Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-13

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 4.5)

The bar chart illustrates the result of a survey about people's coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five australian cities :

In sydney, 44% of people bought fresh coffee in last 4 weeks whereas 45% of citizens bought instant coffee in last 4 weeks on the other hand 60% of indiviuals went to a cafe for coffee or tea in last 4 weeks. On the other hand, in melbourne, 43% of citizens bought fresh coffee in last four weeks, whereas 47% of indiviuals bought instant coffee in last 4 weeks on the other hand 64% of citizens went to a cafe for coffee or tea in last 4 weeks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, containing only 111 words. Consequently, the report is truncated and only covers two of the five cities presented in the chart (Sydney and Melbourne), omitting Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hobart entirely. Furthermore, there is no overview provided, which is a key requirement for Academic Task 1. The data points reported for Sydney and Melbourne are accurate, but the lack of completion and overall summary severely restricts the task achievement. Because the length requirement was not met, this has directly impacted the band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The text suffers significantly from a lack of proper paragraphing, as it is written as one dense block of text, and it ends abruptly. Cohesive devices are used repetitively and mechanically, most notably the phrase 'on the other hand' being used incorrectly multiple times within the same sentences to contrast data points that are not direct opposites. For example, the student writes 'whereas 45% of citizens bought instant coffee... on the other hand 60% of individuals went to a cafe'. There is no clear progression or overall structure due to the incomplete nature of the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The lexical range is very limited and repetitive. The student relies heavily on basic vocabulary such as 'bought', 'coffee', 'tea', 'people', and 'citizens', repeating them frequently throughout the short text. There are also capitalization errors with proper nouns like 'sydney', 'australian', and 'melbourne'. While the words used are mostly understandable, there is a distinct lack of less common vocabulary or paraphrasing. Phrases like 'in last 4 weeks' are repeated multiple times without variation, demonstrating an inadequate lexical range for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writing relies on a very repetitive sentence structure, mostly consisting of long, run-on compound sentences joined by conjunctions and transitional phrases without proper punctuation (e.g., missing periods and lowercase starts for cities). There are frequent punctuation errors, such as placing a space before colons and commas. Complex structures are largely absent, and the lack of full stop punctuation creates major run-on sentence issues. Although the grammar is simple enough not to completely impede basic communication, the range and accuracy remain restricted.

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

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