Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-30
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 chart illustrates the outcomes of a survey regarding people's coffee and tea purchasing and drinking habits in fives Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.
Overall,during the past month going to cafe for coffee or tea was the most common habit in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.
However, buying the instant coffee was more common than the fresh coffee in all fives cities.Since in the past 4 weeks, went to cafe was the highest percentage than the buying instant and fresh coffee. Additionally, Melbourne had the highest percentage of cafe visitors roughly 63% Hobart had the highest percentage buying instant coffee around 54%.Although Sydney had the highest proportion buying fresh coffee(about 44%). Moveover, Adelaide was the only city where cafe visitors and instant coffee purchases were at approximately equal at each 50%. Therefore,in the last four weeks buying the fresh coffee was least percentage ratio in four cities except Sydney.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the chart and making relevant comparisons between the five Australian cities. The overview clearly highlights the dominant trends, such as café visits being most common in Hobart, Melbourne, and Sydney, and instant coffee purchases leading across all five locations. Specific data points are cited to support the descriptions, for instance, noting that Melbourne had the highest percentage of café visitors at roughly 63% and Sydney the highest proportion buying fresh coffee at about 44%. Although there are minor grammatical and phrasing issues, the data is accurately interpreted, and the response fulfills the requirements of an Academic Task 1 summary.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is organized with a clear introduction, an overview sentence, and supporting body sentences that group data by habits and cities. Cohesive devices are employed to link ideas, such as 'Overall', 'However', and 'Additionally'. However, paragraphing is underdeveloped; the entire body of the response is clumped together into a single large paragraph following the introduction rather than being broken into logical thematic paragraphs. Furthermore, some referencing and transitions feel slightly mechanical or abrupt, such as 'Since in the past 4 weeks, went to cafe was the highest percentage than the buying instant and fresh coffee', which disrupts the logical flow of the text.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing statistical charts, using terms such as 'outcomes', 'proportion', 'percentage', and 'habit'. Less common vocabulary is attempted, though with varying degrees of success and accuracy, as seen in expressions like 'least percentage ratio'. There are several word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'fives Australian cities' (instead of 'five'), 'buying the instant coffee' (unnecessary article), and 'went to cafe was the highest percentage' (awkward phrasing). While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the lexical score from reaching higher bands.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses introduced by 'Although', 'Since', and 'while'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors including missing subjects, awkward phrasing, and incorrect verb forms. Examples include 'went to cafe was the highest percentage than the buying instant and fresh coffee', 'Hobart had the highest percentage buying instant coffee around 54%' (missing preposition/verb), and 'Adelaide was the only city where cafe visitors and instant coffee purchases were at approximately equal at each 50%'. Punctuation is also problematic, with run-on sentences and missing commas affecting readability. These recurring errors place the response firmly in the Band 5 range.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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