Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-11-14

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 5.5)

The table informs the underground railway systems in six big cities around the world in terms of date opened, kilometers of route, and passangers per year. The cities located in Europe, Japan, and the US.

From Europe, underground railway systems had been established a long time ago. The oldest one, London, opened in 1863 and had 394 kilometers of route with 775 millions of passangers per year. The most crowded one in Europe, Paris had 1.191 billions passangers per year with only 199 kilometers of route and established its underground railway in 1900.

Meanwhile, Tokyo had the most crowded passangers per year across those cities, while Kyoto became the least crowded one, respectively 1.927 billions and 45 millions passangers. Both of them established the underground railways in 1927 and 198, respectively. In fact, Kyoto had the shortest route of 11 kilometers only.

Move to other region, the US has Washington DC and Los Angeles underground railways. Both of them opened in 1976 and 2001, respectively. They had 144 and 50 passengers per year each.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the table’s subject and report several important comparisons, including London as the oldest and longest system, Tokyo as the busiest, and Kyoto as having the shortest route. However, the summary addresses the data only partially: Los Angeles’s route length and passenger figure are omitted, and Washington DC’s route length is not reported. The overview is also not clearly stated, so the reader has to infer the main patterns from the details. Some figures are inaccurate or confusing: Tokyo opened in 1927, but the response gives Kyoto’s opening year as “198,” and the passenger totals are expressed as billions rather than millions. Include all key categories accurately and add a concise overview of the oldest/largest and busiest/smallest systems.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a generally coherent arrangement, moving from European systems to Japan and then the United States. Paragraph breaks help separate these groups, and transitions such as “Meanwhile” and “In fact” show some awareness of how to connect information. However, the progression is not fully controlled: the Japan paragraph combines passenger comparisons, opening dates, and route length without a clear organising pattern, while the final paragraph gives only limited information. “Respectively” is used where the paired figures and cities are not entirely clear, and “Move to other region” is an awkward transition. Group the data consistently—for example, by age and scale, then passenger use—and use clear references to make each comparison easy to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for describing a table, including “oldest,” “shortest route,” “established,” and “passengers per year.” This gives the response an adequate range for the task, and the main meaning is usually understandable. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or repetitive. “The table informs the underground railway systems” is not natural; “provides information about” would be clearer. “Most crowded” is not the best description of annual passenger totals; use “busiest” or “carried the most passengers.” There are also spelling and number-format issues, including “passangers” and “1.191 billions.” Use “passengers” consistently and report the figures in millions as shown in the table.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response includes both simple statements and some attempts at more complex structures, such as “while Kyoto became the least crowded one” and “The oldest one, London, opened in 1863.” Most sentences communicate the intended comparisons, but some grammatical errors remain and occasionally make relationships unclear. “The cities located in Europe, Japan, and the US” is a sentence fragment because it has no finite verb. In “Both of them established the underground railways in 1927 and 198,” the subject-verb construction is unsuitable for describing when systems opened; use “Their systems opened in…” The sentence beginning “Move to other region” also lacks a grammatical subject and needs an article. Practise complete sentence structures and check verb forms, articles, and punctuation.

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