Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-25

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 6.0)

The given process diagram illustrates the stages involved in the formation of a rain-shadow desert. The process begins with winds approaching the coast and ends with the dry winds reaching inland areas.

Overall, the process follows a linear seven stage sequence, beginning with winds approaching coast from the sea area to ending with the dry winds reaching inland areas to in the desert to form rain-shadow desert. This entire process occurs over a thousand of kilometres.

Initially, winds are forced toward an upward direction from the sea level to the mountain peak. After that, on high altitude cool moisturized air is produce which helps to form the clouds. However, in the remaining steps, cloud continued to follow upward direction, and rain falls occurred on mountains after which, dry air continued to flow down from the mountain to the leeward side and reaches on the inland areas. As a result of this process, rain-shadow desert forms in inland region.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The student successfully covers all parts of the task by outlining the main stages of rain-shadow desert formation from the sea to inland areas over thousands of kilometres. The overview captures the linear seven-stage sequence and the spatial span, as seen in sentences like 'The process begins with winds approaching the coast and ends with the dry winds reaching inland areas.' Key features such as moist air cooling, cloud formation, precipitation on the windward side, and dry air descending on the leeward side are all reported accurately. The response meets all requirements for Academic Task 1 without any major omissions, earning a solid band score.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is logically organised into three distinct paragraphs, moving from an introductory statement to an overview, and finally to the detailed body paragraph. Cohesive devices and sequence markers such as 'Overall', 'Initially', 'After that', and 'As a result of this process' are used to guide the reader through the stages. However, some minor awkwardness in referencing occurs, such as 'to ending with the dry winds reaching inland areas to in the desert to form rain-shadow desert', which slightly disrupts the flow. Paragraphing is used appropriately overall.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range suitable for describing a scientific process, incorporating terms like 'process diagram', 'moisturized air', 'leeward side', and 'inland region'. However, there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and awkward word choices, such as 'moisturized air' instead of 'moist air', 'cloud continued' (singular/plural mismatch), and some redundant phrasing in the overview. While communication is not impeded, these frequent minor errors prevent the lexical score from reaching higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and prepositional phrases (e.g., 'The process begins with winds approaching the coast and ends with the dry winds reaching inland areas'). However, grammatical control is inconsistent, featuring errors such as 'cool moisturized air is produce' (tense/agreement error), 'thousands of a kilometres' (article error), and clunky phrasing like 'on high altitude cool moisturized air is produce which helps to form the clouds'. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader.

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

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