Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-04

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, Ritu

Iam writing this letter to discuss about the noises which are coming from upstairs of your apartment

Over past few days Iam able to hear loud music, heavy footsteps, and a sound of a moving furniture.

This happens usually after 11:00 pm when the rest of the building is quiet.

The loud sounds travel straight through the ceiling and make me awake.

I wake up tired every morning.

It is hard for me to focus my work due to lack of sleep.

Could you kindly keep the noise down after 10:00 PM?

putting rugs or mats on the floor can help bolck some of the heavy footsteps.

Thankyou for understanding to keep our building quiet.

Your sincerely

Mitu.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all three parts of the prompt by describing the situation, explaining the problem, and suggesting a solution. However, some ideas are under-developed. For example, while you mention loud music, heavy footsteps, and moving furniture, these points are not fully expanded upon. Furthermore, the length requirement is not met, as the response contains only 120 words, falling short of the 150-word minimum. To reach a higher band, you need to ensure you write at least the minimum word count and expand further on each bullet point with more supporting details.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is a coherent overall arrangement and a logical flow from describing the noise to explaining the impact and offering a solution. However, paragraphing is not managed effectively, with almost every single sentence written as a separate short line rather than grouped into cohesive paragraphs. Referencing and cohesive devices are also minimal or sometimes faulty, such as the abrupt transitions between sentences like 'I wake up tired every morning' and 'It is hard for me to focus my work'. Grouping ideas logically into proper paragraphs and using basic cohesive links would improve the flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating your message about the noise disturbance. There are some spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'bolck' instead of 'block' and writing 'discuss about' instead of simply 'discuss'. You also attempt some less common vocabulary like 'heavy footsteps', but occasional inaccuracies remain. These errors do not impede communication, which places your lexical range at this level. To improve, focus on accuracy with common verbs and prepositions, and check your spelling carefully before finishing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'This happens usually after 11:00 pm when the rest of the building is quiet.' There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ('focus my work' instead of 'focus on my work'), incorrect capitalization ('Iam'), and punctuation mistakes around the greeting and sign-off ('Dear, Ritu' and 'Your sincerely'). However, these errors rarely impede communication. To move up, you should eliminate basic punctuation mistakes and increase your control over prepositions and article use in more complex sentence structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.