Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-05

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 shows the information about the underground railway systems in six ciies

The information about six cities start from london and the end to Los Angeles.

Firstly, In 1863 London opened a railway system. Its kilometer of routes is 394 kilometer and 775 passengers travels in a year in this railway.

The next city is Paris. Paris opend a railway system in 1900 and and its routes is 199 kilometers and the 1191 passengers travels in a year.

The next cities is Tokyo. Opened date of tokyo railway is 1927 kilometers of rutes is 155 and yearly psengers is 1927

Washingt on DC opened date is 1976 kilometers of routes is 126 and per year passenger is 144

Kyoto railway opened date is 1981 kilometers of routes is 11 kilometer and the per year passengers is 45.

The last city is Los Angeles. This city opened the railway system in 2001. The routes of railway system is 28 kilometers and the 50 pasengers per year traveled in this railway

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response addresses the task only minimally, as it presents data for each city in a repetitive, mechanical list rather than selecting and reporting main features or making meaningful comparisons across the cities. Note that eight words copied directly from the prompt were excluded from the official count, though the overall response still met the minimum length requirement. To move toward a higher band, the writer needs to step back and look at the bigger picture—such as comparing which city has the oldest system versus the newest, or contrasting route lengths with passenger numbers—rather than just listing every single statistic for each individual city in isolation.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

Information and ideas are not arranged coherently into an overarching structure. Instead of organizing the response logically to show comparisons, the writing relies on a repetitive formulaic sequence ('The next city is...', 'The next cities is...', 'Washingt on DC...'). Paragraphing is poorly handled, with single-sentence paragraphs dominating the text, and there is a lack of effective cohesive devices to guide the reader smoothly from one point to the next. To improve in this area, the writer should group related data together, use appropriate linking phrases to show contrast or similarity, and structure the report with a clear introduction, body paragraphs categorized by trends, and an overview.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The vocabulary used throughout the response is very basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple terms like 'city', 'opened', 'railway system', and 'routes'. There are also frequent spelling and word form errors, such as 'ciies', 'opend', 'psengers', 'rutes', and 'pasengers', alongside awkward collocations like '775 passengers travels in a year'. These errors occasionally strain the reader's ability to process the text easily. To achieve a higher score, the writer must expand their vocabulary range, incorporate less common synonyms like 'inaugurated', 'annual ridership', or 'network extent', and ensure careful proofreading to eliminate basic spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The grammar demonstrates a very limited range of structures, consisting mostly of simple, repetitive sentences with frequent basic errors. There are persistent issues with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'The information... start', 'The next cities is Tokyo', 'kilometers of routes is... and passengers travels'), missing articles (e.g., 'in london', 'Tokyo railway'), and punctuation errors. Furthermore, sentence structures are often fragmented or poorly formulated, such as 'Its kilometer of routes is 394 kilometer'. To progress, the writer needs to work on mastering basic grammatical rules, particularly subject-verb agreement and singular/plural forms, while gradually introducing more complex sentence patterns accurately.

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

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