Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-25

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 6.5)

The Caribbean is a favourable tourist spot from visitors across the world. The data collected from a particular island between 2010 and 2017 is presented in a stacked line graph format. This shows the growing popularity of cruises around the region.

The Island has seen a steady rise in tourists, with total visitors increases 3.5 times over the last 8 years. In the initial years, visitors preferred staying on the Island. We can see in the graph how there was a steady increase in in-land vacationers from 2010 to 2013. After this, the numbers plateaued for 2 years. But the numbers since have not improved.

Simultaneously, after a rocky 3 years, the number of cruise passengers increased at a steady pace. By 2016, the number of cruise ship visitors surpassed that of the island's. In 8 years, cruise ship guest numbers grew from 500,000 to 2 million, i.e., 4 times.

Overall there is a growing trend of visitors staying on cruise ships versus island accomodations.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response covers all key features of the prompt well. You successfully identified the overall upward trend, noted that cruise ship passengers eventually surpassed island-based tourists, and provided relevant figures such as the growth from 500,000 to 2 million. However, there are minor inaccuracies in data interpretation: you stated that visitors staying on the island plateaued and then 'did not improve' whereas the data shows a slight dip and recovery to 1.5 million in 2017. Additionally, your opening sentence about the total increase being '3.5 times' is slightly imprecise compared to the exact 3.5 million final total (which grew from 1 million to 3.5 million, a 3.5-fold increase). Despite these minor calculation slips, all parts of the task are adequately addressed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

Your essay demonstrates clear logical organisation and progression. The response is divided into logical paragraphs, with an introduction setting the context, separate body paragraphs focusing on island vacationers and cruise passengers respectively, and a concise concluding overview. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well, such as 'Simultaneously' and 'Overall'. However, referencing and transitions could be smoother; for instance, the sentence 'After this, the numbers plateaued for 2 years. But the numbers since have not improved' uses a colloquial start to the sentence ('But') and slightly choppy phrasing. Overall, paragraphing is sufficient and the progression of ideas is easy to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary with some attempts at less common items, such as 'plateaued', 'favourable', and 'surpassed'. There are, however, some lexical and spelling inaccuracies that prevent a higher band. For example, 'accomodations' is misspelled (accommodations), and 'in-land' is hyphenated unnecessarily. Furthermore, 'favourable tourist spot from visitors' is an awkward collocation; 'spot for visitors' would be more natural. Vocabulary choice is generally adequate to convey meaning, but precision in collocation needs tightening.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You make use of a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including participial phrases ('with total visitors increases') and relative clauses. However, there are notable grammatical errors present. For instance, 'with total visitors increases 3.5 times' contains a tense/form error ('increases' should be 'increasing' or 'having increased'). There is also a punctuation slip in 'i.e., 4 times.' while the text mentions the numbers grew from 500,000 to 2 million, which is actually a 4-fold increase, but the phrasing is slightly informal. Grammatical errors do not severely impede communication, but they occur frequently enough to restrict the score to a band 6.

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