Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-27

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 Daman,

I hope you are doing great. I am delighted to know that you are thinking to study abroad in the university course. I have completed my business mangement course recently from the university of northern, in Ontario. That was great experience during my studies.

Regarding learning, I learnt about many things about the country's culture and cousins. I have chance to work part-time during my working I learnt communicate with other people and develop my social skill. I explored country's different visiting places that boreaden my horizons of knowledge and gained experince of adventurous places like Nigara fall and wildlife century.

Moreover, this abroad study is helpful for me now i am working in reputated company in Delhi. I get my job easliy because of my great experince or study beacuse of international course my salary package is higher. Now, I have opportunity I can teach to other people.

I hope this advice will help you in your decision related to this.

Yours lovingly,

Madhuri.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three requested points: you identify your study location as a university in Ontario, describe learning about the country and its culture, and explain how the experience helped you obtain work and a higher salary. The advice is relevant and the letter has an appropriate friendly purpose. However, some points are less fully developed than others. The location is vague because you do not name the university or clearly state the country, and the explanation of how the year abroad helped your studies focuses mainly on employment benefits rather than academic progress. Add a specific example of knowledge or skills that supported your course, and clarify what you learned about the country.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening, a paragraph about learning and experiences, a paragraph on benefits, and a closing. Linking expressions such as “Regarding learning” and “Moreover” help signal the stages of your message, and the reader can follow its general purpose. This meets the lower-band expectations and shows some features of stronger organisation. However, the progression within paragraphs is occasionally abrupt: the move from part-time work to tourist attractions, for example, is not clearly connected. Some references, such as “this abroad study,” are also unclear. Use more natural transitions and group related ideas together, while making each paragraph’s main point explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “culture,” “part-time,” “social skill,” “horizons,” and “salary package.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors make parts difficult to interpret. For example, “cousins” appears to be an incorrect choice for what you learnt about the country, while “wildlife century” and “boreaden” obscure your meaning. There are also spelling errors in “mangement,” “experince,” and “easliy.” Build accuracy by checking spelling and choosing precise, natural phrases; for instance, describe cultural customs and local attractions directly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You communicate through a mixture of simple statements and some attempts to connect ideas, such as “I get my job easily because…” and “I have chance to work part-time during my working…”. However, the range of sentence structures is limited, and errors in verb forms, articles, and sentence construction are frequent enough to make some passages difficult to follow. Examples include “thinking to study” and “I have chance,” which need different grammatical patterns, as well as the run-on construction “Now, I have opportunity I can teach to other people.” Practise forming complete sentences with clear clauses, and check tense consistency when describing past experiences and present benefits.

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

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