Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-26
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 demonstrate that one type of desert, known as a rain-shadow desert, is formed.
Firstly, I wanna tell about the rain-shadow desert formation. In the fisrt thing the lenght of the montain is many thousands of kilometres. It is a huge distance. In this second scenario the wind is approach coash from the upper surface of sea. Then, the winds pushed upwards through the mountain along with the windward side. After that, the air become moist, cool and also rises along the windward side. More ever, the clouds becomes creating in the sky. Then the rain falls down towards the surface of earth. Although the dry air contines over mountain along the leewardside. Other, the dry winds reach inland areas. They become a rain-shadow desert. Last but not the least I wanna say that the process of the formation of rain-shadow desert is very complicated also it is a nature process that the rain drops become to a dry air after the dry wind helps to make rain-shadow deserts.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The response attempts to cover the stages of rain-shadow desert formation shown in the diagram, beginning with the winds approaching the coast and ending with inland desert creation. However, the tone is entirely inappropriate for an Academic Task 1 response, relying on personal conversational phrases such as "I wanna tell about" and "Last but not the least I wanna say". Furthermore, there is no proper overview provided, and parts of the data are misinterpreted or overly colloquial. The horizontal scale representing thousands of kilometres is awkwardly integrated. Overall, the task is addressed only partially, as the formal conventions of academic reporting are ignored, aligning the response with Band 5 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The text suffers from poor organisation and a lack of appropriate paragraphing, being presented as a single unstructured block of text alongside the introductory sentence. While sequence markers like "Firstly", "Then", and "After that" are used, cohesive devices are often mechanical and repetitive. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as "In this second scenario" and "Other, the dry winds reach inland areas." There is no clear overall progression of ideas fitting an academic report, resulting in a disjointed structure that reflects Band 4-to-5 characteristics, earning a solid Band 5.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary is very basic and heavily restricted. The student attempts some topic-related terms from the diagram such as "moist", "cool", "clouds", and "rain-shadow desert", but these are undermined by severe conversational and non-academic language like "wanna" and "fisrt thing". There are also noticeable spelling and word choice errors, including "lenght", "montain", "coash", and "nature process" instead of "natural process". This range is minimally adequate for conveying basic ideas but causes significant friction, placing it firmly at Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5
Grammatical control is weak throughout the response. The student attempts some complex structures, but they are frequently faulty, such as "the diagram below demonstrate that one type... is formed" and "the clouds becomes creating in the sky". There are numerous basic errors involving verb forms, prepositions, and subject-verb agreement (e.g., "the wind is approach coash", "the air become moist"). Simple sentence forms dominate and errors are frequent, occasionally causing difficulty for the reader, which corresponds to Band 4.5 or 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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