Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-05

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)

I hope you are doing good. I am writting this letter about to stay more six months in the apartment due to my work has been extented.

Firstly, I want to reside additional six months in Linden apartments because it is very convient for my work and also my wife job also felxible with this house.

The main reason to change my opinon because the work has increased my contract period so its very mandatory to stay here due to short of labour in the company it will eventually help my career growth as well.

Furthermore, I want to bring to you attention that the dry in our house creating lot of problems to us because when we put clothes in dryer it usually takes 30 minutes now it takes more then two hours.I hope you will find a possible solution on this matter.

We will be waiting for your replay about the apartment extention.

Thank you,

Yours sincerely,

Pradeep

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You successfully covered all parts of the prompt, addressing the length of time you wish to extend your stay, explaining your changed plans regarding your work contract, and notifying the owner of a maintenance issue with the dryer. Your purpose in writing is clear throughout the letter. However, some areas are slightly under-developed or repetitive, particularly the explanation of your work situation which is mentioned in both the opening and the second body paragraph without adding much new detail. To move further into higher bands, you would need to extend and fully develop all your ideas with more precise context rather than repeating similar points, ensuring every part of the prompt receives equal and thorough elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your letter has a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable beginning and end, and you attempted to organise your points into logical paragraphs. You made use of basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'The main reason', and 'Furthermore' to guide the reader through the letter. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes mechanical rather than smooth, and referencing is not always clear, such as the abrupt transition when introducing the maintenance problem. Paragraphing is present, but some paragraphs feel slightly disconnected due to repetitive phrasing. To achieve a higher band, you should ensure that your ideas flow naturally from one to the next without relying too heavily on basic transitional words, and use more sophisticated referencing and substitution.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You demonstrated an adequate range of vocabulary to communicate your message, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'contract period', 'career growth', and 'solution'. However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, word form, and spelling throughout your response, such as writing 'writting', 'extented', 'convient', 'felxible', 'opinon', 'mandatory', 'dry', 'then', and 'extention'. These lexical and spelling inaccuracies sometimes detract from the quality of your writing, although they do not completely impede communication. To reach a higher lexical band, you need to expand your vocabulary range, pay closer attention to spelling and word forms, and use terms with greater precision and fewer mechanical errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempted a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as using 'due to' clauses and subordinate clauses with 'when'. However, your writing contains frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly with verb forms, prepositions, and sentence boundaries. Examples include 'due to my work has been extented', 'very convient for my work and also my wife job also felxible', 'The main reason to change my opinion because...', and 'more then two hours'. These errors are frequent and can cause some difficulty or hesitation for the reader. To improve your grammatical score, you need to demonstrate better control over complex sentence patterns, ensure correct subject-verb agreement and preposition use, and eliminate basic structural errors.

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

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