Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently helped your company organise an event at a hotel. Write a letter to the hotel manager. In your letter:

– Provide details about the event
– Mention what you particularly liked about the hotel
– Suggest areas for improvement.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Sir / Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear Sir,

I hope this letter finds you well.

I'm currently living on Elm street in one of your flats on seventh floor unit 18009. I have been living in the space from last couple of months and have had a great experience. Recently , a group of musicians have rented one of of the apartments in the same block who keep playing loud music in the night causing a great amount of distress and unpleasant living experience.

I work from home and have my virtual meetings in the afternoon really distract me from working and the constant noise of live music playing during night messes up my sleep cycle and results in an overstimulated and overwhelming environment. I believe as a landlord , it would be better if you could intervene and resolve this so that all of us can live in a stree- free environmnet.

I'd really appreciate it , if you could look into this matter and resolve this problem.

Yours sincerely,

Mehak kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The response fails to address the specific prompt provided. The writing task clearly instructs the student to write a letter to a hotel manager regarding a corporate event organised at the hotel, requiring details about the event, what was liked, and areas for improvement. Instead, the student has written a complaint letter to a landlord about a noisy neighbor in a residential apartment building. Because the response is entirely off-topic and answers a completely different prompt, it fails to meet the core task requirements. Although the student adopts a formal tone and signs off appropriately, the lack of relevance to the actual task instructions pulls the task achievement score down significantly.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall structure with an appropriate salutation, introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, and a formal sign-off. Paragraphing is used to separate distinct ideas, such as introducing the living situation in the first paragraph and detailing the noise issue and its consequences in the second. However, logical progression is occasionally hindered by run-on sentences and minor organizational issues. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Recently' and 'I believe', but referencing is sometimes imprecise, as seen in the sentence structure of the second paragraph where clauses overlap awkwardly. Despite these flaws, the text remains generally easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a formal complaint letter, using phrases like 'great amount of distress', 'overstimulated and overwhelming environment', and 'intervene and resolve'. However, there are notable lexical errors and spelling mistakes, such as 'stree- free' instead of 'stress-free', and awkward phrasing like 'have been living in the space from last couple of months'. Word choice is generally functional but lacks the precision, flexibility, and range associated with higher band scores. Common collocations are mostly handled correctly, allowing the message to be communicated clearly despite the errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response shows a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'I work from home and have my virtual meetings in the afternoon really distract me...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring several noticeable errors and awkward structures. For instance, the opening sentence 'I'm currently living on Elm street in one of your flats on seventh floor unit 18009' lacks necessary articles ('the' Elm street, 'the' seventh floor). Additionally, run-on sentences and punctuation errors, such as the unnecessary space before the comma in 'Recently ,', detract from the quality of writing. Complex structures frequently contain errors that cause some difficulty for the reader.

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

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