Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-07-27

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 table depict the information about the underground railways systems in six different cities between 1863 and 2001.

Overall, In large cities like in Paris and Tokyo the number of passengers per year, measured in millions was considerably high while, in underdeveloped cities Kyoto and Los Angles the number of passengers were lowest in past.

To begin with, new underground railway station was opened in London during 1863 and was able to travel around 394 kilometers with carrying 775 million passengers per year. Additionally, Paris constructed railway station in 1900 to help more than 1190 million travellers with covering 199 km. However, as in 1981 only 45 million people were travelling through underground trains with covering 11 Km.

On the other hand, in Washington DC manufacturing of railway station was completed and it was opened for public in 1976 helping 144 million passengers per year while covering 126 KM. Moreover, In Tokyo 155 km of route was covered with the help of new underground railway systems in [redacted phone] million passengers per year used this service. Furthermore, only in 2001 Los Angles built underground station to cover 28 Km and helping 50 million people to travel per year.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response covers all the requirements of the task by identifying the main features and making relevant comparisons. You have successfully selected data for all six cities and highlighted key trends, such as the contrast between older, larger systems and newer, smaller ones. However, the overview is slightly flawed by the use of the term 'underdeveloped' to describe cities like Kyoto and Los Angeles, which is factually inaccurate in this context and represents a misinterpretation of the data. To reach a higher band, ensure your overview focuses purely on the trends shown in the table (e.g., age vs. usage) rather than making external assumptions about the cities themselves.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs. You use some cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Additionally', 'However', and 'On the other hand' to link ideas. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally unclear. For instance, the transition between the discussion of London and Paris is abrupt. To improve, focus on grouping the cities more logically—perhaps by comparing the oldest systems with the newest ones—to create a more fluid narrative flow throughout the report.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'underground railway systems', 'passengers per year', and 'route'. There are some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'manufacturing of railway station' (which should be 'construction of the railway system') and 'underdeveloped cities'. These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit the precision of your report. To improve, try to use more varied collocations related to data reporting, such as 'the figures for', 'a significant proportion', or 'the oldest system dates back to'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'The table depict' (subject-verb agreement), 'in past' (missing article), and 'with covering 11 Km' (awkward phrasing). Additionally, there is a confusing repetition of '1927' in the Tokyo section. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the data, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency. Focus on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and ensuring that your prepositions and articles are used correctly in descriptive writing.

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