Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-11

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 Jasmeen,

Its great to hear from you that you are planning to study aboard for a year. I'm keen to share my experience with you about this.

As you know I was enrolled in a pharmacy course here and decided to do a semester and 6 months internship over there. I went to University of Alberta in Canada for med school and completed my co-op in one of the local pharmacy.

Since Canada is more developed, everythings is followed in a proper manner. For instance, every academic task is updated on university's portal either its an assignment or tests. Another thing which I really admire about this country that it offers great opportunities for youngster along with their university study such as involve in research programs, do voluntry work and so on.

I believe after spending an year over there I improved my personality alot. After gaining a first hand experience by living in different country I have the courrage to be bold and strongky follow my leads.

I hope you find this information useful. Do let me know if you need more details.

All the Best,

Suman

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address the three requested points: you identify the University of Alberta in Canada, describe aspects of university life there, and explain that the experience helped you become more confident. However, the country description focuses mainly on university systems and opportunities, so it gives only a limited picture of what you learnt about Canada itself. The explanation of how the year helped your studies is also under-developed: improved confidence is relevant, but you do not clearly connect it to your pharmacy course or academic progress. Add a specific example of a cultural or everyday discovery and explain how your placement or learning abroad strengthened your subject knowledge.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall arrangement, moving from an opening, to your study location and observations, and then to the benefits and closing. Paragraphing helps the reader follow these stages, and phrases such as “For instance” and “Another thing” signal examples and additions. Some links are less precise or feel mechanical, however. “Since Canada is more developed” does not clearly connect the country’s development to the examples that follow, and “After gaining a first hand experience” repeats the idea of living abroad without showing how it leads to academic benefit. Use clearer links between each observation and the task point it supports, and make the progression from experience to study benefit more explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a range of relevant vocabulary, including “internship,” “academic task,” “research programs,” and “first hand experience,” which helps communicate the topic. There are also attempts at more specific expressions, but several word-choice, collocation, and spelling problems reduce precision: “study aboard” should be “study abroad,” “local pharmacy” needs a more natural plural or article, and “strongky follow my leads” is unclear. “Everythings is followed in a proper manner” is also an awkward way to describe university procedures. Aim for accurate, natural phrases rather than broad wording; for example, specify what systems or opportunities you encountered and use standard spellings such as “voluntary” and “courage.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use both simple sentences and some longer structures, such as the sentence beginning “Another thing which I really admire,” and the overall meaning is generally understandable. However, there are several errors in sentence construction and grammatical forms. “Another thing … that it offers” is missing a linking verb (“is”), while “such as involve in research programs, do voluntary work” does not maintain a grammatical parallel structure. In “either its an assignment or tests,” the clause needs a clearer construction, and “I improved my personality” does not express the intended change naturally. Practise building complex sentences with complete clauses and parallel verb forms, and check articles, agreement, and punctuation in each sentence.

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