Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The bar graph represents the results of survey held in 5 different australian cities such as sydney, melbourne, brisbane, adelaide, hobart on people's habits of purchasing and consumption of drinks namely coffee and tea.

In a fleeting glance, the consumers who went to a cafe for drinks in the last 4 weeks was maximum in the cities like sydney with 61% of consumers, melbourne with 64%, hobart with around 64% and brisbane with nearly 51% whereas in a city called adelaide people preffered buying instant coffee in the last 4 weeks of survey reports with the average of around 50% of consumers. On the other hand, the least popular activity was to buy fresh coffee in all the cities varying from around 34% to 43% among customers.

Furthermore, instant coffee buyers varied in all the cities as different number of buyers were seen in the results. Brisbane and Adelaide were the cities with least number of consumers with around 34% of consumers. 36% of buyers were in the city of hobart who consumed instant coffee after buying it from stores. Sydney and Melbourne were between 40-45% range of coffee consumers.

To summarise, people loved going out for coffee and tea in all the cities whereas the least preffered way was to buy fresh coffee in the last 28 days.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the chart’s subject and give an overall comparison, noting that café visits were generally popular and fresh coffee purchases were the least popular. However, several figures and comparisons are inaccurate, which limits how fully the main features are reported. For example, Brisbane’s café figure is about 56%, not 51%, and Hobart’s instant-coffee figure is about 55%, not 36%. The paragraph describing instant-coffee buyers then gives Brisbane and Adelaide figures of around 34%, which actually correspond to fresh coffee purchases. Your overview also says café visits were highest in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart, but Adelaide’s lower result is not clearly contrasted. Check each series separately and select accurate highs, lows and city comparisons before drafting.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph reporting comparisons, a further paragraph, and a concluding summary. This gives the reader an overall route through the information. Linking phrases such as “On the other hand” and “Furthermore” also signal relationships between points. However, progression is weakened because the second body paragraph discusses instant coffee but includes figures that belong to fresh coffee, and the first paragraph combines several café figures without a clear, consistent comparison. The conclusion repeats the overview rather than adding a precise synthesis. Organise the body by activity or by clear city groupings, and use each paragraph’s opening sentence to identify the feature being compared.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of topic-related vocabulary, including “survey,” “consumers,” “preferred,” and “least popular,” so the subject is generally clear. There are also attempts at more varied phrasing, such as “In a fleeting glance.” However, some choices are unnatural or imprecise for describing chart data: “consumption of drinks namely coffee and tea” is cumbersome, and “36% of buyers … consumed instant coffee after buying it from stores” adds an unsupported detail. Spelling errors such as “australian,” “sydney,” and “preffered” also reduce accuracy. Prefer concise, standard reporting language, for example “the proportion who visited a café,” and use “approximately” only when a value is genuinely approximate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “whereas” and “who,” and the main message is usually understandable. However, some sentence structures are awkward or inaccurate. In “the consumers who went to a cafe … was maximum,” the plural subject does not agree with “was”; a clearer construction would be “the proportion of consumers … was highest.” The opening also needs an article (“the results of a survey”) and consistent capitalisation of city names. In “the least popular activity was to buy fresh coffee … varying,” the participle’s reference is unclear. Use shorter, controlled sentences for comparisons, check subject–verb agreement and articles, and punctuate long lists carefully.

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