Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-15

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You are planning a business trip to another city. You will have some free time to do some sightseeing while you are there.
 

Write a letter to a friend who lives in the city you will visit. In your letter:
• explain the purpose of the trip.
• ask about things to do and see in the city.
• invite your friend to do something with you during your visit.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ____

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear Deeksha,

I hope you are doing well. Actually i planting a business trip in Chandigarh have meetings with clients, after that i have lots of leisure time to do some other activities and i want to meet with you and stay with you during my free time.

I want to go sukhna lake and want to explore boat ride and other activities such as go night clubs, visit in sector 17 for branded clothes and street food.

Additionally, i want to enjoy these things with you because after college we don't have time to gossiping with each other. I missed various memorable moments with you and other friends. We will spend all

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student has covered all three bullet points required in the prompt by explaining the purpose of the trip (attending business meetings in Chandigarh), asking about things to do and see (mentioning Sukhna Lake and Sector 17), and inviting the friend to participate in these activities. However, the response is incomplete due to trailing off at the end ("We will spend all...") and suffers from a severe length penalty, containing only 113 words against the minimum requirement of 150 words. Because the word count requirement is not met, the task cannot be fully developed, leading to a band score of 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter maintains a reasonably coherent overall arrangement and flows logically from explaining the business trip to suggesting activities and inviting the friend. However, cohesion is noticeably faulty and mechanical. The student relies heavily on repetitive conjunctions and lacks proper paragraph breaks, grouping almost all thoughts into a single block of text. Furthermore, the abrupt ending ("We will spend all...") disrupts the logical progression of the letter. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as the transition from the business meetings directly into the sightseeing plans without smooth transitional markers. This warrants a band score of 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, successfully using functional terms such as "leisure time," "branded clothes," and "street food." However, there are noticeable limitations and word choice errors, such as "i planting a business trip" (instead of planning) and "want to explore boat ride" (collocation error). The range is minimally adequate to convey the basic message, but the lack of flexibility and occasional lexical errors prevent the response from reaching a higher band. Therefore, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writing displays a limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including punctuation and capitalization issues (e.g., lower-case "i"), tense and aspect inconsistencies ("after college we don't have time to gossiping"), and missing prepositions or auxiliary verbs. Complex structures are attempted but often faulty, and the unfinished final sentence further highlights grammatical control issues. These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader, aligning with band 5.0.

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

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