Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-18
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 graph illustrates coffee and tea buying and drinking habits among five cities in Australia named - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart - calculated in percentage.
Overall, three categories were compared in the survey of 4 weeks - people who bought fresh coffee, the individuals who bought instant coffee and the ones who visited a cafe for coffee or tea. The fresh coffee buyers are trailed behind in all the cities
The fresh coffee buyers are trailed behind in all the cities. To commence with Sydney, from 60% of people who visited coffee shop for drinks, 44% people bought fresh coffee while 45% of total bought instant coffee. Similarly in Melbourne highest percentage of 63% dwellers went to the cafe out of which 48% bought instant coffee and 43% bought the fresh one.
Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart showed a big gap between the two types of buyers comparatively. Adelaide is the only city where instant coffee buyers outnumbered the percentage of people visiting cafe for tea of cofee.
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 covers all five Australian cities and compares the three given categories across them, satisfying the main requirements of Academic Task 1. The overview correctly identifies the three categories, although the statement that fresh coffee buyers 'trailed behind in all the cities' is slightly imprecise or generalised since instant coffee was actually the lowest in some cities (e.g., Sydney, where fresh coffee was 44% and instant was 45.5%, but café visits dominated at 61%). The body paragraphs attempt to select and report main features, noting key figures for Sydney and Melbourne. However, the data reporting becomes sparse for the remaining cities, with Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hobart summarized rather vaguely without precise numerical comparisons. To reach a higher band, all data points should be reported with greater balance and analytical clarity.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response has a basic overall progression, beginning with an introduction and attempting logical grouping. Paragraphing is used, though some paragraphs are very short or repetitive (such as the duplicated sentence 'The fresh coffee buyers are trailed behind in all the cities'). Cohesive devices are attempted using phrases like 'Overall', 'To commence with', and 'Similarly', but referencing and linking can be repetitive or awkward. For instance, transitional phrases feel somewhat mechanical rather than naturally integrated into the text. Paragraphing structure also breaks down towards the end, with single-sentence paragraphs appearing, which detracts from the overall cohesion and flow of the essay.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms related to the visual data such as 'bar graph', 'percentage', 'dwellers', and 'outnumbered'. However, there are notable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'calculated in percentage' instead of 'expressed as percentages' or 'measured as percentages', and 'visited coffee shop for drinks' instead of 'went to a café'. The repetition of words like 'buyers', 'coffee', and 'percentage' indicates a somewhat limited lexical range. While meaning remains generally clear, these inaccuracies prevent the response from achieving a higher band score for this criterion.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'from 60% of people who visited coffee shop for drinks, 44% people bought fresh coffee'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, including missing articles ('went to the cafe out of which 48% bought instant coffee and 43% bought the fresh one'), incorrect preposition use, and sentence fragments or repetitive clauses (e.g., the repeated sentence 'The fresh coffee buyers are trailed behind in all the cities.'). Punctuation and agreement issues also occur throughout the text. These errors occasionally cause slight hesitation for the reader, placing the grammar comfortably within the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.