Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The diagram below shows how one type of desert, known as a rain-shadow desert, is formed.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The formation of rain-shadow deserts

Student answer (Band 5.0)

The diagram below illustrates how a type of desert known as rain-shadow deserts is formed.

Rain-shadow deserts goes through seven processes and travels thousands of kilometres starting from sea to the mountains and the inland of the desert.

The process starts on the sea as the wind approaches the coast and the mountain, the wind pushed upward and travels through the left side of the mountain called the Windward side. Thirdly, the moist air rises and cool as it hits the windward side of the mountain. As the air evaporates the clouds started to form which then evolves to rain falls. As the rain kept pouring, the sixth process would be the dry air separate from the rain cloud then continues to travel over the mountain and falls through right side of it which called the Leeward side, where as the wind reaches the inland area, and formed the rain-shadow desert.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student attempts to summarise the diagram illustrating the formation of a rain-shadow desert, identifying key stages such as the wind approaching the coast, rising over the windward side, cooling to form clouds, and precipitation occurring before the dry air moves over to the leeward side. However, the overview is rather mechanical, relying heavily on sequential listing ('Thirdly', 'sixth process') rather than synthesizing the main trends or overall mechanism effectively. Furthermore, some details lack clarity or precision, such as 'the dry air separate from the rain cloud'. Nevertheless, all parts of the diagram are touched upon, satisfying the core requirements of Task 1 by reporting the main features.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The response is organized as an introduction followed by a single, very dense paragraph that attempts to link all seven processes together. Progression is difficult to follow due to run-on sentences and a lack of clear segmentation. Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or inaccurately, such as starting a sentence with 'Thirdly,' without prior listing markers for 'Firstly' or 'Secondly', and transitions like 'where as the wind reaches' disrupt the logical flow. Paragraphing is insufficient, as the entire body of the process is compressed into one monolithic block of text.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate to convey the basic subject matter, incorporating topic-specific terms like 'windward side', 'leeward side', 'moist air', and 'inland area'. However, the range is limited, and there are noticeable lexical and word-choice errors that detract from the quality, such as 'rain falls' instead of rainfall, 'air evaporates the clouds started to form' (misuse of evaporation), and awkward phrasing like 'dry air separate'. While communication is not entirely blocked, the inaccuracies in word choice place this firmly in the Band 5 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The text displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, heavily relying on simple or poorly connected compound-complex sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('Rain-shadow deserts goes', 'the wind pushed upward'), tense inconsistencies ('goes', 'travels', 'pushed', 'cool', 'started'), and missing prepositions or incorrect clause connectors ('which then evolves to rain falls', 'which called the Leeward side'). These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a weak control of grammatical accuracy.

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