Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-03

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 Radha,

I hope life treats you well. I want to give you a happy news regarding the summer break. As you know that our summer vacations is going on. I make a plan to spend this summer vacations at the lake side. I rented a house which is situated near the lafarge lake in Coquitlam. This house is really big. Moreover, it is situated in the peaceful area. The balcony view is very elegant. we can see the beauty of lake from the window. Apart from this, the market is near to this house. I will go there in my spare time and buy some souvenirfor you and for my family members. There is a kitchen in this house where I can cook food for myself. I get all the amenities there such as Microwave, Air fryer, induction gas, and juicer. There is a big bathtub in the washroom. I can take bath and get relax.

All in all , there is no doubt that my holidays will go smoothly and the rent of this house is paid off my holidays.

Thank you

Gurpreet kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points: describing the house, explaining how you spend your time, and inviting your friend. However, the development of these ideas is quite limited. For instance, the description of the house focuses heavily on a list of kitchen appliances rather than the atmosphere or the experience of staying there. The invitation is also missing; you mention buying a souvenir, but you do not explicitly invite your friend to visit. To improve, ensure you provide more descriptive detail and clearly state the invitation to meet your friend at the lake house.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is generally easy to follow, but the paragraphing is insufficient. The entire body of the letter is contained within a single block, which makes it difficult for the reader to distinguish between the different topics. While you use some cohesive devices like 'Moreover' and 'Apart from this', the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical. To achieve a higher band, use clear paragraph breaks to separate the description of the house, your activities, and the invitation. This will help create a more logical progression of ideas.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, but it is somewhat repetitive and basic. Phrases like 'really big' and 'very elegant' are quite simple. You also have some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'happy news' (should be 'good news') and 'get relax' (should be 'relax'). To improve, try to incorporate more descriptive adjectives and natural collocations. For example, instead of saying 'the market is near to this house', you could say 'the house is conveniently located near local amenities'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally distract the reader. Examples include 'our summer vacations is going on' (subject-verb agreement), 'I make a plan' (tense error), and 'the rent of this house is paid off my holidays' (unclear meaning). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with spacing around commas. To improve, focus on subject-verb agreement and ensure your verb tenses are consistent throughout the letter. Proofreading for small errors like missing articles or incorrect prepositions will also help.

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

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