Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-26

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 diagrams below illustrate the changes made in the architectural design of cafe.

Overall cafe has been modernized by introducting the take away food and coffee bar section. Hot meal section and salad bar is also introduced. Staff dining area has been removed to make room for Serving area.

Kitchen, tables and chairs section in same as before nothing is

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You identify several genuine changes, including the new takeaway-food and coffee-bar sections, the hot-meals counter and the salad bar. However, the response addresses the plans only minimally and contains an important factual error: the staff dining rooms were replaced by the takeaway and coffee-bar areas, not by a serving area. The original serving area was relabelled for hot meals. The overview also omits major changes, especially the outdoor seating and barbecue, and does not explain that the toilets and central seating remain. The final sentence is unfinished, leaving the comparison incomplete. The response is also 90 words below the required minimum, which severely limits the detail needed to summarise the plans.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: an opening sentence is followed by an overview and then a comparison of features. This gives the reader a starting point, but the progression is not completed because the final sentence stops at “nothing is”. The overview also groups changes together without clearly distinguishing what was added, removed or retained, and the inaccurate statement about the serving area makes the relationship between changes harder to follow. Develop a complete paragraph describing the main internal changes, then add a clear comparison of retained features and the new outdoor facilities. Use simple linking expressions such as “while,” “in addition,” and “by contrast” to make these relationships explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses some relevant vocabulary for describing a plan, including “architectural design,” “section,” “introduced” and “removed.” These terms show an attempt to describe changes rather than merely list labels. However, the range is limited, and several phrases are imprecise or awkward, such as “changes made in the architectural design of cafe” and “make room for Serving area.” The capitalisation of “Serving” is also inconsistent with its use as a general feature. More precise plan vocabulary—such as “converted into,” “retained,” “located along,” and “outdoor dining area”—would help distinguish the different changes. The short response also provides few opportunities to demonstrate a broader range of vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

You attempt a range of sentence purposes, including an opening statement, an overview and a comparison, but grammatical control is uneven. For example, “Overall cafe has been modernized” is missing an article before “cafe,” and “Hot meal section and salad bar is also introduced” has problems with articles and subject–verb agreement. The phrase “Kitchen, tables and chairs section in same as before” lacks a main verb and a necessary preposition, while “nothing is” leaves the sentence incomplete. Most of the response relies on short, simple structures, so there is little evidence of controlled complex sentences. Practise complete comparisons using forms such as “The kitchen remains unchanged, while the former staff rooms have been converted into…”.

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