Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-20

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 Lucia,

I hope you're doing fine. I wanted to thank you for organizing the event to celberate popular food from around the world. I'm proud to be a member of an international students' club.

I live in Melborn australia, I'm orginaly from Bangalore, India and I belong to kannada community. As part of this event, I would like to make a popular dish or a dessert called Obbattu. Obbattu is made out of lentals (dal), suger and coconut as a smooth paste based stuffing to cober this we need wheat flore dough, oil. The whole process of making the dish is very complex but worth the efforts.

I would like you to include this dish. Becouse, most of south indian communites' make this sweet during festivites and special events. As a childhood memory, living far from family, I strongly recoment this to be made part of the popular food list for the event. People who live faraway from familes get an oprtunity to refresh all their memories once again.

Hoping to hear back from you positively.

Thank you, once again for the opprtunity.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three points: you offer to prepare Obbattu, describe its filling and dough, and explain its cultural and personal significance. The explanation that it is made for South Indian festivals gives the organiser a relevant reason to include it, while the memory of being far from family adds a personal touch. However, the dish description is difficult to follow in places, and the reason that it would help people “refresh all their memories” is not fully explained for readers unfamiliar with the dish. The greeting also says “Dear Lucia” rather than the requested “Dear Luis,” which weakens the letter’s task-specific accuracy. Clarify the preparation and connect its cultural importance more directly to the event.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening, a paragraph introducing the dish, a paragraph explaining why it matters, and a polite closing. This makes the main purpose easy to identify. Some links between ideas are less smooth, however. The sentence beginning “I live in Melborn australia” combines several pieces of background information with the offer, and the description of the ingredients becomes a long, difficult-to-follow sequence. “Becouse” also starts a sentence fragment rather than linking the reason clearly to the request. Use clearer sentence boundaries and transitions—for example, introduce your background briefly, then explain the dish, followed by a separate sentence about its cultural significance.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “stuffing,” “festivities,” “childhood memory,” and “international students’ club.” These choices help communicate the dish’s ingredients and personal importance. However, spelling errors and imprecise word choices are noticeable and sometimes make the description harder to understand, such as “lentals,” “suger,” “cober,” and “oprtunity.” Some phrases are also unnatural, including “refresh all their memories” and “popular food list.” Aim for accurate spelling and more natural collocations, such as saying that the dish “brings back memories” or should be “included in the event’s menu.” This would make your vocabulary more reliable and precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, and the meaning is generally understandable. For example, “As a childhood memory, living far from family…” attempts to connect personal experience with your recommendation. Some grammatical errors remain, particularly in sentence boundaries and clause construction. “I live in Melborn australia, I'm orginaly from Bangalore” joins two independent clauses with a comma, while “I would like you to include this dish. Becouse…” leaves the reason as a fragment. The sentence describing the ingredients also lacks clear grammatical structure. Use full stops or conjunctions to separate complete ideas, and build the explanation with a clear subject and verb, such as “The filling is made from…”

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

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