Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-01
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 David,
How are you? I hope this mail finds you well.
It was a great news that your are going to camping holiday first time in this summer. I say this would be your one of the memorable trips in the life. Camping is very beautiful activity to experience in life. This gives you a chance to live out of your comfort zone for couple of days under the surveillance of nature. Furthermore, you can get a chance to meet new people and make friends them as well. You will realize life can be live beautifully without modern ammenities such as mobile, internet, lights and air-conditioner.
I have couple of experience of camping. By those experiences, I would suggest please carry as minimal and essential items as possible such as low weight cloths, shoes. I know wherever you go out of town you carry couple of heavy books. this time I would suggest don't carry bulky books. It makes you light weight and you will not feel tired. Of course, it would not be easy for you to manage with limited things but at the end, you will enjoy this trip.
I wish I could join you on this trip. However, I have very important seminars during your scheduled trip. This makes difficult to sign up in this camp. But I wish you will have a great vacation and have lots of fun. I would be more than happy if you will share your experience with me after coming from the holidays.
Best reagrds,
Vishal
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5
The response addresses the prompt only partially. While all three bullet points from the task instructions are mentioned, the development is limited and lacks sufficient depth. For instance, the explanation of why your friend would enjoy camping is quite brief, mentioning only general points like living out of your comfort zone and meeting new people. Similarly, the description of disadvantages is superficial, focusing mainly on a lack of modern amenities and advising to pack light, rather than fully exploring challenges like bad weather or physical exhaustion. Furthermore, the final bullet point regarding whether you would like to join your friend is addressed, but the refusal is explained with basic reasoning. To improve, each bullet point needs to be extended and supported with more fully elaborated ideas and specific details.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear, logical progression of ideas from greeting to the final sign-off. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate the introduction, the advice regarding camping, your personal unavailability, and the conclusion. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. For example, transition words and referencing devices are occasionally overused or imprecise, such as 'By those experiences' instead of 'From those experiences', and 'This makes difficult' missing a subject pronoun. While the general flow is easy to follow, achieving a higher band would require smoother, more natural linking words and more precise referencing across sentences to connect ideas seamlessly.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating the main message, but it remains limited in range and flexibility. You attempt some less common vocabulary items, such as 'surveillance of nature' and 'modern ammenities', but these show some inaccuracy in collocation and spelling (e.g., 'ammenities'). There are also notable word choice errors, such as 'great news that your are going to camping holiday' instead of 'going on a camping holiday' and 'low weight cloths' instead of 'lightweight clothes'. To reach a higher band, you need to incorporate a wider range of precise, sophisticated vocabulary and natural collocations with fewer spelling and word-choice slips.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like conditional and relative clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. Noticeable issues include subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as 'It was a great news' and 'first time in this summer', as well as missing pronouns like 'This makes [it] difficult'. Preposition and tense errors also occur, such as 'friends them' and 'your are going'. To improve, you should focus on increasing the proportion of error-free sentences and exercising better control over basic grammatical patterns, articles, and sentence boundaries.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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