Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-03
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 Felicia,
I am delighted to hear that you are planning on taking your study international as this give you several leaarning experience and also give you the opportunity to meet with other international student from different culture.
Moving on, my studied was done in one of the best University in the northern part of Canada being Memorial University of Newfoundland. This University is best known for accepting people from diverse culture and also keeping to date the technological aspect of there equipment.
During my staying in Newfoundland, i understood that intensive studying pave ways for studuent with great aspiration. As companies and other bodies are looking for serious student they can sponsor by giving awards or scholarships to to enable them concentrate on there studies without being financially stress.
Lastly, my one year of study in a foreign land was pretty helpful because i was opportuned to meet inspiring tutors who would help insearch of study grants and scholarships, since i already demonstrated a strong academic performance in my grades, more importantly I did not struggle to get a desired job shortly after my graduation. Apart from that i made great friends and the environ itself contributed to my mental health.
Best regards
Harmony Davids
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, successfully telling Felicia where you studied, describing what was learned about the country, and explaining why the year was helpful for studies. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the description of what was learned about Canada focuses heavily on scholarships and student support rather than broader cultural or academic insights. While all bullet points are covered, the depth of extension varies across the letter, placing it squarely within this level.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and a recognizable friendly letter format with a greeting and sign-off. Cohesive devices are present, such as 'Moving on', 'During my staying', and 'Lastly', though they occasionally feel a bit mechanical or unnatural in their transition between paragraphs. Paragraphing is used to separate different points, but referencing and logical progression can sometimes feel disjointed, which prevents the flow from achieving a higher level of cohesion.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases like 'intensive studying', 'great aspiration', and 'academic performance'. However, there are noticeable word-choice, word-form, and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'leaarning', 'studuent', 'there equipment', 'staying', and 'opportuned'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score because precision and control are lacking.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at varied structures. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('this give', 'there is... aspect of there equipment'), article omission, and preposition misuse ('meet with other international student', 'insearch'). These errors occur frequently enough to impact the overall control, though they rarely impede the reader's understanding of the main message.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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