Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-19

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 demonstrates the information on the results of a survey about people's coffee and tea buying habits in five Australian cities in last four weeks .

Overall, the survey shows the highest percentage of people in about except for Adelaide, all cities prefer to like to go to a cafe for coffee or tea followed by instant coffee buyers and on last are the people buying fresh coffee. However people from Adelaide liiked to buy instant coffee in contrast with others followed by buying from cafe and fresh coffee.

Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart accounts for above 60% of people that went to cafe while Brisbane and Adelaide remain below or at 55%.

Moreover, people buying instant coffee are highest at Hobart and brisbane just above around 54% and all other cities below 50%.

Sydney and Melbourne have above 40% of people buying fresh coffee followed by Hobart at 38% and Brisbane and Adeliade at about 34% respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main pattern that café visits are generally the most popular activity, and you compare the three activities across the cities. The overview also correctly notes Adelaide as an exception, where instant coffee purchases exceed café visits. Several comparisons are supported by the chart: café attendance is above 60% in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart, while fresh coffee is lower in Brisbane and Adelaide. However, the overview is difficult to interpret (“the highest percentage of people in about except for Adelaide”), and the claim that all other cities’ instant-coffee figures are below 50% is inaccurate: Brisbane is about 53% and Adelaide about 50%. Develop the overview more clearly and check each comparison against the data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview and further comparisons, with the information grouped by activity and city. This gives the reader a general route through the chart. However, progression is weakened by the unclear overview sentence and by links that do not express the intended relationships precisely, such as “followed by buying from cafe and fresh coffee.” The final three paragraphs also read as a sequence of separate observations rather than a fully connected comparison. Use clearer topic sentences and link related figures—for example, compare café attendance across all five cities in one section, then contrast fresh and instant coffee purchases. More precise referencing would make the comparisons easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant chart vocabulary, including “percentage,” “followed by,” “buying instant coffee” and “went to cafe,” so the topic is generally clear. There is some variation in how you describe the activities, but several phrases are awkward or imprecise, including “prefer to like to go,” “buying from cafe” and “remain below or at 55%.” Spelling slips such as “liiked” and “Adeliade” also reduce accuracy. Choose concise, natural collocations for reporting survey data, such as “visited a café” and “accounted for,” and use “approximately” or “around” consistently when figures are estimates. This would make the vocabulary more controlled and suitable for an academic report.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast introduced by “However” and a comparison using “while.” Some sentences communicate the intended data, but grammatical control is uneven. For example, “Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart accounts” has a subject–verb agreement error, and “in last four weeks” is missing an article. The overview sentence beginning “the highest percentage of people in about except for Adelaide” is structurally difficult to understand, while punctuation spacing is inconsistent. Aim for shorter, complete sentences when presenting comparisons, and check agreement, articles and sentence boundaries. More accurate control of these basic patterns would make your range easier to follow.

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