Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-05

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 5.0)

Dear Friend,

Hope you are doing well. I am writing this letter in the reply of your previous one. As, I came to know about the news that you are deciding to settle in China for your higher studies. I would be very happy to guide you about the chinese universities and the culture. I grdauated from the Wuhan university that is located in the capital city of China. I studied the course 'Cultural Linguistics' and did my thesis in the perspective domain as well which helped me to adopt the chinese culture easily. During my studies, I learned their ethical values, norms, cultural rights and languages such as Madrin and Hakka.

My research on the above mentioned thesis strongly align with your career domain. I would be very happy to help you through out your degree. Let me know if you need any help. Thanks

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

The response addresses the prompt only partially and meets the task minimally. Furthermore, the length requirement is not met, as the response contains 146 words, falling slightly short of the minimum 150-word requirement. While you mention where you studied ('Wuhan university') and touch upon your studies, other parts of the prompt are only partially developed. For instance, the description of what you learned about the country is quite brief, mentioning ethical values, norms, and languages like 'Madrin and Hakka' without sufficient extension or detail. To reach a higher level, you need to ensure the word count exceeds the minimum threshold and fully develop all bullet points in the prompt with specific examples and well-extended ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some organisation in the letter, but overall it lacks clear progression. The opening and closing are standard for a letter, but the body of the text feels compressed and lacks a smooth logical flow between ideas. Cohesive devices are used minimally or somewhat inaccurately, such as starting a sentence with 'As, I came to know', which disrupts the natural flow of information. Paragraphing is also limited, with most of the main content lumped into a single dense paragraph. To improve this criterion, you should separate your ideas into clear paragraphs—one for where you studied and what you learned, and another for how it helped your studies—and use a wider range of appropriate cohesive devices to connect your sentences smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate for the task. You attempt some less common items such as 'perspective domain' and 'ethical values', but there are noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and word form. For example, 'grdauated' is misspelled, 'Madrin' contains a spelling error, and phrases like 'in the reply of your previous one' sound unnatural in English. These lexical errors and awkward collocations cause some difficulty for the reader. To achieve a higher band, you should expand your range of vocabulary, use less common lexical items more naturally and accurately, and carefully check your spelling before finishing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response shows a limited range of sentence structures, and attempts at complex sentences are often faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors that can cause difficulty for the reader, including incorrect preposition use and punctuation mistakes, such as unnecessary commas ('As, I came to know'). You also wrote sentence fragments and awkward constructions like 'strongly align with your career domain' (where subject-verb agreement is missed, as 'research' is singular). To improve your grammar score, you need to demonstrate a greater variety of complex structures with better control, reduce the frequency of basic errors, and pay closer attention to verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and punctuation inside your sentences.

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

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