Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-17

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)

Given map illustrate the comparision of a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Overall data collaborates that now college cafe has more facilities than before it was redesigned

Moreover, now there are many outdoor seating area for residents. Salad bar and barbecue also added to the cafe.

Cafe before redesign looks simple but now it looks more attractive. Before in the upper western side there was a serving area includes all food and drink but now it was converted into hot meals.In the middle of the map before there was staff dining rooms which is now converted into take away food and coffee bar.

In the southern west park before the area was hollow but now salad bar and barbecue was developed. In the lower southern part the outdoor seating area become more organised. now there are more space for residentents to sit. Atlast now the cafe looks more attractive and organised.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main change in the café’s facilities and give an overview that it has more amenities, including outdoor seating, a salad bar and a barbecue. You also accurately note that the former serving area now provides hot meals and that the staff dining rooms have been replaced by takeaway food and a coffee bar. However, some details are unclear or inaccurate: the salad bar is inside along the western wall, not in a “southern west park,” and the outdoor seating is outside along the south wall. The toilets remain, and the bin becomes recycling bins, but these changes are omitted. The response is 145 words, below the 150-word minimum. Develop the comparison with these specific features and clearer locations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a basic overall structure: an opening, an overview and paragraphs describing changes. This helps the reader identify the before-and-after comparison. However, progression within the description is not always clear, and some links are repetitive or awkward. For example, “now” appears repeatedly, while “In the southern west park” does not clearly connect to the plan’s indoor and outdoor areas. The final sentence repeats the overview rather than adding a distinct comparison. Use a more consistent route through the plan—such as north, centre, then south—and group related changes together. Clearer referencing and fewer repeated transitions would make the organisation easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for describing a redesigned place, including “facilities,” “serving area,” “outdoor seating area” and “organised.” This gives you a workable range for the task, but several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or imprecise. “Data collaborates” does not express the intended overview, and “the area was hollow” is not a suitable way to describe an area that was previously unused. “Residents” is also an imprecise label for café users. Spelling errors such as “comparision” and “Atlast” are noticeable. Choose standard map-description language and check spelling; for example, describe facilities as being “added” or “replaced,” and use “customers” or “students” where appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more developed sentences, and the main comparisons are generally understandable. However, errors in sentence structure, tense, agreement and articles occur often enough to make parts of the description awkward. For example, “Given map illustrate” needs an article and subject–verb agreement, while “the outdoor seating area become” needs a past-tense verb. In “Before in the upper western side there was a serving area includes all food and drink,” the clause structure is incomplete; use a relative clause such as “there was a serving area that included…”. Punctuation and spacing also need attention, as in “meals.In”. Practise accurate past-tense descriptions and build complex sentences with clear clauses.

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