Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-25
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 provides data on underground railway systems of 6 differnt cities over three different types of distinction.
Overall,London is the oldest under the earth railway station and Tokyo handles the most amount of passengers o in a single year.
The oldest and and the longest railway route connection Underground railway station is London which came into working condition in 1863 with 494 kilometre of route and it helps around 775 miilion of passengers in a year to move from one place to another.Tokyo handles the largest amount of passengers within a year which is around 1927 million,Tokyo railway station came into excistence in 1927 and it rail route consists of around 155 kilometre.
Kyoto and Los Angeles are the newly came into existence in 2001 and 1981 and it rail network route is only within the range of 28 and 11 kilometres,while it handle least amount of travellers within a year which is around 50 and 45 million peoples respectively.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student successfully addresses the main features of the task by selecting key details from the table, such as the dates opened, route lengths, and passenger numbers for the six cities. An overview is provided, noting that London is the oldest system and Tokyo handles the most passengers. Comparisons are made between cities, particularly highlighting extremes like Tokyo's high passenger volume and Kyoto and Los Angeles's smaller networks and lower passenger counts. However, there are minor factual inaccuracies in the data reporting, such as stating London has '494 kilometre of route' when the table clearly shows 394 kilometres, and inaccuracies regarding the founding dates for Kyoto and Los Angeles. Despite these minor data transcription errors, all parts of the prompt are covered, earning a solid Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is arranged into a logical overall structure, beginning with an introductory sentence, followed by an overview paragraph, and then specific details divided into subsequent sentences. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall,' 'while,' and 'respectively.' However, paragraphing is somewhat weak, with all body points crammed into overly dense paragraphs rather than being neatly organized by category or city. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally imprecise, and run-on sentences with comma splices—such as 'Tokyo handles the largest amount of passengers... Tokyo railway station came into excistence...'—disrupt the flow and logical progression. Cohesion is functional but frequently mechanical or faulty, placing this response securely in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully utilizing terms like 'underground railway systems,' 'passengers,' 'route connection,' and 'travellers.' Attempts are made to use less common vocabulary such as 'excistence' (misspelled), 'distinction,' and 'proportion.' However, there are frequent spelling errors ('differnt', 'miilion', 'excistence', 'peoples') and noticeable word choice issues, such as referring to underground stations as 'under the earth railway station' and using imprecise verbs like 'helps' instead of 'serves' or 'transports.' These lexical inaccuracies and repetitive phrasing restrict the score to Band 5.0, as they occasionally cause minor distractions for the reader.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and subordinate structures like 'while it handle least amount of travellers'. However, grammatical control is weak. There are numerous errors in subject-verb agreement ('while it handle', 'Kyoto and Los Angeles are the newly came'), tense confusion ('newly came into existence' instead of 'came into existence recently'), and punctuation errors such as frequent comma splices. Prepositional and article usage is also erratic (e.g., 'in a single year', 'the table provides'). Because errors are frequent and sometimes impede smooth reading, particularly in complex structures, the response meets the criteria for Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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