Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-27

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You let a friend stay at your apartment while you were away on a trip. When you returned home, you discovered that a valuable possession was broken.

Write a letter to your friend. In your letter
• describe the broken possession.
• explain why it is important to you.
• explain what you would like your friend to do.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear _________,

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear ALI

i hope that you are fine . I am just return back to my appartment .AS you know that i was on a trip and you were living in my appartment while those days

Today when i returned back and i saw that my kitchen oven is broken,I rememberd that when i go for a trip it was allright but now it is not working and also broken from one side

Asyou live here for few days i do not know what,s happening here

The oven was too much important for me as you aslo know

its help me to makes food items fresh

But now its is totally not working

I am vey sad too see that you do not take care of appartment

i would like to say you thats things never matter but you could take care of appartment

i hope that you will understand and next time you will live here like your own appartment

Thank you

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 broken possession ('my kitchen oven is broken... broken from one side'), explain why it is important ('The oven was too much important for me... its help me to makes food items fresh'), and explain what you would like your friend to do ('you could take care of appartment' and hoping for more care next time, though the call to action regarding repair or compensation is slightly vague). The tone is appropriate for a semi-formal letter to a friend. The ideas are relevant and generally developed, though some points are brief. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the criteria for Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The letter lacks proper paragraphing, as almost all sentences are written as separate single-line blocks rather than cohesive paragraphs. Cohesive devices are very basic or missing entirely, leading to a somewhat disjointed flow ('Today when i returned back and i saw... Asyou live here... But now its is totally not working'). There is an attempt at logical progression by moving from returning home to discovering the damage, expressing feelings, and giving final thoughts, but the lack of linking words and proper paragraph structure pulls the score down. This reflects Band 5 performance for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive ('appartment', 'trip', 'broken', 'important'). There are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'return back' (redundancy), 'appartment' (spelling), 'rememberd', 'allright', 'vey sad', and 'thats things'. While the meaning remains clear despite these lexical shortcomings, the range is limited and minimally adequate for the task. This aligns closely with the Band 5 descriptors, where vocabulary is repetitive and errors are noticeable.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing relies heavily on simple sentences and basic compound structures ('I am just return back to my appartment', 'AS you know that i was on a trip'). There are frequent grammatical errors, including tense and verb form issues ('i am just return back', 'when i go for a trip it was allright', 'its help me to makes', 'too see'), as well as capitalization and punctuation errors (missing apostrophes in 'what,s', missing full stops at the end of sentences). These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader, fitting the Band 5 criteria.

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

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