Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

the diagram illustrates the map of college cafe before it was redisgned and after it redesigned .

overall, there before the redesigned it havent a outdoor seating area .but after the reconstruct of today map it demonstrate the long area occupy for outdoor seating with a little area for the barbecue section on the back side of toilet.

Cafe before redesigned and cafe today doesnt have a major change but have a change with area of kitchen before it haves a serving area all food & drink but today it have been replaced with hot meals

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You identify the broad change from an indoor-only café to one with outdoor seating, and you note that the kitchen’s serving counter now offers hot meals. These are relevant features. However, the response covers only a small part of the plans and does not describe several important changes, including the new takeaway and coffee-bar sections, salad bar, recycling bins, and the unchanged toilets and central seating. The overview is also unclear: saying there is “no major change” understates the redesign, which adds several facilities and an outdoor area. The barbecue is mentioned, but its position is inaccurately described as behind the toilets; it is outside to the south-west. The response is 96 words, below the required 150, so the comparison remains substantially underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: you begin with an introduction, use “overall” to signal a summary, and then mention the kitchen counter. This gives the reader some sense of the intended structure. However, the ideas do not progress clearly through the main changes, and the response ends without a complete account of the plans. The overview and detail are joined awkwardly, as in “overall, there before the redesigned…” and “Cafe before redesigned and cafe today…”. Linking words are limited, and punctuation does not reliably separate ideas. To improve, use a clear overview paragraph followed by one or two paragraphs comparing the facilities and layout, with simple links such as “whereas,” “in addition,” and “by contrast.”

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “outdoor seating,” “barbecue,” “kitchen,” and “hot meals,” so the reader can recognise the general subject. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations make the description difficult to interpret, such as “the long area occupy for outdoor seating” and “the reconstruct of today map.” There are also spelling errors, including “redisgned,” and inconsistent forms such as “Cafe” and “cafe.” Use the labels from the plan accurately and choose straightforward map-description phrases, for example, “an outdoor seating area was added” or “the serving counter now offers hot meals.” This would make the comparisons more precise and natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts to form connected sentences and uses a basic contrast between the café before and after the redesign. However, the range of sentence structures is very limited, and frequent errors affect clarity. Examples include “there before the redesigned it havent a outdoor seating area” and “it have been replaced with hot meals,” where verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction are inaccurate. The opening also lacks a complete, correctly formed sentence. Punctuation and capitalisation are inconsistent, with a full stop separated by spaces and a sentence beginning with a lowercase letter. Practise accurate simple past and present forms for describing changes, such as “There was no outdoor seating before” and “The counter now serves hot meals,” before attempting longer comparisons.

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

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