Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-11-02

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 provided table illustrates the information about the underground railway systems in six cities, named as London, Paris, Tokyo, Washington DC, Kyoto and Los Angeles.

The London's underground railway system is opened in 1863 and contains 394 kilometers long route and 775 million passengers travel through it per year. Underground railway system in Paris is started in 1900 and contains route of 199 kilometers and yearly, 1191 million travelers travel through it. Tokyo underground railway system is operational in 1927 and contains 155 kilometers long route and 1927 million people travel through it per year. The underground railway system in Washington DC is opened in 1976 and cover 126 kilometers route and per year about 144 million passengers use it. The Kyoto underground railway system is Functional in 1981 and is 11 kilometers long and 45 million human being travel through it per year. The Los Angeles underground railway system is began to work norammly in 2001 and has 28 kilometers long route and 50 million people travel through it per year.

The longest underground railway system is in London and also the oldest one while the Kyoto railway system is the shortest one and also too few people use it yearly, the most latest is the Los Angeles underground railway system.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You report the figures for all six cities and identify important comparisons: London has the oldest and longest system, while Kyoto has the shortest, and Los Angeles is the newest. These are relevant features and show a basic understanding of the table. However, the response mainly lists each city’s data in turn, rather than selecting and grouping the most significant patterns. The overview is also incomplete: Tokyo has the highest annual passenger total, and the two newest systems have the lowest usage, but these comparisons are not clearly highlighted. The phrase “too few people use it” is also an unsupported judgement rather than a neutral description. A clearer overview and more selective comparisons would make the summary more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a sequence of details about the cities, and a final comparison. This makes the information generally understandable. However, most of the body is one long paragraph, and the repeated pattern of naming a city and listing its figures gives the report a mechanical progression. The final sentence joins several comparisons with “while” but does not clearly distinguish the points. Grouping the older, larger systems separately from the newer, smaller ones would create a clearer progression. Use paragraphing to separate the overview from the detailed comparisons, and vary the links between ideas rather than repeating the same sentence pattern.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for describing the table, including “route,” “passengers,” “longest,” “shortest,” and “oldest.” This is enough to communicate the main subject, but the range is limited and several choices are unnatural or imprecise. For example, “human being travel through it” is not an appropriate way to describe passenger numbers, and “most latest” is redundant. “Contains route” and “travel through it” are also awkward collocations in this context. There is a spelling error in “norammly,” and capitalisation of “Functional” is inconsistent. Use standard report language such as “has a route length of,” “carries,” and “records annual passenger numbers” to improve precision and formality.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response communicates the basic facts, but it relies heavily on repeated simple sentence patterns and has frequent errors in verb forms, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “The London's underground railway system is opened” uses an incorrect possessive form and tense; “is started” and “is began” are also faulty forms. In “the Washington DC … cover 126 kilometers route,” the verb does not agree with the singular subject, and the noun phrase needs an article. The final sentence is a run-on structure that combines several comparisons without clear punctuation. Practise accurate present-tense descriptions of table data and use a wider range of controlled sentence structures, checking agreement and articles in each clause.

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