Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-06

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 6.5)

The bar chart compares the percentages of people who bought coffee and tea in five Australian cities in last four weeks. Overall, visiting a cafe for coffee or tea was the most popular option in Habort, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, whereas buying fresh coffee was the least popular in all five cities. In addition, Adelaide was different from the others in that buying instant coffee and visiting a cafe for coffee or tea was almost identicle.

Citizens usually preferred to visit to a cafe for drinking coffee and tea, as the highest percentages recorded for Habart and Melbourne, at around 63% each. Followed closely by approximately 61% in Sydney, while the figure for Brisbane accounted for 55%. By contrast, buying fresh coffee was the least common option, standing at just under 35% in Adelaide and Brisbane, before rising slightly to about 37% in Hobart and Just above 40% in Melbourne, peaking at roughly 44% in Sydney.

Conversely, Adelaide city recorded different pattern, as buying instant coffee and visiting a cafe for drink hold relatively equal percentage, about 45% each. The figure for buying instant coffee peaked in Hobart at around 54%, before dropping to just over 50% in Brisbane and about 47% in Melbourne, and reaching the lowest percentage in Sydney at 45%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all parts of the prompt by presenting an overview and reporting the main features across all five cities. You have selected key data points, such as highlighting that visiting a café was the most popular option in most cities while buying fresh coffee was the least popular. The ideas are generally well extended and supported with accurate figures from the chart. However, there is a minor error in the overview regarding Hobart's café data (stating it was highest along with Melbourne, whereas Melbourne is slightly higher at 63.5% compared to Hobart's 63%). Additionally, the response exhibits a slight tendency to over-generalize or mix up some categories briefly, but overall it provides a clear and accurate summary of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your response maintains a clear logical organisation and overall progression throughout the text. Information is grouped into sensible paragraphs, with an introduction and overview followed by body paragraphs detailing the categories. You use cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In addition', 'By contrast', and 'Conversely' to guide the reader through the comparisons. However, cohesion can sometimes feel slightly mechanical or repetitive in structure. Referencing is mostly clear, though a stronger integration of transitional phrases would lift the writing further towards seamless logical flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and paraphrasing the prompt effectively using terms like 'percentages', 'common option', and 'recorded'. However, there are some noticeable vocabulary and spelling errors, such as 'Habort' and 'Habart' (instead of Hobart), 'identicle' (instead of identical), and awkward phrasing like 'for drink hold relatively equal percentage'. These minor slips and occasional word-choice inaccuracies do not impede communication, placing the response solidly in the band where the vocabulary is sufficient for the task requirements.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. You attempt complex sentences with relative clauses and adverbial clauses, such as 'The bar chart compares the percentages of people who bought coffee and tea...' and 'whereas buying fresh coffee was the least popular'. However, there are some grammatical errors and punctuation issues present, including verb form errors ('preferred to visit to a café', 'visiting a café ... hold'), missing prepositions, and fragment sentences ('Followed closely by...'). These errors do not impede communication, but they persist throughout the text, preventing a higher rating.

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

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