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 Laura,

Hope you are doing great! I heard from your brother that you are planning to enroll the course of Data Analytics for a year during the training period of your current course.

As you already know that I had opted the same course during my graduation at Douglas college at Canada.

I would like to tell you that country is really beautiful, you would like it a lot. The people are so cooperative and always ready to help you wherever and whenever you need. The teachers are fully experienced and trained, they will clear your doubts as they want to help their students in all the ways. The methods they use to teach is effective that even a beginner would be able to get the concept clearly.

After learning the course, I got placement in many companies as the company demands a person who has conceptual knowledge over the theoretical knowledge.

I would definitely give you green flag to pursue the studies in abroad as it will not only teach you professional skills but many other skills such as how to live your life beautifully.

Lots of Love,

Alan

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You successfully cover all three parts of the prompt by telling Laura where you studied, describing what you learned about the country, and explaining how the year abroad helped your studies. However, the development of your ideas remains somewhat limited and mechanical. For instance, when describing what you learned about the country, you state that 'the people are so cooperative and always ready to help' and 'the methods they use to teach is effective,' but these points are handled superficially without much elaboration. Your position and purpose in writing are clear, yet some sections feel rushed. To reach a higher level, you would need to extend your ideas further, providing more specific details and fully supported examples for each bullet point rather than relying on brief generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your letter has an overall coherent arrangement, and it follows a recognizable format with an appropriate opening and closing. You use basic paragraphing to separate your main points, which helps the reader follow the flow of topics from your studies to the country and finally to your recommendation. However, cohesion at times feels a bit mechanical or faulty. For example, the transition into your description of the country is abrupt, and referencing devices are occasionally unclear, such as 'that country is really beautiful' without explicitly naming the country again in that specific sentence. Furthermore, the organisation lacks a smooth overall progression between paragraphs. To improve, you should employ a wider and more natural range of cohesive devices and ensure that each paragraph transitions seamlessly into the next.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary to complete the task, successfully using terms like 'graduation', 'conceptual knowledge', and 'professional skills'. There are, however, noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and phrasing that occasionally disrupt the natural flow. For instance, writing 'enroll the course' instead of 'enroll in the course', 'opted the same course' instead of 'opted for the same course', and giving someone a 'green flag' rather than a 'green light' reflect inaccurate collocations and word choices. While these lexical slips do not completely impede communication, they highlight a limited and sometimes awkward control of less common vocabulary. To achieve a higher band, you need to use more precise lexical items and demonstrate better awareness of standard collocations and fixed expressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures throughout the letter, such as 'I heard from your brother that you are planning...' and '...as it will not only teach you professional skills but many other skills...'. Nevertheless, your writing contains frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that cause some difficulty for the reader. There are issues with subject-verb agreement, such as 'The methods they use to teach is effective', where the singular verb does not match the plural subject. Additionally, you make prepositional errors like 'studies in abroad' instead of 'studying abroad'. Your attempts at complex clauses often result in structural awkwardness. To improve your grammar score, you should focus on sharpening your control over basic verb agreement, prepositions within grammatical patterns, and ensuring that more complex sentence forms are completely accurate.

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

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