Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-16

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 given bar graph illustrates people's buying and drinking habits of coffee and tea in Australian five cities.

Overall, it is crystal clear that the large number of people of Melbourne prefers to visit a cafe for coffee or tea and lowest number of people of Brisbane desires to buy fresh coffee.

At a fleeting glance, in the Sydney most of them

around 60% went to cafe for coffee or tea but almost similar 45% of them bought fresh and instant coffee in last 4 weeks. In Melbourne similarly around 65% of people visited a cafe for tea or coffee whereby ranging from 40-50% bought fresh and instant coffee. In Brisbane almost 55% of people went to cafe for coffee or tea and instant coffee but only 35% of them bought fresh coffee.

Moving further, in Adelaide similar 50% of people bought instant coffee and visited a cafe for drinking coffee or tea but 35% people of this city desired to bought fresh coffee. In Hobart around 65% of people went to a cafe for tea or coffee but 55% of them bought instant coffee and 40% of them bought fresh coffee in last 4 weeks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the three activities and make relevant comparisons across all five cities. The overview notes café visits as high in Melbourne and fresh-coffee purchases as low in Brisbane, both supported by the chart. Most reported figures are broadly accurate, including Sydney’s similar purchase rates and Hobart’s high café attendance. However, the overview is incomplete: café attendance is also highest in Hobart, and instant coffee is the most popular purchase in four cities, a key overall pattern worth highlighting. Some comparisons are imprecise, such as saying Brisbane’s café and instant-coffee figures are both “almost 55%”; the café figure is only about 55%, while instant coffee is about 53%. More precise selection and clearer emphasis on the main patterns would strengthen the summary.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and two paragraphs covering the cities. This gives the information some organisation, and phrases such as “In Melbourne” and “Moving further” help signal transitions. However, progression is not consistently clear because the city-by-city sequence is interrupted by broad, repetitive comparisons, and the linking phrases sometimes feel mechanical. The overview also does not fully prepare the reader for the details that follow. Within paragraphs, several figures are packed into long sentences, making comparisons harder to follow. Grouping cities by shared patterns or using clearer, more consistent comparison sentences would improve the flow and cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for describing the chart, including “illustrates,” “visited,” “bought,” and “ranging from,” and the meaning is generally understandable. There are also attempts at more varied phrasing, such as “At a fleeting glance,” although this expression is not natural in a formal chart summary. Some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward: “desires to buy” suggests intention rather than reported behaviour, and “the large number of people of Melbourne” is cumbersome. Repeated use of “people” and “coffee or tea” also limits precision. Prefer neutral reporting language such as “the proportion of residents” and “purchased,” and use concise terms like “café attendance” where appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a contrast with “but” and a clause introduced by “whereby.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles, and verb forms sometimes make the writing awkward. For example, “the large number of people of Melbourne prefers” has an unnatural noun phrase and agreement problem, while “in the Sydney” uses an unnecessary article. “35% people of this city desired to bought” contains errors in the noun phrase and verb pattern. Several sentences also run together multiple comparisons without clear grammatical boundaries. Practise accurate percentage constructions (“35% of residents”) and past-tense reporting (“bought,” “visited”), while keeping comparisons in shorter, well-controlled sentences.

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