Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-05

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 doing well. I am writing to express my sincere interest in working at your home next Summer.

I will help you with your household work such as organizing your clothes and making healthy food for you.

I would love to work with you because I have keen interest in organizing the houses and decorate it with natural materials and also I can make homemade food for you.

Last but not least, i will be happy to get this opportunity as it will add an experience in my home planner certification so after that I will be able to get a city approval for my home planner certification which will help to start my own business.

Thank you and I will looking forward to hearing back soon.

Yours Sincerely,

Puneet Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The letter addresses all three bullet points: suggesting help, explaining the motivation, and detailing availability. However, the response is significantly under the 150-word minimum, which limits the development of ideas. While the purpose is clear, the explanation regarding availability is entirely missing, as you failed to state when you will or will not be available. This is a major omission. To improve, you must ensure all parts of the prompt are covered in sufficient detail to meet the length requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organized into short paragraphs, which is appropriate for a formal letter. However, the progression of ideas is somewhat disjointed. There is a lack of cohesive devices to link sentences smoothly; for example, the transition between your skills and your motivation is abrupt. The use of 'Last but not least' is a bit clunky in this context. Improving the flow between sentences using linking words like 'furthermore', 'consequently', or 'in addition' would help create a more professional tone.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. You rely on simple phrases like 'household work' and 'make healthy food'. There is an attempt to use more specific terms like 'home planner certification', but the phrasing is slightly unnatural. To reach a higher band, you should aim for more sophisticated collocations and avoid repeating the same words (e.g., 'home planner certification' is repeated twice in one sentence).

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There are several grammatical errors that affect the quality of the writing. For instance, 'I will looking forward' is incorrect; it should be 'I am looking forward'. You also have issues with article usage ('the houses', 'a city approval') and subject-verb agreement. While the meaning is generally clear, the range of structures is limited to simple sentences. Incorporating more complex sentence structures and proofreading for basic tense errors would significantly improve your score.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.