Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-23

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A magazine wants to include contributions from its readers for an article called 'The book that influenced me most'.

Write a letter to the editor of the magazine about the book that influenced you most. In your letter

- describe what this book was about
- explain how this book influenced you
- say whether this book would be likely to influence other people

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope you are doing well. Today, i am writing this letter regarding the book which influenced me most. The book name is 'rich dad poor dad'.

One thing i loved about this books is that, one boy who lived with he's both father one is rich and one is poor. However, both of them give diffrent life advice. rich dad give's more prectical live knowladge and poor dad give's emotional advice. While reading this book, i leant many things such as how i can belance my life with low budget. this book influence me a lot, to add that, how i can negosiate with other people in many way. Moreover, i feel that people also influence with this book because many people have problems in there life so if they read this book they will definatly find some way and gole in their life.

Thank you!

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the prompt: describing the book, explaining its influence, and discussing its potential impact on others. However, the development of these ideas is quite limited. For example, your explanation of how the book influenced you is vague, mentioning 'balancing life' and 'negotiating' without providing specific examples or depth. To achieve a higher band, you should expand on your points with more detail and personal reflection. The tone is appropriate for a letter to an editor, but the overall response lacks the depth required for a more sophisticated task response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter follows a basic structure, but the paragraphing is insufficient. You have grouped almost all your ideas into a single paragraph, which makes the text feel dense and less professional. While you use some cohesive devices like 'However', 'While', and 'Moreover', their usage is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward. The progression of ideas is clear, but the lack of distinct paragraphs for each bullet point hinders the overall flow and logical organization of the letter. Using clear paragraph breaks for each section of the prompt would significantly improve the readability and structure of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but remains quite basic. There are several spelling errors, such as 'prectical', 'knowladge', 'leant' (instead of learned), 'belance', 'negosiate', 'gole', and 'definatly'. These errors are frequent and occasionally distract the reader. You rely on simple, repetitive phrasing, such as 'many things' and 'many people'. To improve, you should focus on using more precise vocabulary related to literature and personal development, and pay closer attention to spelling accuracy, as these errors currently limit your ability to convey ideas with precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that impede clarity. Examples include 'i am writing' (lack of capitalization for 'I'), 'this books' (plural/singular mismatch), 'he's both father' (incorrect possessive and phrasing), 'rich dad give's' (incorrect apostrophe usage and subject-verb agreement), and 'people also influence with this book' (incorrect passive voice construction). Your sentence structures are mostly simple, and attempts at complex sentences often contain errors. To improve, you must focus on basic subject-verb agreement, correct use of articles, and consistent capitalization. Reducing these frequent errors is essential for moving into a higher band.

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

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