Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-29

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.

The plans below show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The two diagram illustrate the college cafe before and after redesign looks now.

Overall, before redesign the college cafe is very simple just two dining room and some tables and chairs and one toilet in south side.However after renovate the cafe added more reliable and looking good and provide outdoor seating.

First we talk before renovate the kitchen are too simple they have some little space for kitchen and inside the kitchen has minnor serving area and the cafe area are just two little room for staff and give some tables and chairs or one bin for waste material and no more facilities they are not enough for college staff.

Now after the renovation the cafe look totaly changed the kitchen are more luxurious inside kitchen one side for making for and the other side for hot meals. take away area are outside the kitchen and added one seperate space for coffee and the beneficalt point is provide outdoor space for eating and enjoying.Morever salad bar, Barbecue area also added in cafe area the staff feel happy.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main change from an indoor café with staff dining rooms to a redesigned space with additional food facilities and outdoor seating. The overview also notes that the café became better equipped, and you mention several relevant features, including the hot-meals counter, takeaway area, coffee bar, salad bar and barbecue. However, some details are inaccurate or unclear: the kitchen is described as having separate areas for making food and hot meals, which is not shown, and the staff dining rooms were replaced by takeaway and coffee-bar sections rather than remaining as rooms. The toilets remain in the same corner, and the outdoor seating is reached through new doors in the south wall; these useful comparisons are omitted. Develop the key changes more precisely and avoid unsupported evaluations such as saying staff feel happy or the café is luxurious.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction and overview are followed by a description of the original layout and then the redesigned café. This gives the reader a basic sense of progression, and phrases such as “Overall,” “First” and “Now” help signal the stages. However, the organisation within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow because several features are crowded into long sentences, with limited punctuation. For example, the final paragraph moves from the kitchen to takeaway food, coffee, outdoor seating, the salad bar and barbecue without clearly separating the changes. Grouping features by location or by what was added, removed and retained would make the comparisons easier to track. Some linking is also mechanical, but the overall arrangement remains coherent.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “redesign,” “serving area,” “tables and chairs,” “take away” and “outdoor seating,” so the reader can identify many of the facilities being described. However, the range and precision are limited, and several word choices or spellings make the description less clear. “More reliable” does not convey the intended improvement to the café, while “more luxurious” is an unsupported and imprecise description of the plan. There are also noticeable spelling errors such as “minnor,” “totaly” and “seperate,” alongside awkward phrases such as “making for.” Use accurate layout vocabulary and choose neutral terms such as “expanded,” “added” or “replaced” to report changes rather than evaluate them.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, and the response is generally understandable despite some grammatical errors. However, errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence boundaries are noticeable. For example, “The two diagram illustrate” needs a plural noun and verb, while “the kitchen are” and “the cafe look” show agreement problems. The opening phrase “before and after redesign looks now” is also not formed as a complete, accurate comparison. Several sentences run together, particularly the final paragraph, where full stops and capital letters are needed to separate ideas. Practise building accurate comparison sentences with consistent past and present forms, such as “The staff dining rooms were replaced by a takeaway area and a coffee bar.”

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