Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The take below gives information about the underground railway systems in six cities.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Underground Railway Systems

City	Date opened	Kilometers of route	Passengers per year (in millions)
London	1863	394	775
Paris	1900	199	1191
Tokyo	1927	155	1927
Washington DC	1976	126	144
Kyoto	1981	11	45
Los Angeles	2001	28	50

Student answer (Band 5.0)

The given table gives data about six different cities underground railway system

Overall,the highest number of passengers are in tokyo that travelled by underground railway systems and the lowest in kyoto and all travelled between the years from 1863 to till 2001 while the highest long route is of london about 394.

A detailed study of the table ellaborates that in London 775 passengers covers the distance of 394 kilometres by underground trains during the year 1863 while in paris the route distance is less of about 199 kilometres and about 1191 passsengers travelled by

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You identify some relevant headline features: Tokyo has the most passengers, Kyoto the fewest, and London the longest route. However, the report is incomplete and addresses the table only minimally: it stops partway through the London–Paris comparison and gives no account of Tokyo’s route, Washington DC, Kyoto’s route, or Los Angeles. The overview also says “all travelled” between 1863 and 2001, which is unclear because the dates refer to when the systems opened. The response is 55 words below the required minimum, leaving too little space to summarise and compare the main data. To improve, cover all six cities, accurately compare the opening dates, route lengths and passenger figures, and finish the report.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: an opening sentence is followed by an overview and then a detail paragraph. The overview signals the main comparisons, but the final paragraph breaks off after “passengers travelled by,” so the progression is incomplete and the reader cannot follow the intended comparison. Some linking is present through “while,” but the relationships between the figures are not consistently expressed. The opening and overview also run together with little punctuation, making the paragraph boundaries less clear. Use separate, complete paragraphs for the introduction, overview and grouped details, and connect comparisons explicitly—for example, contrast the older, longer systems with the newer, shorter ones.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses some task-relevant vocabulary, including “passengers,” “route,” “distance” and “kilometres,” and the main comparisons are generally understandable. However, the range is limited and several choices or forms are inaccurate: “the highest long route” is not a natural way to describe the largest network, while “passengers covers the distance” does not clearly express annual passenger numbers. There are also spelling errors such as “ellaborates” and “passsengers,” which reduce accuracy. Aim for precise table-reporting language and check spelling. Useful alternatives include “the longest route,” “carried 775 million passengers annually,” and “the smallest network.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and a longer comparison, but the range is limited and errors are frequent enough to make some sentences awkward or unclear. For example, “six different cities underground railway system” lacks a possessive form and plural agreement; “the highest number of passengers are in tokyo” has an awkward subject–verb construction; and “775 passengers covers” has incorrect agreement and tense. The final sentence is also unfinished, so its grammatical structure cannot be completed. Punctuation is inconsistent, as in “Overall,the,” and sentence boundaries are not always clear. Practise complete, controlled sentences such as “Tokyo’s system carried 1,927 million passengers annually, the highest figure in the table.”

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