Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-26

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,

Subject : Feedback for the last service provided by your Company.

I am writing this letter to you about the service I got from your removal company. Recently, I moved to new place. I had alot of heavy furniture and other stuff. That day all my friends had exam they did not get time to help me. I was so glad they refer me your company name for moving my things because i was so worried about it.

Moreover, Because of my hectic schedule i did not even get time for packing my stuff. Your worker was really good. He helped me for packing my furniture also. That was really appriciating.

Moving further, I was not happy about one thing you send only one employee for this moving. This whole work was really heavy and hard. You should need to send atleast two people.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Your Sincerely,

Sam,

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The candidate addresses all three bullet points required by the prompt, though the development of some ideas is relatively brief. The letter explains what went well on the moving day, mentioning the heavy furniture and friends being unavailable. It praises a specific worker who assisted with packing, and it highlights an aspect of dissatisfaction regarding the number of employees sent by the company. However, the tone and format lean slightly informal in places, and the salutation 'Dear Sir or Madam' clashes slightly with the sign-off 'Your Sincerely,' which contains a minor grammatical error. Despite these minor structural and formal inconsistencies, all parts of the task are covered satisfactorily, fulfilling the requirements for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraph breaks separating the introduction, the positive aspects, the employee praise, the complaint, and the conclusion. However, cohesion is at times faulty and mechanical. For instance, the transition 'Moving further' is unnatural and inaccurate for letter writing, and referencing is occasionally weak, such as using 'he' or 'you' without always maintaining absolute clarity of connection. Paragraphing is used, but the logical progression between sentences can feel abrupt. These features place the response firmly in the Band 6 category, where cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate their basic message effectively. However, the range is limited, and there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, such as 'alot', 'appriciating', and writing 'new place' instead of 'a new place'. The candidate attempts some less common vocabulary or phrases like 'hectic schedule', but these are accompanied by errors that occasionally distract the reader. While communication is never severely impeded, the frequency of basic slips and the restricted lexical range prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making Band 5.5 a fair assessment.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence forms, such as 'I was so glad they refer me your company name for moving my things because i was so worried about it.' There are several noticeable grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including tense inconsistencies ('did not get time', 'refer' instead of referred), missing articles ('sent only one employee'), and incorrect capitalization ('i'). Furthermore, the closing phrase 'Your Sincerely' is grammatically incorrect. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they occur frequently enough to reflect the characteristics of Band 5.0, where a limited range of structures is compounded by frequent errors.

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

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