Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-09
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 Sir,
I am writing this letter to complain about the wrong information provided in the brochure of your institute because of which I enrolled in the wrong course.
your institute provides various courses related to cookery. I read all the details in your brochure and enrolled in the course C003, Which deals with south Indian cuisine. I joined the course with great enthusiasm but the first day they started with north Indian dishes. I asked the instructors and they told me that C003 was course in Indian cuisine and South
India dishes were also a compared of this course and they would be taught in the final week of the 12 week course
I would like to enroll in a course covering purely South India cuisine. if your centre provide this course, I would like to get a transfer to that course and in case such as course is not there, I would like to refund of the fees that i have paid for the wrong course . I would also suggest you to get the information corrected in the brochure
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 1.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0
The response is completely off-topic. The task required a letter to a friend's sister about a study abroad experience, but the student wrote a formal letter of complaint to an institute regarding a cookery course. Because the response fails to address any of the bullet points or the intended recipient of the prompt, it cannot be assessed as a successful completion of the task. It does not meet the requirements of the prompt at all.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The letter is logically structured as a formal complaint, with clear paragraphing and a consistent tone. The use of cohesive devices such as 'because of which', 'but', and 'in case' helps the text flow reasonably well. However, because the content is entirely irrelevant to the prompt, the coherence is undermined by the failure to address the actual task requirements. The progression of ideas is logical for a complaint letter, but it does not serve the purpose of the assigned writing task.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for a formal letter of complaint. The student uses relevant terms such as 'enrolled', 'enthusiasm', 'cuisine', and 'refund'. There are some minor errors, such as 'a compared of this course' (likely meant 'a component of') and 'if your centre provide' (subject-verb agreement). While the range is sufficient to express the intended meaning of the complaint, it does not demonstrate the flexibility or precision required for higher bands.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, including 'if your centre provide' (should be 'provides'), 'I would like to refund' (should be 'I would like a refund'), and 'such as course' (should be 'such a course'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with some missing capital letters after periods and incorrect capitalization of 'Which'. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors limits the score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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