Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-02

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The graph below shows the number of tourists visiting a particular Caribbean island between 2010 and 2017.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The line graph illustrates the number of tourists visiting Caribbean island between 2010 and 2017 dividing visitor staying on the island and those people staying on cruise ship overall the number of tourists increased during the period rising from 1 million to 3.5 million in year 2010 to 2017 while number of tourists staying on the island remain stable after 2013 and people staying on cruise increased in 2010 approximately 0.75 million tourists stayed on the island compared with only and 0.25 million people stay on cruise ,cruise ship visitor falling from 0.5 million in 2011 to 0.25 million in 2012 and 1.5 million in 2016 and nearly 2 million in 2017 the number of visitor peaked at about 3.5 million in 2017 the total number of tourists increase steadily in most years the most significant growth occur among cruiseship visitor, particularly between 2014 and 2017 overall is increasing popular with tourist during eight year period.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers the main features of the graph, identifying the overall upward trend and the distinction between island-staying and cruise ship visitors. However, the presentation of data is problematic. The report contains several inaccuracies, such as stating that cruise ship visitors fell to 0.25 million in 2012 when the graph shows a different trend, and the data points for 2016 and 2017 are presented in a confusing, run-on manner. While the main trends are identified, the lack of clarity in reporting specific figures prevents a higher score. The response would benefit from a more structured approach to data comparison.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response lacks paragraphing, which is essential for a clear report. The text is presented as a single block, making it difficult to follow the logical progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are used, but they are often mechanical or misused, such as the repetitive use of 'overall' and the lack of proper punctuation to separate distinct points. The flow is hindered by the absence of sentence boundaries, which makes the relationship between the data points unclear. To improve, the student should use clear paragraph breaks and a wider variety of linking words to connect ideas more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. The student uses basic terms like 'increased' and 'staying' repeatedly. There are some errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'is increasing popular' instead of 'is increasingly popular' and 'cruiseship visitor' instead of 'cruise ship visitors'. While the meaning is generally conveyed, the range of vocabulary is limited, and the errors in word form and spelling (e.g., 'cruiseship') indicate a need for more attention to detail and a broader range of descriptive language.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response relies heavily on simple sentence structures and suffers from significant punctuation errors. The entire text is essentially a series of run-on sentences, lacking full stops to separate independent clauses. This makes the text difficult to read and obscures the intended meaning. There are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'number of tourists remain stable') and tense inconsistencies. While the student attempts to describe complex trends, the lack of control over basic sentence construction and punctuation limits the score significantly.

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