Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-11-02

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 Survey of Coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five cities of Australia including Sydney,Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart in last 4 weeks.

Overall,Sydney citizens consume the lowest instant coffee whereas Hobart citizens consume the most.In addition, Brisbane bought the fresh coffee least and Sydney again bought the most fresh coffee.Similarly,people from adelaide prefer to go to a cafe in the least propotion whereas Melbourne and Hobart citizens mostly prefer to go to a cafe.

In Sydney, Fresh coffe was bought around 44%,instant coffee around 45% and going to cafe was around 60%.In Melbourne, Fresh coffe was bought around 42% which was slightly less than sydney,instant coffee around 50% which was slightly higher than sydney and going to cafe was around 65%.

In Brisbane adelaide and hobart, instant coffew was around 35%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the chart’s subject and make an effort to give an overview, but the response only partially reports the main features. Some comparisons are accurate: Sydney’s café figure is about 61%, and Adelaide has the lowest café attendance. However, the overview incorrectly says Sydney has the lowest instant-coffee figure and the highest fresh-coffee figure; Hobart has the highest instant-coffee figure, while Sydney’s fresh-coffee figure is only slightly above Melbourne’s. The final sentence also misreports instant coffee in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart as about 35%; those figures are around 53%, 50% and 55%. Several city results are omitted, and the response is 128 words, below the required 150 words (9 words copied from the prompt were not counted). Include a fuller, accurate comparison of all three categories.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic structure: an introduction, an overview and city-by-city details. This gives the reader some sense of organisation, and phrases such as “In addition” and “Similarly” attempt to connect ideas. However, progression is weakened by the abrupt final paragraph, which mentions three cities but gives only one category and an inaccurate figure. The overview also combines several claims in a way that is difficult to follow, while the repeated “In Sydney” and “In Melbourne” pattern does not develop into a complete comparison. Improve cohesion by grouping information by category—for example, compare café attendance across all cities, then compare coffee purchases—and use clear paragraph transitions and references.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant chart vocabulary, including “bar chart,” “citizens,” “bought,” “slightly less” and “prefer,” so the topic is generally clear. However, the range is limited and several expressions are imprecise or awkward for describing survey percentages. “Consume the lowest instant coffee” does not accurately express a purchase rate, and “mostly prefer to go to a cafe” is vague when the chart reports proportions. There are also noticeable spelling and word-form errors, including “coffe,” “coffew” and “propotion,” which reduce the polish of the report. Choose precise verbs such as “recorded” or “purchased,” and describe figures as percentages of residents rather than as consumption preferences.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple statements and more developed comparisons, such as “which was slightly less than Sydney,” and the main meaning is usually recoverable. However, sentence control is inconsistent. The opening sentence has an awkward construction (“in five cities of Australia including…”), and the overview contains unclear subject–verb relationships, as in “Brisbane bought the fresh coffee least.” Missing spaces after commas and inconsistent capitalisation also affect punctuation and readability. Some sentences rely on repeated fragments such as “Fresh coffee was bought around 44%,” rather than using a clear structure such as “Around 44% of residents bought fresh coffee.” Practise accurate comparative clauses and consistent sentence punctuation.

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