Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-25

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 6.5)

The bar chart illustrates findings from a survey concerning the coffee and tea consumption, and purchasing behaviors of individuals across five Australian cities.

Overall, the data reveals distinct trends in beverage preferences, highlighting a prevalent inclination towards coffee and cafe visits, particularly in Melbourne and Hobart.

In Melbourne and Hobart, instant coffee purchasing dominates, with approximately 60% of respondents opting for this option. Conversely, fresh coffee remains the least favored choice across all cities, with percentages ranging from about 25% in Adelaide to nearly 45% in Sydney. This underscores a significant preference for convenience over freshness, as demonstrated by the substantial percentages of individuals purchasing instant coffee in these prominent cities.

With regards to cafe visits, Sydney and Brisbane emerge as the cities with the highest frequencies, where around 50% and 55% of respondents respectively, patronize cafes for their coffee and tea needs These figures slightly contrast with Adelaide which shows a lower percentage of cafe- goers approximately 40%. The trend reveals a consistent pattern amongst the majority of the cities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview and selecting key features from the chart across the five cities. However, there are some noticeable inaccuracies in data interpretation. For instance, the student states that instant coffee dominates in Melbourne and Hobart with 'approximately 60%', whereas the chart shows figures around 48.5% and 54.5% respectively, and that fresh coffee percentages range 'from about 25% in Adelaide', when Adelaide is actually 34.5%. Additionally, cafe visit percentages for Sydney and Brisbane are misquoted compared to the visual data (Sydney is 61% and Brisbane 55.5%, not 50% and 55%). Despite these data discrepancies, the overall trends are addressed, earning a solid Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response is logically organized with a clear introduction, an overview paragraph, and body paragraphs discussing specific trends and cities. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'Conversely', 'With regards to', and 'This underscores'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different categories of information. However, referencing and transitions are occasionally slightly mechanical, and the flow is slightly disrupted at the end due to punctuation omissions (e.g., missing period before 'These figures'). Overall, the logical progression is clear throughout, making Coherence and Cohesion fit comfortably into the Band 7.0 descriptor.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary appropriate for an academic task, incorporating terms such as 'consumption', 'purchasing behaviors', 'inclination', 'convenience', and 'patronize'. Less common lexical items are attempted with some awareness of style, though there are minor inaccuracies in data citation and word phrasing (e.g., 'opting for this option'). Spelling is accurate throughout the response. The lexical resource is adequate to convey the intended meaning flexibly, meeting the criteria for a Band 6.5, rounded to 6.0 based on precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including relative clauses and participial phrases like 'highlighting a prevalent inclination towards coffee'. There is good control of complex structures, though a few minor punctuation and grammatical slips occur, such as a missing full stop before 'These figures slightly contrast...' and a missing hyphen in 'cafe-goers'. The majority of sentences are grammatically accurate, and errors do not impede communication at all. This demonstrates strong control corresponding to Band 7.0.

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