Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-30

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 linear diagram illustrates the procces of formation of rain-shadow desert around the area of mountains.

Overall, The moist air from the coast is pushed upwards the mountains their it take form of cloud and ends with dry air reaching the inland areas and form rain-shadow desert.

The first stage of formation of desert, air approaching from the coast of sea is pushed upward the mountains. Furthermore, the moist air rises and cool down and take the form of clouds and beound reaching the tops of mountains the clouds become more and more full of water and rain starts to falls on the mountains.

Moreever, all the rain falls on mountains and only the dry air countinues over the mountains and reached the inland because of dry air the land start to convert in to dry land and as the times goes the land convert into desert which is know as rain-shadow desert.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response covers all key stages of the rain-shadow desert formation diagram, from the winds approaching the coast to the creation of the desert inland. An overview is attempted in the second paragraph, capturing the main trajectory of moist air turning into dry air over the mountains. However, some aspects of the process are slightly underdeveloped and the overview lacks precision regarding the geographical sequence. While the core features are reported correctly, the overall development sits comfortably at Band 6 as it addresses all parts of the task without fully elaborating every relationship shown in the process diagram.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement with an introductory sentence, an overview paragraph, and two body paragraphs detailing the stages. Paragraphing is used sufficiently. However, cohesive devices and transitions are sometimes mechanical or awkwardly deployed, such as 'Moreever' and repetitive sentence openings ('The first stage', 'Moreever, all the rain falls'). Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'their it take form' and 'beound reaching'. Progression is generally logical, but cohesion flaws prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'moist air', 'rain-shadow desert', and 'inland areas'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors, including 'procces', 'beound', 'countinues', 'reached' instead of reaching, and awkward phrasings like 'take form of cloud' and 'convert in to dry land'. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5 due to frequency and noticeable inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over clause structures (e.g., 'as the times goes the land convert into desert which is know as rain-shadow desert'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors such as subject-verb agreement issues ('clouds become', 'rain starts to falls', 'the land convert'), missing articles, and prepositions ('upwards the mountains their'). Control over punctuation and verb tense consistency is limited. These errors frequently cause difficulty for the reader.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.