Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-05

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 compares the individuals who bought coffee and tea in last 4 weeks, across five Australian cities namely Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.

Overall, it is evident that the highest proportion of people who went to a cafe for coffee or tea was in Melbourne. Furthermore, four out of five cities majority people went to a cafe for these drinks, except of Adelaide.

Looking at the details, Sydney's people mostly went to a cafe at 61% in last 4 weeks. Compared with 46% who bought instant coffee and 44% who bought fresh coffee. Meanwhile, in Melbourne around 63% people choose cafe spot for coffee, follwed by 49% and 42% of instant and fresh buyers respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

The response addresses the task only partially and falls significantly short of the 150-word minimum, stopping at just 118 words. While the writer attempts to present an overview and select some main features from the bar chart regarding coffee and tea habits in Australian cities, the information is incomplete. For instance, the data for Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hobart is either omitted or left severely under-developed, and there are inaccuracies in reporting specific figures, such as stating Sydney's instant coffee figure was 46% instead of the approximate 45.5%. The overview mentions Melbourne having the highest proportion of cafe visitors, but the lack of sufficient detail and the failure to meet the minimum length requirement restrict the score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some overall organisation with an introductory paragraph, an overview, and a brief detail paragraph. However, the progression lacks clarity due to the abrupt ending of the text. Cohesive devices are used mechanically and sometimes inaccurately, such as 'except of Adelaide' and repetitive framing like 'in last 4 weeks'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the body paragraph is cut short before the data for all five cities can be fully discussed, meaning referencing and logical flow are interrupted.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, attempting some less common items related to data reporting such as 'proportion', 'buyers respectively', and 'choose cafe spot'. However, there are notable word-choice and spelling errors that affect precision, including 'follwed', 'individuals who bought coffee and tea' instead of consumption habits, and awkward phrasing like 'Sydney's people mostly went to a cafe'. These inaccuracies do not entirely impede communication, but they prevent the writing from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The text displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as the introductory relative clause and comparative structures. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ('the majority people'), incorrect prepositions ('in last 4 weeks' instead of 'in the last 4 weeks'), and awkward subject-verb agreement or clause structures ('four out of five cities majority people went'). These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret, though they rarely obscure the overall meaning completely.

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

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