Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-27

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 Sir,

I am writing this letter to let you know that noise bothers us. we live downstairs.

I live in your building .Your noise disturbing us. My family suffer from noise. Your high volume music disturb my exam preparation. I can't concentrate with my studies. Whenever i came from college and want to be relax for some times your music disturbed me very badly. I got headache with much loud music.

So i request you to solve this problem. If you want to watch Tv. Please its humble request to lower your tv voice. The noise is disturbing me.

Its good for all because loud noise can effect your ears and some medical issues. some old people or small children can't hear that much noise. It effects them badly. So its humble request to you please thik about it and pay attention to it .

yours faithfully ,

____

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task prompt. You successfully describe the situation ('noise bothers us. we live downstairs'), explain why it is a problem ('Your high volume music disturb my exam preparation'), and suggest a solution ('Please its humble request to lower your tv voice'). However, the tone is inconsistent and mixes formal and informal elements, and the salutation 'Dear Sir,' is slightly inappropriate for a neighbourly letter where 'Dear Neighbour,' would be more fitting. Furthermore, some of the ideas are repetitive and underdeveloped. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, which corresponds to a band score of 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter is organised into distinct paragraphs for introduction, the problem, and the solution, providing a coherent overall arrangement. However, paragraphing is sometimes disjointed, and sentences within the body paragraphs lack smooth transitions. For instance, the transition between 'I live in your building .Your noise disturbing us.' is abrupt and mechanical. Cohesive devices are minimal, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as shifting between plural and singular pronouns. While the progression of ideas is generally understandable, the lack of sophisticated cohesive links and awkward paragraph structure places this response firmly at a band 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is quite basic and repetitive throughout the letter, with frequent reliance on simple words like 'noise', 'problem', and 'disturb'. There are noticeable word choice and collocation issues, such as 'lower your tv voice' instead of 'turn down the volume', and 'I got headache' instead of 'I get headaches'. Spelling errors also appear, such as 'thik' instead of 'think'. Although the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the basic message to the reader, the limited range and frequent inaccuracies prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making a score of 5.0 appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text contains a very limited range of grammatical structures, consisting mostly of simple sentences ('We live downstairs', 'I live in your building'). Attempts at slightly more complex structures frequently result in errors, such as missing auxiliary verbs ('Your noise disturbing us'), incorrect verb tenses ('Whenever i came from college... your music disturbed me'), and punctuation errors. There are numerous fragments and run-on sentences that detract from the grammatical accuracy. Because errors are frequent and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, this performance meets the criteria for a band 5.0.

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

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