Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-30

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 4.0)

The maps illustrates how cafe changed from past to present. Overall, serving area changed to hot meals. One noticeably thing had experienced in outside cafe that had plenty of seats.

Staff dining rooms changed into take away food and coffee bar.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

You identify two genuine changes: the serving counter is now for hot meals, and the former staff dining rooms have become a takeaway-food area and coffee bar. However, the response covers only a small part of the plans and gives no clear account of other major changes, especially the salad bar, recycling bins, and new outdoor seating with a barbecue. The overview is also too limited to summarise the overall redesign, and “plenty of seats” is vague rather than a precise comparison. The response is substantially below the required 150 words, which leaves the key features undeveloped. To improve, describe the main changes inside and outside the café and compare what stayed the same, such as the kitchen, central tables and chairs, and toilets.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The ideas are presented in a basic, understandable order: you begin with a general statement, then mention the serving area and outdoor seating, and finish with the former staff rooms. The word “Overall” signals an attempt to provide an overview, while “and” links the two new facilities. However, the response is too brief to establish a clear progression through the plans, and the points are not grouped or developed in a way that guides the reader around the café. The reference to “outside cafe” also appears abruptly, without explaining what was added. Organise the report into an overview followed by details of internal changes and then the outdoor additions, using clear location-based links such as “along the western wall” and “to the south.”

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for describing a plan, including “serving area,” “hot meals,” “staff dining rooms,” “take away food,” and “coffee bar.” These terms show that you can identify several labelled features. However, the range is narrow, and some wording is imprecise or unnatural: “One noticeably thing” does not express the change clearly, while “plenty of seats” is vague and does not accurately describe the outdoor tables and chairs. “Cafe” is also repeated without much variation. Build a wider set of plan-description terms, such as “was replaced by,” “was added,” “remained,” “counter,” and “outdoor seating,” and use them to report specific features rather than general impressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response includes a few short sentence forms and attempts an overview, so the basic message can be followed. However, grammatical control is uneven. In “The maps illustrates,” the plural subject requires “illustrate,” and “how cafe changed” needs an article and a more suitable tense, such as “how the café has changed.” The phrase “One noticeably thing had experienced” is not a well-formed sentence: the adjective form and verb construction are both problematic. The final sentence, “Staff dining rooms changed into take away food and coffee bar,” also needs articles and a passive structure, for example, “The staff dining rooms were replaced by a takeaway-food area and a coffee bar.” Practise accurate past passive forms and complete sentence patterns.

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