Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-02

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 proportion of consumption of coffee and tea in mainly the five cities of Australia over the 4 weeks time period.

Overall, the bar chart hovers around 34 percent to 63 percent. The graph shows most of the peolple prefer going cafe while least rely of fresh coffee.The Sydney and melbourne shows the similar trend. Melbourne has it's most of the people going to cafe for coffee, while Brisbane and Adelaide has lowest proportion of people who bought fresh coffee. Hobart also has some similarities with Sydney and Melbourne.

The chart for Sydney and Melbourne hovers between 40 percent and 65 percent. people going to cafe for coffee or tea peaks in Melbourne while it is above 60 percent Sydney. People buying fresh coffee are lowest in these two cities but remain higher comparing to other cities. It is above 40 percent. People who buy instant coffee are moderate leading above 45 percent of residents.

Brisbane on other side has good number of population which consume instant coffee that crosses above 50 percent, and only 56 percent of people who are cafe people. Fresh coffee buyer lay below 35 percent. Adelaide took the lead in instant coffee buyers, which makes the propotion of 50 percent of resident. 34 percent of its cosumer are fresh coffee buyer while 49 percent of them go to cafe. Hobart has the highest number of people who go to cafe for tea or coffee, while below 55 percent prefer instant coffee. Proportion of below 40 percent consumes only fresh coffee.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response attempts to cover all parts of the prompt by discussing the three habits across the five Australian cities, but the coverage is partial and lacks precise data handling. While an overview is attempted in the second paragraph, it is somewhat confused and relies on vague ranges rather than clearly summarising the main trends. Several figures are misreported or described vaguely, such as stating that Brisbane has '56 percent of people who are cafe people' when the chart shows 55.5 percent, and claiming Hobart has the highest number of people going to a café when Melbourne actually recorded a higher percentage (63.5% compared to 63%). Ideas are limited and under-developed, with repetitive descriptions of cities rather than meaningful comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some organisation in the response, with an introductory paragraph, an overview, and subsequent body paragraphs dedicated to different cities. However, there is no clear overall progression, and the logical flow between sentences is occasionally hindered by abrupt transitions and mechanical referencing, such as 'Brisbane on other side has good number of population'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the grouping of ideas feels disjointed, with Sydney and Melbourne split awkwardly across paragraphs. Cohesive devices are used repetitively and sometimes inaccurately, leading to a choppy reading experience that lacks smooth progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The lexical range is limited but minimally adequate for the task. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'proportion', 'trend', and 'consumption', but these are often accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'proportion of consumption', 'peolple prefer going cafe', and 'least rely of fresh coffee'. There are also awkward phrasings like 'cafe people' and 'cosumer'. These lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips, such as 'melbourne' and 'propotion', cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response uses a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences and basic subject-verb constructions. Attempts at more complex sentences are frequently faulty, marred by missing articles, incorrect prepositions, and subject-verb agreement errors. Examples include 'The Sydney and melbourne shows the similar trend', 'Melbourne has it's most of the people going to cafe', and 'Brisbane on other side has good number of population'. Frequent errors in grammar and punctuation are present throughout the text, which can cause difficulty and strain for the reader.

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