Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-02

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 illustration gives information about the Caribbean island and the number of visitor who visiting special this land from 2010 to 2017. Overall, the total number of travel had been growing during all this period.

It is quite evident from the graph that one millions of visitors had been staying on Caribbean island but almost 0.7 millions of visitors had stayed on island in 2010. But the total number of tourists visiting a Caribbean island had been continually growing but during the years of 2016 to 2017 the number of visitors significant boom. The number of those visitors who stay on island had not been grow of fall until the 2011 but after the the number of those tourists had been increasing from 2011 to 2015 than fall for one year.

Furthermore, this also gives information about the number of travels who stay on cruise ships. The number of these travels had been growing in 2011 than fall. But in 2012 the number of tourists staying on cruiser ships had been continually growing until 2017.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response makes a partial attempt to address the task by outlining some main trends in the graph, such as the overall growth in total tourists and specific movements in visitor categories. However, the information provided is sometimes inaccurate or confused. For instance, the opening data points are misreported, stating that one million visitors stayed on the island when the visual data shows that total visitors were one million, with 0.75 million staying on the island and 0.25 million on cruise ships. Furthermore, the overview is extremely basic, and some descriptions of trends, such as 'the number of visitors significant boom', lack clarity and precise support from the data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation in the response, with an introductory sentence followed by body paragraphs detailing the categories. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression. The logical flow is hindered by awkward transitions and repetitive sentence starters, such as repeatedly using 'the number of... had been...'. Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion within sentences is weak due to mechanical and repetitive use of cohesive devices like 'Furthermore' and 'But', making the progression of ideas feel somewhat disjointed.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and repetitive, reflecting a minimally adequate range for the task. There are frequent word choice errors and incorrect word forms, such as 'travels' instead of 'travelers' or 'tourists', and 'cruiser ships' instead of 'cruise ships'. Phrases like 'significant boom' are misused grammatically as verbs rather than nouns. These lexical slips and spelling inaccuracies require the reader to slow down and occasionally cause strain, though the general topic remains just about clear.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer employs a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple and clumsy continuous verb forms that are often misused, such as 'had been grow of fall' and 'had not been grow'. Attempts at complex structures are frequently faulty, leading to frequent errors in verb tense consistency, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions. For example, 'number of visitor who visiting special this land' contains multiple grammatical failures. These frequent errors across basic and attempted complex structures cause noticeable difficulty for the reader.

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