Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-08

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 number of visitors traveling a particular Caribbean island from 2010 to 2017.

Overall, the graph demonstrates the data of two different type of visitors along with the sum of both. These included the visitors who were staying on ship and travelers staying on the island. There's gradually increase in number of visitors over eight years.

To begin with the travelers who resides on cruise ships, there were around 0.3 million visitors in 2010, while near 0.8 million of tourists spent their vaccation on Caribbean island. We can see continuosly growth in both trends. Visitors staying on cruise ship were surged over these years with the maximum number of 2 million with a minor drop in 2012. On the other hand, Visitors who stayed on island were increased to 1.5 million till 2017. Besides, there's a minor fluctuation in this trend.

Finally, total number of visitors on Caribbean island were 1 million. According to the data, there's constant incline in overall visitors with the peak number of 3.5 million between 2010 and 2017.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the chart’s three series and give a broad overview of growth, then include relevant figures such as the cruise-ship total reaching 2 million and the overall total reaching 3.5 million. However, some key details are inaccurate or unclear: island-based visitors were about 1.5 million from 2013 through 2015, fell to 1.25 million in 2016, and returned to 1.5 million in 2017; saying they increased “to 1.5 million till 2017” misses this pattern. The cruise-ship series also fluctuated early rather than growing continuously. The overview would be stronger if it highlighted that island stays were initially the larger group, while cruise visitors rose sharply and became larger by 2017. Develop comparisons across the period more precisely.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, an overview, and paragraphs describing the two visitor categories and the total. Sequencing phrases such as “To begin with” and “Finally” help readers follow the account. However, the final paragraph is very brief and reports only the starting and ending total, while the preceding paragraph combines several comparisons without a fully clear progression. Some links are also imprecise: “On the other hand” suggests a contrast, but the following sentence mainly reports the island-stay trend, and “Besides” does not clearly show how the fluctuation relates to the previous point. Grouping the figures by time period and using explicit comparisons would make the progression more coherent and cohesion less mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant chart vocabulary, including “visitors,” “total,” “fluctuation,” “maximum,” and “incline,” and the meaning is generally understandable. However, the range and control are uneven, with several noticeable word-choice, collocation, and spelling problems. For example, “visitors traveling a particular Caribbean island” is not a natural way to describe the chart, and “visitors staying on ship” is less precise than the chart’s category. “Continuosly growth” and “vaccation” also show spelling or word-form errors, while “peak number” is awkward for a total. Aim for accurate, natural reporting phrases such as “the number of visitors rose,” “those staying on cruise ships,” and “reached a peak.” This would make the vocabulary more precise without requiring unnecessarily complex wording.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more developed sentence forms, and the main message is usually recoverable. Some grammatical errors remain, particularly with articles, agreement, and verb forms. For example, “There’s gradually increase” needs a grammatical subject and verb pattern, while “total number of visitors … were 1 million” has a singular-plural agreement problem. In “Visitors who stayed on island were increased,” the passive form is not appropriate for describing a changing figure; use “the number … increased.” The sentence “Visitors staying on cruise ship were surged” has a similar verb-form problem. There are also inconsistent tense choices and missing articles in phrases such as “on Caribbean island.” More accurate control of these patterns, alongside varied sentence structures, would improve clarity.

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