Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-31

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)

Dear Preet,

hope you are doing well.

I am writing to let you know about the arrangements that i have made for your arrival tomorrow morning, as unfortunately, i will be not at home until the evening.

I will be come from my work at 5 pm. I will hand out spare keys of my home in neighbour to Ms. Simran. she will pass the keys to you after making sure you are my cousin. Please let yourself in the house and make you comfortable.

I will be there in evening and will do fun together. We will share our lives, childhood memories and watched movie together. we will have dinner together and would go on short walk.

I am looking forward to seeing you soon. Have a safe journey.

Your cousin

Rampy

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

You have addressed all three bullet points in the prompt: explaining the key arrangements, providing directions, and suggesting evening activities. However, the response is significantly under the 150-word minimum requirement, which negatively impacts the development of your ideas. While the content is relevant, the brevity prevents you from fully expanding on the details, such as providing more specific directions from the station or elaborating on the evening plans. To improve, ensure you provide more descriptive detail for each point to meet the length requirement and demonstrate a more comprehensive response to the task instructions.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter follows a logical structure, moving from the greeting to the arrangements, directions, and finally the evening plans. Paragraphing is present, though the transitions between ideas are somewhat abrupt. You use basic cohesive devices like 'I will' and 'we will', but there is a lack of more sophisticated linking words or cohesive phrases to connect your sentences more fluidly. The referencing is generally clear, but the overall flow could be improved by using a wider variety of transition signals to guide the reader through the text more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task but remains quite basic. You rely on simple, repetitive phrasing such as 'do fun together' and 'share our lives'. There are also some awkward collocations, such as 'hand out spare keys... in neighbour', which should be 'leave the spare keys with my neighbour'. To reach a higher band, you should aim to use more precise and natural vocabulary, such as 'make yourself at home' instead of 'make you comfortable' and 'catch up' instead of 'share our lives'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including issues with verb tenses and word order. For example, 'I will be come from my work' is incorrect; it should be 'I will be coming home from work'. You also have issues with articles and prepositions, such as 'in neighbour' and 'watched movie'. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors is noticeable. You should focus on mastering basic sentence structures and subject-verb agreement before attempting more complex grammatical forms.

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

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