Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-17

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently used a company to help you move your furniture and possessions to your new apartment. The removal company has now asked for your feedback about the service they provided.

Write a letter to the removal company. In your letter

• explain what went well on the day you moved house

• praise an employee who was particularly helpful

• mention an aspect of the service that you were not happy with

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing this letter to you about the feedback of your provided service to me for move-in to my new apartment. On the day of moving, helpers not only kept may valueable things safe but also finished their work early than expected. They also assisted me to assemble the furniture as well as organise the house.

I want to praise an employess, Aman, he is very kind and helpful guy. He really did a great job while moving as he had some ideas to keep my valuable stuff safely.

There is one thing which I did not happy about that they arrived late more than an hour. Arrival on time is important for any company who is providing a service to customers as you know time is valuable. I hope you look on this important aspect of your service.

Yours sincerely,

Lovey

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all three bullet points required by the prompt. You successfully explained what went well, such as keeping valuable things safe and finishing early. You praised an employee named Aman and mentioned an aspect of the service you were not happy with, namely the late arrival of more than an hour. However, the length requirement was not met as the text contains only 147 words, falling short of the 150-word minimum specified in the instructions. This slight under-length prevents the task from being fully developed and leads to a penalty under Task Achievement. For a higher band, ensure the word count comfortably exceeds 150 words to allow for fuller elaboration of each bullet point.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter follows a logical arrangement, moving from a polite opening through the positive aspects, the employee praise, and the complaint, down to the sign-off. Paragraphing is used to separate distinct ideas, which helps the reader follow your points easily. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'On the day of moving', 'They also', and 'There is one thing', but some referencing and linking is a bit mechanical. For instance, the transition in the second paragraph 'I want to praise an employess, Aman, he is very kind...' contains a comma splice that disrupts the flow. Overall, the organisation is clear, but smoother transitions and more accurate punctuation in linking clauses would elevate the coherence score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as 'assemble the furniture' and 'valuable stuff'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that impact precision. For example, 'move-in' is used incorrectly as a noun phrase instead of 'moving', 'valueable' is misspelled, 'employess' has a typo, and the phrase 'did not happy about' contains a grammatical error in adjective selection. Additionally, the phrase 'late more than an hour' is unnatural compared to 'more than an hour late'. While the meaning remains clear despite these lexical and spelling slips, the vocabulary range remains somewhat limited and requires greater accuracy for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempted a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as the relative clause in 'any company who is providing a service' and coordinating conjunctions. However, grammatical errors are frequent throughout the response. Examples include 'feedback of your provided service' instead of 'feedback on the service you provided', 'finished their work early than expected' instead of 'earlier than expected', and 'did not happy about' instead of 'was not happy about'. Furthermore, sentence boundaries are sometimes mishandled, as seen in the comma splice in 'I want to praise an employess, Aman, he is very kind and helpful guy.' These errors can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, placing the grammar at a solid Band 5.5 level.

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

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