Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-06

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 Murtaj,

Hope you are doing well. I am writing this email to discuss about the concern about the disturbance caused by the noise from upstairs appartment.

It started, when you came from the work yesterday and playing loud music, on that time I was focusing on my studies and that noise bothered me the alot.

I have my exams nearby and i wanted to focus on them but his noise creates disturbance and made me uncomfortable while studying.

However, I feel the convience of your life, but playing loud music is not benifical for both as i have to clear my exams so insted you can play music on headphones or lets set a fix time where you can play music of your choice and i can study afterwards with proper focus and silence.

I hope you will understand my situation and helps to overcome the problem caused.

Yours sincerly,

Sukhvinder Singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response covers all parts of the task satisfactorily, achieving a solid middle band. You successfully describe the situation by mentioning the disturbance caused by noise from the upstairs apartment, explain why it is a problem because your exams are nearby and you need to focus, and suggest a practical solution such as using headphones or setting a fixed time. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or repetitive, such as mentioning the exam disruption multiple times without adding new depth. To reach a higher level, you could expand more fully on the specific impact of the noise and provide a more nuanced or fully elaborated description of the situation rather than keeping points brief.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter displays a coherent overall arrangement and follows an appropriate personal letter format with a suitable greeting and sign-off. Paragraphing is attempted to separate your points, but the logical progression from sentence to sentence is sometimes interrupted by faulty or mechanical referencing, such as shifting pronouns confusingly from 'you' to 'his' when referring to the neighbour. Cohesive devices are occasionally used, but referencing within the text is not always clear, making the flow somewhat choppy. For further improvement, you need to ensure smoother transitions between sentences and clearer referencing so that the relationship between your ideas is transparent throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common words and phrases like 'disturbance', 'focusing on my studies', and 'overcome the problem'. However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and word forms, such as 'appartment', 'benifical', 'insted', and 'convience'. These inaccuracies do not completely impede communication, but they highlight the limitations of your current lexical control. To progress to a higher band, you should work on expanding your range of vocabulary with greater precision, ensuring correct spelling and natural collocations without relying on repetitive phrasing or awkward word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing shows a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to construct varied sentences like 'I feel the convience of your life, but playing loud music is not benifical...'. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation, including prepositional mistakes ('discuss about', 'come from the work'), tense inconsistencies ('when you came... and playing'), and punctuation slips around conjunctions. These errors occasionally cause slight strain, though they rarely impede overall communication. To achieve a higher score, you need to produce a higher proportion of error-free sentences, improve your control over complex clause structures, and eliminate basic grammatical inaccuracies.

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

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