Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-21

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Your English-speaking friend who lives in your town has asked for your advice about learning a new sport. Write an email to your friend. In your email:

• recommend a new sport that would be suitable for your friend to learn
• explain how your friend could learn this sport
• suggest that you both learn this sport together

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

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

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear rohan, how are you? I hope everything well on your side, Sports plays a important holistic development of person it keeps person both physically and mentally.

I know that since adulthood you are really obsessed playing games, i know yu love to play games which are popular in abroad especially soccer and ice hockey , know i want to introduce yu new think in your world of activities ,that is cricket its quite popular in our home country it suits your personality as well because yu are bulky and has background in game i know that yu love it because in this game yu need lot of power to hit short.

Yu know that one famous celebrity cricketer also live just minutes away from our block , we can go there on weekend to learn , as it will not effect our other daily routine also , we will do it on our leisure time and we can go on my bike as it save time and fuel thats also one of best advantage for learning that culicular activity together

Regards

Manpreet

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all three bullet points of the task: recommending a sport (cricket), explaining how to learn it (visiting a local celebrity cricketer), and suggesting learning together. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. The explanation of why cricket is suitable is a bit repetitive, and the suggestion to learn from a celebrity is slightly unrealistic, which affects the overall coherence of the advice. While the tone is appropriate for an informal email, the content could be more detailed to fully satisfy the requirements of a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The email is organised into paragraphs, which is a positive feature. However, the logical progression between ideas is sometimes disjointed. The use of cohesive devices is very limited and often mechanical or misused (e.g., 'that is cricket its quite popular'). There is a lack of variety in linking words, and the transition between the recommendation and the practical details of learning the sport feels abrupt. Improved use of transition signals would help the reader follow the flow of the argument more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward phrasing or incorrect word choices, such as 'since adulthood you are really obsessed playing games' and 'new think in your world'. The spelling is also inconsistent, with frequent errors like 'yu' instead of 'you' and 'culicular' instead of 'curricular'. To reach a higher band, you should focus on using more natural collocations and ensuring accurate spelling throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response relies heavily on simple sentence structures, and there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede readability. Issues include subject-verb agreement ('Sports plays a important'), missing articles ('a important'), and run-on sentences or comma splices. Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of commas and the lack of capitalisation for proper nouns like 'rohan'. While the meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of basic errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band score.

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

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