Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-03

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 5.0)

Dear Raman,

I am writing a letter to tell you about that i am selling my bicycle because of this now i bought new car due to which i am not used bicycle.

My bicycle good of quality wise and different type of colour such as grey colour of my bicycle. This is new its handle working properly.it is 21 gyres and new tyres. I believe that you would like this bike.I used sometimes i recently bought new car. This bicycle old two years ago. It has a comfotable seat and strong brakes.

I think that you like this bicycle and it would be useful for your daily exercise.And i can give you reasonable price

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

Your response addresses the task only partially. While you do mention that you bought a car and touch upon the bicycle features and the reason your friend would like it, the ideas remain limited and under-developed. For instance, explaining why you are no longer using the bicycle is restricted to a brief mention of your new car without much elaboration. Furthermore, the length requirement is not met, as the response falls significantly short of the 150-word minimum at only 115 words. To move up, you need to fully develop all parts of the prompt with extended explanations and meet the required word count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

Your letter shows some basic organization, but there is no clear overall progression of ideas, and the sentences often feel disjointed. Cohesive devices are generally inadequate, inaccurate, or overused, such as starting a sentence abruptly with "And i can give you..." or repeating connectors like "because of this" and "and". Paragraphing is also poorly managed, with related points split awkwardly rather than grouped into logical thematic paragraphs. To improve, you should organize your ideas into clear paragraphs and use a wider variety of appropriate cohesive links to guide the reader smoothly through the letter.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary range is limited and minimally adequate for the task. You make noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word forms, such as saying "old two years ago" instead of "two years old", "gyres" instead of "gears", and "comfotable" which is also misspelled. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader in places. To achieve a higher band, you need to expand your lexical repertoire, use less common vocabulary with greater precision, and ensure accurate word forms and spelling throughout the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You demonstrate a very limited range of structures, relying mostly on simple sentences with frequent errors. When you attempt more complex constructions, they are often faulty, such as in the opening sentence: "I am writing a letter to tell you about that i am selling my bicycle because of this now i bought new car..." Frequent errors in articles, prepositions, verb forms, and punctuation—such as lowercase letters at the start of sentences like "My bicycle good of quality wise..."—cause difficulty for the reader. To progress, you should work on producing a wider mix of error-free simple and complex sentences.

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

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