Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-07-24

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 6.0)

In this statistics table we can see that information is given underground railway systems in six cities. About the first journey begin and passengers per year. In this table we can see that London city has the most oldest underground railway systems among other cities. It begins journey in 1863 and cover 394 KM underground route carry 775 millions passengers in a single year. And the youngest city who build the underground railway systems is Los angeles in year 2001 it cover only 28 km route in underground and carry 50 millions passengers in a year. Kyoto has 2nd younger city who built on 1981 but this is the smallest underground railway route than other cities. It covers only 11 km and carry 45 million passengers in a year. The second oldest system has in Paris the city of dream, Third oldest is Tokyo which opened in 1927 and it covers 155 km route. Highest number of passengers are used underground railway system than other cities. The number is 1927 million per year. Then Washington DC it is not so old compared to others and also covered a huge number of route and carry 144 million passengers in a single year.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers all the required data points, including dates, route lengths, and passenger numbers. However, the presentation is somewhat disorganized. While you identify the oldest and youngest systems, the comparison between cities is inconsistent. You mention Tokyo's high passenger numbers but fail to explicitly compare them to the other cities in a structured way. To improve, you should group the data more logically—perhaps by age or by scale—rather than listing cities one by one. The overview is also missing; a summary should highlight the most significant trends, such as the inverse relationship between the age of the system and the number of passengers in some cases.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response lacks paragraphing, which makes it difficult to follow. The flow of ideas is somewhat repetitive, relying on simple connectors like 'and' or 'then'. There is a lack of sophisticated cohesive devices to link comparisons between the cities. For example, instead of starting new sentences with 'And' or 'Then', you could use comparative structures like 'In contrast to London, Paris...' or 'While Kyoto is relatively new, it possesses the smallest network.' Improving the use of transition words and organizing the information into distinct paragraphs (e.g., an introduction, a body paragraph for older systems, and one for newer systems) would significantly improve the coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but remains quite basic. You use phrases like 'most oldest' (which is grammatically incorrect) and 'city of dream', which is not appropriate for an academic report. There is some repetition of words like 'carry' and 'route'. To reach a higher band, you should use more precise terminology such as 'commenced operations', 'extensive network', 'annual ridership', or 'surpassed'. The current range is limited, and the word choice occasionally feels informal or imprecise, which hinders the professional tone required for an Academic Task 1 report.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that occasionally impede clarity. Examples include 'most oldest' (superlative error), 'It begins journey' (missing article/tense issue), 'youngest city who build' (relative pronoun error), and 'Highest number of passengers are used' (passive voice misuse). The sentence structures are mostly simple, with limited attempts at complex sentences. You need to focus on subject-verb agreement, correct article usage, and consistent verb tenses. Many sentences are fragmented or lack the necessary structure to be considered complex, which keeps the score in the lower range.

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