Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-11

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 graph illustrates the figure of tourists who visiting caribbean island from 2010 to 2017. Noticeably, the total figures of tourists increased over the given time period.

In 2010, nearly 0.3 millions of visitors like to stay on cruise ships and gradually increased to 0.5 millions before falling to again 0.3 millions in 2012. After 2012, the figure for visitors who like to stay on cruise ships significantly went up and reached at 2 millions by 2017.

The figure remained stable in 2010 and 2011 for visitors who like to stay on island, at 0.7 millions. After 2011, it went up and stood at 1.5 millions by 2013. Again the figure remained stable from 2013 to 2015. After 2015, the figure dropped at nearly 1.3 million before reached to 1.5 millions in 2017.

Overall, the figure of total visitors who like to visit caribbean island was increased over the given time period.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the overall rise in total visitors and report the main movements in both accommodation categories. The cruise-ship figures are broadly accurate, including the dip in 2012 and the rise to about 2 million in 2017; the island-stayer figures are also mostly represented correctly. However, the response does not give any figures or trend details for the total series beyond saying it increased, even though this is a key feature and the total rose from about 1 million to 3.5 million, with a brief plateau in 2015–16. The overview is also repeated rather than developed into a fuller comparison of the series. Include the total data and highlight how cruise-ship visitors drove much of the later growth to make the report more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is arranged in a generally clear sequence: an introduction and overview, a paragraph on cruise-ship visitors, a paragraph on island visitors, and a concluding overview. This makes the two categories easy to follow. However, the final paragraph largely repeats the opening overview instead of adding a useful comparison, and the account would progress more logically if the total trend were integrated with the category details. Linking phrases such as “After 2012” and “After 2015” help signal time, but repeated sentence openings with “The figure” and “After” make the cohesion somewhat mechanical. Use more varied referencing and connect the series explicitly, for example by contrasting the steady island figure with the strong late increase in cruise visitors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary for describing trends, including “increased,” “falling,” “went up,” “remained stable,” and “dropped,” so the main movements can be understood. However, the range is limited and several expressions are imprecise or unnatural for a data report. “The figure of tourists who visiting” and “visitors who like to stay” do not describe the chart naturally; the graph reports visitor numbers, not preferences. There are also errors in forms and collocations, such as “0.3 millions” and “reached at 2 millions.” Aim for concise reporting language and use “number of visitors,” “rose to,” and “fell to,” with the unit expressed consistently as “million.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more extended sentences, and the time sequence is usually understandable. However, errors in verb forms, articles, agreement, and sentence construction recur. For example, “tourists who visiting” needs a finite verb or a participle construction, while “the figure … was increased” uses an incorrect passive form for this trend. In “before reached to 1.5 millions,” the verb pattern is incomplete; use “before reaching 1.5 million” or “before it reached 1.5 million.” The repeated use of “the figure” also leads to awkward sentence structures. Practise accurate past-tense trend descriptions and vary sentence patterns, checking that each clause has a complete subject and verb.

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