Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-22

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 table provides the information about underground railway system in six different cities.

Overall, we can say that Tokyo has the most number of passengers travelling per year while Kyoto has the shortest distance and London was the oldest underground railway station opened in 1863.

Generally speaking, Tokyo station which was opened in 1927 hosts 1927 million passsangers annually with a route covering 155 km followed by paris which manages 1191 million travellers yearly opened in 1900 covering a distance of 199 km, though the stations were opened after London in 1863 it hosts 775 million passsangers every year.

In addition to this Washington DC station which was opened in 1976 covering a route of 126 km manages 144 millions passengers every year while the stations with the lowest annual passanger count 45, 50 million covering route distance of 11,28 km are Kyoto and Los Angeles respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response covers all key features of the table, including the dates opened, route lengths, and passenger numbers for all six cities. It attempts comparisons, such as noting that Tokyo has the most passengers while Kyoto has the shortest distance, and correctly points out London as the oldest system. However, the response has two notable weaknesses: first, it falls slightly short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 147 words, which incurs a penalty under the length check rule. Second, there are minor data inaccuracies, such as referring to Tokyo as a 'station' rather than a city system and misstating the passenger count for Tokyo as '1927 million passsangers' which matches the year rather than the actual figure of 1,927 million (though the number happens to coincide, the phrasing is confusing). Overall, it addresses the prompt adequately but suffers from under-length and minor reporting flaws, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response presents an overall progression and attempts to structure the information using introductory overview sentences followed by body details. However, paragraphing is weak; the entire response is condensed into a block of four very long, run-on sentences without appropriate paragraph breaks. Cohesive devices are repetitive and sometimes mechanical (e.g., 'In addition to this', 'Generally speaking'). Referencing is also slightly unclear in places, such as when listing multiple cities and data points in a single dense sentence. While there is a discernible logical arrangement, the lack of effective paragraphing and clunky transitions pull this criterion down to a Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a minimally adequate vocabulary range to discuss the data, using terms such as 'annually', 'route', 'passengers', and 'distance'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors throughout the text, including 'passsangers' and 'passanger', as well as inappropriate word choices like referring to entire city railway systems as a 'station' (e.g., 'Tokyo station', 'Washington DC station'). Less common vocabulary is limited and mostly basic or inaccurate. Because these lexical errors and limitations cause occasional distraction and lack precision, the response aligns best with Band 5.0 for lexical resource.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts some complex sentence structures through relative clauses and participial phrases (e.g., 'station which was opened in 1927 hosts...', 'followed by paris which manages...'). However, these complex attempts are frequently faulty, resulting in long, unpunctuated run-on sentences that lack commas and proper boundary markers. There are also capitalization errors ('paris'), punctuation omissions, and grammatical slips. The range of structures is limited by the heavy reliance on excessively long compound-complex sentences packed with too much data. These frequent errors and structural issues place the writing firmly at Band 5.0.

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

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