Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-16

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 given table demonstrates the detail about underground train system in six urbans.Overall,In tokyo most people travel through the train while,In kyoto least people through the underground system of train.

In the beginning, We can see that by the year 1927,In london 155 kilometers of rout used by biggest amount of people 1927millions passengers per year.The second highest passengers seen in 1900 ,199km of rout used by 1191 millions, whereas the third lagest passengers 775 millions were seen 1863 the used 394 km of route.

In short contrast,The least numbers of people travel from city kyoto in 1981, 45millions passengers through 11km ,in 2001 people of the Los Angeles

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response attempts to summarize the table by highlighting dates, routes, and passenger numbers, such as noting that Tokyo has the most passengers and Kyoto the least. However, the student severely confuses the data from the table, misattributing Tokyo's passenger figure of 1927 million as London's route length and year, and incorrectly matching years with route kilometers. Furthermore, the response is incomplete, ending abruptly mid-sentence during the description of Los Angeles. Most critically, the text fails to meet the minimum length requirement of 150 words, containing only 109 words. Because of the severe data inaccuracies, lack of full task coverage, and failure to meet the word count minimum, it falls into band 4.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text attempts a basic organizational structure with an introductory sentence and some body details, but the lack of proper paragraphing and the abrupt, incomplete ending severely disrupt the flow of information. Cohesive devices are minimal, awkward, or misused, such as 'In short contrast,' which does not logically transition the ideas. The relationships between data points are muddled by poor sequencing and confusing referencing, making the progression difficult to follow. While basic cohesive links like 'whereas' are attempted, their misuse results in a disjointed structure that inhibits clear communication.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and heavily repetitive, relying on simple terms like 'table', 'train', 'system', 'people', and 'route'. There are significant vocabulary and word-choice errors, such as using 'urbans' instead of 'cities' or 'urban areas', and confusing basic concepts. Spelling and word formation are weak, and the range is inadequate to discuss statistical data effectively. The misuse of terminology regarding the table's statistics severely restricts the precision of the response, limiting the lexical score to a 4.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical structures attempted are very limited and heavily flawed. The response contains frequent punctuation and capitalization errors, such as missing spaces after commas ('Overall,In tokyo', '1927,In london') and uncapitalized proper nouns ('tokyo', 'kyoto'). Sentences are often fragmented or incorrectly constructed, lacking verbs or logical connections, such as the incomplete concluding fragment ('in 2001 people of the Los Angeles'). Errors in basic syntax are pervasive throughout the text and frequently impede comprehension, demonstrating poor control over basic sentence forms.

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