Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-22

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 Mary,

Hey how are you Mary? I hope you are doing good. I am writing this letter to inform you about my experience studying in aboard for a year, so you will know what kind of life I had experience in a different country.

Well as you may know Mary that I had studied at a famous university at the america where the I stay and learn about my degree on Information Technology. I had a great time there studying, learning, and also strolling around the campus mostly outside. Many things had happen while I'm living at Arizona because mainly the many places are great to visit there while I learn the culture also the history of the Arizona most especially the people around the town. They are so friendly and outgoing people because they will invite you to there home or eat outside to have lunch or dinner.

The things I have learned at the country are mostly making new friends and making sure that I study properly because I am not only just there to graduate, but to have a great life daily. Most of the time my friend made me go to tours around the country where I learned a lot of things that the tours that offers. Like how the town was built and the long history of past civil war that broke out there.

I think that studying aboard made me more matured enough to be on my feet because of my own decisions to be made. Making sure that I also take care of myself not over stressing on studying because I am only the one that can help myself because most of the time I am sick and cannot move so I try to be more proactive and drink vitamins always so I can study well at my university.

I hope that you can also study aboard Mary because it will be a different experience and path that you wanted to take.

Kind regards,

Julian Kilayko

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address all three requested points: you identify Arizona as the place where you studied, describe friendly local people and learning about the area’s history, and explain that living independently helped you manage your studies and wellbeing. These details make the letter relevant and personal. However, the study location is imprecise: “a famous university at the america” does not name the university, and the description of what you learnt about the country focuses mainly on Arizona and social experiences. The benefit to your studies is also less fully explained; the discussion of making decisions and taking vitamins is more about personal development than academic progress. Add specific examples of how the experience strengthened your IT knowledge or study skills, and develop the country-related learning more clearly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening, paragraphs about the university and local experiences, a paragraph on personal development, and a closing. This helps the reader follow the main topics. You also use basic links such as “Well,” “because,” and “I think,” and the ideas generally progress from describing the place to explaining the experience’s value. At times, however, the connections are mechanical or unclear. For example, “Many things had happen… because mainly the many places are great to visit” combines several ideas without a clear relationship, while “Like how the town was built” is an incomplete follow-on. Use clearer topic sentences and connect examples directly to the point they support; avoid repeating “Mary” and “most of the time” when they are not needed.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main experiences, including “friendly and outgoing,” “culture,” “history,” and “proactive.” These choices help convey a personal, informal letter. However, the range is limited in places, and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or repetitive, which sometimes makes the meaning less clear. For instance, “studying in aboard” and “study aboard” do not express studying in another country, while “the tours that offers” is an awkward way to describe what you learnt. “More matured enough” is also not a natural expression. Aim for precise phrases such as “studying abroad,” “guided tours,” and “became more independent,” and vary repeated general words such as “things” with specific descriptions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including clauses with “because” and “while,” and the reader can usually understand your main message. However, the longer structures are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. Examples include “I had studied at a famous university,” “Many things had happen,” and “the people… they will invite you,” where tense, verb form, or sentence construction is not controlled. There are also problems with articles and agreement in “at the america” and “the tours that offers.” Practise building accurate sentences around one main idea, checking subject–verb agreement and verb tense, and use complex clauses only when you can control their structure.

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