Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-30

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

New neighbours have recently moved into the house/flat next door to where you live. You have examinations soon, but your neighbours play music late at night which is affecting your studies and sleep.

• explain what the problem is
• why it is causing you difficulties
• what action you would like them to take

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Mr or Mrs Smith

I am writing this letter for informing you a complaint regarding the excessive noice from your house especially the evening time.

Most of the all the late at night there is loud music coming from your house and that make disturbance to the neighbours. Moreover noice pollution is an offence in this neighbourhood, and no one can make hard sound espeacially in the queit time.

Nowadays i am preparing for my semester exams, which is am mostly concentrating on the evening time, however the sound from your house make distraction and also affecting my focus on the lessons.

I would like to recommand you to reduce the sound of the music and only play within your house especially in the night time. I understand that everone likes to hear music in loud, but it creat a chance of affecting others privacy.

I believe that you understand this complaint and suggest to reduce the volume of the song that plays in the dark time.

Yours faithfully

Philip

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions. The student successfully explains the problem by stating that excessive noise is coming from the neighbours' house late at night. The second bullet point is addressed by explaining that the student is preparing for semester exams and the noise causes distractions, affecting focus and sleep. Finally, the third bullet point is covered by requesting the neighbours to reduce the volume of the music. The tone is mostly appropriate for a semi-formal letter, though the opening greeting 'Dear Mr or Mrs Smith' shows a slight uncertainty in conventions. Overall, the task is fully addressed with relevant and coherent ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter is organised into clear paragraphs, starting with an introduction, followed by body paragraphs addressing the problem and the impact, and concluding with the desired action and a sign-off. Cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'However', and 'Nowadays' are attempted to link ideas, although some transitions feel slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'Most of the all the late at night'. Referencing is generally clear, and the overall arrangement allows the reader to follow the writer's argument from the problem to the proposed solution without significant confusion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but contains numerous spelling and word-choice errors that reflect a limited control of lexical features. Examples of errors include 'noice' instead of 'noise', 'espeacially', 'queit', 'recommand', 'everone', and 'creat'. While the student attempts some less common phrases like 'noice pollution' and 'semester exams', the persistent spelling mistakes and imprecise collocations (e.g., 'make disturbance' instead of 'cause a disturbance', 'hear music in loud' instead of 'listen to loud music') restrict the lexical score to the lower-middle range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ability to form subordinate clauses using words like 'which' and 'although'. However, grammatical accuracy is noticeably weak. There are frequent structural errors, such as preposition misuse ('for informing you a complaint' instead of 'to complain'), subject-verb agreement issues ('sound from your house make distraction', 'which is am mostly concentrating'), and tense inconsistencies. Although these errors do not completely obscure the message, they cause noticeable difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from achieving a higher band.

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