Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-01
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 Information regarding the underground raiway syastem of six differnt cities.
Overall, London underground railway system is the oldest amongst the all and kyoto rail route network and passengers are the least amount of people to use it within a year.
In 1863, London Underground railway station came into existence, it is also the oldest railway station with 394 km of rail network and it helps around 775 million of passengers to travel from one place to another. Paris underground railway station was come into working condition in 1900 with 199 kilometres of rail network and handles around 1191 million passengers annually. Tokyo station was made in the year 1927 and it also transfer 1927 million passengers annually.
The one of the two newest underground railway station are Kyoto and Los Angeles, came into fully operational mode in 1981 and 2001, respectively. Kyoto consist of 11 kilometre of rail network which help 45 million passenger travel from one place to another and Los Angeles handles 50 million passengers annually.
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 response addresses the task partially by presenting some key features of the data, such as mentioning the oldest system (London) and the newest ones (Kyoto and Los Angeles). However, the selection of data is incomplete and slightly disjointed; for instance, Washington DC is omitted entirely from the body paragraphs, and Tokyo's data contains a major factual confusion in the student's text by stating that Tokyo 'transfer 1927 million passengers annually' (conflating the year with the passenger number). The overview attempts to highlight main trends, but the overall presentation lacks a fully developed summary of the key comparisons across all six cities, keeping the response at a partial level of task fulfilment.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
There is some basic organisation evident, with an introductory sentence, an overview, and subsequent body paragraphs grouping the data chronologically and geographically. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression, and the logical flow is disrupted by mechanical transitions and abrupt shifts between sentences. Cohesive devices are sometimes inaccurate or over-used, such as in the phrase 'The one of the two newest underground railway station', which introduces awkward phrasing and weak referencing. Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion within paragraphs feels disjointed, as sentences are bolted together rather than flowing logically from one to the next.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey basic information about the cities and their statistics. There are noticeable errors in spelling, word form, and word choice throughout the response, such as 'Information' (capitalised incorrectly), 'raiway syastem', 'differnt', and 'transfer' instead of 'transports' or 'serves'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary, but these attempts are marred by inaccurate spelling and inappropriate collocations, which cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the vocabulary from reaching a more competent level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The text demonstrates a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences and straightforward coordinate clauses. Attempts at more complex structures are frequently faulty, leading to grammatical errors such as missing articles ('with 394 km of rail network'), faulty subject-verb agreement or tense usage ('Paris underground railway station was come into working condition'), and awkward phrasing ('kyoto rail route network and passengers are the least amount of people to use it'). Frequent errors in prepositions, plurals, and verb forms occur throughout, though the core meaning can generally still be deciphered despite the strain placed on the reader.
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