Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-14

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 5.0)

Dear Sir,

I am Forhadur Rahman working as a medical officer in your Intensive Care Unit for 2 years. As I am planning to attend post-graduation examination recently, so I need to reduce my working hours. It would be hard for me to continue working full time as well as study at the same time.

I find it very convenient for me to work 36 hours in a week and if morning schedule will be perfect for me. Additionally, working morning shifts will give me abundent time to study at night for which i can take best preparation for the post-graduation.

Furthermore, my study subject is MD in critical care ,so my degree in that particular area will definitely help not alone me but also my co-worker and institution.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The candidate covers all three bullet points required by the prompt: they explain why they want to reduce working hours (to prepare for a post-graduation examination), state the specific hours they would like to work (36 hours a week, morning shifts), and describe the benefit to the employer (an MD in critical care will benefit coworkers and the institution). However, the response falls short of the minimum 150-word requirement, containing only 129 words. This negative word count penalty restricts the Task Achievement score, as the task has not been fully completed in terms of length. Despite this, the tone is appropriately polite and formal for a workplace letter to a boss.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organised into short paragraphs that correspond roughly to the prompt requirements. Ideas are generally grouped logically, with an opening statement, specific shift preferences, and institutional benefits discussed in sequence. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'Additionally, working morning shifts will give me abundent time...' lacks smooth integration, and referencing is occasionally awkward. Paragraphing is present, but the overall structure feels a bit disjointed due to the brief length and abrupt transitions between ideas. Cohesive devices are used, but they are somewhat basic and repetitive.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, successfully employing medical context-specific terms such as 'medical officer', 'Intensive Care Unit', and 'critical care'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, but these are accompanied by lexical errors and awkward collocations. For example, 'attend post-graduation examination' should be 'sit for' or 'take a postgraduate examination', and 'abundent' contains a spelling error. Furthermore, 'take best preparation' is unnatural compared to 'prepare thoroughly'. While communication is never impeded, the vocabulary range remains somewhat limited and contains noticeable errors in word choice.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'As I am planning to... so I need to...', which contains a redundant conjunction pair. There are several grammatical inaccuracies throughout the text, including article omission in 'working as a medical officer' (missing 'a') and prepositions, as well as the conditional-like phrasing 'if morning schedule will be perfect for me', which is grammatically incomplete. Punctuation errors are also present, such as spacing before commas and periods. Although these errors do not impede overall communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

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

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