Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-11
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 4.0)
The illustration shows the plans of college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.
overall, the plan shows the major alterations in areas of classifying spaces according to different food sectors. Single food court is now turn into salad and burbeques along with dining room redesign into coffee bar and take away with addition of outdoor dining.
The main serving areas back in time
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 3.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 3.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 4.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 4.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0
The response identifies the broad idea that the café has been reorganised, mentioning a salad bar, a coffee bar, takeaway food and outdoor dining. However, it gives only a very limited account of the plans and does not provide a clear, accurate overview of the main changes. The barbecue is described as part of the new food areas, but the plan shows it outside beside the outdoor seating; the kitchen, toilets, central tables and recycling bins are not explained. The final fragment, “The main serving areas back in time”, does not report a complete feature. The response is also 94 words below the 150-word minimum, which leaves the task substantially incomplete. Describe the key changes and what remains unchanged in full sentences.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 3.5
There is a basic attempt to organise the response: an opening sentence is followed by an overview beginning with “overall”. This gives the reader a starting point, but the progression stops almost immediately. The isolated fragment “The main serving areas back in time” is not connected to the preceding ideas and leaves the comparison unfinished. The overview also combines several changes in one sentence without clearly separating the former layout from the current one. To make the account coherent, use a short introduction, a clear overview, and one or two paragraphs comparing the interior and exterior changes. Connect each point explicitly with phrases such as “Previously”, “In the redesigned café” and “Meanwhile”.
Lexical Resource: Band 4.5
The response attempts some task-relevant vocabulary, including “serving areas”, “food sectors”, “coffee bar”, “take away” and “outdoor dining”. These choices show an effort to describe the redesign, but several expressions are imprecise or incorrectly formed: “areas of classifying spaces” is unclear, “Single food court” does not accurately describe the original serving area, and “burbeques” is misspelled. “Dining room redesign” is also an awkward way to refer to the former staff dining rooms. The limited range makes it difficult to describe the plan’s specific features and their locations. Use the labels from the diagram where appropriate, and practise accurate collocations such as “was replaced by” and “along the western wall”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5
The response includes a simple opening sentence and attempts a more complex comparison in “Single food court is now turn into salad and burbeques along with dining room redesign into coffee bar and take away”. However, this sentence has several grammatical problems: the subject lacks an article, “is now turn” has an incorrect verb form, and the later phrase has no clear finite verb. The fragment “The main serving areas back in time” is also incomplete, with no verb to express what happened. Capitalisation is inconsistent in “overall”. These errors make the relationships between the changes difficult to follow. Build complete sentences with a clear subject and verb—for example, “The former staff dining rooms were replaced by a coffee bar and a takeaway counter”—and check tense and articles.
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