Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-16

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 hari,

I just wanted to drop you a quick message to check in and see how you're doing. Life has been keeping me busy, but you've been on my mind, and I wanted to reach out to say hi. It's been ages since we've had a good chat why dont you you come over to my place.I just rented a beautiful house near by a lake,the sun rises and sunsets are worth watching.

i would like to tell you more about this adorable place i will start by with balcony where w can watch outstanding views by grabbing coffee this whole thing just makes your day soo energetic,my days are going soo good that i wanted to invite you to experience all of this, i am so sure you will love this place too.please pay a visit i am hoping to see you soon

sending you lot of love to you and your family.

Yours John

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The letter addresses all three bullet points: describing the house, explaining how time is spent, and inviting the friend. However, the development of these ideas is quite limited. The description of the house is brief, and the explanation of how you spend your time is somewhat repetitive, focusing mainly on the balcony and coffee. To achieve a higher band, you should provide more specific details about the house's features (e.g., the number of rooms, the garden, or the interior) and elaborate on the activities you are doing, such as swimming, hiking, or reading, to create a more engaging and fully developed response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organized into short paragraphs, but the flow between ideas is somewhat disjointed. There is a lack of cohesive devices to link sentences smoothly. For instance, the transition between the description of the house and the invitation is abrupt. The use of punctuation is also inconsistent, with several run-on sentences and missing spaces after commas (e.g., 'lake,the sun'). Improving the use of linking words such as 'furthermore,' 'consequently,' or 'in addition' would help create a more logical progression of ideas and improve the overall readability of the letter.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for a personal letter but remains quite basic. Phrases like 'doing soo good' and 'this whole thing' are informal and lack precision. While you attempt to use descriptive words like 'adorable' and 'outstanding,' the range is limited. To improve, try to incorporate more varied and precise adjectives and collocations to describe the scenery and your experiences. For example, instead of 'good,' use 'tranquil' or 'picturesque' to describe the lake setting. Spelling errors, such as 'hari' (should be capitalized) and 'w' (instead of 'we'), also detract from the overall quality.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response relies heavily on simple sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding punctuation, capitalization, and subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'why dont you you come', 'i will start by with balcony'). The lack of proper sentence boundaries makes the text difficult to follow in places. To reach a higher band, you need to demonstrate better control over complex sentence structures and ensure that basic punctuation rules, such as capitalizing 'I' and starting sentences with capital letters, are consistently applied. Proofreading for these mechanical errors is essential.

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

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