Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A friend of yours is thinking of going on a camping holiday for the first time this summer. He/She has asked for your advice. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter

• explain why you think your friend would enjoy a camping holiday
• describe some possible disadvantages
• say whether you would like to go camping with your friend this summer

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ................. ,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Aleca,

How’re you? I’m very happy by hearing about your plan on going camping holiday.

You’ll definitely enjoy this trip because of location of camping holiday. I have visited there too. You will get chances to see wildlife and to understand nature process . you will feel deep connected withnature after this vacation.

May be you have to face some challanges as well such as loss of internet connection and difficult to live due to rain.The weather of that campus zone is unpredictable. Sometimes, there is raining for a whole day and it can spoil your planning to do sone activities. So, make each day plan carefully.

Do you want me to go with you? Afcourse, i can come because i’m also free on this day and w’ll get some quality time together. You will also enjoy my company, right?

Hope so meet you soon!

Take care,

sukh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student has successfully covered all bullet points in the prompt: explaining why the friend would enjoy camping, describing disadvantages, and expressing a desire to join. However, the response falls slightly short of the task requirements because it contains only 149 words, missing the 150-word minimum threshold specified by IELTS instructions. Additionally, some ideas such as the disadvantages are somewhat brief and could be extended further for a fully developed response. Therefore, it fits best at Band 5.5 due to the minor length penalty and under-development of certain points.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter follows a clear friendly letter format, starting with an appropriate salutation and ending with a sign-off. Ideas are generally organised into paragraphs, with each paragraph addressing a distinct part of the prompt. However, paragraphing and transitions are occasionally basic or abrupt, such as the sudden shift in the third paragraph starting with 'May be you have to face...'. Cohesive devices are used sparingly, but the overall progression of ideas is still comprehensible. This performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of everyday vocabulary suitable for an informal letter, such as 'wildlife', 'unpredictable', and 'quality time'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, including 'by hearing about your plan on going camping holiday' and 'nature process' instead of 'natural processes'. Furthermore, phrasing like 'make each day plan carefully' demonstrates limited precision in word choice and expression. These inaccuracies place the response securely at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional and modal structures ('You’ll definitely enjoy...', 'you may have to face...'). However, the text contains frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('location of camping holiday'), incorrect prepositions ('on this day'), punctuation errors ('nature . you will feel'), and capitalization issues ('Afcourse, i can come'). These errors occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a limited command of grammatical structures, corresponding to a Band 5.0 score.

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

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