Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-15

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently received a letter from a friend asking for advice about whether to go to college or to try to get a job. You think he/she should get a job.

Write a letter to this friend. In your letter

• say why he/she would not enjoy going to college
• explain why getting a job is a good idea for him/her
• suggest types of job that would be suitable for him/her

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ................. ,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Kinjal,

How're you. I am fine here. I've heard you had finished your final exam last month.I can read your mind regarding the confusion about join a college or get employed which choice will be best for future. The reason that I came to your house to give you some advice regarding your current situation.

After completing the higher graduation, an individual have choice to find part-time jobs with their further studies. There are several benefits of part-time jobs and it will be proven best and helpful for future. You'll get experience of your field. Secondly it will build up your self-confidence, adapation to work in team .Moreover, you've studied in Information technology. Work in that field will be giving you enough money to spend for daily expenses of yourself. So that you don't need to depend on your family.

The bright side of employment part time is your parents won't bother about your expense. My suggestion will be work life balance after your studies by getting part time job.

Good luck for future!

Yours faithfully,

Krishna

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all parts of the prompt by explaining why your friend might not enjoy college, why getting a job is a good idea, and suggesting a suitable field of work in Information Technology. Your tone is generally appropriate for a letter to a friend, opening with casual greetings and closing with a sign-off. However, there are some logical inconsistencies and under-developed ideas. For instance, you mention coming to your friend's house to give advice, which is a bit contradictory since you are writing a letter. Furthermore, while you mention IT, you do not suggest specific job titles. Despite these minor omissions and structural oddities in task execution, you have successfully covered the core communicative requirements of the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

Your letter has a discernible overall structure, moving from a greeting to body paragraphs discussing employment and concluding with a sign-off. However, the logical progression is at times difficult to follow due to abrupt transitions and confusing sentences, such as 'I can read your mind regarding the confusion about join a college or get employed'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the grouping of ideas lacks clear thematic focus, and some sentences stand isolated. Cohesive devices are used sparingly and occasionally incorrectly, as seen with 'Secondly it will build up your self-confidence, adapation to work in team', where referencing and linking are faulty. Overall progression and referencing need clearer management to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common collocations and topic-related terms like 'Information technology', 'part-time jobs', and 'self-confidence'. However, there are frequent inappropriate word choices and word-formation errors throughout the response. Examples include 'higher graduation' instead of higher education, 'adapation' instead of adaptation, and the awkward phrasing 'confusion about join a college'. Spelling and morphological inaccuracies are noticeable, such as missing prepositions or incorrect verb forms after prepositions, which occasionally places strain on the reader, although basic communication remains intact.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but your writing contains frequent grammatical errors and awkward syntactic structures. For example, 'How're you. I am fine here' uses overly simplistic and somewhat unnatural openings, while 'Work in that field will be giving you enough money' uses an unsuited tense. There are issues with missing auxiliary verbs, incorrect infinitive/gerund usage (e.g., 'confusion about join'), and punctuation errors like missing spaces after periods. While simple sentences are generally understandable, errors become frequent when attempting more complex structures, occasionally causing difficulty for the reader.

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

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