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 have a bicycle that you are no longer using. You would like to sell it to a friend.

Write a letter to your friend. In your letter
• explain why you are no longer using your bicycle.
• describe your bicycle.
• explain why you think your friend would like to have it.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear _________,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Aman

Hoping you are doing good in your life and wishing for your better health. Yesterday your father came at my house and talked to my father that your are planning to buy a bicycle for yourself. Than I remember that my old bicycle is at home and I am no longer using it. Because I recently purchased a new bicycle. So my old cycle is not in use anymore. I think you might like it.

I like to mention some details of bicycle to you. It is Firefox brand cycle. It has a metal body with black primary color and green livery on it. It has a gear in it with 3 in front and 7 in back. It also have lights on it.

As your father mention you want cycle with gears. I think this bike is a suitable option for you as it met all your basic requirements. Moreover, with that cycle is just 8 months old and in a prefect condition. So it might be a good decision for you to purchasing this. I will be waiting for your positive response for this.

Your faithfully

Gurman

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response successfully covers all three bullet points required by the task prompt. You clearly explain why you are no longer using the bicycle, mentioning that you recently purchased a new one and your father talked to Aman's father. You also provide a good description of the bicycle, noting the brand as Firefox, its metal body, black primary color with green livery, gears, and lights. Finally, you explain why Aman would like to have it, stating that it meets his requirement for gears, is only eight months old, and is in a perfect condition. The tone is appropriately informal for a letter to a friend. The bullet points are all addressed, and the ideas are extended sufficiently to meet the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.0 range, though some sentences are slightly repetitive.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter has a generally coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical sequence from the greeting to the closing. You use basic paragraphing to separate the greeting and introduction, the bicycle description, and the final recommendation. However, the progression between sentences is sometimes disjointed due to choppy sentence structures, such as starting consecutive sentences with 'Because I recently purchased...' and 'So my old cycle is not in use anymore.' Cohesive devices are somewhat mechanical or limited, as seen with repeated use of 'It has' and 'It also have'. Paragraphing is present, but referencing and linking between ideas could be smoother and more flexible to reach a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to describe the bicycle's physical features such as 'metal body', 'primary color', 'livery', and 'gears'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation inaccuracies throughout the text, such as 'doing good in your life' instead of 'doing well', 'came at my house' instead of 'came to my house', and 'purchasing this' instead of 'purchasing it'. You make several spelling and word form errors, like 'prefect condition' instead of 'perfect condition'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict your lexical score to Band 5.5 because the range of vocabulary is limited and contains frequent slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and subordinate clauses such as 'your are planning to buy a bicycle for yourself' and 'I think this bike is a suitable option for you as it met all your basic requirements.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors in verb tenses, prepositions, and subject-verb agreement. Examples include 'talked to my father that your are planning' (your instead of you're), 'Than I remember' (Than instead of Then), 'It also have lights' (have instead of has), and 'with that cycle is just 8 months old' (extra preposition with). While these errors rarely impede communication, their frequency prevents you from achieving a higher band.

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

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