Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-07

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A family member is coming to stay with you. He/she will be arriving by train in the morning, but you won’t be home until the evening.

• explain arrangements you have made for them to have keys and get into the house

• tell your relative how to get from the train station to your house

• say when you will be home and suggest what you could do together that evening

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Hi Simon,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing to welcome you to visit at my home. I am very pleased to hear that you will be come in Edmonton. However, One thing I apologize for not available at home when you reach my home as I am busy in my business meeting with client.

Firstly, I would like to tell you I give home keys to my neighbor. You just tell her name and collect key from her. She is old lady and always set at home's stairs.

Secondly, you can take bus from near to railyway station. which is 516 and drop you at front door. Do not worry about reaching at home.

Furthermore, evening time I cook for you food and cook your favorite dish.

We will meet evening time and I am very excited to meet you after long time.

Best wishes,

Jaspreet Kaur.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points in the prompt: key arrangements, directions, and evening plans. However, the development of these points is quite basic. For example, the explanation of how to get the keys is a bit vague, and the directions provided are not very clear. To reach a higher band, you should provide more specific details, such as the name of the bus stop or a more precise description of the neighbor's location. The tone is generally appropriate for a letter to a family member, but the content feels slightly rushed and lacks the depth required for a higher score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organized into short paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You have used some basic cohesive devices like 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Furthermore' to signal the transition between points. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes disjointed due to grammatical errors. The referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'She is old lady and always set at home's stairs', where the connection to the previous sentence is slightly awkward. Improving the use of linking words and ensuring smoother transitions between ideas will help improve your score in this area.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main points, but it is quite limited and repetitive. You rely on basic words like 'home', 'meet', and 'cook'. There are also some noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'I am busy in my business meeting' instead of 'I am busy with a business meeting' and 'always set at home's stairs' instead of 'always sits on the front steps'. To improve, try to use more descriptive language and ensure that your word choices are natural and accurate for the context of the letter.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that occasionally make the meaning difficult to follow. Examples include 'I will be come in Edmonton' (should be 'I will be coming to Edmonton'), 'I apologize for not available' (should be 'I apologize for not being available'), and 'evening time I cook for you food' (should be 'in the evening, I will cook food for you'). You rely mostly on simple sentence structures, and your attempts at more complex sentences often contain errors in tense or word order. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and correct verb tenses will significantly improve your accuracy.

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

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