Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)
The plan below shows a college cafe before and after undergoing modernization project.
Overall, the cafe has an extensive redesign expending dining options and increasing sitting capacity .Kitchen at the same place. The hot meals, takeaway food, coffee bar, salad bar, tables and chairs and recycle bin was reorginized while restroom facilities remain in the original location.
Before the redesign the cafe had a single serving area for all food and drinks located near to the kitchen
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0
The response identifies the broad change from the original café to a redesigned one and correctly notes that the kitchen and toilets remain in place. However, it addresses the plan only minimally: most of the important changes are not described, including the new take-away and coffee-bar sections, salad bar, outdoor seating and barbecue. The statement that the redesign increased seating capacity is not clearly supported by the plans, which show new outdoor tables but do not establish a total increase. The overview is also unclear, and the response stops after beginning to describe the former serving area. At 77 words, it is substantially below the required 150, leaving the comparison incomplete. Describe the main changes on both sides of the café and give a clear overview.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
There is a basic attempt to organise the response: an opening sentence is followed by an overview and then a paragraph beginning to describe the café before redesign. This gives the reader some sense of the intended structure. However, the progression is not developed because the final paragraph ends abruptly after “located near to the kitchen,” and there is no account of the café today. Connections between ideas are limited, with little use of sequencing or contrast to guide the comparison. The overview also combines several features in a crowded sentence, making the relationships between them difficult to follow. Use separate, complete paragraphs for the overview and the before-and-after details, and connect changes with clear markers such as “whereas” and “in addition.”
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The response uses some relevant vocabulary for describing a redesign, including “modernization project,” “dining options,” “serving area,” and “restroom facilities.” These choices show an attempt to use task-specific language rather than relying entirely on basic terms. However, the range is limited by the short response, and several word choices or forms are inaccurate: “expending” does not express the intended idea of expanding, “sitting capacity” is less natural than “seating capacity,” and “recycle bin” should be “recycling bins” for the feature shown. “Reorginized” is also misspelled. Build a wider set of precise plan-description terms, such as “converted into,” “added,” and “retained,” and check spelling and collocations before submitting.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response includes a few simple sentence forms and attempts a more complex overview, but the range is limited and errors recur. For example, “Kitchen at the same place” is a fragment rather than a complete sentence, while “the hot meals … and recycle bin was reorginized” has faulty subject–verb agreement and an unclear construction. The opening phrase “before and after undergoing modernization project” is missing an article, and the final sentence is incomplete, ending without punctuation or a completed comparison. These problems sometimes make the intended relationships difficult to understand. Practise writing complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, check singular and plural agreement, and use articles consistently; then proofread each sentence for completion and punctuation.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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