Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-04

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 4.5)

The given bar graph depicts the results of a survey about peoples's tea and coffee buying and drinking habits in five cities of Australia. Here we see that the trend of buying fresh coffee or tea is high whereas comparatively less number of people preferred cafe for both.

More than 60% residents of Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart bought fresh coofee in last 4 weeks. And about 56% in Brisbane and 49% in Adelaide followed it.

In Hobart most people about 54% bought instant coffee and tea, this practiced remained lowest in Sydney aBout 46%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

The response falls well short of the minimum word requirement of 150 words, containing only 94 words. Consequently, the task is addressed only partially. While the student attempts an overview and mentions some data from the chart, the selection of information is inadequate and inaccurate. For instance, the data reported for fresh coffee versus instant coffee and cafe visits is mixed up or miscalculated, such as stating that 'More than 60% residents... bought fresh coofee', whereas the chart shows that figure actually represents cafe visits, and fresh coffee figures were much lower. Ideas are extremely limited and under-developed due to the severe brevity of the response, preventing a full or accurate summary of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some basic organisation with an introductory sentence and brief body sections, but there is no clear overall progression or logical structure across the text as a whole. Cohesive devices are minimal, simplistic, and sometimes used incorrectly, such as the abrupt transition 'And about 56%... followed it.' Paragraphing is attempted, but the paragraphs are very short and underdeveloped, failing to group related information logically. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, leaving the reader to guess connections between the figures cited and the categories they represent. To reach a higher band, the writer would need to structure the response with a clear overview, logically grouped body paragraphs, and a wider, more accurate range of cohesive devices to guide the reader smoothly through the comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and barely adequate for the task. The writer makes several noticeable word choice and spelling errors that detract from the response, such as spelling 'coffee' as 'coofee' and using 'peoples's'. Other expressions, such as 'this practiced remained lowest', contain word-form errors ('practiced' instead of 'practice'). While the student attempts some topic-related vocabulary like 'survey', 'trend', and 'cities', the range is too restricted to allow for precision. To improve, the writer needs to expand their vocabulary range, eliminate basic spelling and word-form errors, and use more precise terminology to describe statistical trends and comparisons.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a very limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple sentences with occasional basic attempts at complex forms. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing articles and preposition errors, such as in the phrase 'preferred cafe for both' (missing an article and pluralisation) and 'in last 4 weeks' (missing 'the'). Punctuation is also sometimes faulty, and sentence boundaries are occasionally awkward. These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret the meaning. To achieve a higher band, the writer must incorporate a wider variety of complex grammatical structures while improving accuracy and reducing basic structural errors.

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

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