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,

I am writing to suggest you game that would be very useful to you. As I receive your letter yesterday, and i am very glad to know that you want to learn new something that may very helpful to to you.

I would prefer to learn a badminton that is very easy game and you can learn it within two and three days. Additionally. This game is very helpful to keep themselves active and energetic and assist you to stay alive and kicking. firstly. you should buy equipment those are not very expensive and you can buy it with an ease those are available in the market. secondly, it not required to much space to paly this game you can play it your backyard .

I would be very grateful to play this game with you and we can also get time to spend each others. I am really experts in this game as I have been playing it from the last ten years.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your reply.

your faithfully,

vipan

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all three bullet points: recommending a sport (badminton), explaining how to learn it, and suggesting learning it together. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the explanation of how to learn the sport is quite brief, focusing mostly on equipment and space rather than the process of learning. The tone is generally appropriate for an email to a friend, though the opening is slightly awkward. To improve, you should expand on your ideas with more detail and ensure the purpose of the email is clearly stated from the beginning.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or incorrect. For example, 'Additionally.' and 'firstly.' are used as sentence fragments, and 'secondly' is used without proper punctuation. The transition between ideas is sometimes abrupt, making the flow feel disjointed. To achieve a higher band, focus on using linking words more naturally within sentences rather than starting every sentence with a connector, and ensure that punctuation is used correctly to connect related thoughts.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. There are several instances of awkward phrasing, such as 'suggest you game' instead of 'suggest a game' and 'stay alive and kicking' which is used slightly out of context. You also use 'experts' as a noun when an adjective would be more appropriate ('I am an expert'). While the meaning is clear, the range of vocabulary is limited, and there are noticeable errors in word choice that detract from the overall quality of the writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Common issues include incorrect article usage ('a badminton'), subject-verb agreement ('it not required'), and tense inconsistencies ('As I receive your letter'). Punctuation is also problematic, with several sentence fragments and missing commas. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to impact the clarity of the message. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for small errors would significantly improve your score.

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

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