Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-22

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You live in a small apartment building. You are frequently bothered by noise from your upstairs neighbour's apartment.

Write a letter to your neighbour. In your letter
• describe the situation.
• explain why it is a problem for you.
• suggest a solution.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear _________,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Mr. Kumar,

I am writing this letter to represent my concern regrading the loud noise in building, which come from your apartment. I understand that you are having fun by listening the music on weekends but its botherning me and other neighbour's.

Actually i try to concertate on my study but that noise really hurt my ears, due to that my headache start and after that i am unable to focus on my studies. i have exam in upcoming daysand these exams are really crucial for me because those one can decide my future.

if you want to listen music in loud noise the i would prefer you to use your headphone and increse the volume of headsets, by doing that you are able to listen music in high sound and it will not effect me as well.

I hope you will try to understand my situation.

your friend,

jay

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The letter successfully covers all three bullet points from the prompt. You described the situation by stating that loud noise is coming from your upstairs neighbour's apartment, explained why it is a problem for you by mentioning that it causes headaches and prevents you from studying for your upcoming crucial exams, and suggested a practical solution of using headphones. The tone is mostly appropriate for a neighbourly letter, although the sign-off 'your friend' is a bit unusual given you are addressing someone formal as 'Mr. Kumar'. Overall, all parts of the task are addressed adequately, placing this response at Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical sequence from describing the problem to explaining the impact and offering a solution. Paragraphing is used to separate the different points of the letter. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or missing, and referencing is occasionally faulty, such as 'that noise really hurt my ears, due to that my headache start'. Transition words and cohesive links could be used more flexibly and accurately to connect your ideas more smoothly. This performance aligns with Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting words like 'concentrate', 'crucial', and 'regrading' (though misspelled). There are several spelling and word choice errors, such as 'regrading' instead of regarding, 'botherning' instead of bothering, and 'increse' instead of increase. Furthermore, phrases like 'listen the music' and 'in loud noise' show minor collocation inaccuracies. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they restrict your score to Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The letter contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'I understand that you are having fun by listening the music...'. There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, including tense consistency and prepositions ('listening the music', 'my headache start', 'i have exam in upcoming days', 'those one can decide my future'). Punctuation and capitalization are also inconsistent, with lowercase 'i' used frequently. Because these errors occur quite often and occasionally cause minor difficulty for the reader, this warrants a Band 5.0.

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

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