Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-09

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 6.0)

The bar chart compares the proportion of residents in five Australian cities who bought fresh coffee, instant coffee and visited cafe for coffee or tea from past 4 weeks.

Overall, visiting cafe was the popular in most of the cities, mostly in Melbourne and Hobart, while buying fresh coffee was the least priority in all five cities. In Adelaide, visiting cafe was slightly less popular than instant coffee.

Looking at the detail, Sydney had the highest proportion people who buy fresh coffee around 44%, instant coffee at 46% and visiting cafe at more than 60%. While in Melbourne least proportion was fresh coffee at 43%, fresh coffee at 48% and visiting cafe was at 64%. But in Brisbane 56% of residents are interested in visiting cafe, instant coffee at 53% and 34% are interested in fresh coffee.

However, the Adelaide was the only city where the visiting was less popular at 49%, instant coffee was the most popular around 50% residents like it and fresh coffee stood at 34%. Finally the Hobart, it was more popular visiting cafe around 63%, again it is also popular for instant coffee at 54% residents prefer it and fresh coffee stood at 38%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You identify the main pattern: café visits lead in four cities, while fresh coffee is generally the least popular option, and you correctly note Adelaide as the exception. Several figures are also close to the chart, including Sydney’s fresh-coffee share and the café figures for Melbourne, Brisbane and Hobart. This gives the report a relevant overview and useful city-by-city detail. However, the overview says café visits were most popular “in most” cities without clearly stating the Adelaide exception until later, and the Melbourne sentence repeats “fresh coffee” where instant coffee is intended. Sydney is also described as having the highest fresh-coffee figure, although Melbourne is close and slightly lower; comparisons across cities could be more precise. The main features are covered, but some reporting remains unclear or underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall shape: an introduction, an overview, and a detail section that moves through the five cities. Sequencing markers such as “Overall,” “Looking at the detail,” “However,” and “Finally” help readers follow the report. The organisation is coherent, but the detail paragraph becomes a long sequence of city summaries, and some links are mechanical or confusing. For example, “While in Melbourne” is left as a fragment, and “But in Brisbane” shifts abruptly from the previous comparison. The repeated use of “it” in the Hobart sentence also makes the reference less clear. Grouping cities by shared patterns, or using more consistent comparison structures, would make progression smoother and cohesion less dependent on transition words.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of task vocabulary, including “proportion,” “residents,” “popular,” and “stood at,” and the reader can generally understand the comparisons. There are also attempts to vary phrasing, such as “least priority” and “interested in.” However, some choices are unnatural or imprecise for describing survey results: “least priority” does not clearly mean the lowest proportion, and residents are not necessarily “interested in” a product simply because they bought it. “Visited cafe” and “the visiting” are also awkward formulations. Repeated use of “popular” limits precision. Choose vocabulary that directly describes the measured behaviour, such as “accounted for,” “bought,” and “the proportion who visited a café,” and check collocations and articles.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, and the overall meaning is usually recoverable. However, some grammatical errors affect clarity and control. In the introduction, “from past 4 weeks” needs a determiner and a more suitable preposition; “the proportion people” is missing “of”; and “While in Melbourne…” is an incomplete clause. The Melbourne sentence also repeats “fresh coffee” instead of forming a clear comparison between the three categories. Tense and agreement are inconsistent in phrases such as “residents are interested” alongside past-period reporting. Use complete sentences, maintain a consistent past-tense reporting frame, and check articles, prepositions and clause structure. These revisions would make your range more accurate without sacrificing complexity.

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