Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-28
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
A museum near your home is looking for people to do part-time voluntary/unpaid work. You would like to do some voluntary/unpaid work at the museum. Write a letter to the museum director to apply for the voluntary/unpaid work. In your letter
- explain why you want to do voluntary/unpaid work at the museum
- describe some skills and qualities you have that would be useful
- give details of when you would be available for work
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Student answer (Band 4.0)
Dear Jasmine,
I hope you are in a radiant health and high spirits. I greatly enjoyed the family celebration, which you organized last week; however, I've to leave early due to some circumstances.
As you organized Rakhi celebration on your own without anybody's help, I would greatly appreciate your efforts, and thank you for inviting me and organizing such an enjoyable celebration.
Unfortunately, I received a call from my workplace regarding an urgent meeting. Since I had to give consultation to an international client, the meeting was unavoidable and important for me to attend. I'm sorry from depth of my heart as I've to leave early.
Although several occasions come during the year, I believe we can celebrate the Christmas together this year. If your Christmas week is free, we can celebrate the Christmas in Banff, and spend some quality time together.
I hope to see you soon, and super excited to meet you in our next occasion.
With love,
Jasnoor
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 1.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0
The response is completely off-topic. The task required a formal letter to a museum director applying for a volunteer position, including reasons for applying, relevant skills, and availability. Instead, the student wrote a personal letter to a friend named Jasmine regarding a missed celebration. Because the response fails to address any of the bullet points or the purpose of the prompt, it cannot be assessed as a successful completion of the task. It does not meet the requirements of the task instructions at all.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The letter is internally coherent as a personal message to a friend. It uses appropriate paragraphing and logical sequencing for a social letter, with clear transitions like 'Unfortunately' and 'Although'. However, because the content is entirely irrelevant to the prompt, the organizational structure does not serve the purpose of the required task. Cohesive devices are used correctly in the context of the letter written, but they do not contribute to the task requested.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates a reasonable range of vocabulary for a personal letter, such as 'radiant health', 'unavoidable', and 'consultation'. The language is natural and appropriate for the social context created by the student. However, since the vocabulary is not applied to the required task (a formal application), it is difficult to assess the student's ability to use professional or formal language required for a museum application.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some grammatical errors, such as 'I've to leave' (should be 'I had to leave') and 'celebrate the Christmas' (the article 'the' is unnecessary before Christmas). Despite these errors, the meaning is clear throughout the text. The control of grammar is sufficient for a personal letter, but the lack of formal register required for the actual task makes it difficult to award a higher score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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