Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-22

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 illustrates information about the coffee and tea purshasing proportion by Australian residents of five different cities includes Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart covering three behaviors, fresh coffee, instant coffee and visits cafe.

Overall, cafe visits were the most popular habits of people in all five cities.while fresh coffee purchasing were consistently lowest.Melbourne and Hobart stands out as particularly most engagement across all three categories.

In sydney approximately 44% of residents bought fresh coffee,while instant coffee purchasing were slightly higher at around 46%. Cafe visits were the most popular activity roughly at 62%. Melbourne followed the similar pattern, with fresh coffee bought at 41% if residents, intant coffee at around 48% and cafe visits again leading at approximately 63%.

Brisbane showed the most notable contrast with fresh coffe purchasing droping at around 32% the lowest of all fiive cities.

Adelaide presented the more balanced picture, with all three behavior clustered between 35% and 52% in all three categories making it the smallest cities for cafe visiting habits.

Hobart, meanwhile recorded the highest number of cafe visitor at roughly 63% alongside with Melbourne with fresh coffe purchasing at 54% and cafe visits at around 38%

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making comparisons across the five cities. An overview is attempted, noting that café visits were most popular and fresh coffee was lowest. However, there are some inaccuracies in reporting the specific data figures. For example, in the section on Hobart, the student misattributes the percentages, stating that fresh coffee was 54% and cafe visits around 38%, whereas the chart shows instant coffee was around 54.5% and fresh coffee was 38.5%. Additionally, Adelaide is incorrectly described as 'the smallest cities for cafe visiting habits', when it actually had the lowest percentage of café visitors (49.5%). Despite these data reading errors, the overall trends and comparisons are generally addressed. This places the response at Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs dedicated to specific cities. However, progression is sometimes hindered by abrupt transitions and awkward linking phrases, such as 'Melbourne and Hobart stands out as particularly most engagement'. Furthermore, referencing and cohesion are occasionally faulty, as seen in the sentence 'alongside with Melbourne with fresh coffe purchasing at 54% and cafe visits at around 38%', which lacks clarity regarding which city is being discussed. Paragraphing is attempted appropriately, but mechanical errors in cohesive devices prevent the response from reaching Band 7. Overall, the organization is coherent enough to follow, supporting a Band 6.0 score.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'proportion', 'engagement', and 'contrast'. However, there are frequent word-choice errors and spelling mistakes throughout the text, including 'purshasing' instead of purchasing, 'intant' instead of instant, 'coffe' instead of coffee, and 'droping' instead of dropping. The phrase 'particularly most engagement' is ungrammatical and unnatural. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general message, the noticeable spelling and collocation errors restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as introductory participial phrases and comparative clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in subject-verb agreement and preposition use. Examples include 'The bar illustrates' (should be 'The bar chart illustrates'), 'Melbourne and Hobart stands out' (should be 'stand out'), and 'in sydney approximately 44% of residents bought fresh coffee,while instant coffee purchasing were slightly higher' (where 'were' does not agree with the singular noun phrase). Punctuation and capitalization are also inconsistent, particularly with spacing around commas. These recurring errors cause some difficulty for the reader and place the grammar at Band 5.0.

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

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