Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-15

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.

I am writing to give a feedback about the book that influced me most. It has helped me improve my knowledge and learn new skills.

The book name was the Shreemad bhagwat geeta which has had a great impact on my life.it has taught me important life lessions including thinking level,problem-solving skill, sacrifices, and importance of families. In addition it also provide knowledge regarding how to lives, hoe to solve probles in difficult situations without panicking.

I belive this book would be really influnce to other people because it has solutions of all the problems. It would help people feel peaceful and calm after reading it. It would also an give opportunity to improve their teamwork and communication skills.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours faithfully,

Khushbu Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You successfully covered all three parts of the prompt: you described the book (the Shreemad Bhagwat Geeta), explained its impact on your life regarding problem-solving and life lessons, and discussed its potential to influence other readers. However, there is an important penalty to note regarding the length requirement. The task explicitly requires a minimum of 150 words, but your response contains only 140 words, leaving you 10 words short. Because the word count minimum was not met, your Task Achievement score is negatively impacted. To achieve a higher band on future tasks, always ensure you exceed the 150-word threshold to fully develop your ideas without incurring a length penalty.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter follows a clear, conventional structure appropriate for a general task, beginning with an appropriate salutation and closing. You have organized your thoughts into readable paragraphs that address individual parts of the prompt. Cohesive devices such as 'In addition' and 'because' are used to connect your ideas. However, paragraphing could be managed more effectively by separating distinct ideas more clearly, and referencing is occasionally mechanical. Overall, the arrangement of information is sufficiently coherent for the reader to follow your argument without confusion, supporting a solid band six level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting words like 'problem-solving', 'sacrifices', and 'panicking'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'influced' instead of influenced, 'lessions' instead of lessons, 'lives' instead of live, 'hoel' (hoe) instead of how, and 'probles' instead of problems. Furthermore, phrases like 'thinking level' are unnatural collocations. These lexical errors and limitations mean your vocabulary is somewhat restricted in precision and accuracy, placing your performance firmly in the band five range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as using subordinate clauses with 'because' and relative clauses with 'that'. However, your writing contains frequent grammatical and mechanical errors, including missing articles ('The book name was', 'it would also an give opportunity'), punctuation and capitalization issues (e.g., lowercase 'it', 'belive'), and tense or form errors ('would really influnce'). These frequent errors can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, although communication of your main ideas remains possible. With improved proofreading and grammatical accuracy, you can easily raise this score.

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

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