Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-28

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 Aman,

i hope you are doing well, i recently heard about that you want to study in aborad.I finished my university course that is business mangemen in last year at CVS University .Which i suggest you to enroll in this same course.

while i studied learnt a lot of valuable thing regarding my study.This provides not only theoretical knowledge but also offers pratical skills.This would be more beneficial to establish my career in business trades.

Foreign study was provide to me valuable experience such as language development skills to communicate with another region people as well explore different places during weekends. This was bigger opportunity to make new friends beyond their geographical distance.As a result, it was helps to expand my circles.

I would appreciate if you could therefore to take admission in this university course to gain specifics about every aspects of business course from international teachers.

With regards,

Rajan

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, although the focus gets somewhat mixed up. You are writing to Aman, your friend's younger sister, but you address her directly as wanting to study abroad ("you want to study in aborad") and later confuse pronouns ("my career" instead of hers). You mention where you studied ("CVS University"), what you learnt ("theoretical knowledge and practical skills"), and why it was helpful ("language development skills" and making friends). However, the tone shifts and the persona is slightly confused at times regarding who is undertaking the study. To reach a higher band, ensure the perspective remains consistently focused on advising the reader about her own prospective journey based on your genuine past experience.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter uses basic paragraphing, though the layout and spacing require better control. Cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or misused, such as "while i studied learnt a lot" and "As a result, it was helps to expand my circles." The progression of ideas is generally clear from the university choice to the personal and academic benefits, but referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly with pronouns like "their" in "beyond their geographical distance." Paragraph breaks are present to separate different themes, yet overall cohesion feels somewhat disjointed due to frequent structural and referencing awkwardness. Improving transition phrases and pronoun consistency will elevate this score.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, though it contains noticeable limitations and errors in word choice and collocation. Examples include "study in aborad" (spelling/collocation), "business mangemen" (spelling), and "business trades." You attempt less common phrases such as "theoretical knowledge" and "geographical distance," but frequent inaccuracies in word formation and spelling (e.g., "pratical," "helps") restrict the lexical score. To achieve a band 6.0 or higher, you should expand your range of vocabulary, ensure correct word forms, and carefully proofread to eliminate basic spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as "This provides not only theoretical knowledge but also offers pratical skills." However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors in verb forms, articles, and sentence structure. Examples of errors include "i hope you are doing well, i recently heard about that you want" (comma splice and unnecessary preposition), "Foreign study was provide to me" (incorrect passive voice), and "it was helps" (double verb tense error). Punctuation is also problematic, with missing capitalisation and incorrect spacing after punctuation marks. A greater control over basic grammatical structures is needed.

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

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