Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-21

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 4.5)

The diagram illustrates the formation of rain - shadow deserts

Overall , the process involves several stages , beginning with the winds approaching coast through sea towards mountains . Then it pushed upwards to mountain and converting into moist air rises and gets cools .

The main stage beginning from here , the clouds beginning to form , after sometime Rain falls or starts and Dry air continues over mountain toward Leeward side into the inland .

Finally , Dry winds reach inland areas and continum to flow forward . This whole process covers thousands of kilometres

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response is severely under-length, containing only 97 words against the required 150-word minimum. This automatically caps the task achievement score. While the student attempts to trace the sequence of the rain-shadow desert formation from the winds approaching the coast to dry air reaching inland areas, the description is very brief, lacks data extension, and misses several key structural details shown in the diagram, such as the distinction between the windward and leeward sides of the mountain.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text is broken into very short, fragmented paragraphs of one or two sentences each, which fails to develop an appropriate paragraph structure for an academic report. There are basic attempts at logical sequencing using words like 'Overall', 'Then', and 'Finally', but overall progression is hindered by choppy sentence structures and mechanical transitions.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is quite basic and repetitive, with noticeable word choice errors and awkward phrasing such as 'converting into moist air rises and gets cools' and 'continum to flow forward'. While some subject-specific terms from the prompt are included (e.g., 'winds', 'moist air', 'clouds', 'rain-shadow deserts'), the range is limited and inadequate for a standard academic task.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The text displays a very limited range of sentence structures, consisting mostly of simple and attempted complex sentences that contain frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'Then it pushed upwards' (passive voice error), 'moist air rises and gets cools' (faulty verb coordination), and 'clouds beginning to form' (missing auxiliary verb). Punctuation errors, such as spaces before commas, are also present.

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

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