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 charts compares the propotion of people's consumers drinkimg habits in five major Australian cities that included Sydney,Melbourne,Brisbane, Adelaide and lastly,Hobart.

Overall,visiting cafés was the most popular activity in four of the five cities,whilebuying fresh coffee was the least common. Adelaide was the only city where instant coffee purchase was more prevalent than visits to cafés.

Regarding on the consumers, instant coffee was generally more popular than fresh coffee. In sydney approximately 46% of residenr bought instant coffee compared about 43% who purchased fresh coffee. A similar pattern can be observed in Melbourne,where figures were roughly 48% and 42%, respectively. However in Brisbane, the gap was noticably higher, with around 53% bought instant coffee compared only 34% purchasing fresh coffee. Adelaide showed almost the same figures as Brisbane. Finally Hobert recorded the highest propotions of instant coffee buyers, at around 54% of instant coffee buyers and only about 36% percentd of fresh coffee consumers.

The café visited proptiomd were considerbly higher in most cities. Melbourned hsd the highest figures, with approximately 63% of residents visiting café for coffee and teas in the previous four weeks, followed by Hobart and Sydney at about 62% and 61%,respectively Nrosbame recorded a slightlu lower figure of around 55%. Adelaide was the only exception,as under half of its resident, approximately 49%, had visited café, making this the least common in Adelaide.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features of coffee and tea habits across the five Australian cities. Key data points are selected and compared, such as highlighting Adelaide as an exception where instant coffee purchases exceeded café visits. However, there are several inaccurate data citations or awkward interpretations. For example, the student writes 'around 53% bought instant coffee compared only 34% purchasing fresh coffee' and mentions '54% of instant coffee buyers and only about 36% percentd of fresh coffee consumers'. Despite these minor numerical discrepancies, the overall trends and comparisons are adequately identified and supported, satisfying the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is arranged logically into clear paragraphs, starting with an introduction, followed by an overall summary, a body paragraph on coffee types, and a final paragraph on café visits. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'Overall', 'Regarding on the consumers', 'However', and 'Finally', though some are slightly awkward or misused ('Regarding on the consumers'). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different categories of information (instant/fresh coffee versus café visits). Referencing is generally clear, although mechanical transitional phrases keep this within the Band 6.0 range rather than higher bands.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'propotion', 'prevalent', and 'considerbly'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'propotion' instead of proportion, 'consumers drinkimg habits' instead of drinking habits, 'residenr' instead of residents, 'noticably', 'Hobert', 'proptiomd', 'Melbourned', 'hsd', 'Nrosbame', and 'percentd'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but their frequency prevents the score from reaching Band 6.5 or higher.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, using relative clauses and comparative structures (e.g., 'Adelaide was the only city where instant coffee purchase was more prevalent than visits to cafés'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with multiple errors in prepositions, verb forms, and sentence structure, such as 'The bar charts compares', 'compared about 43%', 'with around 53% bought instant coffee', and 'café visited proptiomd'. While these errors rarely impede overall comprehension, they occur frequently, placing this response firmly in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range.

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

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