Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-03

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 5.0)

Dear mr John,

I am writing this letter to request you to extend my stay in your apartment.

My name is kyle, currently occupying apartment number 1234 at Evans Avenue, Toronto. Although orignally I signed an agreement to rent this appartment for next six-month, there has been recent developments that requires me to extend my stay for another 1 year.

I am studying in university of toronto, which is 10 minutes walk from this accomodation. I was suppose to graduate this month. However, due to an administrator issue, my course has been dropped for this summer

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

The response only partially addresses the task requirements. While you mention how long you want to rent the apartment for and explain why your plans changed, the letter is cut short and fails to tell the owner about a problem in the apartment. Furthermore, the task requires a minimum of 150 words, but your response contains only 96 words, meaning the length requirement is not met. To improve, you must ensure all bullet points from the prompt are fully covered and that you meet the word count minimum by fully developing your ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation in your letter, but it lacks an overall sense of progression because the response ends abruptly before completing all the prompts. Paragraphing is attempted, but referencing and logical flow are impacted by the short length. To move to a higher band, you need to ensure that ideas are connected smoothly across well-structured paragraphs, guiding the reader logically through every required part of the task.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a minimally adequate range of vocabulary for the task, such as 'request', 'extend', and 'accommodation'. However, there are noticeable vocabulary and spelling errors, such as 'orignally', 'appartment', and 'accomodation', alongside word-choice issues like 'administrator issue' instead of 'administrative issue'. These errors do not completely block communication, but they cause some difficulty for the reader. To improve, focus on accurate spelling and using more precise collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

Your writing shows a limited range of sentence structures, with frequent errors that can cause difficulty for the reader. For example, there are punctuation and capitalization mistakes in 'Dear mr John' and 'My name is kyle', as well as subject-verb agreement errors like 'there has been recent developments' and tense issues in 'I was suppose to graduate'. To achieve a higher score, you need to demonstrate better control over basic grammatical structures, verb forms, and punctuation.

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

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