Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-03

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have a problem in your apartment that needs repairs.

Write a letter to the building manager. In your letter
• describe the problem.
• say what you think should be done about it.
• ask the building manager to visit your apartment to see the problem.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear _________,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear manager,

I am writing this letter to inform you that there is lot of problems in my apartment that needs to be repair. First of all the lights are not working properly all lights are need to be replaced because when i sit down for my study at night time the bulb og my study room blinks after 10 to 15 minutes and the oven of my room is also not working. I found vey difficulty when i have to cook anything in hurry. According to me, please change all the lights of my apartment and moreover give me new oven also. if you want to check you can visit tot my apartment also because I am home for 3 days due to public holidays.

Hope you will reply me as soon as possible.

your faithfully,

Arwinder singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You successfully addressed all parts of the letter prompt by describing the problems in your apartment, stating what you think should be done, and asking the building manager to visit. However, some parts are more fully developed than others; for instance, the request to replace the lights and provide a new oven is straightforward, but the explanation of the issues remains somewhat brief. Furthermore, it is important to note that the response is eleven words short of the one-hundred-and-fifty-word minimum requirement, which prevents a higher score. To reach the next level, you need to ensure you meet the minimum length requirement and expand your ideas with more detail and supporting explanation throughout the task.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your letter has a coherent overall arrangement, allowing the reader to follow your main points easily. You used some basic cohesive devices and referencing, such as 'First of all' and 'moreover', to connect your ideas. However, the cohesion can feel slightly mechanical and repetitive, and the lack of proper paragraphing affects the overall flow. For example, the entire body of the letter is grouped into a single dense block instead of being separated into distinct paragraphs for the problems, the proposed solutions, and the visit request. To improve, you should organise your ideas into logical paragraphs and use a wider variety of cohesive devices more naturally.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You demonstrated an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully communicating your everyday maintenance requests to the building manager. You made several attempts at less common vocabulary and descriptive phrases, such as 'public holidays' and 'inform you'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that occasionally distract the reader, such as 'lot of problems' instead of 'lots of problems' or 'a lot of problems', 'repair' instead of 'repairs', 'og' instead of 'of', and 'vey difficulty' instead of 'very difficult' or 'great difficulty'. These errors show that while your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning, greater precision and care with word forms and spelling are needed for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You used a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like 'because when i sit down for my study at night time...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, but they rarely impede communication. Examples of grammatical and structural issues include 'all lights are need to be replaced' (passive voice error), missing capitalisation for 'i', missing articles like 'a' before 'new oven', and run-on sentences with weak punctuation connecting multiple clauses. To achieve a higher score, you need to increase your control over complex sentence structures, improve punctuation by breaking up long run-on sentences, and eliminate basic agreement and verb-form errors.

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

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