Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-28

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 6.0)

The plans illustrate how the cafe used to look before redesign and how it is looking now. It is quite obvious that the contribution of expansion of cafe area has made the most prominent difference.

Hot meals, take away food, coffee bar, salad bar, recycling bins, barbecue, outdoor seating are new additon to the redesigned cafe. However, Staff dinign rooms, serving area have been removed in the new cafe. Kitchen and toilets are the only places that have not chnaged in the designing process.

The old cafe had normal bins but the new one has recycling bins. The staff dinign rooms have been converted into take away food and coffee bar. Also a salad bar is established in an empty area of the cafe.

The expanded area of the cafe has barbecue corner and outdoor seating. Now, there is seating area outside and inside the cafe. And two new doors have been attached to move to the outside area of the cafe.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You identify the main transformation clearly: the café has gained new food and drink facilities and outdoor seating, while the kitchen and toilets remain. You also accurately note that the former staff dining rooms became the takeaway and coffee-bar sections, and that the bin was replaced by recycling bins. These relevant comparisons support a clear overview. To make the account more fully developed, report the hot-meal counter as a change from the former serving area, and describe the new outdoor arrangement more precisely, including the four tables and the barbecue’s position beside the seating. The claim that the café area has expanded is broadly supported by the outdoor seating, but specifying that this is an external addition would avoid suggesting the indoor floor area itself expanded.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is arranged in a sensible sequence: an introduction and overview are followed by changes inside the café and then the outdoor additions. Linking words such as “However” and “Also” help show contrast and addition, and the main comparisons are generally easy to follow. Some connections are nevertheless mechanical or unclear. For example, the long list of new features in the second paragraph is not grouped by location, and “Now, there is seating area outside and inside the cafe” repeats information without adding a clear comparison. The final sentence’s “outside area of the cafe” could also be more precisely linked to the new southern doors. Grouping changes by area and using clearer references would make progression smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a relevant range of task vocabulary, including “redesigned,” “converted,” “recycling bins,” “outdoor seating,” and “barbecue,” which allows the reader to understand the main changes. There are also attempts at more descriptive phrasing, such as “the most prominent difference.” However, several word-choice and spelling problems reduce precision: “contribution of expansion” is an unnatural way to describe the change, “new additon” contains a spelling error, and “normal bins” is less precise than “a general-waste bin.” “Established in an empty area” is also an awkward collocation for a facility being added. Aim for concise, conventional map-description language and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use both simple statements and some more complex forms, including the contrast introduced by “However” and the relative clause in “the only places that have not changed.” Most meanings remain understandable, but grammatical control is uneven. The opening phrase “the contribution of expansion of cafe area has made” has an awkward and unclear structure; “the café area has expanded” would be more direct. In “there is seating area,” the singular count noun needs an article, and “two new doors have been attached to move to the outside area” uses an unclear construction for describing access. Tense choices also shift between “used to look” and “is looking now.” Use consistent present and past forms when comparing the plans, and check articles and sentence construction.

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