Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-03

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 line graph illustrates the number of people who visited a particular Caribbean island from 2010 to 2017. Overall, the total number of tourists tripled over the seven years period. Meanwhile, staying on island was the most preferred activity until 2015, compared to those who remained on cruise ships, which it became dominant after 2015.

The total number of visitors to the Caribbean island increased dramatically over the seven years period. In 2010, there was just 1 million people visited it, before rising rapidly to just over 2.5 million in 2015 and remained around this level until 2016. In addition, a sharp rise in the number of visitors was observed by 2017, reaching 3.5 million.

Looking at the activities that people did on the island during their stayed. People preferred to stay on the island, as there were about 0.75 million individuals in 2010, compared to 0.25 million stayed on cruise ships. The former figure rose steadily to 1.5 million by 2013, while it fluctuated but remained around or under 0.5 million for those who stayed on cruise ships. From 2013 to 2015, the number of visitors on island remained unchanged, whereas it clumbed for cruise ships activity to approximately 1,25 million ,before overtaking the former figure by the end of the timeframe, reaching 2 million in 2017.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by providing a clear overview and reporting the main trends and comparisons from the graph. The overview captures the overall tripling of the total visitors and the shift in dominance between the two categories. Key features are accurately highlighted, such as the initial preference for staying on the island and the eventual overtaking by cruise ship visitors in 2017. However, some details are slightly generalized or under-developed, such as the minor fluctuations in the middle years, which prevents the response from reaching the highest bands. Overall, the data is accurately presented and directly answers the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The report maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas throughout. Information is organized into sensible paragraphs, with an introduction containing an overview, a body paragraph on total visitors, and another on specific activities. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as "Meanwhile," "In addition," and "The former figure." However, cohesion can occasionally feel mechanical or slightly repetitive, and referencing is not always completely smooth, as seen in the phrasing "during their stayed" and some awkward transitional links. This places the response comfortably in the middle band for this criterion, showing solid organizational structure while lacking the effortless flow of higher bands.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common lexical items such as "dominant," "dramatically," and "fluctuated." However, there are noticeable word choice, word form, and collocation errors that prevent a higher score, such as "staying on island" instead of "staying on the island," "during their stayed," and the spelling error "clumbed" instead of "climbed." Additionally, some phrases are slightly unnatural, though these inaccuracies do not impede overall communication. Expanding the variety of precise reporting verbs and ensuring correct word forms would elevate this criterion.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, with attempts at relative clauses and comparative structures. There are several grammatical errors scattered throughout the text, including tense and preposition issues such as "which it became dominant," "1 million people visited it," and "0.25 million stayed on cruise ships" lacking proper article and preposition support. Punctuation also exhibits minor flaws, such as spacing issues around commas and periods. Nevertheless, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, reflecting a typical performance where simple structures are handled well while complex patterns contain occasional slips.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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