Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-12

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 charts compares the number of tourists that travelled to experience a very specific caribbean island during the timeline of 2010 and 2017. The x aixs is representing the years and the y axis is showing the no of visitors in millions.

During the year of 2010, The amount of visitors that stayed on cruise ships is more than the visiotrs staying on the island. With the change staying same for the cruise visitors same while the visitors staying on island rised a little followed by a decrease in 2012, to the same numbers we captured in 2010. Unlike them, the amount of cruise visitors started increasing with a rapid change,to 1.5 Million,in the year to 2012 that then stayed consistent following the years till 2015. After which we are witnessing a decrease in the cruise travellers. However the travellers staying on island increase with a instant increase following the year of 2013 and maintained the pace till 2017 with no fluctuations.

Overall, the trend of total visitors increased rapidly. Island visitors went from 0.25M to 2M with almost no decrease in the original trend. While the people staying on cruise only went from 0.75M to 1.5M showing half the change as compared to the island visitors.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the chart’s subject and attempt to describe changes in both visitor groups, but several key figures and trends are misreported, so the main features are not reliably conveyed. For example, in 2010 island visitors (about 0.75 million) outnumbered cruise-ship visitors (about 0.25 million), not the reverse. Cruise visitors rose to about 1.5 million in 2016 and 2 million in 2017; they did not reach 1.5 million in 2012 or decrease after 2015. The final comparison also reverses the groups’ overall changes: island visitors rose from about 0.75 to 1.5 million, while cruise visitors rose from about 0.25 to 2 million. Give a clear overview based on the actual overall rise and the contrasting patterns.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a body paragraph and a concluding overview. Time markers such as “During the year of 2010,” “After which” and “Overall” help signal movement through the chart. However, the body’s progression is difficult to follow because the two series are repeatedly mixed within long, awkward sentences, and some references are unclear, as in “With the change staying same for the cruise visitors.” The overview also conflicts with the preceding account, making the overall progression less coherent. Organise the body by series or by clear time periods, and use shorter sentences with explicit subjects so readers can track which figures belong to each group.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant chart vocabulary, including “visitors,” “increased,” “decrease,” “consistent” and “fluctuations,” which gives you a basic range for describing trends. However, word choice and spelling errors are noticeable and sometimes make the meaning harder to follow. Examples include “x aixs,” “visiotrs,” “rised,” and “instant increase”; “rapid change” is also imprecise for describing a numerical trend. Phrases such as “the amount of visitors” and “the pace” are not natural choices in this context. Build a more accurate set of collocations for charts, such as “the number of visitors,” “rose steadily,” “remained stable” and “reached a peak,” and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “while,” “followed by” and “after which.” However, complex constructions are often faulty, and errors in agreement, tense, articles and punctuation occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to interpret. For instance, “The line charts compares” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “the visitors staying on island rised” combines an incorrect verb form with an incomplete noun phrase. The sentence beginning “With the change staying same” is also structurally unclear, and capitalisation after commas is inconsistent. Practise forming complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and check agreement and past-tense forms when describing the historical data.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.