Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-13
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 5.5)
The table provides data on the opening date, the length of path and the number of passengers of the underground railway systems in 6 distinct cities.
Overall, most of the underground railway stations were opened around the 19th century. Only three cities witnessed a huge numbers of passangers utilising it per year.
Washington DC, Kyoto and Los angeles had the least passangers of underground railways. All three of them were established around the 1980's. WahintonDC has the largest route and most passengers among the three of them, 126 kilometers and 144 millions respectively. While Kyoto an Los angeles has the difference of 5 millions in passengers and 17 kilometers in the route length.
Whereas London, Paris and Tokyo had the significant propetion of passengers and much longer routes than the rest. Paris is the leading city in terms passangers 1191 millions per year and Tokyo the second by only 64 million passengers per year., they both were established in 1900's. London is the oldest undergrounf railway station opened in 1863 in addittion to this, it also has the longest route of 394 kilometers with 775 milliuon passengers per year
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student covers all key features of the table, successfully reporting data on the opening dates, route lengths, and passenger numbers for all six cities. An overview is provided, noting that most systems opened around the 19th century and highlighting the stark contrast in passenger volumes between cities. Comparisons are made between the older, larger systems like London, Paris, and Tokyo and the more recent, smaller ones like Washington DC, Kyoto, and Los Angeles. However, there are some minor factual inaccuracies in the overview and body paragraphs; for instance, the writer states that most underground railway stations were opened around the 19th century, whereas only London actually opened in the 19th century (1863), while the others opened in the 20th century. Furthermore, Tokyo is incorrectly described as having 1927 million passengers, misinterpreting the opening year as the passenger figure. Despite these data-reading errors, the main trends are reported, aligning with Band 6.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is arranged into a logical overall structure with an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs grouping the cities into older/larger and newer/smaller systems. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'Whereas', and 'While'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the sentence 'Paris is the leading city in terms passangers 1191 millions per year and Tokyo the second by only 64 million passengers per year., they both were established in 1900's' contains punctuation errors and clumsy linking. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion within the final paragraph becomes slightly cluttered due to run-on sentences and punctuation slips.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'propetion', 'utilising', and 'respectively'. However, there are several spelling errors throughout the text, including 'passangers' (passengers), 'WahintonDC' (Washington DC), 'los angeles' (Los Angeles), 'propetion' (proportion), 'undergrounf' (underground), and 'addittion' (addition). Word choice is occasionally imprecise, such as 'length of path' instead of 'length of route'. These lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips do not severely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, using relative clauses and contrasting conjunctions such as 'whereas' and 'while'. There are, however, frequent grammatical and punctuation errors. Examples include missing prepositions and verbs ('While Kyoto an Los angeles has the difference', 'Tokyo the second by only 64 million passengers per year., they both...'), incorrect apostrophe usage ('1980's', '1900's'), and run-on sentences. While meaning remains generally clear, the accumulation of structural and punctuation errors places this response firmly at Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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