Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The table displays the information of six different cities with the railway systems built under the ground. The data is specifically presented for the cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Washington DC, Kyoto and Los Angles.

From the table it can be clearly seen that London has the oldest underground station and Los Angles with the most recent one. However, Tokyo take the lead with facilitating most of the passengers among all.

First, London owning the oldest railway station built in 1863, covering the highest route of 394 kilometers and transport 775 million passengers each year. Next, Paris underground railway station opened in 1900, has the total route of 199 kilometers, with providing 1191 transport services every 12 months. Then, Tokyo being the most population city has the capacity to take about 1927 million people from one place to other annualy, with route no more than 155 kilometers. Moreover, the tokyo station was initiated in 1927. Next, the underground station for Washington DC and Kyoto were started with only the 5 year of gap with the opening dates 1976 and 1981. Considering the routes, the figure is relatively high for Washington DC's railway that is 126 kilometers and it manage transporting 144 million people each year. Lastly, Los angles is the newest station of all, having passenger capacity of 50 million which is almost close to 45 million for Kyoto. Rest, it only occupy 28 kilometers of route but quite maximum compared to Kyoto which is 11 kilometers only.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the prompt by presenting data from all six cities across the four categories (date opened, route length, and passenger numbers). Main features and comparisons are attempted, such as noting that London has the oldest station and longest route, while Tokyo handles the most passengers. However, some data points are inaccurate or misleading based on the table provided, such as stating that Tokyo has a route of 'no more than 155 kilometers' which is correct, but confusing passenger statistics with numbers of transport services. Additionally, the student misses some important broader overviews and syntheses of the data, which keeps the response at a Band 6 level for task achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is arranged into paragraphs, but the paragraphing is somewhat irregular, grouping almost all the detailed body data into one overly long and dense third paragraph. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'First', 'Next', 'Moreover', and 'Lastly', but they often feel mechanical and repetitive rather than naturally integrated. Furthermore, referencing and logical progression are sometimes unclear, as sentences tend to list individual statistics consecutively without grouping them into clear comparative themes or trends. This places the organizational control firmly at a Band 5.5 to 6.0 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student displays an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using terms like 'railway systems', 'passengers', 'capacity', and 'route'. However, there are notable lexical errors and unnatural collocations throughout the text, such as 'transport services every 12 months' instead of annual passenger volume, 'most population city' instead of 'most populated city', and spelling errors like 'Los Angles' and 'annualy'. Less common lexical items are attempted but lack precision and accuracy. Because these vocabulary errors do not completely impede communication, the response fits the Band 5.5 to 6.0 criteria well.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and participial phrases (e.g., 'Tokyo being the most population city has the capacity...'). However, grammatical control is inconsistent, resulting in frequent errors with verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions, such as 'Tokyo take the lead', 'London owning the oldest', and 'Washington DC and Kyoto were started with only the 5 year of gap'. Punctuation is also sometimes faulty. Since these errors occasionally cause minor difficulty for the reader without entirely breaking down comprehension, a Band 5.5 or rounded 6.0 is appropriate.

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

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