Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

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

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)

The diagrams shows the changes made in a college cafe and compare the design of the cafe.

Overall, it can be seen that cofee and salad bar are added and take away food facility is added.Recycling bin area also seems to expanded and now proper outdoor seating outside the cafe with seperate barbecue area.

In redesigning cafe, Kitchen and toilets are at almost same place. serving area for food and drinks got seperated.only hot meal is now served from serving area which is still inside the kitchen . Staff dining rooms are also replaced with food take away afcility and coffee bar.salad bar is also introduced along with indoor seating. bin area increased significantly. out door area also added in cafe and new barbecue area and outdoor seating added to cater more customers at cafe.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main direction of change: the café gains a coffee bar, salad bar, takeaway provision and outdoor seating, while the kitchen and toilets remain in roughly the same locations. You also note the replacement of the staff dining rooms and the addition of a barbecue. However, some details are unclear or inaccurate: the serving counter is relabelled for hot meals, but the response says the serving area was “seperated,” without explaining the new arrangement. The recycling bins replace the single bin rather than clearly expanding its area. The response is also 15 words below the required minimum, which limits the opportunity to report the plan’s features fully. Add precise comparisons, including the new southern doors and the four outdoor tables.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic overall structure: an opening, an overview beginning “Overall,” and a paragraph describing changes. This helps the reader identify the general topic and the main additions. However, progression within the final paragraph is weak: it moves from the kitchen and toilets to the serving area, staff rooms, bins and outdoor facilities without a clear spatial or thematic order. Several ideas are joined together with full stops missing, as in “coffee bar.salad bar,” and the overview repeats information that appears again later. Organise the details into clear groups—for example, changes inside the café and additions outside—and use sentence boundaries and linking phrases consistently.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant task vocabulary, including “kitchen,” “toilets,” “staff dining rooms,” “outdoor seating” and “barbecue,” so the reader can understand the broad changes. There is also some attempt to describe change with phrases such as “replaced” and “introduced.” However, the range is limited and several expressions are imprecise or awkward: “bin area increased significantly” is not supported by the plan, while “food take away afcility” and “proper outdoor seating” are not natural descriptions. Spelling errors such as “cofee,” “seperated” and “out door” also reduce accuracy. Use precise labels from the plan and vary change language, such as “was converted into” or “was added along the western wall.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and more complex forms, including “Overall, it can be seen that…” and “which is still inside the kitchen.” However, grammatical control is inconsistent. The opening has subject–verb disagreement (“The diagrams shows”), and several sentences omit articles or use incomplete structures, such as “Kitchen and toilets are at almost same place” and “only hot meal is now served.” Sentence boundaries are also problematic: “coffee bar.salad bar is also introduced” joins ideas incorrectly, and the final paragraph contains a run-on sequence. These errors sometimes make relationships between changes unclear. Practise accurate article use, agreement and punctuation, then build longer sentences with clear clauses—for example, “The staff rooms were replaced by a takeaway counter and a coffee bar.”

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