Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-14

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Five months ago, you started renting an apartment on a six-month agreement. You now wish to stay in the apartment for longer than the six months you originally agreed with the owner.

Write a letter to the owner of your apartment. In your letter

• say how long you now want to rent the apartment for
• explain why your plans have changed
• tell the owner about a problem in the apartment

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ....................................,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear john,

Hopefully you are doing fine as per our agreement i have to leave this apartment on 31 of march with in six month but due to my job i have to stay two more year in this city can you please renew my contract for more two year. The reason why i am changing the plan because of work. They are going to open a new branch here and wanted to do thi whole set up also can you please send someone to fix the basin water is flowing top of the basin its require maintence .john you know better than me the old house require maintence always plese send some one to do this plumbing job its very necessary .one more thing i wanted to inform from last few day in am notceing and hearing lot of sound from my neibher they are always doing late night party and making lot of sound please inform them to not disturb any one this will be highly appreceated.

regards,

ishwer chand

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task prompt. You successfully stated how long you wish to rent the apartment for ('two more year'), explained that your plans changed due to a new job branch opening in the city, and informed the owner about the plumbing problem regarding the basin. All requirements of the task are adequately addressed, and the tone is generally appropriate for a letter to an apartment owner. However, some points are presented rather briefly and lack full extension, which places this response at Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement, and the purpose of the communication is understandable throughout. However, the organization suffers significantly from a lack of proper paragraphing and punctuation. The entire body of the letter is written as a single, long run-on block of text without proper sentence boundaries, capitalisation, or full stops. Cohesive devices are minimal or absent, relying heavily on consecutive clauses linked by commas or conjunctions. While referencing is generally clear, the lack of paragraph division and basic punctuation keeps this criterion at Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You use an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a general correspondence, such as 'agreement', 'contract', 'branch', and 'maintenance'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, but these are accompanied by noticeable spelling errors like 'neibher' for neighbor, 'appreceated' for appreciated, and 'maintence' for maintenance. Word choices and collocations are sometimes awkward, such as 'flowing top of the basin', but meaning is still conveyed successfully despite these flaws, making this a solid Band 5.5 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but it is heavily marred by punctuation and grammatical inaccuracies. The complete absence of capitalisation and full stops creates massive run-on sentences throughout the text. There are also frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('the old house require') and missing plural markers ('two more year', 'last few day'). These frequent errors and the lack of basic sentence demarcation cause some difficulty for the reader, aligning with the Band 5.0 descriptors.

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.