Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-14

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 graph illustrates the results of a survey about tea buying and people's coffee and habits of drinking in five different cities in Australia.

Overall the graph shows the percentage of coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart in Australia.

The different bars in the graph shows the percentages of every city.

The bars shows the data for last four weeks. Three differents style bars shows the percentage of people who bought fresh coffee, instant coffee and went to cafe for coffee in last four weeks.

In Sydney, the three bars shows 44%, 46% and 62% respectively. In Melbourne, shows 42%, 48% and 64% respectively. In Brisbane, shows 34%, 54% and

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response4.0
Coherence and Cohesion4.0
Lexical Resource4.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy4.0
Overall4.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response makes a basic attempt to describe the chart, noting that it illustrates survey results regarding coffee and tea habits across five Australian cities. However, the response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, stopping abruptly at 122 words with an incomplete sentence in the final paragraph ('In Brisbane, shows 34%, 54% and'). Furthermore, it lacks a comprehensive overview of the main features or significant comparisons between the cities, which is a core requirement for Academic Task 1. Because the response is significantly under-length and incomplete, it can only be awarded a low band for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text is organized into very short, repetitive paragraphs and individual sentences that fail to establish a clear logical progression. While basic mechanical links like 'Overall' are used, the cohesion is very weak due to the fragmentary nature of the writing and the abrupt truncation of the text. Paragraphing is not used effectively, as single sentences are treated as paragraphs. Referencing is also repetitive and mechanical, relying heavily on phrases like 'The bars shows' or 'The different bars'. Due to the lack of a cohesive structure and the incomplete ending, the organization is severely limited.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used throughout the response is extremely basic and repetitive, frequently reusing terms like 'graph', 'bars', 'percentage', and 'city'. There are noticeable lexical and collocation errors, such as 'coffee and habits of drinking' instead of 'coffee-drinking habits', and grammatical inaccuracies in word forms. The range of vocabulary is narrow and barely adequate to convey simple data, and spelling errors do occur (though minor). The lexical resource is restricted and lacks the flexibility and precision expected at higher bands for Task 1 reporting.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical structures attempted are very simple and repetitive, dominated by basic subject-verb constructions. There are several noticeable grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('The different bars... shows' and 'The bars shows'), missing subjects ('In Brisbane, shows 34%'), and awkward word order ('people's coffee and habits of drinking'). Because the text cuts off mid-sentence, complex structures are virtually absent. While simple phrases are sometimes accurate, the frequency of basic errors and the truncated nature of the writing limit the grammatical score.

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