Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-06

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The younger sister of one of your friends is thinking about spending a year studying abroad as part of her university course. You did this recently, and she has asked you about your experience.

Write a letter to your friend's sister. In your letter

• tell her where you studied during your year abroad

• describe what you learnt about the country you studied in

• explain why your year abroad was helpful for your studies

Begin your letter as follows:
Dear........,

Student answer (Band 4.0)

Dear Jen,

How are you? How is john? I hope everything is going well. I was delighted to learn from your letter that you are pursuing your futher university program at abroad.

Speaking about mine experience, It was really fanatstic! of getting chance to carry out mine studies at Toronto university. I was enrolled in financial managment

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

You begin in an appropriate friendly tone and identify Toronto as the place where you studied, as well as mentioning financial management. However, the letter stops before you explain what you learnt about Canada or how the year abroad helped your studies, so two of the three required points are not addressed. The response also contains only 57 words, well below the required 150, which leaves the task substantially incomplete. To improve, develop each bullet point with specific details—for example, a cultural observation and a clear link between your experience in Toronto and your university learning—and complete the letter with a suitable closing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The opening greeting and brief introduction establish a friendly letter format, and “Speaking about mine experience” signals a move towards describing your own year abroad. However, the response ends abruptly after “financial managment,” so there is no clear progression through the requested topics or concluding paragraph. The ideas that are present are also not separated into developed sections. Organise the letter into a short introduction, one paragraph about studying in Toronto, and further paragraphs covering what you learnt about the country and the academic benefits. Use clear links such as “While I was there” and “This experience helped me because” to guide the reader.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “pursuing,” “studies,” and “financial management,” and the enthusiastic phrase “really fantastic” conveys your reaction. However, the range is very limited because the letter is so brief, and several spelling or word-choice errors reduce accuracy: “futher,” “fanatstic,” and “managment.” The phrase “at abroad” is also not natural English, while “mine experience” uses the wrong form. Build a wider set of accurate expressions for describing study and culture, such as “academic programme,” “local customs,” and “broadened my understanding.” Proofread spelling and check that each word fits its grammatical context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response includes some simple sentence forms, such as “How are you?” and “I hope everything is going well,” and the opening is generally understandable. There is also an attempt to use a longer structure in “I was delighted to learn from your letter that…”. However, the range remains narrow, and errors appear in basic patterns: “I was delighted to learn … that you are pursuing” shifts awkwardly between past and present, and “I was enrolled in financial management” is left without a completed sentence or further explanation. Capitalisation and punctuation are inconsistent, as in “john” and “It” after a comma. Practise complete sentences, consistent tense choices, and accurate punctuation while expanding the response.

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

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