Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-06

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 the formation of the rain-shadow deserts by 7 stages starting from the how winds approach the and coast that converts into the rain drops and then how those air winds reach the inlands area of a deserts,

In initial stage, the process gave the idea how the winds from a sea approach the downward area of mountains and then the winds pushed towards the upper-part of the mountain. Afterwards, the moisture through the sea water rose from the windward side to form clouds.

Subsequently, the moisture air filled with water drop cools down and then the clouds came in existence. The clouds flew on the top of the mountain that resulted into heavy rain falls through evaporation process.

In the last stage, after rainfall the dry air that continued over the mountain leeward side flow downward that connected to the inland area. The dry air reached to the end point that results in the existence of the rain- shadow deserts.

overall, the diagram shows how creation of the deserts through the evaporation comes into existence. The distance that the moisture and a dry air covers is thousands of kilometres.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the main features of the diagram, outlining the seven stages of rain-shadow desert formation from the winds approaching the coast to the creation of the desert inland. However, some parts of the task are only partially or unclearly explained, leading to under-developed ideas. For instance, the transition from moist air rising to cloud formation lacks clear mechanical explanation, and phrases like 'evaporation process' misinterpret the precipitation stage depicted in the visual data. The overview at the end captures the general process and the distance scale of thousands of kilometres, but overall the development remains somewhat limited.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

There is a coherent overall arrangement, with the text broken into paragraphs that follow the chronological stages of the diagram. Logical sequencing is present, starting with an introduction, moving through initial and subsequent stages, and concluding with an overview. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. The use of transitional markers like 'In initial stage', 'Subsequently', and 'In the last stage' attempts to guide the reader, but referencing is occasionally unclear, and some sentences feel disjointed due to awkward linking phrases and repetitive sentence structures.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to describe natural processes, but the range is limited. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'rain drops', 'the inlands area', 'moisture air', and 'heavy rain falls through evaporation process'. Furthermore, minor spelling and word-form slips occur throughout, such as 'rain- shadow' with an unnecessary space. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occasionally cause difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing displays a limited range of sentence structures, with frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that can cause difficulty for the reader. There are persistent issues with articles, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions inside grammatical patterns, as seen in expressions like 'starting from the how winds approach the and coast', 'from a sea approach the downward area', and 'the clouds came in existence'. Attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty, leading to tangled phrasing and awkward syntactic combinations throughout the response.

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