Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-08-30

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)

The table provides information regarding underground railway systems in London, Paris,Tokyo, Washington DC, Kyoto and Los Angeles.

Overall, London Railway system was one of the oldest and expended, in terms of kilometers of route. While Tokyo had the highest commuters per year and Kyoto had the lowest passengers per year.

London was one of the oldest underground railway system opened in 1863 and covered 394 km of area, however accounted 775 million passengers per year. In contrast, Kyoto covered the lowest area and passengers, 126km and 25 millions respectively, followed by, Los Angeles underground railways was opened recently in 2001, covered just 28km and had 50 millions commuters per year.

On the other hand, Tokyo had the highest passengers, 1927 millions and expanded on 155km, similarly, Paris was the second highest commuters per year accounted 1191 millions and covered the second highest area 199km after London. Washington DC had 126 km route and 144 millions people who took railways.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all the requirements of the task by summarizing the main features and making relevant comparisons. You have successfully identified the oldest system (London), the busiest (Tokyo), and the most recent (Los Angeles). However, there are significant factual inaccuracies in your data reporting. For example, you state Kyoto has 126km of route, but the table shows this figure belongs to Washington DC. Additionally, you mention Kyoto has 25 million passengers, while the table states 45 million. These errors in data transcription negatively impact the accuracy of your summary and prevent a higher band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs. You use some cohesive devices such as 'In contrast', 'On the other hand', and 'similarly' to link ideas. However, the progression of information is sometimes mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as when you group data points together in a way that makes it difficult to follow which figure belongs to which city. Improving the flow between sentences and ensuring that data is clearly attributed to the correct city would enhance the coherence of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You have a sufficient range of vocabulary to convey the information, using terms like 'commuters', 'expanded', and 'accounted'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'expended' instead of 'extensive' or 'expanded', and 'accounted 775 million' (which should be 'accounted for'). There is also some repetition of basic structures. To improve, try to use a wider variety of synonyms for 'highest' or 'lowest' and ensure that verbs are correctly paired with their prepositions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement and article usage (e.g., 'London Railway system was one of the oldest', 'accounted 775 million passengers'). Some sentences are slightly awkward, such as 'followed by, Los Angeles underground railways was opened recently'. These errors occur frequently but do not completely impede communication. To reach a higher band, focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and ensuring consistent verb tense usage when describing historical data.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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