Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-29
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 the results of a survey about the percentages of coffee and tea that bought by people across five cities in Australia in the last four weeks.
Overall, went to a cafe for coffee accounted for the highest share in every cities except for Adelaide, whereas bought fresh coffee was the lowest in all cities. Bought instant coffee was the second popular choice in every cities except for Adelaide, which ranked the first common choice.
People in every cities preferred to go to a cafe for coffee. The percentage for Hobart, Melbourne, and Sydney cities stood at just over 60% for each, dropping to around 55% in Brisbane and just under 50% in Adelaide. Looking at the second most common choice for citizens in every cities. Bought instant coffee accounted for approximately 54% in Habort and Brisbane, dropping to 50% in Adelaide, around 47% in Melbourne, and 45% in Sydney.
Conversely, bought fresh coffee was consistently the less common choice in every cities, recording about 43% in Sydney and Melbourne each. The figure for Habort, however, stood at roughly 37%, while that for Brisbane and Adelaide recorded a relatively similar proportion at just under 35% each.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student attempts to cover all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the chart across the five cities. An overview is provided, noting that visiting a café was generally the most popular activity and fresh coffee the least popular. However, the data points are not always accurate or well-selected. For instance, the student states that buying instant coffee was the first common choice in Adelaide, but the chart shows café visits at 49.5% and instant coffee at 50%—very close, yet instant coffee is actually second in some readings or tied closely, while café visits were highest in most other cities. Furthermore, there are several awkward expressions like 'percentages of coffee and tea that bought by people'. The response meets the minimum word count requirement, but the task response suffers from minor data misreadings and generalised phrasing, placing it at a Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction and an overall summary followed by body paragraphs detailing the categories. Logical progression is attempted, but transitions between sentences are sometimes repetitive and mechanical, relying heavily on phrases like 'People in every cities preferred...' and 'Looking at the second most common choice...'. Additionally, referencing is occasionally imprecise, and the repetition of 'in every cities' across paragraphs detracts from cohesion. Paragraphing is used adequately to structure the report, but the overall flow feels disjointed in places, aligning with Band 6.0 descriptors.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with terms like 'percentages', 'survey', and 'proportion'. However, the range is limited and repetitive, and there are noticeable word-formation and collocation errors, such as 'that bought by people' (passive voice error), 'every cities' (plural noun error after 'every'), and spelling mistakes like 'Habort' instead of 'Hobart'. The student attempts less common vocabulary ('proportion', 'consistently', 'conversely'), but these are undermined by basic lexical inaccuracies. This fits the Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile, comfortably earning a Band 6.0 for achieving basic communicative intent despite the errors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Overall, went to a cafe for coffee accounted for...' (which contains a significant grammatical error by using a verb phrase as a subject noun clause). There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions (e.g., 'every cities' instead of 'all cities' or 'each city', 'went to a cafe for coffee accounted for', and spelling errors like 'Habort'). Complex structures often contain faults. While communication is not severely impeded, the density of grammatical slips keeps the score at Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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