Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-19

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 6.5)

The plans illustrate the changes made to a college cafe before and after its redesign.

Overall, the cafe has been significantly modernised, with several new facilities added to provide a wider range of food and drink options. The most noticeable changes are the introduction of outdoor seating, a coffee bar, a salad bar and a takeaway food section.

Before the redesign, the kitchen and serving area were located in the upper-left corner of the cafe. The serving area provided all food and drinks. Most of the remaining space was occupied by tables and chairs for customers.In addition, a bin was placed near the right-hand wall.

In the redesigned cafe, The serving area has been replaced by a section for hot meals. The main seating area has also been reorganised. A salad bar has been installed along the left-hand well. The two staff dining rooms have been removed to create space for thse new facilities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You provide a relevant overview, identifying modernisation and several new food facilities, and accurately describe the kitchen, hot-meal counter, salad bar and removal of the staff dining rooms. However, the comparison is incomplete: the plans’ most prominent addition, the outdoor seating area with a barbecue, is not reported, and the new takeaway and coffee-bar sections are mentioned only in the overview rather than described in the main account. The statement that the main seating area was “reorganised” is also vague, as the central tables and chairs remain. To make the report more complete, describe the key changes across the whole plan, including the southern outdoor area and the recycling bins, while distinguishing unchanged features from altered ones.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, an overview, and paragraphs describing the former and current layouts. This gives the reader a logical route through the comparison, and phrases such as “Before the redesign” and “In the redesigned cafe” make the time contrast clear. The overview also helps signal the main changes before the details. However, the final paragraph ends abruptly after the staff rooms are discussed, leaving several changes already named in the overview without supporting detail. The transition from the overview to the body could be more systematic, for example by grouping changes to the north, west and south sides. Check spacing after full stops, as in “customers.In addition,” which interrupts the otherwise readable flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use an adequate range of task-appropriate vocabulary, including “redesign,” “serving area,” “modernised,” “facilities” and “installed.” These choices communicate the main changes clearly, and the language is varied enough to avoid excessive repetition. Some wording is imprecise or less natural for describing a plan: “left-hand well” appears to be a spelling error for “wall,” while “reorganised” suggests the seating arrangement changed even though the central tables and chairs remain. “A wider range of food and drink options” is a useful summary, but the report would benefit from precise labels such as “takeaway counter” and “coffee bar” in the body. Review spelling carefully and choose terms that describe the mapped features rather than implying unsupported changes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the overview sentence beginning “The most noticeable changes are…” and the clause “to create space for these new facilities.” Most sentences are easy to understand, and past and present forms generally distinguish the two plans appropriately. Some errors remain in punctuation and sentence presentation: there is no space after the full stop in “customers.In addition,” and “The” is incorrectly capitalised after the comma-ending sentence break in “In the redesigned cafe, The serving area…”. The final sentence also contains a misspelling that affects the written form, though this is primarily a vocabulary issue. Proofread sentence boundaries and capitalisation, and maintain consistent tense when moving between the former and current layouts.

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