Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-03

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 Raj,

I hope you are hale and hearty. I am writing this letter to invite you at my place for summer vacation and see my new house near lake which i just rented.

This is a two story house with a lavish 3 bedroom, kitchen, lobby, washroom, balcony and open space of dining area. It also has a two bedroom basement.

I rent this recently for summer as it is near a lake. So i went for evening walk around a lake and spend some time over there to enjoy a evening view and a chirping of birds as well.

I want to invite you at my new house so you can see it. Apart from this we did not meet each other from a long time ago. we will spend some quality time together. My mother retain a holy worship at house on november 5th. So you are invited for this.

I hope to hear you from as soon as possible and waiting for your visit.

your lovingly,

Mandeep

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You successfully cover all parts of the letter prompt, including describing the house, explaining how you are spending your time there, and inviting your friend to visit. The tone is appropriately friendly and personal, opening with a warm greeting to Raj. However, some areas are developed more fully than others. While the description of the house and the invitation are clearly presented, the section detailing how you spend your time is somewhat brief and repetitive, focusing mostly on evening walks by the lake. To move towards a higher band, you should expand on your daily activities with more extended detail and varied examples, ensuring every bullet point in the prompt receives equal depth of coverage.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear purpose, moving logically from the greeting and house description to daily activities, the invitation, and the closing. Paragraphing is used to separate different ideas, though the structure of some paragraphs could be smoother. Cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or slightly awkward, such as starting a sentence with 'So i went' or using 'Apart from this' rather than more natural transitional phrases. Referencing is mostly clear, but pronouns like 'it' in sentences such as 'I rent this recently' could be connected more smoothly to the previous context. Improving the variety and precision of your transition words will help your ideas flow with greater natural progression throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and descriptive phrases such as 'hale and hearty,' 'lavish,' and 'chirping of birds.' However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and word form. For instance, writing 'invite you at my place' instead of 'to my place,' and using 'I rent this recently' instead of the past tense 'rented.' There are also minor mechanical issues, such as lowercase 'i' pronouns and lowercase starts to sentences after periods. To reach a higher level, focus on using more precise collocations and ensure greater control over word forms and standard spelling conventions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

Your writing displays a mix of simple and some attempt at complex sentence forms. You show control over basic structures, but there are recurring errors in verb tenses, prepositions, and articles. For example, 'see my new house near lake' misses the article 'the,' and 'did not meet each other from a long time ago' mixes tense and preposition usage inappropriately. Punctuation and capitalization are inconsistent, particularly with the lowercase 'i' used as a personal pronoun. The grammar errors present do not heavily impede communication, but they occur with enough frequency to keep the response at the current level. Incorporating a wider variety of error-free complex structures will enhance your grammatical range.

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