Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

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

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 illustrates the proportion of city residents in 5 different cities in Australia, regarding who bought fresh coffee, instant coffee and visited cafe over the previous 4 weeks.

Overall, it showed people invested more time visiting cafe than purchasing a fresh coffee. Melbourne and Hobart showed the highest proportion, in regards to cafe visiting.

Starting with, people who purchased fresh coffee, Sydney experienced the highest proportion, about 43%. Followed closely by Melbourne which accounted for over 40%.

In contrast, Brisbane and Adelaide showed the least proportion, under 35%, respectively.

Brisbane and Hobart showed highest percentage, in terms of people purchased instant coffee, constituting of about 53% and 54% regardlessly. The least number was shown by Sydney, accounting of over 45%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You identify the three activities and give a relevant overview that café visits generally attracted higher proportions than fresh-coffee purchases. You also report several fresh-coffee and instant-coffee figures, including Sydney’s relatively high fresh-coffee result and Hobart’s high instant-coffee result. However, the response is incomplete: it omits the café figures for all five cities, despite this being the strongest overall category, and does not compare the cities across all three activities. The overview also incorrectly groups Melbourne and Hobart as the highest for café visits; Sydney is close, and Hobart is marginally higher than Melbourne. The response is 28 words below the required minimum, which contributes to the limited coverage. Include the missing category and a fuller overview of the main highs and lows.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic, understandable structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for fresh and instant coffee. This helps the reader follow the categories being discussed. However, progression is limited because the café-visiting data, mentioned in the overview, is never developed in the body. Some linking phrases are awkward or do not clearly connect ideas, such as “Starting with” and “In contrast,” where the relationship between the comparisons is not fully explained. The final paragraph also ends without a concluding comparison or coverage of the remaining category. Organise the body so that all three activities are reported, and use clear comparisons to guide the reader from one city or category to the next.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant task vocabulary, including “proportion,” “accounted for,” and “percentage,” and the reader can generally understand which activity and city you mean. However, the range is limited and several word combinations are unnatural or imprecise. For example, “people invested more time visiting cafe” does not accurately describe a survey proportion, while “constituting of” and “accounting of” are not natural collocations. “Regardlessly” is also an unsuitable word in this context. These choices make parts of the report less clear and less appropriately formal. Aim for precise reporting language such as “the proportion who visited cafés,” “stood at,” and “respectively,” and check that each verb naturally fits the statistic being described.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt some sentence variety, including a contrast sentence beginning “In contrast,” and a relative clause in the introduction. Most of the intended meaning remains understandable, but control is uneven. “Followed closely by Melbourne” is a sentence fragment, and “people purchased instant coffee” needs a grammatical form such as “people who purchased instant coffee.” There are also problems with articles and number, as in “visited cafe” and “the least number,” and the opening overview uses the unclear construction “it showed people.” Use complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and check articles and plural forms. A wider range of accurately controlled sentence patterns would make the comparisons easier to read.

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

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