Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-04

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 Hana,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing in response to your letter, in which you have requested a review on the course that you are deciding to pursue in the foreign university.

In year 2025, I visited to Canada for educational purpose and opted a course, Hotel Management, in a reputed university, H.N University. During this course, I have learnt multiple skills such as, communication, Managing pressure, leadership, finance management, etcetera. Although I was never interested in studies but this one year of course work, has developed my interest in learning.

I would really recommend you to take admission in, Hotel Management, course. Additionally, This will provide you numerous benefits in your studies and career development. This is attributed to the fact that it helped me to reach my professional desire. Due to this particular course, I am working as a Head Chef in a foreign restaurant.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Warm regards

Richa

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, but some elements are only partially covered or lack full development. You mentioned studying in Canada and choosing Hotel Management at H.N. University, which effectively handles the first bullet point. However, the description of what you learned about the country itself is very brief and limited to professional skills rather than cultural or regional insights about Canada. The explanation of how the year abroad helped your studies is also somewhat generalised, focusing more on your current job as a Head Chef than on how the academic year directly aided your university learning. To reach a higher level, you need to extend and support your ideas with more specific details about both the host country and the direct academic benefits.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement, and your ideas are generally easy to follow. You use appropriate informal letter formatting, beginning with a standard greeting and closing nicely with 'Warm regards'. Paragraphing is used to separate the introduction, the body points, and the conclusion, giving the text a clear structure. However, cohesion at times feels a bit mechanical or repetitive, particularly in how you transition between sentences. For instance, using devices like 'Additionally, This will' disrupts the flow. To improve, you should employ a wider and more flexible range of cohesive devices to link your ideas more smoothly and ensure that referencing is always clear throughout the letter.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You display an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'reputed university' and 'professional desire'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations that weigh down the overall impression. For example, writing 'In year 2025, I visited to Canada for educational purpose and opted a course' contains unnatural word choices and prepositions, such as 'visited to' instead of 'went to' or 'studied in', and 'opted a course' instead of 'opted for a course'. Furthermore, mechanical phrasing like 'etcetera' is informal and detracts from the tone. Refining your word choices and ensuring correct collocations will help elevate your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like conditional and relative clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that persist throughout the text. Issues include tense inconsistencies, such as shifting incorrectly between past and present forms ('During this course, I have learnt... but this one year... has developed'), as well as capitalization and punctuation errors like unnecessary commas in 'take admission in, Hotel Management, course' and 'Additionally, This will'. While your meaning remains understandable, these grammatical inaccuracies prevent the response from achieving a higher band, as error-free sentences are not frequent enough.

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

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