Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-03

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have just read an article in a national newspaper which claims that town centres in your country all look very similar to each other. You don't fully agree with this opinion.

Write a letter to the editor of the newspaper. In your letter

• say which points in the article you agree with
• explain ways in which your town centre is different from most other town centres
• offer to give a guided tour of your town to the writer of the article

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to provide some information related to the article about the city centres. Yesterday, I read this newsletter states that all downtown malls are akin. However, Being a youtuber, I have visited most of the places. Consequently, I can claim that there are huge differences between these sites. For instance,although Kessel mall and divine city centre are located in same city, they have different structure and colour. Moreover, Mumbai town centre is located near the sea, whereas, Pune's city mall is situated near the bank of the tangri river.

I had uploaded vlogs of both places on my youtube channels. I am also attaching both of the links under this email.

It would be appreciated If you watch both of the videos for your future knowledge. I really apologize for any inconvenience. Feel free to reach out to me for any concerns.

Yours faithfully,

Nikhil.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response touches upon the main points of the prompt, but it does so only minimally, keeping your score at this level. You do mention agreement with the newspaper article by acknowledging claims that downtown areas are alike, and you attempt to explain differences by comparing locations like Kessel mall and divine city centre. However, your ideas remain limited and under-developed, lacking the depth and elaboration expected in a well-rounded letter. Furthermore, while you attempt to offer a guided tour through your YouTube links and video suggestions, this approach is rather tangential and does not fully satisfy the conventional expectation of offering a personal, direct tour of your town to the writer. To improve, you need to expand your ideas significantly, providing rich descriptions of your town's distinct features and formulating a clearer, more direct invitation to the author.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

Your letter shows some basic organization, separating your thoughts into paragraphs such as your introduction, your examples, and your concluding remarks. However, there is no clear overall progression of ideas, and the logical flow between sentences is occasionally disrupted by abrupt transitions, such as moving from city mall structures directly to YouTube vlogs. Cohesive devices are used minimally and sometimes inappropriately, such as the misuse of 'Consequently' to connect your visits as a YouTuber to your ability to claim differences. Paragraphing is present, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs feels somewhat disjointed. To achieve a higher band, you must ensure that your ideas are linked smoothly with a wider range of appropriate cohesive devices, and that the progression of your argument flows logically from one point to the next without abrupt leaps in topic.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary to convey your basic message, using common terms related to towns and videos. However, there are noticeable vocabulary and word choice errors throughout the text, such as referring to a newspaper as a 'newsletter', calling downtown areas 'malls', and using 'akin' somewhat awkwardly. There are also occasional word-formation and capitalization issues, such as 'youtuber' and 'divine city centre'. These lexical inaccuracies and limitations can cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent you from accessing higher bands. To improve, you should expand your vocabulary to include more precise, natural phrasing and collocations suitable for a formal or semi-formal letter, while paying closer attention to exact word meanings and correct capitalization.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

Your writing displays a very limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside a few attempts at complex forms that are often faulty. For instance, you make grammatical and punctuation errors such as 'this newsletter states', missing articles in 'located in same city', incorrect prepositions like 'on my youtube channels' instead of 'channels', and punctuation slips in 'It would be appreciated If you watch'. These frequent errors in grammar, articles, and capitalization can cause some difficulty for the reader. To lift your grammatical score to the next level, you need to incorporate a wider variety of complex sentence structures with greater accuracy, ensuring proper subject-verb agreement, correct article usage, and reliable control over tense consistency and punctuation.

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

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