Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-18

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 5.5)

Dear chris's gardiens,

Firstly, i want you to say happy birthday to my best friend Chris in advance and hope that you both are doing well in your life as well. I know Chris will love this suprise party, because he love to do party's. I think, as we completed our college, he never went to any party after that.

Secondly, it's very hard to say you guy's that i won't be able to attend the party, as i have interview for my job on same day and i am waiting for this oppurtinty from long time. If i could get this job, then my training will be in Australia and i am thinking to see Chris that time.

I can't wait to see you guy's. Be safe and healtyh.

Yours scinerely

Karanveer

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

You successfully covered all parts of the prompt by explaining why Chris will enjoy the party, stating your reason for not being able to attend, and proposing an alternative plan to see him during your upcoming training in Australia. However, there are two distinct issues that impact your score. First, your greeting ('Dear chris's gardiens') incorrectly addresses the recipients instead of using the requested 'Dear Mr and Mrs Collins,'. Second, as noted in the length check, the response is 133 words, failing to meet the 150-word minimum requirement. This under-length penalty restricts your task achievement score, although your ideas are generally relevant and clear.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter has a discernible structure, utilizing paragraph breaks to separate the main points such as the birthday wishes, the refusal of the invitation, and the alternative plan. However, the progression is somewhat hampered by mechanical cohesive devices and awkward transitions like 'Secondly, it's very hard to say you guy's that...'. Referencing is also slightly unclear in places, such as the ambiguous pronoun reference in 'thinking to see Chris that time'. Paragraphing is attempted, but overall cohesion is faulty at times, placing this response firmly in the band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You attempted some less common vocabulary, such as 'oppurtinty' and 'suprise', but these contain spelling errors. Other word choices and collocations are basic or slightly unnatural, such as 'he love to do party's' and 'from long time'. While your vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey your message about the job interview and the birthday party, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text that prevent you from achieving a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrated a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional and relative clauses ('If i could get this job, then my training will be in Australia'). However, your writing contains frequent grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes, including missing articles ('as i have interview', 'from long time'), incorrect pluralisation ('party's'), and incorrect capitalisation ('i'). There are also spelling errors like 'healtyh' and 'scinerely'. These errors occasionally cause slight difficulty for the reader, though communication is generally maintained.

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

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