Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

Hello Madam,

I hope you are doing well. I saw the advertisement last tuesday that you need someone to help you in your home.

I would please to help you in your interior designing and home decor.

I and fresh graduate of interior designing, additionally i am epitome of creativity.

a newly build home definitely needs good inerior designing. you bll be flabbergasted to see my calligrapgy skills. Through my skills and learnt strategiesi would make your home more fascinating.

I really enjoy to do such sort of work. So it is not only my profession but also my passion.

My characteristics e.g dedication , honesty, punctuality will definitely insire you. I am very comitted. I dont run against time. I would never do french leave. I hope i would fulfill your requirements for this job.

i ll be available monday to thursday from 9.00 A.M to 2.00 P.M.

thanks

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The candidate has attempted all parts of the prompt, successfully covering how they could help (interior design and home decor), why they would like to do the work (profession and passion), and their availability (Monday to Thursday, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM). However, the salutation 'Hello Madam' contradicts the required opening 'Dear Mrs Barrett'. Furthermore, some of the ideas are slightly unusual or over-extended, such as mentioning calligraphy skills for home help or stating 'i dont run against time'. While the bullet points are addressed, the development of ideas lacks a polished, natural professional tone suited for a formal application letter. Overall, the response meets the core requirements of the task adequately, placing it at a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter lacks appropriate paragraphing, with multiple distinct ideas crammed into very brief, disjointed blocks of text. There is a clear overall arrangement attempting to cover the prompt requirements sequentially, but the lack of paragraph breaks hinders logical progression. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes awkward, such as starting a sentence with 'a newly build home' or relying on simple additive connectors like 'additionally i am'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and the transition between sentences is abrupt. While the text is understandable, the structural layout and cohesive links require considerable improvement. This performance aligns with Band 5.0 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used displays an adequate range for the task, attempting some less common and topic-specific items such as 'interior designing', 'epitome of creativity', 'flabbergasted', and 'calligraphy'. However, there are numerous lexical errors, awkward word choices, and collocation issues, such as 'I would please to help', 'I and fresh graduate', 'newly build home' (instead of built), and 'french leave' (which is incorrectly used here to mean taking unauthorized absence, rather than a departure without notice in a social context). Spelling and capitalization errors are also noticeable throughout ('last tuesday', 'strategiesi', 'comitted', 'insire'). These inaccuracies place the lexical resource firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence forms, such as 'Through my skills and learnt strategies i would make your home more fascinating.' However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in punctuation, capitalization, subject-verb agreement, and articles (e.g., lowercase 'i', missing punctuation after introductory phrases, and omitting verbs). Sentences such as 'I and fresh graduate' demonstrate a foundational grammatical breakdown. While the meaning is generally retrievable despite the errors, the high frequency of basic mistakes prevents the response from reaching a Band 6.0. Therefore, a score of 5.0 is appropriate.

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

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