Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-03

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 Rita,

I hope this letter finds you well .

I am writing this to you , I got your letter yesterday In your letter you were asking me for my advice to learning a new sport .

I am glad that you are asking me for my advice to join a sport activity , I have a great suggestion for you, As you are aware about the community club of Tennis just opened few weeks ago in our town called the town of Smiths Falls and they are taking clients like crazy amount with the cheap rates on the top of that Tennis is the best sport that i have ever found.

There are several advantages of playing tennis like it makes our arms and legs stronger which can also helpful to reduce weight on the top of that it also an joyful game which we can play with the joy.

I am also joining there , so i would also recommend you to join this sport that way we can play this together.

I hope to see you and hearing from you very soon.

Yours lovingly,

HP

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You successfully covered all parts of the bullet points by recommending tennis, explaining how to learn it through the new community club in Smiths Falls, and suggesting that you both learn it together. However, your response sits at this level because some of your ideas remain partially under-developed and limited. For instance, while you mentioned that the club is taking clients with cheap rates, you did not elaborate much on specific beginner classes or lessons available. The tone is appropriate for an informal email to a friend, but the overall expansion of ideas leans toward over-simplification. To reach a higher level, you need to extend and support your key points with more specific details, such as mentioning equipment rental or lesson schedules, rather than relying on brief mentions.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your letter shows some basic organisation with an informal opening and closing, and you use basic cohesive devices like 'and', 'so', and 'that way' to connect your thoughts. Nevertheless, the progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by the way sentences are linked. For example, your third paragraph is a very long, run-on sentence that strings multiple independent clauses together with commas and basic conjunctions ('As you are aware about... and they are taking... on the top of that...'). Furthermore, paragraphing is somewhat inadequate because the body of the email is grouped into dense blocks rather than being separated into clear thematic paragraphs. To improve, you should break up long, multi-idea sentences into shorter, clearer ones and use a wider variety of cohesive devices more accurately.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrated a limited but minimally adequate vocabulary range suitable for an informal setting, using general terms like 'sport activity', 'cheap rates', and 'stronger'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations that cause some difficulty for the reader. For instance, phrases like 'to learning a new sport' (instead of 'to learning' or 'for learning'), 'taking clients like crazy amount', and 'play with the joy' are unnatural and reveal restricted control over word choice and collocation. Additionally, spelling and word form errors occur. To move up to the next band, you need to incorporate a wider range of less common vocabulary and improve your accuracy regarding natural collocations and prepositional combinations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing displays a very limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple or faulty complex sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that cause difficulty and hesitation for the reader. For example, you wrote 'advice to learning' instead of 'advice on learning', missed articles in 'community club of Tennis just opened few weeks ago', and struggled with prepositions and relative clauses, such as 'which can also helpful' and 'is also joining there'. Punctuation control is also weak, particularly with excessive comma splices connecting clauses that should be separate sentences. To progress, you need to demonstrate better control over basic grammatical structures, improve verb-form accuracy, and reduce the frequency of structural errors.

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