Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-07-26

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 6.5)

The given table depicts the information about the underground railway systems in several cities like London, Paris, Tokyo, Washington DC, Kyoto, and Los Angeles, measured in kilometers.

To begin with, London's underground railway system established in 1863 with the highest number of routes in kilometers around 394 km and passengers per year reaching around 775 millions. Secondly, Paris's underground railway system emerged in 1900, with 199 kilometers of route and 1191 million passengers per year. Whereas, Tokyo's underground railway system started in 1927, reaching up to 155 kilometers of route and with excessive passengers per year of 1927 millions. Parallelly, in case of Washington DC whose head start was in 1976, had approximately 126 kilometers of route and 144 million passengers per year. Conversley, in Kyoto which opened in 1981 has the least number of route in kilometers of 11km and total of 45 million number of passengers per year. Additonally, Los Angeles that tend to start in 2001, has second least number of route in kilometers of 28km and 50 million passengers per year.

Overall, all of six cities has major changes in there routes, passengers and other factors, from the year it inaugurated its underground railway systems

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response covers all the data points provided in the table, which is a positive aspect. However, the summary lacks a clear analytical focus. While you have listed the data for each city, you have not effectively grouped or compared them to highlight key trends, such as the relationship between the age of the system and its size or usage. The overview provided at the end is vague and does not accurately reflect the data, as it mentions 'major changes' which are not supported by the static data provided. To improve, focus on identifying the oldest/newest systems and the highest/lowest performers in terms of passenger numbers and route length.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the information. You have used some cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Secondly', 'Whereas', and 'Conversely'. However, some of these transitions are used mechanically or slightly incorrectly, such as 'Parallelly' and 'Conversley'. The referencing is generally clear, but the flow between sentences is somewhat repetitive, as each sentence follows a similar structure of listing data for a specific city. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring they are used naturally would enhance the overall coherence of the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. You rely heavily on repetitive phrasing such as 'underground railway system' and 'number of route in kilometers'. There are also some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'excessive passengers' (which implies too many, rather than a high number) and 'head start' (which is informal and not appropriate for this context). To reach a higher band, try to use more precise synonyms for 'number of' or 'started' and avoid repeating the same phrases throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text. For example, 'London's underground railway system established in 1863' is missing a verb (should be 'was established'), and 'all of six cities has' should be 'all six cities have'. Additionally, there are issues with article usage and prepositional phrases, such as 'in case of Washington DC'. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the data, they are frequent enough to limit the score. Focus on subject-verb agreement and ensuring every sentence has a clear main verb.

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