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 chart provided illustrates data on the consumption of instant coffee and fresh coffee, both economically and habitually, in five cities across Australia.

There are certain characteristis shared by all five of the cities that the research was based on, including the stability of coffee purchases and how consistent the consumer rates stayed above a certain threshold.

A detail most of the cities share is that their residents mainly went out for coffee and tea in cafés, with the exception of the city of Adelaide. This data point shows that café businesses are dominant in the market of coffee and tea due to their attraction of customers taking up more than 55% of city residents consistently, and shops were less popular in making business in selling coffee and tea as they only attracted less than that of cafés, with Adelaide being the only difference where instant coffee purchases were at 50%, while cafés were slightly less that that, and only less than 35% for fresh coffee.

About coffee sold in shops and markets, instant coffee proved to be the more popular demand, as they were well above 45% in all of the cities, whereas fresh coffee had purchase rates lower than that, even reaching less than 35% in cities like BrisBane and Adelaide.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify relevant overall patterns: café visits are generally the most common activity, while instant coffee purchases exceed fresh coffee purchases in every city. You also note Adelaide as an exception for café visits and mention the low fresh-coffee figures in Brisbane and Adelaide. However, some claims are inaccurate or too broad. Café attendance is not above 55% in every city: Adelaide is about 49.5%, and Brisbane is about 55.5%. The statement that fresh coffee is “less than 35%” in Brisbane and Adelaide is also imprecise, as both are around 34.5%. The opening refers to “stability” and “consistent consumer rates” without explaining a meaningful trend. A clearer overview and more accurate comparisons across all five cities would make the report more complete and better supported.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic paragraph structure, moving from an introduction to shared patterns and then to coffee purchases. This gives the reader some organisation, and phrases such as “with the exception” and “whereas” help signal comparisons. However, the progression is not consistently clear: the second paragraph makes a general claim about stability but does not develop it, and the long third paragraph combines café popularity, market dominance, and Adelaide’s figures in one sentence. Some links are also repetitive, particularly the repeated use of “coffee and tea” and “cities.” Organise the report around a concise overview followed by clearly separated comparisons of café visits and the two purchase types. Shorter, more focused sentences and clearer references would improve the flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some task-related vocabulary, including “purchase rates,” “instant coffee,” “fresh coffee,” and “residents,” and you attempt more formal expressions such as “dominant in the market.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural for describing a chart. “Both economically and habitually” does not clearly describe the data, while “the more popular demand” is an awkward collocation. “Stability” and “consumer rates” are also vague in this context, and “shops were less popular in making business” is difficult to interpret. There is also a spelling error in “BrisBane.” Aim for precise, conventional reporting language, such as “proportion,” “accounted for,” and “was higher than,” and avoid claims about business dominance that the chart does not directly establish.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mixture of sentence forms, including subordinate clauses and comparisons, as in “with the exception of the city of Adelaide” and “whereas fresh coffee had purchase rates lower than that.” The main meaning is generally recoverable, but some complex sentences are difficult to control. The long sentence beginning “This data point shows” contains several linked clauses and an unclear comparison, making the relationship between cafés and shops hard to follow. There are also errors in constructions such as “less than that of cafés” and “less than that” in the Adelaide comparison; the intended comparison needs a clear noun or figure. Use shorter sentences with explicit subjects and comparisons, and check articles, agreement, and punctuation when joining clauses.

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