins and salad bar also introduced.Additionally, serving area replaced with the hot meals.
Turning to the replaced area of the plan, some prominent changes in the current and privous designe such as staff dinning rooms replaced with take away food and coffee bar.As well as, serving area also replaced with the hot meals.Additionally, bin changed with Recycling bins in the right side of the designe .
Turning to the remaining, bottom left side of the designe Barbecue was not present in privous plan but it is created in today cafe.However, current cafe have a outdoor seating area while, there is no outdoor seating area in before cafe.Moreeover, salad bar is built and it is clearley visibal in today cafe but, it was not present in old college cafe.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5
The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by identifying the main features and making relevant comparisons between the two plans. You correctly noted the addition of the outdoor seating area, the barbecue, the salad bar, and the recycling bins, as well as the changes to the serving area and staff dining rooms. However, some ideas are slightly repetitive and under-developed, particularly in the body paragraphs where points are restated rather than fully extended. To reach a higher level, you should ensure that every detail contributes fresh information and that the overview clearly outlines the overarching transformations from start to finish without redundancy.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The response has a basic overall structure with an introduction, body paragraphs, and an overview attempt, but it lacks a clear, progressive flow. Cohesive devices are sometimes used mechanically or repetitively, such as the frequent reliance on 'Moreover', 'Additionally', and 'Turning to'. Furthermore, paragraphing is poorly handled, as the text is broken into short, fragmented paragraphs rather than cohesive groupings of related ideas. Referencing and logical progression need improvement to ensure the reader can follow the comparisons smoothly from one feature to the next without feeling that the same points are being circled repeatedly.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to describe the physical changes with basic terms like 'redesigned', 'outdoor seating', and 'barbecue'. However, the range is limited and contains noticeable errors in word choice and spelling, such as 'botam' for bottom, 'avalible' for available, 'dinning' for dining, 'privous' for previous, 'designe' for design, and 'visibal' for visible. Additionally, there are instances of unnatural phrasing. To achieve a higher band, you need to expand your lexical repertoire, use less common vocabulary with greater precision, and eliminate spelling errors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response demonstrates a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence forms, but it is marred by frequent grammatical errors. There are issues with article usage ('the college cafe', 'a outdoor seating area'), prepositional choices, and verb tense inconsistencies when describing the plans. While some sentences are clear, the accumulation of errors in punctuation, sentence boundaries, and word forms can cause occasional difficulty for the reader. To move up, you must improve your control over basic grammatical structures and ensure greater accuracy in sentence construction.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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