Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-11

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 friend,

Hope you are doing well.

I received your message about you want my advice about learning new sport. I am felling great to tell you that you can start learning foot ball because it is best sport because with help of that you can do physcial activity which is good for your health.

You can learn this game from sport center which is available in my city and they have great teachers who help you lot to learn it easily also i am free as well these days so i think it is best if we both start learning this sport and i am sure that we enjoy it lot as you know we really love each other company so it is great and if we can learn this sport so we can make are future in this game you know its well known game around the world.

Lots of love.

Your sincerly

Inderjeet Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all three bullet points: recommending a sport (football), explaining how to learn it (sports center), and suggesting learning it together. However, the development of these ideas is quite basic. For instance, the suggestion to 'make our future in this game' is somewhat unrealistic and lacks the natural tone expected in a friendly email. The tone is generally appropriate for an informal letter, but the content could be expanded with more specific details to better meet the requirements of a Band 6 or higher. The ideas are relevant but remain at a surface level throughout the response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organized into short paragraphs, which helps with readability. However, the use of cohesive devices is very limited and often repetitive. The text relies heavily on simple conjunctions like 'and' and 'also' to link ideas. There is a lack of variety in transition words, and some sentences are run-on, such as the final sentence in the second paragraph, which makes the progression of ideas feel slightly mechanical and disjointed. Improving the use of linking words would significantly enhance the flow of the letter.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is basic and repetitive, which limits the ability to convey ideas with precision. Phrases like 'great teachers', 'best sport', and 'good for your health' are very common and lack variety. There are also errors in word choice and spelling, such as 'felling' instead of 'feeling', 'physcial' instead of 'physical', and 'are future' instead of 'our future'. While the meaning is generally clear, the range of vocabulary is insufficient to demonstrate a higher level of proficiency, keeping the score in the lower range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains a high frequency of grammatical errors, including missing articles ('learning new sport'), incorrect verb forms ('you want my advice'), and punctuation issues. Sentence structures are predominantly simple, and attempts at more complex sentences often result in errors, such as the run-on sentence structure in the second paragraph. Subject-verb agreement and word order are inconsistent throughout. While the errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to cause difficulty for the reader and indicate a lack of control over basic grammatical structures.

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

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