Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-17
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)
The railway station in london was opened back in 1863 and has the route of 394 kilometers while containing the load of 775 million travellers per year. The train station located in paris has 1191 milllion passenger each year while having the route of 199 kilometers.This station was opened in 1900.
Know lets talk about tokyo station which has the higest load of passengers among all that which is 1927 million each year. washinton dc has 126 km route while have 144 million passengers per year and this station was opened in 1976.
Kyoto station was functional in 1981 and has the least route among all that train stations. This station was fuctional in 1981 and having the the passenger load of 45 million each year which is least among all these stations given.
Know lets talk about the Los angeles train station which was opened back in 2001 and is the latest among all these staions. The route of this station has 28 kilometers while cover 50 million passneger load each year
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student successfully covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the underground railway systems across all six cities, including dates opened, route lengths, and passenger numbers. Relevant comparisons are made, such as identifying Tokyo as having the highest passenger load and Kyoto as having the shortest route. However, the response lacks an overview statement, which is a key requirement for Academic Task 1, causing the overview to be missing. Furthermore, some data presentation is a bit mechanical as it simply lists details city by city. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, positioning this at a Band 5.5 to 6.0 level.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The response is arranged into four paragraphs, which attempts to group the data logically by city. However, the progression is disjointed because there is no overall summary or introductory overview paragraph to guide the reader. Cohesive devices are weak and informal, relying on conversational transitional phrases like 'Know lets talk about'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and paragraphing is basic rather than effectively structured to compare and contrast the data systematically. This results in a choppy flow that pulls the cohesion score down into the Band 5.0 range.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, featuring appropriate domain-specific terms such as 'route', 'passengers', 'station', and 'opened'. However, there are numerous spelling and typographical errors throughout the text, including 'london' instead of 'London', 'paris' instead of 'Paris', 'milllion', 'Know' instead of 'Now', 'higest', 'washinton', and 'fuctional'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary like 'passenger load', but the range remains limited and repetitive, with frequent inaccuracies that place this performance firmly at Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using conjunctions like 'while' and 'which' to join clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent punctuation and capitalization errors, such as missing capital letters for proper nouns ('london', 'paris', 'tokyo', 'washinton dc', 'Los angeles') and missing periods at the end of sentences. Other errors include subject-verb agreement issues and awkward phrasing such as 'has the route of 394 kilometers' and 'while cover 50 million passneger load'. These errors occur consistently, although meaning is generally clear, corresponding to a Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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