Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-30

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 5.0)

Dear mark,

i hope everything finds you well. I am writing this letter for you because you are arriving at my home in the morning because the train departure you early, but i will be at work that time. I will come in the evening time.

I have kept the keys in locker. when you will enter you will see on the left side, there is a mail box and the lock is 7860. when you press it, the lock box will be opened, and then you will be able to go inside the house.

When you will get train, you just have to search on map. Enter your railway station location,and then enter my location. Then you will be able to see all the times of the train.

I will come in the evening, then we both will go outside for dine in at the best restaurant.

see you soon.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the prompt, but the ideas remain somewhat limited and under-developed. For instance, the arrangement for the keys is explained ("kept the keys in locker... lock is 7860"), and the evening plan is mentioned ("go outside for dine in"), but the instructions for getting from the train station to your house are vague and unhelpful, suggesting to "search on map" rather than providing actual directions. The tone is appropriately informal for a letter to a relative, but the overall development lacks sufficient detail to push into higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organization with paragraph breaks separating different parts of the letter, such as the key arrangements and the travel instructions. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression and logical linking between sentences. Cohesive devices are repetitive or inadequate, heavily relying on simple time connectors like "when" repeatedly (e.g., "when you will enter", "when you press it", "When you will get train"). Paragraphing is also disrupted by the lack of capitalization at the beginning of sentences and improper spacing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for the task, featuring basic everyday words and phrases such as "morning time", "evening time", and "go outside for dine in". There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as "the train departure you early" instead of you departing early or the train arriving early, and "dine in" used incorrectly as a noun phrase. These errors occasionally cause slight confusion for the reader, though the general meaning remains understandable.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates a very limited range of sentence structures, relying primarily on simple and repetitive clauses. Attempts at complex structures are frequently faulty, particularly with verb tenses and future/conditional time clauses, seen in errors like "when you will enter you will see" and "When you will get train". Additionally, there are persistent punctuation and capitalization errors throughout the text, such as lowercase starting letters for "i" and names like "mark", alongside frequent grammatical inaccuracies that cause difficulty for the reader.

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

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