Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-28

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 5.5)

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

Overall, it can be seen that the process of developing the rain-shadow desert starts from the sea, travel to the mountain completing its 7-steps process and ends with Inland. The mountain has overall thousand kilometres width starting from coast ending Inland.

At the start of the period, winds approaches the coast from the sea towards the mountain and pushed its self upwards. Then, moist air rises and cools towards the windward side of the mountain. After that, it forms clouds and those clouds burst into a rain or ice. Moving forward, the dry air continues over the mountain by a leeward side and at last dry winds reach inland areas.

During this process, the winds start from sea, goes up to the summit and travels down in the form of dry winds inland.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student covers the main stages of the rain-shadow desert formation, identifying the 7-step process from the sea to inland areas. However, there is a minor omission regarding the precise spatial relationships (such as failing to clearly define the leeward side in relation to the rain-shadow desert), and the overview is slightly simplistic. Furthermore, the response falls just short of the 150-word minimum, containing 148 words. This slight under-length penalty prevents the response from achieving a higher score, placing it firmly at Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text is arranged coherently with a clear introduction, body paragraph, and summary. Cohesive devices such as 'At the start of the period', 'Then', 'After that', and 'Moving forward' are used to guide the reader through the sequential process, although some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive ('At the start', 'During this process'). Paragraphing is functional, grouping the overview, main body stages, and final summary logically. Overall organisation is clear and progression is maintained throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing a geographical process, using terms such as 'moist air', 'windward side', 'leeward side', and 'dry winds'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'travel to the mountain completing its 7-steps process' (instead of 'travels across the mountain') and 'winds... pushed its self upwards' (grammatical error and awkward collocation). Spelling is generally accurate, but the lexical control is limited to Band 6 due to these unnatural phrasings.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'The diagram illustrates how one type of desert, known as a rain-shadow desert is formed' and 'After that, it forms clouds and those clouds burst into a rain or ice.' There are several grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('winds approaches', 'travels... and ends', 'winds... pushed its self'), missing articles ('into a rain or ice'), and word form errors. Despite these inaccuracies, communication is not impeded, fitting the Band 6 profile.

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

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