Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-26
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 illustrates results of a survey that depicts buying and drinking coffe and tea habit of the Australian citizens across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hobart. The habits include people buying fresh coffee, instant coffee, or merely going to a cafe for coffe or tea in the last 4 weeks.
Overall, it can be seen that there is an upward trend in the buying and drinking coffee and tea habits of people in all the 5 cities of Australia. The highest number of people across all five cities went to a cafe in last 4 weeks. Individuals who bought either fresh or instant coffee in the last four weeks were comparatively lower, albeit to varying degrees.
According to the survey, Hobart recorded maximum number of residents of buing and drinking coffee habit in the last four weeks, with around 63% residents going to the cafe as well as, 54% and almost 38% of buyers of instant coffee and fresh coffee, respectively. Followed by this comes residents of Sydney and Melbourne with second highest proportion of individuals going to a cafe for tea of coffe, with 61% in Sydney and around 64% in Melbourne. However, people who bought either type of coffee in Sydney remained 45% and below. Whereas, Melbourne marked 42% buyers of fresh coffee and 48% of instant coffee buyers in the last four weeks.
Brisbane and Adelaide recorded comparatively fewer drinking and buying habits in it's residents, showing 35% of fresh coffee buyers each. Proportion of people who went to cafe in Adelaide and instant coffee buyers was almost same, recorded at 50% and slightly less. Where Brisbane marked 53 to 55% individuals who bought instant coffee and went to cafes, respectively.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by presenting an overview of the main trends and selecting key data points to compare coffee and tea habits across five Australian cities. The response notes that café visits were highest overall, and contrasts this with the lower proportions for buying fresh or instant coffee. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting specific figures (for instance, stating Hobart recorded the maximum number of residents when instant coffee purchases were actually higher in Brisbane at 53% and Hobart at 54.5%, and misreading Hobart's fresh coffee figure as 'almost 38%' instead of 38.5%). Despite these minor data-reading slips, the overall feature selection and comparisons are clear and fulfill the requirements of an academic task 1 response, leaning towards Band 6.5 or 7 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The text is structured into four paragraphs, including a clear introduction, an overall summary, and two body paragraphs detailing specific city data. Logical progression is generally maintained as the student moves from general trends to specific city comparisons. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'However', 'whereas', and 'Followed by this' are used to connect ideas, though some transitional phrasing feels slightly awkward or mechanical (e.g., 'Followed by this comes residents of Sydney'). Paragraphing is used appropriately to group related information, ensuring the overall arrangement remains coherent and easy to follow throughout.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using terms such as 'proportion', 'individuals', 'residents', 'trend', and 'comparatively'. However, there are several spelling errors ('coffe' instead of 'coffee', 'buing' instead of 'buying') and minor lexical collocation slips ('habits of the Australian citizens', 'buying and drinking coffee habit'). While less common vocabulary is attempted, these inaccuracies slightly constrain precision, placing the lexical performance solidly at Band 6 where vocabulary is adequate for the task but exhibits noticeable spelling and word-choice lapses.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as introductory participial phrases ('According to the survey, Hobart recorded...') and subordinate clauses ('Proportion of people who went to cafe...'). However, grammatical control is inconsistent. There are noticeable errors in article usage ('went to cafe' instead of 'went to a café'), subject-verb agreement or phrasing issues ('Proportion of people who went to cafe in Adelaide and instant coffee buyers was almost same'), and a possessive error ('in it's residents'). These errors occur frequently enough to impede complete accuracy, though they do not obscure the overall meaning of the text, supporting a Band 6 score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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