Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-26
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 illustrates the trend of tourism in a caribbean island that rose from a million tourists to 3.5 million over time span of seven years.
In year 2010, 1 million tourists visited the caribbean island with 0.3 million visitors staying in cruise ships and 0.7 million on island. Next year, this figure increased to 1.3 million, the number of visitors staying on island remained constant. However, visitors staying in the cruise ships increased to 0.5 million. In 2012, the number of total tourist went up to 1.5 million slope kept rising to 2 million, 2.5 million and then 2.7 million in years 2013, 2014 and 2015. Visitors staying on island increased considerably to 1.3 million in 2012 and 1.5 million in 2013 and then remained constant for coming two years. On the other hand, cruise ships stays increased continuously in these years following a decline to 0.3 million in 2012 and reached 1.3 million in 2015. In 2016 total tourists remained same but island popularity went down by 0.2 million and stays in cruise ships increased to 1.5 million. In 2017, the figure jumped to 3.5 million with cruise ships making it to 2 million and number of people staying on island remained 1.5 million.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The student covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview of the trend and reporting the main features, such as the overall rise from 1 million to 3.5 million tourists and the fluctuations in the two categories. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reading the specific data points (for instance, stating that cruise ship visitors were 0.3 million in 2010 when the chart shows 0.25 million, and noting 0.7 million on the island instead of 0.75 million). Despite these slight data misreadings, the student successfully highlights key trends and makes relevant comparisons throughout the seven-year period, fulfilling the requirements of the task adequately.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is organized into two paragraphs, an introductory sentence followed by a detailed body paragraph. While the overall arrangement is coherent, the body paragraph is excessively long and dense, combining multiple trends, dates, and categories into a continuous block of text without sufficient paragraphing. Cohesive devices are used, but sometimes mechanical or abrupt transitions are employed (e.g., 'Next year, this figure increased...'). Logical progression is maintained for the most part, but the lack of paragraph breaks for different time periods or categories hampers the flow of the writing.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'trend', 'fluctuated', 'constant', 'considerably', and 'decline'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, though occasional word choice and collocation issues occur, such as 'cruise ships stays increased continuously' instead of 'stays on cruise ships'. Spelling is generally accurate, and vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main features of the chart, though it lacks the flexibility and precision associated with higher band scores.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over grammar. However, there are notable grammatical errors and punctuation issues, including run-on sentences and comma splices (e.g., 'In 2012, the number of total tourist went up to 1.5 million slope kept rising to 2 million...'). There are also occasional missing articles and singular/plural inconsistencies (e.g., 'total tourist' instead of 'total tourists'). These errors do not impede overall communication, but they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from achieving a higher band score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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