Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-06

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 illustrates the information about railway underground system in Landon,Paris,Tokyo,Washington DC,Kyoto and Los Angeles.

To commence, the London was the highest routs in the world almost 394 Km and the first railway underground system opened in 1863. however, the passengers per year travel 775 million.secondly,the Paris railway system was opened in 1900 and the routes this system approximately 199 km.whenever,the passengers travel in Paris per year 1191 millions.thirdly,Tokyo was the highest numbers of passengers per year 1927 millions, this railway system was opened in 1927 and routs this system 155 km.

On the other hand,In WashintonDC the underground railway system was opened in 1976 and this system small than other cities routes 126 km. whilst,the number of visitors fall of Tokyo 144 million. Finally,the Kyoto and Los Angeles the smallest routs in the table they railway systems was opened in 1981 and 2001 this system routes very tiny 11 km and 28 km and the passengers per year 45 million and 50 million respectively.

overall, although the railway underground system in six cities the old and the big railway system in London.Yet,the highest passengers per year in Tokyo.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the table, such as identifying London as having the longest route (394 km) and Tokyo as having the highest number of passengers (1927 million). However, some parts of the task are developed more fully than others, and certain details are slightly unclear or contain inaccurate reporting of the data. For instance, the text states that 'London was the highest routs' and that Tokyo had '1927 millions' of passengers, which accurately reflects the figures in the table but lacks precision in execution. Key comparisons are made between the cities, including noting that Washington DC is smaller in route length than other cities and grouping Kyoto and Los Angeles as having the smallest routes. While a clear overview is attempted at the end, the overall reporting remains somewhat disjointed due to underdeveloped descriptions for certain cities.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a logical attempt to group cities into paragraphs, discussing London, Paris, and Tokyo in the second paragraph, and Washington DC, Kyoto, and Los Angeles in the third. However, cohesion is frequently mechanical, awkward, or faulty. The writer relies heavily on intrusive and inappropriate transitional markers such as 'To commence', 'however', 'whenever', and 'whilst' to link ideas, which disrupts the natural flow of the text. Furthermore, referencing is sometimes unclear, and the lack of proper sentence boundaries creates run-on clauses that obscure the logical progression of information between sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The response uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a basic summary of data, employing terms such as 'illustrates', 'railway underground system', and 'passengers per year'. However, attempts to use less common vocabulary or varied phrasing frequently result in word choice, word form, and spelling errors, such as 'routs' instead of routes, 'WashintonDC' instead of Washington DC, and describing systems as 'very tiny'. There are also awkward collocations and lexical slips throughout the text, such as 'the passengers per year travel 775 million' and 'the number of visitors fall of Tokyo'. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting comparative and dependent clauses with varying degrees of success. There are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ('the London', 'in WashintonDC'), incorrect verb forms ('the railway systems was opened'), faulty preposition use, and severe punctuation issues such as run-on sentences and missing capitalization at the beginning of sentences. While the meaning can generally be deciphered, the accumulation of grammatical inaccuracies and poor punctuation control means that sentence structures lack the stability required for a higher band.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.