Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-26

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have decided to look for a new job.

Write a letter to a friend. In your letter
• explain why you are looking for a new job.
• describe the kind of job you would like to have.
• ask your friend to help you find a job

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear _________,

Student answer (Band 4.0)

You recently did a short cookery courses. The cookery school has asked for your feedback on this course. Write a letter to the course director at the cookery at the cookery school.

- describe what you enjoyed about the course

- say how much cooking you've done since the course

- suggest another cookery course you would like the school to offer

( FORMAL LANGUAGE)

-constructive/valuable/positive/ feedback/ insight

-renowned institute

- enhance my culinary skills

- prominent (famous/important)

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The response is significantly under-length, failing to meet the 150-word minimum requirement. Furthermore, the content is entirely off-topic. The prompt requested a letter to a friend about finding a new job, but the student wrote a letter to a cookery school director regarding a course. Because the response does not address the task instructions provided, it cannot be assessed as a successful completion of the task. The ideas are not developed, and the prompt requirements were ignored in favor of a different task entirely.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response is too brief to demonstrate a range of cohesive devices or effective paragraphing. While the sentences are grammatically linked, the lack of development and the failure to address the prompt make it impossible to evaluate the logical progression of ideas. There is no clear structure or paragraphing present to support the development of a coherent argument or narrative.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is limited and consists mostly of a list of bullet points rather than a cohesive letter. While the student attempts to use some higher-level vocabulary such as 'renowned' and 'culinary', these are presented in isolation rather than within a natural, fluent context. The range is insufficient to demonstrate the flexibility required for higher bands, and the overall lexical control is hampered by the failure to write a proper letter.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The response is too short to demonstrate a wide range of grammatical structures. The sentences provided are simple and lack the complexity required for higher band scores. While there are no glaring grammatical errors in the few phrases provided, the lack of sentence variety and the failure to construct a full letter mean that the grammatical range is very limited. The writing does not show the ability to use complex structures accurately.

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

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