Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-24
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 illustrate the results of a survey on coffee and tea buying and driniking habibts among residents of five austrilan cities; Sydney,Melbourne,brisbane,Adelaide,Hobart.
overall,visiting a cafe for coffee and tea is the most popular activity in most of the cities.whereas,buying fresh coffee is less popular.In melbourne the ratio of visiting cafe for coffee and tea is highest.While hobart had the highest ratio of buying instant coffee.
In Sydney, aproximately 61% of residents visited a cafe and 45% residents bought instant coffee and also 43% of residents bought fresh coffee.A same pattern is followed in melbourne where 63% residents visited cafe.
In Brisbane, almost 55% of residents visited cafe for coffee and tea also 53% individuals bought instant coffee and just 34% bought fresh coffee.Adelaide shows almost same figure of fresh coffee visitors.
Finally, Hobart had a highest percentage of cafe visitors like around 62%.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student attempts to cover the main features of the chart, including general trends and specific city data such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Hobart. An overview is provided, noting that visiting a cafe is the most popular activity overall. However, there are some inaccuracies and omissions in the data reporting. For instance, the student states that Hobart had the highest ratio of buying instant coffee (which is correct at 54.5%), but misstates Hobart's cafe visitor percentage as 'around 62%' when the chart shows it at approximately 63%, and Brisbane's fresh coffee figure is given as '34%' instead of 34.5%. Furthermore, the response falls slightly short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 145 words, which incurs a penalty under the length requirement. Consequently, the task is addressed only partially in terms of word count and precision.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The text is organized into four paragraphs, attempting an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs. However, paragraphing and punctuation are quite erratic, with missing spaces after periods (e.g., 'Sydney,Melbourne,brisbane,Adelaide,Hobart.', 'overall,visiting...'), which detracts from the visual layout and readability. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes inaccurate or inappropriately punctuated (e.g., 'whereas,buying', 'While hobart'). Logical progression is attempted, but the grouping of data feels disjointed, with Adelaide being tacked onto the end of the Brisbane discussion rather than given a coherent treatment. Overall, the structure shows basic organization, but cohesion is faulty and mechanical.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, incorporating terms such as 'percentage', 'residents', 'activity', and 'popular'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-form errors throughout the text, including typos like 'illustrate' instead of 'illustrates', 'driniking habibts', 'austrilan', 'brisbane', and 'aproximately'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success, and collocation is sometimes awkward (e.g., 'ratio of visiting cafe'). The lexical control is sufficient for basic communication, but frequent spelling mistakes and minor lexical inaccuracies restrict the score to band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response contains a mix of simple and a few attempted complex structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak due to numerous punctuation and capitalization errors, such as failing to capitalize proper nouns ('melbourne', 'brisbane', 'hobart') and failing to capitalize the start of sentences. There are also subject-verb agreement and article errors, such as 'The bar chart illustrate' instead of 'illustrates', and 'visited cafe' missing the article 'a'. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of basic punctuation, capitalization, and minor grammatical slips prevents the response from achieving a higher band.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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