Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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.

Student answer (Band 5.0)

The map highlights changes in college canteene before and how it looks after renovation.

Overall, the outdoor sitting area and samll place for barbecue is included in new design and inside of the cafe, staff dinning rooms are replaced with take away and coffee bar, added salad bar, and hot meals room take place of seriving area.

Before only inside sitting faciliy was available and two staff dinning rooms was located north side of the cafe,on the left there was serving area for all food and drink.

After resdsign the cafe, the main door is installed on the south side, small

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify several important changes, including the new outdoor seating and barbecue, the replacement of the staff dining rooms, and the addition of a salad bar. However, the report addresses the plans only partially: it ends mid-sentence after “small”, so the current layout is not fully described, and there is no complete comparison of the main features. The overview is also difficult to follow, while some details are inaccurate: the serving area is described as being on the left, although it is beside the kitchen, and the new main door is said to be on the south side, where the plans show doors leading to outdoor seating. The response is also below the required 150 words. Develop the comparison and accurately report the key locations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is a basic attempt to organise the response with an opening, an overview, and paragraphs beginning “Before” and “After”. This gives the reader some sense of a before-and-after comparison. However, the progression is incomplete because the final paragraph stops after “small”, leaving the description unfinished. The overview also combines several changes in a long, loosely connected sentence, and the transition from the overview to the details is not developed. Use separate, complete paragraphs for the overview and each plan, and connect related changes with clear references such as “whereas” or “in addition”. This would make the comparison easier to follow and reduce the impression of disconnected points.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for describing a plan, including “renovation”, “outdoor sitting area”, “barbecue”, “take away” and “salad bar”. These terms show awareness of the task’s subject. However, spelling errors and imprecise word choices are frequent enough to distract: examples include “canteene”, “samll”, “dinning”, “resdsign” and “seriving”. Some phrases are also unnatural or unclear, such as “small place for barbecue” and “hot meals room take place of seriving area”. Use the labels from the plan accurately and choose standard collocations, for example “outdoor seating area” and “the hot-meal counter replaced the serving area”. Careful proofreading would make your vocabulary more precise and easier to understand.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

You attempt an overview and use some sentence structures beyond simple statements, but grammatical control is limited and errors occur frequently. For example, “two staff dinning rooms was located” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “the outdoor sitting area and samll place for barbecue is included” has a plural subject with a singular verb. Articles and sentence construction are also problematic in “hot meals room take place of seriving area”. The final sentence is incomplete, ending with “small”, which prevents the reader from understanding the intended point. Focus on writing complete sentences with clear subjects and verbs, checking agreement and articles, and using past and present forms consistently when comparing the two plans.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.