Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-17
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 graph below shows number of tourists visiting a specific Caribbean island between 2010 and 2017, from vistors staying on cruise ships to visitors staying on the island.
Overall, The total number of tourists are growing steadily year by year. The number of total tourists visiting the island has grown from 1 million visitors in 2010 to 3.5 million in 2017.
Initially, visitors staying on the island made up the minority of total visitors, ranging from roughly 250,000 people in 2010 and 2012, to 500,000 people in 2011. But starting from 2013, the number of visitors staying on cruise ships saw a significant increase from 500,000 to 1 million in just one year. It also exceeded the number of people staying on the island in mid-2015 at around 1.35 million. This number kept rising, reaching 2 million in 2017.
Furthermore, The majority of people were staying on the island from 2010 to 2015, a stangnation in this number from 2013 to 2015, at 1 million poeple, led to number of people on the ships superseeding them. The number of people stayed on island dropped in 2016 to around 750,[redacted phone],000, before eventually recovering back to 1 million in 2017.
This indicates that in the recent years, people are more likely to stay on ships then visit the island themselves, highlighting a change in people's decisions compared to the past.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student attempts to cover all parts of the task by reporting the overall trend and discussing the two categories (visitors staying on cruise ships and visitors staying on the island) alongside the total. However, there are notable factual inaccuracies when compared to the visual data. For instance, the student states that visitors staying on the island made up roughly 250,000 in 2010 and 2012, whereas the chart shows this figure was 750,000. Additionally, data points like 1.35 million in mid-2015 do not align with the provided graph. Despite these data misinterpretations, the student does present an overview and attempts to make relevant comparisons, meeting the basic requirements for a Band 5.5 to 6.0 performance.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is divided into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, followed by an overall statement, and then breaking down the specific categories. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'Initially', 'Furthermore', and 'before eventually' are used to guide the reader through the text. However, paragraphing and referencing are occasionally clumsy, and the logical progression stumbles due to conflicting data references between paragraphs. For example, the transition into the fourth paragraph feels slightly disjointed given the preceding discussion on cruise ship growth. Overall, the structural framework is present, earning a solid Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms such as 'stagnation', 'recovering', and 'significant increase'. However, there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and misspellings, such as 'vistors' instead of 'visitors', 'stangnation' instead of 'stagnation', and 'superseeding' instead of 'superseding'. Furthermore, confusing 'then' with 'than' in the concluding sentence ('more likely to stay on ships then visit') highlights recurring slip-ups in word choice and spelling that prevent the response from achieving a higher band score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, utilizing subordinate clauses like 'while there may be' or prepositional phrases effectively. However, there are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout the text. For example, 'The total number of tourists are growing' exhibits subject-verb agreement failure ('is growing'), and 'The majority of people were staying... a stagnation... led to' creates a run-on or dangling structure. Capitalization is also occasionally erratic, such as 'Overall, The total'. Despite these recurring errors, the meaning remains mostly clear, aligning with the Band 5.5 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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