Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-04

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Mrs Barrett, an English-speaking woman who lives in your town, has advertised for someone to help her in her home for a few hours a day next summer.

Write a letter to Mrs Barrett. In your letter

• suggest how you could help her in her home
• say why you would like to do this work
• explain when you will and will not be available

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Mrs Barrett,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Mrs, Barrett,

I hope you are in radiant health. I am writing this letter to show my interest in the advertisement that you placed for help next summer in your house.

In my opinion, I would be a perfect candidate for the job because I help all my elders such as grandparents, parents, and siblings at home with their household jobs. Therefore, I would be able to help you in any sort of housework you need help in.

I would like to do this work to gain some experience for my college application. As, one of the requirements is to do volunteer work in the town itself. Consequently, nothing can be better than helping someone when they require help.

Moving further, I would be available all summer except the weekends. Because, that is when our family gets together to play games and spend some quality time together.

I will be looking forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Simran Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You clearly outlined how you could help, provided a logical reason for wanting the work (gaining experience for college), and specified your availability. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to an acquaintance. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas are slightly more developed; for instance, you could have provided specific examples of 'household jobs' you are capable of, such as gardening, cleaning, or grocery shopping, to make your offer more compelling and concrete for Mrs. Barrett.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is logically organized, with each paragraph focusing on a specific requirement of the prompt. You used transition words such as 'Therefore', 'Consequently', and 'Moving further' to connect your ideas. However, some of these transitions feel slightly mechanical or forced. For example, starting a sentence with 'As, one of the requirements...' is grammatically awkward and disrupts the flow. To improve, focus on using cohesive devices that integrate more naturally into your sentences rather than relying on them as sentence starters.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for this task. Phrases like 'radiant health' and 'perfect candidate' are used effectively. However, there are some minor issues with word choice and collocation. For example, 'household jobs' is better expressed as 'household chores' or 'domestic tasks'. Additionally, 'help all my elders' is slightly unnatural; 'assist my elderly relatives' would be more precise. You have enough vocabulary to communicate your message clearly, but expanding your range of topic-specific collocations would help you achieve a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While your meaning is always clear, there are several punctuation and grammatical errors. For example, the comma in 'Dear Mrs, Barrett' is incorrect. You also have sentence fragments, such as 'Because, that is when our family gets together...', which should be joined to the previous sentence. There are also minor errors in article usage and sentence construction. To improve, focus on proofreading for punctuation errors and ensuring that dependent clauses are correctly attached to main clauses.

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

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