Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-14

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 Jay,

I hope that you're doing well. I am writing this letter the location I booked at the river side for our summer vacation.

I'd like to tell you a little story about the apartment. It's near a beach which makes the environment to be cool and calm because of the waves that comes from the water. In addition, It's a two bed room apartment with a balcony showing the site of the river. Furthermore, I've only a week left from my annual leave which is too small. However, I will spend about 3 days which is from Thursday to Saturday to have some fun and enjoy my self before resuming work on Monday.

It would be a memorable event if you come with me ,although I understand your wor

Your friend

Ify

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The letter addresses all three bullet points: describing the house, explaining how time is spent, and inviting the friend. However, the response is incomplete, ending abruptly mid-sentence ('your wor'). Furthermore, the word count is 134 words, which is below the 150-word minimum requirement. This under-length significantly impacts the development of ideas, as the description of the house and the invitation are quite brief. To improve, you must ensure all parts of the prompt are fully developed and that you meet the minimum word count to allow for a complete, well-structured response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter uses basic paragraphing and some cohesive devices such as 'In addition', 'Furthermore', and 'However'. While the progression of ideas is generally logical, the abrupt ending of the letter disrupts the overall flow and coherence. The use of referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the opening sentence where the connection between the 'location' and the 'apartment' is slightly disjointed. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas are linked more smoothly and that the letter concludes in a complete, natural manner.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. Phrases like 'tell you a little story' and 'have some fun' are quite informal and repetitive. There are also minor collocation errors, such as 'waves that comes from the water' (should be 'waves coming from the lake') and 'showing the site of the river' (likely meant 'view of the river'). Expanding your range of descriptive adjectives and using more precise collocations would significantly improve your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'I am writing this letter the location' (missing a preposition), 'waves that comes' (subject-verb agreement error), and 'I've only a week left' (awkward phrasing). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with spacing around commas and the incomplete final sentence. While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequency of these errors limits the score. Focus on subject-verb agreement and consistent sentence construction.

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.