Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-19

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 number of number of tourists visiting a Caribbean island from 2010 to 2017.

Overall, the total number of visitors inclined between 2010 to 2017. However, there are some fluctuations between tourists that stayed on cruise ships and those who stayed on the island.

Firstly, the total number of tourists increased from 1 million to around 1.2 million in 2011. After a year in 2012 it inclined to 1.5 million and gradually kept increasing with a steep thoughout [redacted phone] (from 2 million to 2.5 million). As the a year passed it increased to 2.7 in 2015, by 2016 it stayed almost the same and got the instant boost of 3.5 million in 2017.

Secondly, the total count of tourists that visited the island was around 0.2 million in 2010. As the year passed it increased to 0.5 million in 2011. In 2012 it declined back to 0.2 million. From 2012 to 2017 it kept increasing, from 0.5 million to 2 million.

Lastly, the number tourists that stayed on cruise ship stayed almost the same between [redacted phone](0.7 million) and afterwards, got a steep number of 1.3 million in 2012 and kept increasing until 2013. Between [redacted phone] the strength of tourists on cruise ships stayed almost the same, which is 1.5 million and slowly faced a downward trend in 2016. In 2017 it again inclined from 1.3 million to 1.5 million.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the overall rise in total visitors and note that the two accommodation groups fluctuate differently, which gives the response a relevant overview. However, several figures and series are confused, limiting the accuracy and completeness of the report. The paragraph beginning “Secondly” describes cruise-ship visitors, not tourists staying on the island: that series starts at about 0.25 million, rises overall to 2 million, and does not fall back to 0.2 million in 2012. The final paragraph instead describes island visitors, whose figures remain around 1.25–1.5 million after 2012. The total trend is mostly accurate, but the overview could more clearly highlight that cruise-ship numbers drove much of the later growth and overtook island stays in 2016.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction and overview are followed by three paragraphs using “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “Lastly.” This makes the information easy to locate, and the total figures are presented in chronological order. However, the grouping of the two visitor categories is undermined by switching their identities: the second paragraph discusses cruise-ship figures while calling them island visitors, and the final paragraph does the reverse. This makes the progression harder to follow despite the paragraph structure. Some linking is also mechanical, particularly the repeated “As the year passed” and “In 2012” constructions. Organise the body by correctly labelled series and use comparisons between them, such as noting when cruise-ship visitors surpassed island visitors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “increased,” “declined,” “downward trend,” and “fluctuations,” so the main trends are generally understandable. However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural for describing data. “Inclined” is repeatedly used to mean “increased,” while “got a steep number” and “got the instant boost” do not express the intended changes naturally. “The strength of tourists” is also an unsuitable phrase for visitor numbers. These word-choice and collocation problems, together with repetition of basic trend language, limit precision. Choose standard reporting verbs and nouns such as “rose,” “fell,” “remained stable,” and “reached a peak,” and ensure each phrase accurately describes the direction and size of the change.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, and most of the main comparisons can be understood. Some grammatical errors remain, especially in sentence construction and the use of articles and prepositions. For example, “from 2010 to 2017” is more appropriate than “between 2010 to 2017,” and “the number tourists” needs “the number of tourists.” The phrase “As the a year passed” contains an unnecessary article, while “Between 2013-2015” needs a clearer time expression, such as “From 2013 to 2015.” There are also punctuation and sentence-boundary issues, including the missing space before the parenthesis in “2011(0.7 million).” Review these patterns and check each sentence for a complete, correctly linked structure.

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