Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You rode in a taxi yesterday. When you got home, you realized you had left your bag in the taxi.

Write a letter to the manager of the taxi company. In your letter
• explain how you lost your bag.
• describe your bag.
• ask the manager to help you find it.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear sir,

Yesterday, I booked a texi of your's company. I traveled from Calgary to Edmonton. During the traveling period i had various things in my mind because of it I forgot to take my luggage from the taxi. I am writing this letter to confirm whether any member of your driving staff has found my luggage bag. It was sky blue in colour with a code-based lock.

Furthermore, I saw my bag last time when the driver was putting it in the trunk of the car. I have many important materials in that are not only essential but also costly.

Lastly, I would like to request that whenever you find my beg try to reach me as soon as possible.

Thankyou

Aman Sharma

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

You successfully covered all parts of the bullet points by explaining how you lost your bag, describing its sky-blue color and code-based lock, and asking the manager for help. Your tone is appropriately formal for a business letter. However, you were penalized under Task Achievement because the word count check shows your response is only 124 words long, which fails to meet the minimum requirement of 150 words. To achieve a higher band, ensure you fully develop your ideas and write at least 150 words.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter has a coherent overall arrangement, and your ideas are organized into logical paragraphs representing different parts of the letter. You used some cohesive devices and transitions, such as 'Furthermore' and 'Lastly', to guide the reader. However, paragraphing is somewhat basic and the flow is occasionally interrupted by structural issues. Referencing is generally clear, but the layout and overall progression could be smoother and better connected to present a more polished piece of correspondence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrated an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as 'essential but also costly' and 'code-based lock'. However, there are notable word choice and spelling errors throughout your writing, such as 'texi' instead of 'taxi', 'your's' instead of 'your', 'traveling period' instead of 'journey', and 'beg' instead of 'bag'. These errors slightly impede communication and highlight limitations in your lexical control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You used a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional or relative-style clauses in 'whether any member of your driving staff has found my luggage bag' and 'that are not only essential but also costly'. However, your text contains several grammatical errors and punctuation issues, including lowercase letters at the start of sentences ('i had'), incorrect pronoun usage ('your's company'), and run-on sentences with missing commas. These errors can cause occasional difficulty for the reader.

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

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