Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-02
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 Anna,
I hope you and your family are doing well. Its been a long time since we last caught up. Your elder brother, Sam told me that you are thinking to study aboard for a year. I am gald that you made this decision for you future growth and I am please to share my abroad experience with you.
I did Advance Automation from Conestoga College, Canda. It is one of the best college in Canada and last year college won a prize in Skill trade fest. Staff of the college is well educated and helpfull, they always offer help if you are lacking in any subject. Moreover, they believe in diversity, so you will meet people from different race and culture.
Apart from the college, Canada is one of the beautiful places on the earth. They have mixed culture, you will meet the people from all around the world and may enjoy there food and festival.
However, abroad exposure will help you for you future jobs. You might picked by the globally recogonised companies.
I hope this information will help you in your decision. Please feel free to reach me for further question.
Loveingly,
Rob.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, but some aspects are handled more fully than others, earning it a solid mid-level score. You successfully told Anna where you studied by mentioning Conestoga College in Canada, and you provided some details about the country, such as its cultural diversity and natural beauty. However, the explanation of how your year abroad was helpful for your studies is somewhat limited and under-developed. While you briefly touch upon future jobs and being picked by globally recognised companies, you do not deeply connect the study abroad experience back to your academic coursework or learning process. To move closer to higher bands, you should expand on how the specific academic environment or coursework directly benefited your overall university studies.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a recognizable letter structure, beginning with a standard greeting and ending with an appropriate sign-off. Paragraphs are used to separate different topics, such as the college details in one section and the general aspects of Canada in another. However, the cohesion between sentences and ideas is occasionally mechanical or basic, relying on simple connectors like 'Moreover' and 'Apart from the college'. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical progression between points can feel a bit disjointed at times. To achieve a higher band, you should aim for smoother transitions between paragraphs and integrate cohesive devices more naturally so that the flow of ideas feels effortless rather than formulaic.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your general message, but it features noticeable errors and limited flexibility. You attempt some less common vocabulary items, such as 'diversity' and 'globally recognised', but there are several spelling and word-choice errors that detract from the writing, including 'aboard' instead of 'abroad', 'gald' for 'glad', 'please' for 'pleased', 'Advance' instead of 'Advanced', 'Canda' for 'Canada', 'helpfull', 'recogonised', and 'Loveingly'. Furthermore, phrases like 'Skill trade fest' contain collocation inaccuracies. These limitations mean the vocabulary sits firmly in the limited range category. To improve, you need to focus on accurate spelling and expand your use of precise, natural collocations related to studying abroad and career development.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The text demonstrates a limited range of grammatical structures, relying primarily on simple sentences alongside a few basic complex forms. There are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. For instance, you wrote 'Its been a long time' where the apostrophe is missing, and 'thinking to study' should be 'thinking of studying'. Other issues include missing articles, such as 'one of best college', and preposition errors like 'help if you are lacking in any subject' or 'help you for you future jobs', where 'in' and 'for' are misused. Your control over verb tenses and agreement also falters in places, such as 'last year college won'. To reach a higher standard, you must increase your repertoire of error-free complex sentences and pay closer attention to basic grammatical rules like articles and prepositions.
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