Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The given layouts show the before and after a college cafe underwent modifications Overall, the old cafe was spacious and classic with less seating and options of food for their customers. The current cafe looks modernized and has been extended with many additional developments to accomodate a greater audience and variety of offerings of food and drinks.

Previously, for customers, the cafe only had table and chairs in the main area while for staff, two separate rooms were dedicated. The current cafe now allows more audience by building an outdoor seating with a barbeque section which did not exist before. Kitchen and toilets have been kept intact in the same place except that serving area has been replaced with hot meals section.

Bins are now converted to recycled one, an additional feature in the current development. Furthermore, customers now have options of coffee and salad bars along with a takeaway option. The current cafe is different from the conventional one in terms of variety and space.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You identify the main contrast between the original café and its redesigned version, including the new outdoor seating and barbecue, the added coffee and salad bars, and the kitchen and toilets remaining in place. The overview also recognises that the redesign offers more seating and food choices. This covers the task well, and the specific comparisons support the description. To make the account more complete and precise, report the replacement of the two staff dining rooms with takeaway food and a coffee bar, and describe the serving counter as becoming a hot-meals section rather than saying the serving area was replaced. The claim that the café was “classic” is not clearly supported by the plans; focus instead on visible layout changes.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an opening overview is followed by paragraphs describing the former layout and the new facilities. Linking expressions such as “Previously,” “Furthermore,” and “Overall” help signal comparisons and additions. However, progression within the paragraphs is sometimes loose: the sentence about bins interrupts the discussion of new food options, and the final sentence repeats the general contrast without adding a specific feature. Some references are also imprecise, such as “the current development” and “the conventional one,” which make the comparison less direct. Grouping changes by location or by what was retained, removed, and added would make the organisation more consistently logical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of vocabulary for describing change, including “underwent modifications,” “dedicated,” “additional,” and “options.” These choices help communicate the main developments, and the meaning is generally clear. However, several expressions are imprecise or unnatural for a plan description: “classic,” “greater audience,” “recycled one,” and “conventional one” do not accurately name the features shown. There are also spelling errors in “accomodate” and “barbeque,” and “food and drinks” is less precise than naming the new counters. Aim for accurate, natural collocations and use the plan labels where they convey the information most clearly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use both simple statements and more complex structures, including the contrast in “Kitchen and toilets have been kept intact … except that…” and the relative clause “which did not exist before.” Most sentences remain understandable, but some grammatical errors and punctuation problems are present. The opening sentence needs punctuation after “modifications,” and “the before and after” is an incomplete construction; “the café before and after its redesign” would be clearer. In “the cafe only had table and chairs,” the plural noun should be “tables,” while “a takeaway option” needs an article. The phrase “converted to recycled one” also has an unclear grammatical structure. Check articles, plurals, and sentence boundaries during revision.

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