Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-05
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 line chart illustrates the staying habits of tourist who visits Caribbean island from 2010 to 2017 in millions.
Overall, the number of tourist visiting Caribbean island has massively increased from 2010 till 2017. Initially the people who preferred to stay at cruise ship was more than the people who stayed at the island. However, during all these years, the choice of people shifted and more people stayed on the island than on the cruise ship in 2017.
In 2010, 1 million people visited the island which increased to 3.5 millions in 2017. In 2010, 0.75 million tourist preferred to stay at the cruise ship while 0.25 million stayed on the island. The people staying on the cruise ship increased in 2011 but those who stay on the island remained same. In 2012, again, the choice of staying on cruise ship increased to 1.25 million and island reduced to 0.25 million that is same as in 2010. From 2013, both start rising and eventually staying at cruise ship become more popular with almost 2 million tourist and staying at island get second place with 1.5 million tourists.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0
The response addresses the task only minimally, as the student misinterprets the data categories significantly throughout the text. Specifically, the student confuses the categories by stating in the body paragraph that '0.75 million tourist preferred to stay at the cruise ship while 0.25 million stayed on the island' in 2010, whereas the chart shows that visitors staying on cruise ships were 0.25 million and visitors staying on the island were 0.75 million. This misreading of the graph series permeates the overview and details, preventing the response from fully conveying the correct information. The overview attempts to capture general trends, but the underlying data is largely inaccurate.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The response shows a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, separating the introduction, overview, and body details. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'Initially', 'However', and 'In 2010'. However, referencing and logical progression are sometimes faulty due to the confusion in data interpretation. For example, transitional phrases like 'again, the choice of staying on cruise ship increased' link sentences mechanically rather than building a clear logical progression of the actual trends shown in the graph.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for a basic summary, featuring words such as 'illustrates', 'massive', 'preferred', and 'popular'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice and data representation, such as 'staying habits of tourist' and 'choice of people shifted'. Furthermore, confusion between categories leads to lexical errors in reporting figures accurately. Spelling is generally acceptable, but the range of vocabulary remains limited and attempts at less common items result in awkward phrasing or factual inaccuracies.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Although the number of tourist visiting Caribbean island has massively increased...' and 'Initially the people who preferred to stay at cruise ship was more than...'. There are frequent errors in articles ('at cruise ship', 'on island'), pluralisation ('tourist' instead of 'tourists'), and subject-verb agreement ('the people who preferred... was'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they persist throughout the text and demonstrate limited control over grammatical structures.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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