Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-25

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You live in a small apartment building with a parking lot in back, and you often cannot find an empty parking space when you get home from work.

Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter
• describe the situation.
• explain why it bothers you.
• suggest something the landlord could do to solve the problem.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ____

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Landlord,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing to describe a parking space problem that really bothering me.

I am living in your building apartment number 202 that has a parking lot on it's back side. However, most of the time, when i come back to my apartment from the work i do not get parking space free to park my car.

Because, I rented this apartment as a factor of parking. Whereas, Now i have to use another parking, which is far from my apartment. Therefore, I have to face some problems. So, I really appreciate it, if you could put notice in parking or use another method that suits you to solve this problem. I would be very thankful to you.

I look forward to receiving your response. I hope you solve this issue as a priority.

Yours Faithfully,

Manjinder Singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The letter covers all three bullet points: describing the situation, explaining the impact, and suggesting a solution. However, the response is slightly under the 150-word minimum, which impacts the overall task achievement. The ideas are relevant but could be developed further to provide more detail. For instance, explaining the specific inconvenience of the distant parking or suggesting more concrete solutions (such as issuing parking permits) would have strengthened the response. Because the length requirement was not met, the score is limited.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter follows a logical structure with a clear opening and closing. Paragraphing is used, though the body paragraphs are quite brief. Cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Therefore', and 'Because' are used to link ideas, although some transitions feel a bit mechanical or slightly misused, such as starting a sentence with 'Because' to explain a situation. The progression of ideas is generally easy to follow, but the overall flow would benefit from more sophisticated linking words and better-developed paragraph structures.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. Phrases like 'parking space problem' and 'face some problems' are repetitive and basic. There are some minor errors in word choice, such as 'as a factor of parking', which is not a natural collocation. To reach a higher band, you should aim to use more precise vocabulary related to housing and parking issues, such as 'designated parking', 'inconvenience', or 'remedial action'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The letter contains a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement ('that really bothering me'), article usage ('the work'), and punctuation/capitalization issues ('i' instead of 'I'). The use of 'it's' instead of 'its' is a common error. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to affect the overall accuracy score. More attention to proofreading for basic grammar and punctuation is needed.

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

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