Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-13
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The parents of your Australian friend Chris have invited you to a surprise birthday party for him/her. Write a letter to Chris's parents. In your letter:
- say why you think Chris will enjoy the surprise party
- explain why you won't be able to attend the party
- give details of a plan to see Chris at a different time
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Mr and Mrs Collins,
Student answer (Band 4.0)
Dear Sir,
I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with the poor customer service during my stay.
I would like to raise a concern regarding the problems I have faced. Firstly, there was not enough cooling because of the faulty air conditioning system. Although I requested to the staff, they were not making efforts to solve my issues. Secondly the room was much smaller as I had anticipated the larger one. Finally, tidiness is also a another concern.
As I have planned to stay for three days, I left just after a day .
Due to the extreme heat in the room, I was not able to take sleep there. The rudeness of the staff made me quite disappointed, which raises a question about reputation. I was felling depressed as room was not only congested but also looks dirty.
I would be grateful if you could arrange a technician to fix the problems in the room. Staff needs a training to provide a welcoming service to the customers daily cleaning would be suggested in the hotel rooms.
I would appreciate if you could look into this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Gurinder Kaur.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 1.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0
The response is completely off-topic. The task required writing a letter to the parents of a friend regarding a surprise birthday party. Instead, the student wrote a formal letter of complaint to a hotel manager about poor customer service and room conditions. As the response fails to address any of the bullet points or the context of the prompt, it cannot be awarded a passing score for task achievement. It is a memorized or misidentified response that does not fulfill the requirements of the task instructions provided.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
While the letter is structured into paragraphs and uses some basic cohesive devices like 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Finally', the logical progression is entirely irrelevant to the task prompt. The paragraphing is clear, but because the content does not relate to the instructions, the coherence is undermined by the failure to address the communicative purpose of the task. The referencing is clear within the context of the complaint, but it fails to meet the requirements of the specific writing task provided.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is adequate for a formal letter of complaint, showing an attempt to use functional language such as 'express my extreme dissatisfaction', 'raise a concern', and 'look into this matter'. However, there are some inaccuracies, such as 'felling depressed' (feeling) and 'Staff needs a training' (needs training). The range is sufficient to convey the meaning of a complaint, but it is not tailored to the specific task requested, which limits the score as the vocabulary is not relevant to the required topic.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'tidiness is also a another concern' (redundant article), 'I left just after a day' (a day later), and 'Staff needs a training' (missing article). Punctuation is generally functional, though there are minor errors in spacing and sentence construction. While the meaning is usually clear, the frequency of errors in basic grammar prevents a higher score. The range of structures is limited but sufficient to communicate the intended message of the complaint.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.