Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)
The bar chart illustrates coffee and tea buying and drinking habits across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart. In general, the proportion of residents who went to a cafe for a coffe or tea in last 4 weeks was relatively higher than residents who bought fresh and instant coffee.
People who went to a cafe in Hobart had a percentage of approximately 63%, while people who bought an instant coffee in the same city had a proportion of 54%. In Adelaide, people who bought instant coffee in the last 4 weeks was slightly higher than people who went to cafe, with rates of 50% and 49%, respectively.
In contrast, the proportion of people who brought fresh coffee in last 4 weeks was relatively lower than people who brought instant coffe and people who went to a cafe. In Brisbane, the percentage of people who brought a fresh coffee was the smallest among other rates in all five cities with a percentage of approximately 33%.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response successfully addresses the prompt by outlining the main features of coffee and tea habits across the five Australian cities. The overview paragraph captures a key general trend, noting that visiting a cafe was generally more popular than buying fresh or instant coffee. The body paragraphs select specific data points, such as Hobart's 63% cafe attendance and Brisbane's 33% fresh coffee figure, and make relevant comparisons between categories. However, the selection of data is somewhat limited, and further comparisons across all five cities could have been developed to fully explore the dataset. Overall, the task is adequately fulfilled, earning a Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear division into an introduction, body paragraphs, and an implied concluding trend through comparisons. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'In general', 'while', 'In Adelaide', and 'In contrast'. However, referencing and transitions can occasionally feel slightly mechanical, and the paragraphing is somewhat basic. The organisation ensures the reader can follow the comparisons made between the cities without significant confusion, supporting a Band 6.0 performance.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with appropriate topic-specific terms like 'proportion', 'residents', 'cafe', and 'instant coffee'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'coffe' instead of 'coffee' and the repeated use of 'brought' instead of 'bought'. These lexical inaccuracies prevent the score from rising higher, although communication is not impeded. The range is sufficient for basic comparisons, aligning with a Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses ('residents who went to a cafe') and comparative structures ('slightly higher than people who went to cafe'). Grammatical control is generally fair, though there are minor omissions like missing articles ('went to cafe' instead of 'went to a cafe'). Punctuation is generally accurate, and the errors present do not impede communication. This demonstrates the control typical of a Band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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