Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-21

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 4.0)

It tells about that rain is formed .First from the sea wind comes and brings the water with it.Wind moves upward and getting cool and clouds also form and in those clouds there is moist air.Moist air contains vapours and then these vapours come on earth as rain drops.But there is also a air which is dry and moves downward from mountain .Then this air reaches island areas.In this way process continues.From the inland areas air goes to exactly to mountains and at thar time the air was hot but when it goes to top of the mountainand then goes down towards seas it goes to the top of sea gets vapours and then goes back to upperside.In this way air goes upward and there are clouds which have made get these vapours to form the rain .Then these drops come on earth and become part of earthand rain comes.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response identifies a few relevant stages, including wind coming from the sea, rising and cooling, cloud formation, rainfall, and dry air moving inland. However, it does not give a clear overview of the process or accurately explain its main direction and outcome. The later account reverses the sequence, claiming that inland air returns to the mountains and then moves towards the sea, repeatedly forming rain. This conflicts with the diagram, where moist coastal air rises over the windward side, loses rain, and dry air crosses the mountains to create a rain-shadow desert inland. The desert itself is not clearly described. Focus on the complete one-way sequence and summarise how the mountain creates a dry inland area.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 3.5

There is an attempt to present events in sequence, using phrases such as “First” and “Then,” and the opening moves from sea winds to clouds and rain. However, the response lacks clear paragraphing and a stable progression: after describing dry air reaching inland areas, it returns to the mountains and sea, then repeats the earlier cloud-and-rain stages. This makes the explanation difficult to follow and obscures the process’s endpoint. Some links, such as “In this way process continues,” do not clarify how one stage leads to the next. Organise the account into a brief overview followed by the stages in diagram order, and use clear references to distinguish moist air from dry air.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The response uses some relevant basic terms, including “sea,” “wind,” “clouds,” “moist air,” “vapours,” and “rain drops,” so the general subject is recognisable. However, vocabulary is repetitive and often imprecise for describing a scientific process. For example, “island areas” does not accurately name the inland region, while “air reaches island areas” and “gets vapours” are unclear descriptions of the diagram. The repeated use of “goes” and “comes” also limits precision. Build a small set of accurate process terms, such as “coastal winds,” “rise,” “cool,” “precipitation,” “leeward side,” and “rain-shadow desert,” and use them consistently.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts to connect stages in longer sentences, for example, “Wind moves upward and getting cool and clouds also form,” but control of sentence structure is weak. Verb forms are often inconsistent or incomplete (“moves upward and getting cool”), and articles and agreement are unreliable (“there is also a air”). Several sentences run together without effective punctuation, making relationships between ideas unclear; the long passage beginning “Then this air reaches island areas” is especially difficult to parse. The range is mostly simple clauses joined with “and,” “then,” or “but,” with little accurate subordination. Practise writing short, complete process sentences first, checking subject–verb agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence boundaries before combining stages.

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