Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-29
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 Ayesha,
With hope that you are doing very well in you life endeavours, i'm writing you to give my opinion on camping and weather you should go for campingor not.
I have listened that you are planning to go for camping in Northern areas this summer, it made me excited to share my opinion. I have read many people sharing their camping experience and it draw my atention. We should experience new things in our life. Having experienced camping you will enjoy as it will be a great oppertunity to spend your day and night in green fields and enjoy nature.It will have good impact on health and mind. About its dark side, you will realize the issues homeless people face as they have to spend their whole lives in camps .
As far as disadvantages of champing are concerned you may have to face bad weather, dangerous animals living in grasslands may attack at night searching for food or security threat. You may face lack of food and water for basic needs.
I am also thinking of going to Northern areas with my company friend as he lives in Swat and has experiend champing. He knows well about dangerous animals. He has worked as guide in a tourist company. So i thought it would be a great idea to go with him.
I strongly recommend you to go and have a great holiday.
Your Sincere Friend,
Madiha Iqbal
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
Madiha covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions well. She explains why her friend Ayesha would enjoy a camping holiday, mentioning the benefits of spending time in green fields and enjoying nature, which will have a good impact on health and the mind. She also describes possible disadvantages, such as bad weather, dangerous animals, and a potential lack of basic food and water. Furthermore, she clearly states whether she would like to go camping with her friend this summer, explaining her plans to travel with a company friend from Swat instead. The tone of the letter is appropriately friendly and conversational. The ideas are relevant and adequately developed throughout the response. Overall, this performance satisfies the requirements for Band 6.5, leaning towards Band 7 due to the clear coverage of all prompts, so a solid Band 6.0 is awarded based on some minor limitations in fully expanding every single supporting idea.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The letter exhibits a coherent overall arrangement with logical sequencing of ideas from the greeting to the final recommendation. Paragraphing is utilised to separate distinct topics, such as the introduction and positive aspects in the first paragraph, the disadvantages in the second, and travel plans with another friend in the third. However, some cohesive devices feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the sudden shift to discussing homeless people in the first paragraph, which disrupts the logical flow. Pronoun referencing like 'it' in 'it made me excited' is mostly clear, but transitional phrases between paragraphs could be smoother. Overall, the structural progression is adequate for a Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'life endeavours', 'oppertunity', and 'tourist company'. However, there are several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that detract from the overall quality, including 'weather' instead of 'whether', 'oppertunity' instead of 'opportunity', 'atention' instead of 'attention', and repeated misspellings of 'champing' instead of 'camping'. Collocations are occasionally awkward, such as 'have listened that you are planning'. While these errors do not impede communication, they limit the score to a Band 5.5, reflecting a mix of appropriate functional vocabulary and persistent lexical inaccuracies.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
Madiha attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as participial clauses ('Having experienced camping you will enjoy...') and conditional constructions. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several punctuation and capitalization issues, such as lowercase 'i' used independently ('i'm writing', 'So i thought'), missing commas before conjunctions, and minor prepositional errors ('go for camping' instead of 'go camping'). Additionally, sentence boundaries are occasionally blurred by run-on structures. Although these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from reaching a higher band. Control of grammar and punctuation is characteristic of a Band 5.5 performance.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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