Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-06

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 5.0)

Hey. this is all the information regarding Underground Railway Systems of 6 well known cities.

So First of all i want to tell you about London City, it was opened in 1863, its killometers of route is 394 and around about 775 Million/Year Passengers travel in it.

Now in Paris its Station was opened in 1900 and it covers 199 killometers of route and around 1191 million people travel in it anually. In Tokyo, undergroud railway system was opened in 1927 and it covers 155 killometers of route and around 1927 Million passengers travel in it in a Year. This number is hilarious it shows Paris is literally a tourisit City. Now moving forward to Washington DC, its underground railway station was opened in 1976 and 126 killometer of route is covered by this Railway and about 144 Million Passengers travel in it Yearly. In Kyoto and Los Angeles, its Underground Railway was opend in 1981 and 2001 Respectively. It covers 11 and 28 Killometer of distance respectively aslo round about 45 and 50 million people travel inn these Railways Respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response covers all the data points provided in the table, which is a positive aspect. However, the tone is highly informal and inappropriate for an Academic Task 1 report (e.g., 'Hey', 'I want to tell you', 'This number is hilarious'). Furthermore, the task requires a summary and comparison of features, but the student merely lists the data for each city sequentially. There is no clear overview or synthesis of the main trends, such as the relationship between the age of the system and its size or passenger volume. The inclusion of personal commentary ('it shows Paris is literally a tourisit City') is not permitted in an academic report.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is written as one long, poorly structured paragraph. While there is a basic attempt to move from city to city, the lack of paragraphing makes the text difficult to follow. Cohesive devices are used in a very mechanical and repetitive way, particularly the overuse of 'respectively' in the final sentence. The progression of ideas is linear rather than analytical, and the lack of an introduction or a clear summary paragraph hinders the overall coherence of the report.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is quite limited and repetitive. The student relies heavily on basic verbs like 'opened', 'covers', and 'travel'. There are several spelling errors, such as 'killometers', 'anually', 'undergroud', 'tourisit', 'aslo', and 'inn'. The use of the word 'hilarious' to describe a statistical figure is inappropriate for this task. To reach a higher band, the student needs to use a wider range of vocabulary related to data description, such as 'commence', 'span', 'annual ridership', and 'proportion'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains frequent grammatical errors, including issues with subject-verb agreement ('its killometers of route is'), punctuation (incorrect capitalization of 'First', 'City', 'Year'), and sentence structure. The sentences are mostly simple or poorly constructed compound sentences. There is a lack of complex structures, and the informal, conversational style ('So First of all i want to tell you') is not suitable for an IELTS Academic writing task. Punctuation is inconsistent throughout the text.

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

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