Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-03

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 5.5)

The plans illustrate a college cafe how it was before redesign and how it looks at present.Overall,the redesign makes significant changes including a hot meals section, a salad bar, a coffee bar and a take away food section.Whereas,the staff dinings rooms have been removed to make space for the changes.

Before redesigning the cafe, there was a general food corner opposite of the kitchen. Furthermore, tables and chairs were set to sit in the center below the staff dining rooms.In addition,there were also a bin and toilets, in the southeast corner.

After the redeisn, a significant change are happen.where the food serving converted to a hot meals section.however staff dining rooms were converted to a take away food section and a coffe ba

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main purpose of the redesign and several important changes, including the hot-meals section, salad bar, coffee bar and takeaway area. You also note that the staff dining rooms were removed. However, the report is incomplete: it stops while describing the new layout and does not cover key features such as the outdoor seating, barbecue, recycling bins, or the fact that the toilets and central seating remain. Some details are imprecise, for example, the original serving area is described as a “general food corner.” The response also falls short of the required 150 words, limiting the detail and comparisons provided. Develop a complete overview and report the main changes across both plans.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is a basic attempt to organise the response into an introduction/overview and descriptions of the original and redesigned café. This gives the reader a general sense of the comparison, and linking expressions such as “Furthermore” and “In addition” are used. However, progression is weakened because the final paragraph ends mid-description (“a coffe ba”), leaving the present-day plan unfinished. Some connectors are awkward or incorrectly used: “Whereas” begins a fragment, and “however” does not clearly connect the ideas around it. The description would be easier to follow if each paragraph covered a complete stage and moved systematically through the layout, with clear comparisons between features that changed and those that stayed the same.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses some relevant vocabulary for describing a plan, including “redesign,” “center,” “converted,” and “section,” and it communicates several changes. However, the range is limited and some choices are imprecise or unnatural, such as “general food corner” for the original serving area and “staff dinings rooms.” There are also noticeable spelling errors, including “redeisn” and “coffe,” and the final phrase is cut off. Use the labels shown in the plans where possible, such as “serving area,” “takeaway food,” and “recycling bins,” and vary verbs with accurate options such as “remained,” “was replaced by,” and “was added.” More precise vocabulary would make the comparisons clearer.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt to combine ideas using subordinate clauses and linking words, but the sentence structures are often faulty, which can make the description difficult to follow. For example, “The plans illustrate a college cafe how it was before redesign” has an incorrect clause structure, while “a significant change are happen” contains errors in agreement and verb form. “Whereas, the staff dinings rooms…” is not a complete sentence, and “After the redeisn…where the food serving converted…” is also fragmented and lacks a correctly formed verb phrase. Punctuation and spacing are inconsistent, with missing spaces after full stops. Practise accurate simple past and present forms, and build complete sentences before attempting longer comparisons.

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