Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-29

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 writing this letter to express my thrilled feeling after reading the most popular bibliography, named "Samay". This book is about one of the cricketer's life, who just retired from the world cup series. His name is Mr Samay raina. The book includes his childhood, schooling, his growth in cricket.

This book did not only influence me by the struggle made by the character, but also inspire me to work hard in my field. Additionally, how he overcame from the poor financial situation after his fathers death, this story shocked me.

I believe this book will motivate many people like me who are aspiring to achieve their goals in life.

Yours

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the prompt: it describes the book about cricketer Samay Raina, explains how it influenced the writer to work hard and overcome obstacles, and states that it would motivate other aspiring people. However, the response falls significantly short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 115 words. This under-length impacts the depth of idea development, leading to a penalty under Task Achievement. While the ideas are relevant, they remain somewhat superficial due to the restricted length. To achieve a higher band score, the candidate must expand significantly on each point to meet or exceed the word count threshold and provide fuller explanations and descriptions.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a reasonably clear overall organisation, beginning with an appropriate salutation and opening statement, followed by distinct paragraphs addressing the book's content, its personal impact, and its wider appeal. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Additionally' and 'This book', though their application is sometimes basic or repetitive. Paragraphing is present, but due to the very short nature of the text, the flow between ideas feels abrupt. Referencing is mostly clear, but the lack of extended development hinders the overall progression of ideas. With more connective phrases and fully developed paragraphs, the coherence of the writing would improve substantially.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, though it contains noticeable limitations and inaccuracies. The student attempts less common vocabulary phrases like 'poor financial situation' and 'aspiring to achieve their goals', but there are word choice and collocation errors, such as 'most popular bibliography' (instead of biography), 'thrilled feeling' (instead of thrill or excitement), and 'overcame from' (overcame does not take 'from'). Spelling is generally accurate, but the restricted range and persistent lexical errors prevent the response from reaching a higher band. Incorporating more precise terminology and idiomatic expressions would enhance the lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'This book did not only influence me... but also inspire me...' and 'I believe this book will motivate many people like me who are aspiring to achieve their goals...'. However, there are notable grammatical errors and awkward phrasing. For instance, 'I writing this letter' contains a missing auxiliary verb ('am writing'), and 'inspire me' fails to maintain parallel structure with 'influence me'. Furthermore, 'after his fathers death' lacks an apostrophe. Despite these errors, communication is rarely impeded, and the sentence structures show some variety.

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