Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-23

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 given diagrams illustrates the given plans how it looked before and how the cafe has been transformed with major developments. There are two images of cafes that represents two modes of the same cafe before redesign and after redesign. After all changes the cafe has been repleced with major changes shown in the second image.

The kitchen area remained the same while cafe before and after redesign. Whereas, serving area is replaced by hot meals.howerver, staff dining rooms have been replaced by cooffee bar and take away food.Meanwhile, chairs and tables, dustbins and toilets remained same.New changes have been made in the cafe today as salad bar is introduced in the dining area. There have been new additions of barbeque and outdoor sittings are introduced in the newly designed cafe. however, the whole structure of both cafes remained same with only new additions as they have shown in before and after redesign.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main transformation: the kitchen remains, the serving counter becomes a hot-meal area, the staff rooms are replaced by takeaway and coffee facilities, and outdoor seating with a barbecue is added. You also note that the toilets remain in place. These are relevant comparisons and give the reader a general sense of the redesign. However, some features are reported inaccurately or too vaguely: the tables and chairs remain in the central area, but the bin is replaced by recycling bins rather than remaining the same. The overview that the “whole structure” stayed the same is also too broad, given the new southern doors and outdoor area. A clearer overview and more precise coverage of the key changes would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a basic sequence, moving from the overall comparison to changes inside the café and then to the outdoor additions. Linking words such as “Whereas,” “Meanwhile,” and “however” show an attempt to connect ideas. However, the writing is presented as one paragraph, so the overview and supporting details are not clearly separated. Some links are awkward or repetitive, and the final sentence repeats the idea of major changes without adding information. Group the unchanged features together, then describe the internal changes and outdoor additions in a logical order. Clearer sentence boundaries and more purposeful use of linking expressions would make the progression easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for describing a plan, including “kitchen area,” “serving area,” “staff dining rooms,” “salad bar,” and “outdoor seating.” This gives you enough range to communicate the main changes. However, several choices are imprecise or repetitive: “major developments” and “major changes” recur, while “dustbins” does not accurately describe the new recycling bins. There are also spelling errors such as “repleced,” “cooffee,” and “barbeque,” and “outdoor sittings” is not a natural phrase for this feature. Use precise plan vocabulary and check spelling; for example, distinguish “recycling bins” from the original “bin” and use “outdoor seating area.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple and more complex sentences, including the contrast beginning “Whereas” and the sentence describing the kitchen and serving area. However, some sentence structures are incomplete or awkward, such as “Whereas, serving area is replaced by hot meals,” and “The kitchen area remained the same while cafe before and after redesign.” There are also errors in agreement and articles, as in “The given diagrams illustrates” and “two images of cafes that represents.” Punctuation and capitalisation are inconsistent, particularly around sentence starts and the run-together “hot meals.howerver.” Aim for complete clauses, consistent past-tense descriptions of the redesign, and careful checking of subject–verb agreement and sentence boundaries.

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