Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-29
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The plans below show the layout of a university’s sports centre now, and how it will look after redevelopment.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 4.5)
The future plan includes some new things that are not there in the current one. It utilizes the space that was used for external courts to add a sports hall, dance studios, a leisure pool other than the original 25m pool, a sports shop, a cafe and two additional changing rooms effeciently utilizing the space that was preciously not utilized. The addition of a sports shop and a cafe is very good as it increases the business of the univeristy to maintain the quality of the sports hall, additionaly proving the students opputunity to rest in the cafe and buy any necessary things they might need from the sports hall itself instead of outside to make it more conveinient for them. The two extra changing rooms help alot as well to accomodate more people and to seperate changing rooms for boys and girls which makes them more comfortable. The dance studio is also a nice addition. The only thing that might be better in the present one is that it has outdoor courts which are removed in the updated design. Addition of a new leisure pool might not be good replacement for the outdoor court.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0
The student attempts to describe the changes shown in the plans, noting the addition of a sports hall, dance studios, a leisure pool, and other facilities. However, the response falls short of the requirements for Academic Task 1 in several key ways. Firstly, it lacks an overview, which is essential for a band 6 or above. Secondly, the student adopts an inappropriate style by including personal opinions and speculations (e.g., 'The addition of a sports shop and a cafe is very good as it increases the business...', 'which makes them more comfortable'). In Task 1, candidates must report and compare factual information objectively rather than evaluating the business acumen or psychological comfort of the changes. Furthermore, the overall structure is presented as a single dense paragraph, hindering clear reporting. Therefore, this falls under Band 4.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0
The text is written as one single block of text without paragraph breaks, making it difficult to follow the progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive (e.g., 'The addition of...', 'The two extra...'). Although there is a basic logical flow moving from new features to an evaluation of the changes, the lack of paragraphing and poor mechanical referencing (such as referencing vague ideas with pronouns) limit the coherence of the response. This performance aligns with Band 4 descriptors, where information and ideas are not arranged coherently or paragraphing is absent.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student demonstrates a basic vocabulary range relevant to the topic, using terms like 'sports hall', 'dance studios', 'leisure pool', and 'changing rooms'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-form errors throughout the text, including 'effeciently', 'preciously', 'additionaly', 'opputunity', 'conveinient', 'alot', and 'seperate'. These errors, combined with repetitive vocabulary patterns, restrict the lexical score to Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writing relies heavily on long, run-on sentences with multiple clauses strung together without adequate punctuation (e.g., the sentence starting with 'It utilizes the space...'). There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues and incorrect word choices in complex structures. While simple ideas are generally understandable, control over complex structures is weak and frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader, fitting the Band 5 criteria.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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