Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-04

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 sir

I am writing the letter to make a formal complain regarding the parking space not available most of the time .Please allow me to elaborate the situation.

I work everynight from 9pm to 5am and most of the cars are parked just unorganised because of less parking space so i always have hard time parking in and take out from the parking space and always get late because of that also alot of time get wasted.I understand that everybody have to park whoever living in the building but often i found most of the cars belong to the visitor ,they are just visiting for some time so they can park at the front .

I would suggest if by any chance you can allot specific spots for each apartement which could make it easier for everyone . i would really appericiate if you can do something as soon as possible .

best regards

Riya

apt 3

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all the required bullet points of the prompt, earning a solid mid-level score. You clearly describe the situation regarding the lack of parking space after your night shifts, explain how it bothers you in terms of wasted time and difficulty parking, and suggest a practical solution involving allotted spots for each apartment. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a landlord. However, to move closer to a higher band, some of these ideas could be extended and supported more fully. For instance, explaining the specific impact of getting late to work on your daily routine would add greater depth. Overall, the purpose of the letter is clear and all three task requirements are adequately met.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical structure typical of formal correspondence, moving from the main purpose to the situation, the impact, the suggestion, and a polite sign-off. Paragraphing is used to separate the opening, body points, and closing remarks. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or somewhat abrupt, such as transitioning directly into 'Please allow me to elaborate the situation' and running several ideas together within a single long sentence ('I work everynight from 9pm to 5am and most of the cars are parked just unorganised...'). Referencing could also be smoother to ensure clearer progression between sentences. To reach a higher level, you should use a wider variety of cohesive devices more flexibly and ensure that sentences are punctuated to guide the reader effortlessly through your arguments.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your message about the parking issue, but it features noticeable errors and a limited range of expression. Words such as 'complain' (should be the noun 'complaint'), 'everynight', 'unorganised', and 'appericiate' show issues with word form and spelling. There are also slight collocations errors, such as 'take out from the parking space'. While the meaning remains clear despite these slips, the vocabulary relies heavily on basic, everyday terms. To achieve a higher score, you should attempt less common lexical items with greater precision, improve your control over word forms and spelling, and demonstrate more varied phrasing when describing everyday problems.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing displays a limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions, alongside a few attempted complex forms that contain errors. There are frequent issues with articles ('the letter', 'a hard time', 'the visitor'), prepositions and phrasing ('parking in and take out from'), run-on sentence structures, and punctuation, such as missing capital letters at the beginning of sentences and before the pronoun 'i'. These frequent errors in grammar and punctuation can cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a restricted structural range. To improve, you need to incorporate a wider mix of error-free complex sentence structures and pay closer attention to basic grammatical rules such as subject-verb agreement and article use.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.