Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-06

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 Neetu,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing this letter in response to your question regarding studying overseas, which I have completed last year in December. I am glad that your are also interested in gaining international knowlegde.

I studied in the one of the famous univerisities which is called Algoma Unversity situated in centre of Toronto, Canada. My overall experience through out my course was really good. The best thing which attracted me most is that, international students are on the top of their priorities list because they face lots of challenge which includes finding accomodation,language barrier and many more.

I learned various kinds of things such as, people are following the law and orders especially when driving, about their culture, famous food and places to visit. In addition to this, got chance to learn a new skill which is called packing with love. It was based on how to wrap gifts.

To be honest, the time which I spend over there was the one of the memorable time because it gave me clear vision of what I have to chose next. As I studied HR, it gave me choice to wether to go in HR field or study more to get desired job.

I hope you like journery and I will be waiting for your positive feedback.

Yours faithfully,

Parneet

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You successfully cover all parts of the prompt by telling the reader where you studied, describing what you learned about the country, and explaining how the year abroad helped your studies. However, some ideas are only partially developed or remain somewhat general. For example, when you mention learning about laws, culture, and 'packing with love,' these points are introduced briefly rather than fully expanded with vivid details. Similarly, the explanation of how the year helped your studies is somewhat limited when discussing human resources. To reach a higher level, you should extend and fully support each point with richer explanations and clearer examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear opening salutation and logical paragraph breaks for each part of the prompt. You use basic cohesive devices to connect your ideas, such as 'In addition to this' and 'To be honest.' However, referencing and cohesion are occasionally a bit mechanical or faulty. For instance, the transition between sentences in the second paragraph feels slightly disjointed, and the sign-off 'Yours faithfully' is inappropriate for writing to a friend's sister, where a warmer closing like 'Best wishes' would be far more natural. Clearer progression and more flexible paragraph transitions would improve the flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully communicating everyday concepts and relating your experiences. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'knowlegde,' 'univerisities,' 'Unversity,' 'accomodation,' 'wether,' and 'journery.' While these do not completely impede communication, they reflect a limited and minimally adequate lexical control. Additionally, some phrases are imprecise or awkward, such as 'international students are on the top of their priorities list.' To improve, you need to expand your control of less common vocabulary and pay closer attention to accurate spelling and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You demonstrate a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside a few faulty attempts at complex structures. There are frequent grammatical errors in verb tenses, articles, and prepositions, such as 'which I have completed last year' instead of the past simple 'which I completed,' 'your are also interested,' and 'in centre' missing the article 'the.' Furthermore, errors like 'the time which I spend over there was the one of the memorable time' show recurring inaccuracies with articles and relative clauses. Reducing these frequent errors and mastering complex sentence patterns will significantly enhance your grammatical control.

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

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