Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-19

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 4.5)

The table illustrate the detail of the underground railway station in six cites,including the datils like date opened kilometers of route and passenger per year measure in millions.

However in London system opened in 1863 with 394 kilometers of route and 775 million passengers per year, In Paris system opened on 1900 with 199 kilometers of route and 1191 million passengers per year , In Tokyo system opened after the paris in 1927 with 155 kilometers route and 1928 million passengers per year, Washington DC in 1976 with 126 kilometers and 144 million passengers, But in kyoto and los angeles underground system was opened in 1981 in kyoto and 2001 in Los angeles and only cover the 11 kilometers of route and 28 kilometers of route and just 45 million passenger per year in kyoto and 50 million passenger in los angeles

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The student attempts to cover the main features of the table, including dates, route lengths, and passenger numbers. However, the response falls short of the 150-word minimum requirement, containing only 142 words, which incurs a penalty under Task Achievement. Furthermore, there are inaccuracies in reporting the data, such as stating Tokyo had '1928 million passengers per year' whereas the table states 1927. While comparisons are attempted, they are simplistic and lack depth, failing to fully contrast the older systems like London and Paris with newer ones like Kyoto and Los Angeles.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text suffers from a major lack of appropriate paragraphing, being condensed into just an introduction and one very long, run-on sentence for the body. Cohesive devices are weak and repetitive, heavily relying on 'In' and 'with' to link clauses together. There is a lack of clear progression and logical structuring, which makes the text difficult to follow. References between cities and their respective metrics become tangled due to poor punctuation and sentence boundaries.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, depending heavily on the exact words provided in the prompt, such as 'kilometers of route', 'passengers per year', and 'date opened'. There is little attempt to use less common lexical items or paraphrase the data. Spelling and word choice errors are present, such as 'cites' instead of 'cities', 'datils' instead of 'details', and 'passenger' used instead of the plural form in several instances.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical range is extremely limited. The entire body of the response consists of a single, excessively long, unpunctuated run-on sentence joined by commas. There is a total absence of full stops and capitalisation at appropriate places (e.g., 'paris', 'kyoto'). Punctuation errors are severe throughout, preventing the formation of proper complex sentence structures and impeding overall readability.

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

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