Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-01
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 given bar chart depicts the proportion of coffee and tea purchasing and consuming habits of people in five cities of Australia in last 4 weeks.
It can be noticed that Sydney residents bought the highest proportion of fresh coffee in last 4 weeks, with about 44% of total. Meanwhile, it was followed by Melbourne ctitzens at somewhat 45% of total. In Hobart, almost 38% of total people bought fresh coffee in last 4 weeks. Furthermore, Brisbane and Adelaide netizens accounted for total of about 34% for the same type of coffee.
Nevertheless, 64% of total citizens of Melbourne favoured cafe for coffee or tea in last 4 weeks of period. Then it was followed closely by Hobard citizens at 63% and Sydney's ctitzens at 61%. Lastly, 55% and 50% netizens of Brisbane and Adelaide preffered cafe for coffee or tea, respectively.
What is more, almost 44% of people of Hobart bought instant coffee n last 4 weeks and 53% citizens of Brisbane preferred instant coffeee , in the same time period. Apart from it, Adelaide had exactly 40% of total people bought instant coffee. Lastly, MElbourne and Sydney had percentafe of 48% and 46% of people chose instant coffee, respectively.
Overall, it can be seen clearly that in all mentioned cities the popularity of cafes were the highest amoung the citizens of respective cities. By contrast, least netizens of same cities bought fresh coffee.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses the task partially, selecting and reporting main features from the chart, but some of the reporting is inaccurate or imprecise. For instance, the text claims that Melbourne citizens bought fresh coffee at 'somewhat 45% of total', whereas the chart shows around 42.5%. There is an attempt to provide an overview at the end, noting the popularity of cafes and the lower figures for fresh coffee, but overall, the ideas and comparisons remain somewhat limited and under-developed, preventing the response from reaching a higher band. To improve, ensure that data points are read and reported more accurately and that comparisons between categories are fully articulated.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response demonstrates some organisation with a clear paragraph structure separating different categories of data, and an concluding overview paragraph is present. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression, and cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent use of transitional phrases like 'Then it was followed closely by' and 'What is more'. Referencing is also occasionally unclear. To move up, the writer needs to improve the logical flow between sentences and use a wider variety of cohesive devices more naturally without relying on formulaic transitions.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, with attempts at less common items such as 'proportion', 'residents', and 'citizens'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and inappropriate word choices throughout the text, including awkward phrasing like 'netizens' to refer to city residents, and spelling errors such as 'ctitzens', 'Hobard', 'preffered', 'percentafe', and 'amoung'. These errors slightly impede communication and highlight a limited control of word choice and spelling. Expanding the range of vocabulary and ensuring accurate spelling and word formation will significantly enhance this criterion.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The text displays a limited range of sentence structures, with mostly simple and moderately complex sentences. Attempts at complex structures often contain errors in grammar, prepositions, or articles, such as 'in last 4 weeks' (missing articles) and 'in the same time period'. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement and prepositional use, such as 'popularity of cafes were the highest' (where 'popularity' is singular). While these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, they occur frequently enough to cause some difficulty for the reader. Incorporating a wider variety of error-free complex structures will help improve this score.
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