Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-14

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 4.0)

The provided table illustrates the data about the assebility transportation systems in six cities namely, London, Paris, Tokyo, Washington DC, Kyoto and Los Angeles.

Overall, the highest proportion of passenger carry by tokyo and second highest peoportion was Paris. In contrast, Kyoto was the lowest number of passanger carrying city.

The highest proportion which carrying date was 1927 millions in 1927 was tokyo. In paris number of passanger was deacreased for 1191 millions in 1900 a.d respectively. Followed by, at London the number of passanger was fell sarphliy in 1863, which route was 349 which proportion accounted for 775 milions people. Werease, the propotion of railway transportions was decreasing in Wahington DC number of passanger reach to 144 milion in 1976 by 126 killometers of route.

The proportions of passanger and killometers of route was falling down in Kyot and Los Angele by 45 ab

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response attempts to cover the main features of the table, noting extremes such as Tokyo having the highest number of passengers and Kyoto having the lowest. However, the student severely misinterprets the data, confusing the 'Date opened' and 'Kilometers of route' with passenger numbers (e.g., stating 'carrying date was 1927 millions in 1927 was tokyo'). Furthermore, the response is incomplete, finishing abruptly with '45 ab', and it fails to meet the minimum word count of 150 words, standing at 145 words. This results in an incomplete overview and insufficient development of key trends and comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response shows an attempt to structure an overview and body paragraphs, using basic transitional markers such as 'Overall', 'In contrast', and 'Followed by'. However, the logical progression is heavily disrupted by confusion over the data and broken sentences. Paragraphing is rudimentary and chaotic, particularly near the end where the text cuts off mid-sentence ('45 ab'). Referencing is also faulty, making it difficult to follow which data points correspond to which cities.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and contains numerous errors in word choice and spelling, such as 'assebility' instead of accessibility, 'peoportion' for proportion, 'deacreased' for decreased, and 'sarphliy' for sharply. The student attempts some topic-related vocabulary like 'transportation systems', 'route', and 'passengers', but widespread inaccuracies in spelling and collocation significantly impede communication and obscure the intended meaning of the data.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical range is extremely limited, consisting mostly of poorly constructed simple and attempted complex sentences. There are frequent and severe errors in basic grammar, tense usage, and sentence structure, such as 'Kyoto was the lowest number of passanger carrying city' and 'The proportions of passanger and killometers of route was falling down'. Subject-verb agreement is frequently broken (e.g., 'passanger was deacreased'), and punctuation/word formation errors are pervasive throughout the text.

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