Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-23

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently booked a part-time course at a college. You now need to cancel your booking.

Write a letter to the college administrator. In your letter:

• say which part-time course you booked
• explain why you need to cancel your booking
• ask about booking a different course

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear sir,

Hello sir, my name is Niyati Patel.Today, I am writing a letter to aprise you to cancel my booking slot in a part time occupational healthcare course which I booked on a last week.

Firstly, I have intrest to join the course in physiotherapy healthcare services however,by mistake I Choosed different study course. In addition,I paid 20 percent of fees for that course while booking my slot.

Lastly, I would like to request you to cancel this part time course in occupational health and re- book in course which really needed for my great carrier opportunity. Moreover, I would like to request you for the refund,which I paid for that time of booking.

I hope you understand my concern. I am hoping for the best resolution as soon as possible. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Niyati Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student successfully covers all three bullet points required by the prompt. First, she clearly identifies the part-time course she booked as an occupational healthcare course. Second, she explains the need to cancel by stating she mistakenly chose the wrong course instead of physiotherapy healthcare services and mentions that she paid a 20 percent deposit. Third, she asks about booking a different course and requests a refund. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a college administrator, starting with "Dear Sir or Madam" (though she wrote "Dear sir, Hello sir"). However, the response fails to meet the minimum length requirement of 150 words, coming in at 138 words. This under-length impacts the overall development of ideas, preventing the task achievement score from reaching higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter exhibits a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure separating the introduction, the reasons for cancellation, the request for a new course and refund, and the conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as "Firstly", "In addition", and "Lastly". However, some cohesion feels mechanical, and punctuation issues around commas and spacing (e.g., "however,by mistake") occasionally disrupt the flow. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical progression is somewhat hindered by repetitive phrasing and minor organisational awkwardness in the opening lines. Paragraphing is used sufficiently for a short transactional letter, earning it a solid mid-range score.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and field-specific terms such as "occupational healthcare", "physiotherapy healthcare services", and "carrier opportunity" (though "carrier" is a misspelling of "career"). There are noticeable word choice errors and spelling mistakes throughout the text, including "aprise" instead of "apprise", "Choosed" instead of "chose", and "intrest" instead of "interest". While these lexical inaccuracies and spelling errors are frequent, they do not completely impede communication, as the administrator can easily understand the writer's intent. The range is sufficient for the task requirements but lacks the precision needed for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as the conditional-like structure in "however, by mistake I choosed different study course" and relative clauses in "which really needed for my great carrier opportunity". However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding tense consistency, missing verbs, and prepositions. Examples include "I am writing a letter to aprise you to cancel" (awkward phrasing), "booked on a last week" (unnecessary article), and "re- book in course which really needed" (missing subject and auxiliary verb). Punctuation and spacing errors (e.g., missing spaces after commas) are also common. These errors require some effort from the reader but do not cause a complete breakdown in meaning.

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