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 Ali,

I am so glad that listening you are making a camping plan in this summer's holiday.

It is a very good idea for refreshment.

As we know that some activities like this, it's very important for our stressful and busy schedule.

It's very important for health and mind.

I would like to say you that some beautiful places in my mind. If you agree so tell me.

First of all that it is necessory to which kind of places you like.

Here are some places like river, park, desirt, jungle. Where would you like to go?

But i suggests you that you come in my home town, my town consist two main part,one part is a plain area while the other part is surrounding by beautiful tall and lush green mountains.there is a beautiful lake which famous of it's deep blue color,and one important thing that i forgot to mention that in my home town second largest salt mine of the world.millions of people from the whole world visit this place to see the salt mine and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

I hope you were very happy to visit in my town.

I and my brother made your camping nostligic.

I am eagerly waiting for your answer.

yours truly

ABBAS

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points required in the task instructions, which is a positive aspect of your writing. You explained why your friend would enjoy camping by mentioning refreshment and stress relief, described possible disadvantages by offering choices of different types of terrain such as deserts or jungles, and mentioned your own hometown as a destination while inviting him to go camping with you. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or expressed in a confusing manner, particularly the description of the disadvantages and the transition into inviting your friend to your hometown. To achieve a higher band score for Task Achievement, you should ensure that your ideas are fully extended and clearly focused on all prompt requirements without any ambiguity in the explanation of potential drawbacks.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

Your letter shows an overall coherent arrangement with an appropriate informal salutation and sign-off, fitting the General Training task type. However, the organization within the body of the letter is somewhat faulty. Paragraphing is not used effectively; instead of separating your main points into distinct paragraphs, you have lumped many ideas into one very long block of text. Furthermore, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or missing, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'one important thing that i forgot to mention that in my home town second largest salt mine of the world.' To improve, you should break your ideas into logical paragraphs and use a wider range of appropriate cohesive links to guide the reader smoothly through your thoughts.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate basic ideas about camping, travel, and your hometown. You attempt some less common lexical items, such as 'refreshment', 'scenery', and 'nostligic' (though this is a spelling error and misuse of the word). There are noticeable errors in word choice and spelling throughout your response, including 'listening' instead of 'seeing' or 'knowing', 'desirt' instead of 'desert', 'necessory' instead of 'necessary', and 'surrounding' instead of 'surrounded'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict your lexical score. To reach a higher band, you need to expand your range of vocabulary, use less common terms with greater precision, and check your spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, attempting structures like conditional clauses ('If you agree so tell me') and relative clauses ('Where would you like to go?'). However, your writing contains frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues that cause difficulty for the reader. Examples of errors include 'making a camping plan in this summer's holiday' (preposition and article misuse), 'some activities like this, it's very important' (faulty sentence structure/comma splice), 'I would like to say you that' (incorrect verb complementation), and 'I hope you were very happy to visit in my town' (incorrect tense usage). The high frequency of grammatical inaccuracies means that error-free sentences are not in the majority, placing your writing firmly in the lower-middle bands.

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

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