Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-27

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 6.5)

The given bar chart illustrates the percentage of residents, coffee and tea purchasing and consuming habits in last 4 weeks in five different cities.

Overall, it is evident that going to a cafe to have a coffee or tea was the most common habit , except in Adelaide. Additionally the percentage of people buying instant coffee was always higher than that of those purchasing fresh coffee in all cities.

In terms of Sydney and Melbourne, while the percentage of Sydney's people drinking tea or coffee at a cafe was about 61%, the figure for Melbourne was slightly higher, at around 63%. Meanwhile, above 45% of citizens in Sydney and Melbourne had a habit of buying instant coffee, whereas the proportion of those purchasing fresh coffee in these two cities were around 44% and 43% respectively.

Moving to the remaining cities, having coffee or tea at a cafe accounted for the largest percentage of people in Hobart, followed by Brisbane and Adelaide, at approximately 51% and 49% respectively. At the same time, around 53% of people in Brisbane and Hobart chose to buy instant coffee, compared to nearly 50% of those in Adelaide. finally a close similarity can be seen in the percentage of people buying fresh coffee in Brisbane and Adelaide, at around 34%, while Hobart's figure was higher, at roughly 38%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task. You have identified the main features, such as the popularity of cafe visits and the consistent trend of instant coffee consumption exceeding fresh coffee across all five cities. You have also made relevant comparisons between the cities. The overview is clear and provides a good summary of the data trends. To reach a higher band, ensure that all data points are accurately represented; for instance, you mentioned Adelaide as an exception to the cafe habit, which is a good observation. The information is well-selected and supports the summary effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. You have used paragraphing effectively to separate the overview from the detailed analysis of specific cities. Cohesive devices such as 'Additionally', 'In terms of', 'Meanwhile', and 'Moving to' are used appropriately to guide the reader. However, there are minor issues with punctuation and capitalization, such as the lowercase 'finally' at the start of the last sentence and some awkward phrasing in the introduction. These do not impede communication, but refining the flow between sentences would improve the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You have used a sufficient range of vocabulary to describe the data, including terms like 'illustrates', 'proportion', 'accounted for', and 'similarity'. There is an attempt to use less common vocabulary, which is generally successful. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in collocation and phrasing, such as 'residents, coffee and tea purchasing and consuming habits' which is slightly clunky. The use of 'figure' and 'percentage' is varied well. To improve, focus on more precise collocations when describing trends and data points.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a good mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several error-free sentences, and your control of grammar is generally strong. However, there are some persistent minor errors, such as the missing preposition in the opening sentence ('residents, coffee and tea...'), subject-verb agreement issues ('the proportion of those purchasing fresh coffee in these two cities were'), and punctuation errors (missing capital letters at the start of sentences). While these errors do not impede communication, they prevent the response from reaching the highest band for accuracy.

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

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