Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-28
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 illustrates data of underground railway systems across six different cities.
Overall, London has the oldest and longest route of underground railway system but Tokyo leads with the most number of passenger. Out of these Los Angeles is the newly open with shortest track.
London's underground railway systems is 394 km long carrying 775 million people annually which was inaugurated in 1863. Follows with Tokyo to be the second oldest and most passenger per year with 1927 million.In contrast Paris which has only 199 km long track but carriers 1927 million people every year.
Kyoto's track is only 11 45
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0
The response attempts to summarise the table by highlighting some main features, such as London being the oldest and Tokyo leading in passenger numbers. However, the task is severely compromised because the response is unfinished, abruptly cutting off at the end with broken fragments like 'Kyoto's track is only 11 45'. Furthermore, the word count is only 101 words, falling well short of the mandatory 150-word minimum requirement. This under-length severely limits the development of ideas and results in a lower band score.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5
The text is divided into short paragraphs and attempts an overview statement. However, due to the incomplete nature of the response, overall progression and logical development are missing. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes awkward, as seen in 'Follows with Tokyo to be the second oldest' and 'In contrast Paris which has only 199 km long track'. Referencing and logical sequencing break down completely towards the end of the text, preventing a clear and coherent structure.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, featuring phrases like 'underground railway system', 'longest route', and 'per year'. There are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'most number of passenger' instead of 'greatest number of passengers' and 'newly open' instead of 'newly opened'. Additionally, there is a major factual error in the text where Paris is incorrectly stated as carrying 1927 million people (confusing it with Tokyo's data). The limited range and errors restrict the score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, missing verbs, and incomplete clauses, such as in 'Out of these Los Angeles is the newly open with shortest track' (missing a noun) and 'Follows with Tokyo to be the second oldest'. Punctuation is also neglected in places, and the text ends with an incomplete sentence fragment. These frequent errors cause difficulty for the reader and reflect limited structural accuracy.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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