Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-28

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 6.0)

The bar graph provides information about the results of a survey conducted over the last four weeks on people's coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five different cities in Australia.

Overall, most residents of Melbourne preferred going to a café for coffee or tea, while Adelaide residents showed the opposite trend. Although people in Sydney preferred buying fresh coffee more than those in the other cities, Adelaide residents were much less likely to choose this option.

To begin with, 63% of Melbourne residents went to cafés for coffee or tea during the last four weeks. Meanwhile, 47% and 42% of Melbourne residents bought fresh coffee and instant coffee, respectively. Hobart had the second-highest proportion of residents who went to cafés, at 62%. In this city, 38% of residents bought fresh coffee, while 54% chose instant coffee.

In Adelaide, 50% of residents bought instant coffee, while 49% bought fresh coffee and only 34% went to a café for coffee or tea. Meanwhile, only 33% of Brisbane residents bought fresh coffee, whereas 56% went to cafés and 53% bought instant coffee.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response covers all parts of the task by reporting data across the five Australian cities and making relevant comparisons. The overview captures the main trends well, noting that Melbourne residents favored cafés while Adelaide showed lower engagement with fresh coffee. However, there are some minor data inaccuracies when compared against the visual reference. For instance, the student states that 47% of Melbourne residents bought fresh coffee (actual is around 42.5%) and that Adelaide residents bought fresh coffee at 49% (actual is around 34.5%, which is confused with the instant coffee figure). Despite these minor misreadings of the chart, the selection of key features is clear and the overall summary is adequate.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall progression and logical structure. Information is organized into an introduction, an overview paragraph, and two body paragraphs detailing specific cities. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to link ideas, such as 'To begin with,' 'Meanwhile,' and 'whereas.' However, paragraphing could be slightly more balanced, and referencing is occasionally a bit repetitive in sentence openings. Overall, the writing is easy to follow and demonstrates a coherent arrangement of ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate and generally appropriate range of vocabulary for the task, incorporating terms like 'proportion,' 'residents,' 'preferred,' and 'trend.' There are attempts to use less common phrasing, though some vocabulary choices are basic or slightly repetitive. Minor inaccuracies in word choice occur, but they do not impede communication. Spelling and word formation are generally accurate throughout the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a good mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including subordinate clauses introduced by 'while,' 'although,' and 'whereas.' Grammatical control is generally sound, and the majority of sentences are free from major errors. Punctuation is used correctly to separate clauses, and while there are a few minor slips in data representation or phrasing, they do not cause difficulty for the reader.

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

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