Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-18

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 Manager,

I Hope you are doing well. I would like to discuss with you that i am going to start my part-time french classes, that leads to reduce my working time in order to focus on my studies.

I am availabe to work on tuesdays, thursdays and weekends because on another days, i have to attend my french class according to class schedule as french is very cruical to work here to for staying in Quebec.

My part-time french study will not good for me, but beneficial for you also because now you have to put one french speaker with me because i speak just basic french and cannot understand to customers properly. I hope i will learn this language quickly and will come back soon as a full-time worker.

I hope you will accept my request and understand my situation.

Your Sincerely,

Kamalpreet

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The candidate addresses all three bullet points from the prompt: explaining why they want to reduce hours (to study French), specifying the desired schedule (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends), and describing how this benefits the employer (improving customer service skills so a helper is no longer needed). However, the response has two notable shortcomings. First, it contains 145 words, which falls short of the mandatory 150-word minimum, resulting in a penalty for under-length. Second, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. While all prompts are touched upon, the explanation regarding the employer's benefit is slightly convoluted. For these reasons, the response meets the criteria for Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter follows a recognizable format with a standard greeting and sign-off, although the sign-off 'Your Sincerely' contains a grammatical error. The response is divided into short paragraphs, but overall progression lacks smoothness. Cohesive devices are basic and sometimes misused, such as 'because on another days' and 'will not good for me, but beneficial for you also'. Paragraphing is attempted, but individual paragraphs lack clear internal cohesion, making the flow somewhat disjointed. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly regarding pronouns. These features align closely with the Band 5 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive, with limited precision. While the candidate attempts some less common phrasing such as 'cruical to work here', there are noticeable spelling errors ('availabe', 'cruical', 'another' instead of 'other') and word choice inaccuracies ('reduce my working time' instead of 'hours'). The phrase 'cannot understand to customers properly' demonstrates awkward collocation. These limitations in lexical control, along with errors that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, place the response firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The candidate attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but many of these attempts are faulty. Examples include 'I would like to discuss with you that i am going to start...' and 'My part-time french study will not good for me, but beneficial for you also'. Punctuation and capitalization errors are frequent, such as lowercase 'i' and comma splices. Grammatical inaccuracies occur throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('french classes, that leads to reduce') and preposition errors. Frequent errors that occasionally impede understanding indicate a performance consistent with Band 5.0.

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.