Southwest Airport Redevelopment Plans

The plans below show the site of an airport now and how it will look after redevelopment next year. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Test 3 Writing Task 1 visual

Annotated response

9 correction notes

Showing 9 correction notes.

The depict an airport's current layout as well as the planned layout for its redevelopment next year. Overall, it is clear that the airport will be expanded in terms of both space and amenities.

There is currently a departures lounge to the west and an arrivals lounge to the east. Travelers can either visit the café opposite the check-in counter or proceed directly to the passport control and security zones after checking in at the departures lounge. Awaiting room with a walkway and 8 gates . Before exiting the arrivals lounge, arriving passengers must pass through to reach the passport control and customs areas.

Following the airport's redevelopment, many changes are expected to be visible next year. The check-in counter will be relocated closer to the center of the departures lounge, opposite the newly introduced bag drop and the café, which will be relocated . Additionally, shops will be established in the airport's for travelers to visit before with 18 gates and a sky train to transport passengers. Meanwhile, in an expanded section of the east wall, the arrivals lounge will include a café, an ATM, and . It is also worth noting that each of the lounges will have an additional entryway.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response gives a clear overview and compares the current and redeveloped airport layouts with mostly accurate detail, including the gate expansion, new shops, bag drop, and sky train. Its main limitation is a handful of imprecise or garbled descriptions, such as the fragment about the waiting room and walkway and the claim about the café's relocation, alongside occasional grammatical slips.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.0

The response covers the main changes from both maps, including the expansion from 8 to 18 gates, the Y-shaped terminal, shops, bag drop, sky train, and new arrivals amenities, with a clear overview, though a few details such as the walkway description and the café's new position are imprecise or unclear.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are logically organised into current and future layouts with clear progression and good use of referencing, but one sentence fragment and a slightly confusing sequence in the second paragraph reduce cohesion.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is flexible and topic-appropriate, with precise terms like passport control, customs, relocated, and amenities, though phrasing such as awaiting room and the stray spacing after southwest shows minor lapses.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A wide range of structures is used with generally good control, including complex relative and participial constructions, but errors such as the sentence fragment and an article omission in awaiting room are noticeable.