Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-26
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 5.0)
Hi, I hope that u are excellent. How was your studies are going? I am really very happy after read your letter, i am happy to knew that u want to learn a new sport. I will recommends you Basketball because i think you are good for this sport, according to your good height i think you should play this sport and i am sure you can enjoy it. Basketball is also my favourite game. If you want to learn this sport i can help you. We can also learn this sport together.I am glad to knew that u want to learn a new sport, sports are very important for our physical fitness.U can tell me if you want to learn Basketball i will help you.
Thank you
Your loving friend
Ramneet Kaur
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student has successfully addressed all three bullet points from the prompt: they recommended a sport (Basketball), explained how their friend could learn it by offering to help, and suggested that they both learn it together. The tone is appropriate for an informal email to a friend. However, there are significant drawbacks. Firstly, the response contains repetitive content, notably stating twice that the friend wants to learn a new sport and that the writer will help. More importantly, the response falls short of the 150-word minimum requirement, containing only 133 words. This negative impact on task completion restricts the band score.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The email shows a basic level of organisation, but the overall progression is hindered by repetitive statements and a complete lack of paragraphing. The student writes the entire response as a single block of text (apart from the closing sign-off). Cohesive devices are minimal and basic, relying heavily on simple conjunctions like 'and' and 'because'. Referencing is sometimes unclear or repetitive, as seen when the writer reiterates ideas from earlier in the email without adding new progression. While the message can be understood, the lack of paragraphing and poor management of cohesion mean it cannot reach higher bands.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is very basic, repetitive, and heavily influenced by spoken or informal text messaging styles, such as using 'u' instead of 'you'. The student uses words like 'happy', 'good', and 'help' multiple times throughout the short text. There are several lexical and collocation errors, such as 'How was your studies are going?' and 'happy to knew'. While the vocabulary is adequate to convey the basic message about learning basketball, the limited range and frequent word-choice errors prevent the response from achieving a higher score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentences, but grammatical accuracy is quite low. There are frequent errors in tense and subject-verb agreement, such as 'How was your studies are going?' instead of 'How are your studies going?', and 'happy to knew' instead of 'happy to know'. Punctuation is also weak, featuring comma splices and lower-case letters where capitals should be used (e.g., starting sentences with 'i'). Furthermore, informal text-speak ('u') is inappropriate for an IELTS writing task. These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a limited grasp of grammatical control.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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