Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-13

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 am writing this letter in responce to your advertisement for assistance a few hours a day in this summer vacation. I can well-suited for the position as I can help with household tasks like cooking and cleaning.

As, I had gain an experience in cooking, I can serve you varieties of dishes. Parallaly, I can also finish cleaning as well.

I am very found of to help senior citizen specially who are single as well as I have a familar nature to work with them because I had served duty in local oldage home for 3 years. Therefore, It woluld be a greatful to assist you.

I would like to inform you that I can only perform my duties between 9 am to 12 pm in the moening, on weekdays, however, It can not be possible to assist you on weekends. Because of having a 5 year old kid and these days daycare centre are closed. Eventually, He needs my full attention.

Yours sincerely,

Pooja Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The candidate has successfully addressed all three bullet points required in the task instructions. First, she suggests how she could help in the home by stating, 'I can help with household tasks like cooking and cleaning.' Second, she explains why she would like to do the work, mentioning her fondness for assisting senior citizens and her three years of experience at a local old-age home. Finally, she clearly outlines her availability, stating she can work 'between 9 am to 12 pm in the morning, on weekdays' and explains why she is unavailable on weekends due to childcare responsibilities. The tone of the letter is polite and appropriate for a general correspondence. All parts of the prompt are covered adequately, earning a solid band score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter follows a logical paragraph structure, with an appropriate opening and closing, and each paragraph is dedicated to a distinct aspect of the prompt (such as assistance, motivation, and availability). However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'As, I had gain an experience' contains unnecessary punctuation and unnatural phrasing, and words like 'Parallaly' and 'Eventually' are misused as cohesive devices to link ideas. Paragraphing is present and helps separate the main points, but referencing and linking between sentences occasionally lack fluidity, placing the response firmly in the mid-range for coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The candidate demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common phrases such as 'household tasks,' 'senior citizen,' and 'daycare centre.' However, there are several noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text. Examples include 'responce' (response), 'familar nature' (friendly nature), 'greatful' (grateful), and 'found of to help' (fond of helping). Furthermore, 'moening' is a spelling error. While the vocabulary allows the message to be communicated, these frequent inaccuracies prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'I am very found of to help senior citizen specially who are single...' and 'I would like to inform you that I can only perform my duties...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in tense usage ('had gain an experience'), prepositional phrases ('found of to help'), word forms ('It woluld be a greatful'), and punctuation (unnecessary commas, such as 'As, I had...'). Additionally, subject-verb agreement and article usage are occasionally flawed. While communication is not severely impeded, the high frequency of errors restricts the grammar score.

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

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