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 bar chart compares the reports of a survey about individuals habits of drinking and buying coffee and tea in five different cities of Australia. Noticeably, bought fresh coffee accounted least favorite habit in all five cities.

In term of went to cafe for coffee or tea, Melbourne people had the highest proportion, at nearly 65%, followed by Hobart 63% and Sydney at 61%. Brishbane and Adelaide had the just above 55% and below 50%, respectively.

In sydney, similar percentage of people like to brought fresh coffee and instant coffee at 46% and 44%, respectively. Similaryly, Brishbane and Adelaide both 34% people like to bought fresh coffee, while 50% adelaide individuals like to bought instant coffee and 53% by Brishbane. In Melbourne, 42% people prefer to bought fresh coffee, meanwhile only 38% people of Hobart prefer it. In Hobart, 54% individuals like to bought instant coffee, whereas only 48% people of Malbourne prefer it.

Overall, in all 5 cities highest percentage of people went to a caffee for coffee and tea.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the main overall pattern: café visits were the most common activity in every city, while fresh coffee purchases were generally lower. You also include comparisons across all five locations, such as the high café figures in Melbourne and Hobart and the lower figure in Adelaide. However, some details are inaccurate or unclear: Melbourne’s café figure is about 63.5%, not nearly 65% as a precise report, and Sydney’s fresh and instant figures are reversed (about 44% and 45.5%, respectively). The overview that fresh coffee was least popular in all cities is also not true for Sydney, where instant coffee was slightly higher. Select the key patterns accurately and support them with carefully checked comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an opening, separate paragraphs for café visits and coffee purchases, and a concluding overview. This helps the reader follow the broad categories being compared. However, progression within the purchase paragraph is difficult to track: the discussion moves from Sydney to Brisbane and Adelaide, then Melbourne and Hobart, before returning to Hobart and Melbourne. Some links are also awkward or unclear, such as “In term of went to cafe” and “while 50% adelaide individuals…”. Organise comparisons in a consistent order—for example, city by city or by the highest and lowest values—and use clear linking phrases to show contrasts. The final overview repeats an earlier point rather than adding a concise synthesis of the main patterns.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for describing survey results, including “proportion,” “highest,” “followed by,” and “whereas,” so the reader can generally understand the comparisons. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, including “reports of a survey,” “accounted least favorite habit,” and “people like to brought.” Repetition of “people,” “prefer,” and “like” also makes the description less precise. Spelling errors such as “Brishbane,” “Similaryly,” “caffee,” and “Malbourne” are noticeable and reduce accuracy. Use standard chart language such as “the percentage of residents who…” and vary verbs with accurate options like “purchased,” “visited,” and “recorded.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer comparisons, including a sentence using “whereas,” but control is inconsistent. Errors occur frequently in verb forms and sentence construction: “people like to brought” should be “people liked buying” or “people bought,” while “bought fresh coffee accounted least favorite habit” lacks a grammatical structure. There are also problems with articles, plurals, and agreement, as in “In term of went to cafe” and “34% people.” Capitalisation and punctuation are inconsistent, particularly with city names and sentence openings. These errors sometimes make relationships between figures harder to understand. Practise accurate comparative sentence patterns, such as “In Brisbane, 53% bought instant coffee, compared with 34.5% who bought fresh coffee,” before attempting more complex structures.

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