Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-28

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)

Dear Aman,

I hope you doing well. I recently know you come here last month. I know you feel board and lazy stay alone. I will recommend to start play football because it is easy and helpful stay healthy.

Moreover, I will send you my coach's number and address you talk with him. He will teach you because I am also learnt from him. Interesting thing, we can play together on weekends, because I am only free on weekends on other days I am on work. Therefore, playing football very helpful for staying healthy and fresh.

I hope you stay good and healthy in my country also lots of love you!

Best wishes,

Manuc.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the prompt: you recommended football, explained how to learn it through your coach, and suggested learning it together on weekends. However, the task achievement is heavily penalised because the response falls significantly short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 114 words. Due to this under-length penalty, ideas are somewhat limited and under-developed, preventing the response from achieving a higher band score despite covering all aspects of the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The email has a clear communicative intent and follows a semi-formal letter format with an appropriate greeting and sign-off. Paragraphing is attempted, although the middle paragraph is quite dense and combines multiple points. Cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'Therefore', and 'because' are used to connect ideas, but some links feel repetitive or mechanical (e.g., repeatedly using 'because'). Referencing is mostly clear, but the overall organization lacks smooth progression due to the choppy sentence structure and brevity of the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but it is basic and repetitive. You used simple phrases like 'feel board and lazy stay alone' and 'stay good and healthy' which demonstrate a limited range. There are noticeable word choice errors, such as 'I recently know you come here' instead of 'learned that you arrived', and 'board' instead of 'bored'. While meaning is generally conveyed, the lexical limitations and lack of less common vocabulary restrict the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing relies mostly on simple and basic complex sentence forms. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing auxiliary verbs ('I hope you doing well'), incorrect verb forms ('I recently know you come', 'I am also learnt'), and preposition errors ('on other days I am on work'). Punctuation and sentence structures are basic, and these recurring errors can cause some difficulty for the reader, aligning the grammar with Band 5 descriptors.

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

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