Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-01

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 this letter finds you well.

I hope you are doing well. I am writing in response of an advertisment, published in a newspaper two days ago. I am studying in my final years and looking for a part-time job. I can assist you with your household chores like cleaning, washing dishes, and organising things. I also have a driving license; therefore, I can take you to the supermarket to purchase the groceries. Moreover, if you have an appointment with a doctor I can take you there too. I can also assist you in cooking by helping you choping the vegetables and making the salads.

Since, I am a student and next summer I will be free consequently I have a time to work few hours for you. Furthermore, I worked as a voluntree in a daycare so it would be beneficial for me to work for you and earn some money.

I will be available on weekdays from 10.00 am till 02.00 pm. However, on weekends I play sport so I can only work for weekdays. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Zara Khan.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You successfully address all parts of the task by suggesting how you can help Mrs Barrett, explaining your motivation for the job, and clearly stating your availability. Your ideas are relevant and generally cover the prompt requirements. For instance, you mention specific chores like cleaning, grocery shopping, and assisting with cooking, which directly answers the first bullet point. You also explain your motivation by noting your background as a volunteer in a daycare and your desire to earn money. However, some parts of your response are slightly under-developed rather than fully extended. To reach a higher level, you could have expanded more on why you specifically want to help her in her home or added more depth to your background experience, ensuring every single bullet point is explored with equal richness and fully rounded detail.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your letter has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a clear, logical structure appropriate for an informal request. You use standard greeting and sign-off conventions, and the text moves logically from introducing the purpose of the letter to offering specific help, stating your availability, and closing the message. However, the progression between ideas sometimes feels a bit mechanical or disjointed due to the repetitive opening ('I hope this letter finds you well. I hope you are doing well.') and slightly basic cohesive devices like 'consequently' and 'furthermore'. Paragraphing is used, but grouping your ideas more smoothly using a wider range of referencing words would improve the overall flow. To achieve a higher score, you need to ensure that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and naturally without drawing attention to themselves.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using common and some less common terms like 'advertisment', 'household chores', 'supermarket', and 'voluntree'. However, your lexical resource contains noticeable spelling errors, such as 'advertisment' instead of 'advertisement' and 'voluntree' instead of 'volunteer', alongside word form issues like 'choping' instead of 'chopping'. Additionally, some collocations and phrasings are slightly unnatural, such as writing 'response of' instead of 'response to' or 'play sport' instead of 'play sports'. While these vocabulary and spelling slips do not severely impede communication, they restrict your score because they reveal limited precision and control over less common lexical items, keeping you firmly at a lower level of achievement.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses with relative pronouns and conditional structures like 'Moreover, if you have an appointment with a doctor I can take you there too.' You maintain good control over basic structures, but your writing features some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing articles ('in my final years') and incorrect prepositions ('work few hours for you' instead of 'work a few hours for you'). There are also occasional comma splice tendencies and run-on structures, such as 'Since, I am a student and next summer I will be free consequently I have a time...'. These errors do not impede communication, but they occur with enough regularity to prevent you from achieving a higher band, which requires a greater proportion of error-free complex sentences.

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

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