Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-28

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You are a member of an International Students' club. The club is organising an event to celebrate popular food from around the world.

Write a letter to the event organiser, Luis. In your letter

• offer to make a popular dish from your country
• describe what this dish is
• explain why it should be included in the event

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Luis,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Luis,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing to express my interest to prepare my home country meal a event which will be held in club and I am also a part of an international students'club team member. I recently saw this news from my club members and would be delighted to take part in this exciting event.

Firstly, I am from India, and there excessive varity of food popular on different occasions. However, One well known food is briyani which is very popular in India.

Secondly, briyani cook with rice and add some spicy sauce, vegetables and chopped onions. Many people likes to eat non vegetarin briyani which makes with meat.

Finally, many people who belong to different countries but they like to eat rice. Therefore, they have chance to eat different type cooked rice.

I would like to appreciate it if you could give me permission to cook both type of briyani vegetarian as well as non vegetarian. Therefore, everyone can try it.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Kind regards,

Jass.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The candidate successfully covers all three bullet points required by the prompt. You introduce yourself as an international student club member, offer to make a popular dish from your home country, describe the dish, and explain why it should be included. For instance, you clearly offer to prepare biryani, describe its core ingredients such as rice, spices, vegetables, and meat, and explain that its universal appeal to rice lovers makes it a great addition. While some ideas like the description of ingredients are somewhat basic and could be further extended, all parts of the task are adequately addressed with a clear and appropriate tone suitable for a general letter to an organiser. This aligns well with the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter follows a logical arrangement with a clear beginning and ending, and you use basic sequencing markers such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Finally' to structure your points. However, paragraphing is somewhat fragmented, with several very short paragraphs that break the flow of ideas. Additionally, cohesive devices are at times mechanical or awkwardly placed, such as in the sentence 'I would like to appreciate it if you could give me permission...', where referencing and transitional phrases lack natural fluency. Overall organisation is coherent enough to follow easily, but referencing and paragraph structure prevent a higher score, placing this performance at a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing you to successfully convey your message about cooking biryani. You attempt some less common vocabulary items, such as 'international students club' and 'non-vegetarian', but there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'excessive varity' instead of 'a wide variety', 'briyani cook with' instead of 'cooked with', and 'many people likes' instead of 'like'. Spelling errors like 'briyani' (biryani) and 'varity' (variety) also occur. While communication is never impeded and the range is minimally sufficient to complete the task, these recurring inaccuracies limit the score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence forms, such as the relative clause in 'many people who belong to different countries but they like to eat rice'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors such as missing prepositions or incorrect verb forms (e.g., 'interest to prepare my home country meal a event', 'briyani cook with rice and add', 'which makes with meat'). Furthermore, there are punctuation and phrasing issues that require the reader to slow down. Because errors in grammar are frequent and affect multiple sentence structures, this performance fits the Band 5.0 descriptor well.

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