Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-11-10

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have rented a house by a lake for the summer.

Write a letter to a friend. In your letter
• describe the house.
• describe how you are spending your time there.
• invite your friend to come and visit.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ____

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Liyon,

Hope you are doing well, most of the time I was trying to get a phone call but unfortunately I couldn't. I know your daily life routine is extremely busy.

I have a new that you get wonder after hearing it. I rented a house nearby a lake. the main reason why I rented this house is for spend this summer vacation.

The house is build in a rainforest that located beside with a beautiful lake.the atmosphere is astonishing. cool and calm surrounding makes me fee relax. when I wake up in the morning and spend some time walking along the lake and enjoy fishing in lake.most evenings I go to swim. it is novice experience for me.

I would like to invite you to visit here and enjoy this summer. Hopefully you will get time off your work and arrange a couple of week vacation together with me.

I waiting your positive response .

Your sincerely,

Udaya.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three points: you describe the lakeside setting, explain that you walk, fish and swim, and invite your friend to spend a couple of weeks with you. The details about the cool, calm surroundings and morning walks make the letter relevant and personal. However, some parts are less fully developed than others. The house itself is described mainly through its location and atmosphere, with little about its size, rooms or facilities, and the invitation could be more specific about when to visit or what you could do together. The opening also refers to trying to call, but this is not developed. Add a few concrete details to make the description and invitation more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall order: you introduce the news, describe the setting and your activities, then invite your friend and close the letter. This makes the main message easy to follow. Some links between ideas are less smooth, however. The opening sentence combines the attempted phone call and your friend’s busy routine without a clear connection to the news that follows. Several activity details run together, as in “walking along the lake and enjoy fishing in lake,” and inconsistent sentence boundaries make the middle paragraph harder to read. Use clear paragraphing and connect related activities with accurate linking phrases, while keeping each sentence focused on one main idea.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for a friendly letter, including “rainforest,” “astonishing,” “surrounding” and “fishing,” and the reader can understand the setting and your plans. There are also attempts to express enthusiasm and describe the atmosphere. Some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “I have a new,” “get wonder,” “novice experience” and “positive response.” “Cool and calm surrounding” also needs a more natural expression, and spelling and word-form errors reduce precision. Aim to learn common phrases as complete units and check whether each word fits its context. More natural choices would make your descriptions sound clearer and more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a reason clause beginning “The main reason why…” and a time clause beginning “when I wake up…”. The message remains understandable, but some errors in verb forms, articles, agreement and sentence construction affect accuracy. For example, “The house is build” needs a passive form, while “I waiting your positive response” is missing an auxiliary verb. The sentence about waking up, walking and fishing also shifts between verb forms, and several sentences begin with lowercase letters or run together after full stops. Practise forming complete sentences with consistent verb patterns, and proofread for articles, auxiliaries and punctuation.

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