Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-21

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have enrolled in an evening course but you have found that you are too busy to continue and would like to take the course next term instead.

• explain the situation and why you cannot continue the course

• say what you would like to do about your studies

• ask for advice about what you can do about the situation

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing a letter to inform you that I have enrolled in evening time course and I canot continue owing to hectic schedule. Actually, I am doing work in Amazon and my shits are in evening. I talk about my manager to change my work time. However, he denied my request and not gave me premission to alter my work schedule. I have need of this work to maintain my expenditure of study as well as my necessity things. Therefore, I can not continue my course at evening time.

I am good in study and always get good grades in every term. The most thing which I like is cooperative nature of teachers because they always ready to assist of other students in their ups and down situations.Besides this, they have not always encourage to every pupils for doing hard work but also help in job opportunities.

I want to take advise of teachers what I do at this time as I got this job after long time and useful for me to recover my expensive of academic and personal.Therefore, I request that you would do help me to change my course schedule and hold for next term because on this time, my work schedule will be changed. I hope ypu will understand my situation and give me premission to do this course in next term.

Yours sincerely,

Gurpreet

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The candidate successfully addresses all parts of the prompt, covering the three bullet points effectively. The situation is explained clearly regarding the evening course enrolment and scheduling conflicts with work. The writer states what they would like to do, which is to postpone the course until the next term. Furthermore, advice is sought from the teachers regarding the situation. Although there are some irrelevant personal details included about being good at studies and praising the teachers' cooperative nature, these do not detract significantly from fulfilling the core requirements of the task. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to an educational institution, and the overall purpose is clear throughout the text, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into readable paragraphs, maintaining a coherent overall arrangement. However, the logical progression is sometimes disrupted by abrupt transitions and a lack of smooth cohesive devices. For instance, the transition between explaining the work situation in the first paragraph and praising the teachers in the second paragraph feels disjointed. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and some sentences lack proper linking words to connect related ideas effectively. Paragraphing is attempted, but the grouping of thoughts could be improved to enhance clarity and flow. These limitations place the performance firmly within the Band 5 to 6 range, with mechanical and repetitive use of basic cohesive ties such as 'Therefore' and 'Besides this'.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey basic meanings such as 'hectic schedule', 'expenditure', and 'premission'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('canot', 'shits' instead of shifts, 'premission', 'advise' instead of advice, 'ypu') and awkward word choices ('necessity things', 'good in study', 'recover my expensive'). Less common items are attempted, but inaccuracies in word formation and collocation are frequent. While communication is not severely impeded and the reader can understand the intended meaning, the persistent lexical and spelling errors prevent the response from achieving a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional and causal clauses ('Therefore, I can not continue my course at evening time'). However, control over grammar and sentence structure is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('do work in Amazon'), incorrect prepositions ('good in study', 'help of other students'), subject-verb agreement issues ('they have not always encourage'), and tense inconsistencies. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and demonstrate limited control over more complex structures. Simple sentences are generally more accurate, but overall accuracy falls into the Band 5 category due to the density of basic grammatical mistakes.

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

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