Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-14

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 5.5)

Dear Vivan,

How have you been. I am writing concerning your plan to study abroad as part of your university course. You made a great choice and I recently did that.

I studied in one of the universities in United Kingdom, Oxford university. It is among the presidous school we have globally. I am happy I made that choice. It is a school that worth attending.

As you already that the country is well known for its welcoming and comfortanle society. I learnt alot the past few months, I learned about its culture and tradition. How every citizen is been cared for and directed to do the right thing accordingly.

These few months has been helpful to me in my studies. I was opportuned to study in an environment where education matters which encouraged me to study well and be a better person. It helped me in my career because I gained more insite about my profession. I hope your study in abroad improve your welbeing. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for your consideration.

Yours sinmcerely,

Ogechukwu.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response successfully covers all the bullet points outlined in the prompt. You mentioned where you studied by writing 'I studied in one of the universities in United Kingdom, Oxford university.' You also described what you learned about the country, noting that 'I learned about its culture and tradition. How every citizen is been cared for...' Finally, you explained how the year abroad was helpful for your studies, stating that 'It helped me in my career because I gained more insite about my profession.' The tone is appropriately informal and friendly for a letter to a friend's sister. All aspects of the task are addressed, though the ideas could be slightly more extended to reach the highest descriptor levels. Overall, this represents a solid performance meeting all task requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter follows a logical overall arrangement with a clear beginning and ending. The text is divided into paragraphs, which helps structure the narrative. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the sentence fragment 'How have you been.' uses a period instead of a question mark, and transitions between sentences can be abrupt. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'You made a great choice and I recently did that.' While paragraphing is used, the logical progression could be smoother with better use of cohesive devices to link ideas together.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, but there are several noticeable spelling and word choice errors. For instance, 'presidous' is misspelled, 'comfortanle' contains a typo, 'alot' should be two words, and 'insite' should be 'insight'. Furthermore, phrases like 'a school that worth attending' contain grammatical inaccuracies in word formation. While you attempted some less common vocabulary such as 'welcoming and comfortable society' and 'profession', the recurring spelling and lexical errors restrict the band score. To improve, pay closer attention to spelling and standard collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempted a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'I was opportuned to study in an environment where education matters which encouraged me to study well...' However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the letter. Examples include 'every citizen is been cared for' (passive voice error), 'These few months has been helpful' (subject-verb agreement error, as 'months' is plural), and 'opportuned' instead of 'given the opportunity'. Punctuation is also inconsistent, such as ending a question with a period. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they occur regularly.

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

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