Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-15

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.

The plans below show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The diagrams provides information of college school cafe before renovation and after renovation.

Overall, the staff dining rooms are removed and addition of hot meal counter, salad bar, barbecue corner and outdoor seating.while all food and drink counter is changed into take away food and coffee bar counter bar counter and facitites remains almosts same with litte change.

The cafe after renovation, have various changes such as serving area and staff dining rooms are replaced with hot meals, take away food and coffee bar countes.There are addition of facilites inside and outside of cafe. In inside cafe there is addition of salad bar on one side and number of bin also increases place does not change. But ouside the cafe there was nothing now on left side a addition of barbecue area and remaing front side has outdoor seating area.The number of gate also increase to enter of leave the cafe, there is addition gates at south side of building only at the corners.The only facitity of saff dinning has removed.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You identify the main transformation: the staff dining rooms disappear, new food counters are introduced, and the café gains outdoor seating and a barbecue area. Your overview also notes that some facilities remain, which helps address the comparison. Most details are broadly relevant, but some are unclear or inaccurate: the take-away and coffee-bar counters replace the staff rooms, not the serving area, and the original serving counter becomes the hot-meals counter. The statement that the number of bins increases is not supported; the single bin is replaced by recycling bins in the same position. You also mention the added southern doors, but could describe the unchanged kitchen, toilets and central seating more precisely. The main features are selected, though some comparisons need clearer development.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has an opening, an overview and a further paragraph describing changes, so there is some organisation. However, the progression is not consistently clear: the second paragraph combines several changes in a long sentence, and the final paragraph repeats that the staff dining rooms were removed. Linking words such as “while” and “but” are attempted, but their relationships are sometimes difficult to follow, particularly in “while all food and drink counter is changed…” and “But ouside the cafe…”. Group the information more deliberately—for example, describe changes inside first, then the new outdoor area—and use clear references such as “the former serving area” and “the eastern wall.” This would reduce repetition and make the comparisons easier to track.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant plan vocabulary, including “staff dining rooms,” “serving area,” “salad bar” and “outdoor seating,” and you attempt to describe change with “removed,” “replaced” and “addition.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are unclear, such as “college school cafe,” “number of bin also increases” and “addition gates at south side.” Spelling errors—including “facitites,” “remaing” and “dinning”—also make parts of the description harder to read. Aim for precise, repeated-use terms from the plan and accurate collocations, such as “the number of entrances increased” or “a barbecue area was added.” This would make the account clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

There are attempts at longer structures, including the overview sentence beginning “Overall” and the contrast introduced by “But,” but control is inconsistent. The opening has subject–verb disagreement (“The diagrams provides”), while “The cafe after renovation, have…” has an unnecessary comma and an incorrect verb form. Several sentences are fragments or lack a clear grammatical connection, notably “Overall, the staff dining rooms are removed and addition of…” and “There are addition of facilites…”. Articles, plurals and tense are also unreliable in phrases such as “number of bin” and “there was nothing now.” Use past forms consistently for the former plan and present forms for the current layout, and build complete sentences around each comparison. These recurring errors sometimes make relationships difficult to understand.

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

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