Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-21

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 6.5)

The line graph illustrates the amount of visitors to a certain Caribbean tourists destination from 2010 to 2017.

Overall, total number of tourists visited the island increased within the given period. Initially, visitors staying on island was greater than visitors who stayed on cruise ships. However, the situation flipped during later stages of the timeline.

According to the graph, total number of visitors kept increasing until 2015. Between 2015 and 2016, this number remained the same at around 2.8 millions. There was a sharp rise after 2016 as the total visitors count peaked at 3.5 millions. The number of visitors staying on the island rose to 1.5 millions despite remaining unchanged around o.8 millions until 2011. It stayed mostly at this level for the remainder of the time mentioned in the graph. When it comes to the visitiors count for the individuals who stayed on cruise ship, it fluctuated a bit initially till 2013. Then it increased sharply from 0.5 millions to 2 millions by the end of 2017 surpassing the number of tourists statying on the island between the years 2015 and 2016.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response identifies the main overall rise in total visitors and the shift from island-based visitors outnumbering cruise passengers to cruise passengers becoming more numerous. It also reports several key figures accurately, including the total plateau at about 2.8 million in 2015–16 and the 2017 peak of 3.5 million. This gives the report a clear overview and relevant support. Some details are less fully or precisely covered: the island-stay figure did not remain around 0.8 million until 2011, since it rose to about 1.25 million in 2012, and the cruise-ship figure overtook island stays in 2016, not across both 2015 and 2016. More precise comparisons and a clearer account of the island-stay fluctuations would strengthen the coverage.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response is arranged in a sensible sequence: an introduction, an overview, and then details about the total and the two visitor categories. Time markers such as “Initially,” “Between 2015 and 2016,” and “by the end of 2017” help the reader follow the timeline. The progression is generally clear, though the final paragraph moves between the total, island visitors, and cruise visitors without a fully consistent comparison structure. Some linking phrases, including “When it comes to,” feel conversational, and “It stayed mostly at this level” has an unclear reference because the island figure changes at several points. Grouping the two categories together by trend, then relating them to the total, would make the cohesion more controlled and less dependent on repeated “number of visitors” phrasing.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for describing the graph, with useful trend language such as “remained the same,” “sharp rise,” “peaked,” and “fluctuated.” The writer also attempts more specific expressions, including “surpassing” and “given period,” and the intended meaning is generally clear. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward: “amount of visitors” should be “number of visitors,” “Caribbean tourists destination” is not a natural phrase, and “visitiors” and “statying” contain spelling errors. “Tourists count” and “individuals who stayed on cruise ship” are also less concise and precise than standard chart-reporting language. More consistent use of terms such as “tourists,” “visitors staying on the island,” and “cruise-ship passengers” would improve accuracy and naturalness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

There is a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the contrast introduced by “Initially” and “However,” and the clause beginning “despite remaining unchanged.” Most sentences communicate the intended trends, but some grammatical errors remain. For example, “total number of tourists visited” needs an article and a more suitable clause structure, while “visitors staying on island was greater” has an agreement problem and is missing an article. The phrase “the total visitors count peaked” also has an awkward grammatical construction, and “the number … rose to 1.5 millions despite remaining unchanged” creates an unclear relationship between the rise and the unchanged period. Check articles, singular/plural agreement, and sentence logic when combining trends; these corrections would make the varied structures more consistently accurate.

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