Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-12

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You would like to reduce your working hours in order to study part time.

Write a letter to your boss. In your letter

• explain why you want to reduce your working hours
• say which hours you would like to work
• describe how your part-time studies would benefit your employer

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ....................................,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Boss,

I am writing this letter to you regarding my working hours. To begin with, i want to explain my situation that i want to decrease my working hours because it affects on my studies. I feel to much difficulties to study because of the job. Especially, i want to reduce my hours on Wednesday and Friday because i have my lectures on that days. Additionally, i feel that it is hard for me to come at office after my class.

I want to work on Saturday and Sunday because it is too busy days for you and i know that you want more staff on that day. Unforunately, many staff is saying no to you for a job on weekends because they want to enjoy there weekends with their families. Restaurnts are mostly busy on those days. So, in my opinion, it will be benifical for you, if i am working on those days.

Moreover, you done ask to any other staff to come and do there shift. I will cover and it will be convieninent for both of them.

I hope you are understand my situation.

Regards,

Mehroz Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the task. You explained the need to reduce hours for study, specified the days (Wednesday/Friday), and described the benefit to your employer (covering weekend shifts). However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. The explanation of how your studies benefit the employer is quite weak; you focus more on the convenience of your availability rather than how the knowledge gained from your studies might add value to the company. To reach a higher band, ensure that your arguments are more fully extended and professional in tone.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your points. You use some cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Additionally', and 'Moreover'. However, the flow is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing and repetitive sentence structures. Some transitions feel mechanical, and the logical progression between the benefit of your studies and the scheduling request could be smoother. The use of referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly in the final paragraph where the connection to the previous points is slightly disjointed.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it lacks the precision and range expected at higher levels. There are several instances of word-choice errors, such as 'it affects on my studies' (should be 'affects my studies') and 'too busy days' (should be 'very busy days'). You also use 'there' instead of 'their' and 'benifical' (spelling error). While your meaning is clear, the range is limited to basic, everyday language, and the spelling errors are frequent enough to be noticeable.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You use a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Common issues include subject-verb agreement ('many staff is saying', 'you done ask'), incorrect verb forms ('I feel to much difficulties'), and punctuation errors. These errors occur consistently and occasionally require the reader to re-read to understand the intended meaning. To improve, focus on basic sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, and the correct use of prepositions.

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

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