Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-01

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 4.0)

The following chart illustrates the proportion of overall US population which has age of 65 of more between the year 1900 to 2000.

Generally, the graph shows highest proportion of most older people are in the last year, whereas the at the first few years the proportion of older people are lowest and same than it gradually increases every year. The percentage of middle aged people are also increasing in every consecutive year. While the percentage of lower age people increasing every year but falls in the last year.

The population of people with age of more than 85 are highest at the year 2000 which is 1.5 percent and it is lowest at the first four years which are 0,2 percent. The highest population of people between age of 75 to 84 is again highest in 2000 which is 4.4.

Although the most highest population percentage was in the year 1990 in this year the people between age of 65 to 74 have highest proportion of 7.3 percent.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The response is completely off-topic. The task required a formal letter to a boss requesting a reduction in working hours for study purposes. Instead, the student provided a report describing a chart about the US population. Consequently, the task has not been addressed at all. According to the IELTS criteria, a response that is completely unrelated to the task prompt must receive a very low score for Task Achievement, as none of the required bullet points (explaining the reason, stating hours, or describing benefits) were addressed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is organised into paragraphs, and there is some attempt at logical progression within the context of describing a chart. However, the use of cohesive devices is somewhat mechanical (e.g., 'Generally', 'Although', 'While'). The referencing is occasionally unclear, and the flow is hindered by the lack of relevance to the actual task. While the structure is coherent for a report, it fails to meet the requirements of a letter format, which is a significant issue for this specific task type.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and repetitive. The student relies on basic terms such as 'proportion', 'percentage', 'highest', and 'lowest'. There are errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'most older people' instead of 'the elderly' or 'older people', and 'same than it' which is grammatically and lexically incorrect. The range is insufficient to demonstrate the flexibility required for higher bands, and the vocabulary is not suited to the professional tone required for a letter to a boss.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'which has age of 65 of more' (incorrect preposition and phrasing), 'at the first few years' (incorrect preposition), and 'most highest' (double superlative). The sentence structures are relatively simple, and there is a lack of control over complex sentence forms. Punctuation is generally functional, but the frequency of errors in basic grammar, such as subject-verb agreement and article usage, is high enough to cause some difficulty for the reader.

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.