Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-11-09

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Student answer (Band 4.0)

The bar chart illustrate the coffe and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities.

Overall, almost all city's people went to a cafe or tea most in last 4 weeks, except Adeliade. Whereas, people did buy less fresh coffee in all cities.

The number of p

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

You identify the chart’s subject and attempt an overview, noting that café visits are generally the most popular activity and fresh coffee purchases are comparatively low. However, the overview is not fully accurate: café visits are not the highest in Adelaide, but the response does not explain that instant coffee purchases are slightly higher there. The final sentence, “The number of p”, is unfinished, and no city-by-city figures or further comparisons are provided, so the main features are only minimally reported. The response is also far below the required 150 words: it contains 38 words, 112 short, with 10 words copied from the prompt excluded. To improve, complete the report and include key comparisons and approximate figures for all three activities.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 3.5

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: an opening sentence is followed by an overview, and “Overall” and “Whereas” signal relationships between ideas. This gives the short text some direction. However, the response ends abruptly with “The number of p”, so there is no developed sequence of details or concluding comparison. The contrast introduced by “Whereas” is also not clearly connected to a complete sentence. Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, overview and selected data, and link comparisons explicitly—for example, contrast café attendance with instant coffee purchases across the cities. Completing each sentence and developing the progression would make the organisation clearer.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The response uses relevant topic vocabulary, including “bar chart”, “buying and drinking habits”, “fresh coffee” and “cafe”, so the reader can recognise the subject. There is also an attempt to express comparison through “most” and “less”. However, the vocabulary range is very limited because the response is only 38 words, and some choices or forms are inaccurate: “coffe” is misspelled, while “people did buy less fresh coffee” is an awkward way to describe the chart’s percentages. “Adeliade” is also misspelled. Use precise reporting language such as “the proportion of residents who bought…” and vary verbs like “visited”, “purchased” and “recorded”.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

You attempt more than one sentence pattern, including an overview with a contrast introduced by “Whereas”. The main message is partly understandable, but grammatical control is uneven. In “The bar chart illustrate”, the singular subject requires “illustrates”; “almost all city's people” has incorrect possessive/plural construction; and “went to a cafe or tea” lacks a grammatical parallel structure. The “Whereas” clause is also left as a fragment, and “The number of p” is incomplete. These errors make the short response difficult to follow in places. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement, plural forms and complete clauses, then use a few controlled complex sentences to compare the cities.

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.