Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-03
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 Mariyam,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing to give my advise about whether to go to college or to try to get a job. I think you would not enjoy going to school for several reasons. Firstly, college should provide lots of assignment and projects. Secondly, you should take a seminar on the each month as the part of your course also this marks will reflect on your final grade.Morover, the class include practical and theory based also you must have 95% of attendence because attentence is mandatory.
In my view you will get a good job related to your fiels because you are over qualified for vaccant of accountant. Furthermore, you are an excellent communicator so you will get a job soon. Additionally, you have 1 year experience in accounting and data entry. This background is a strong skill to get a job. I know your background is finance and banking so you have wide variety of opportunity for getting a job easily such as finance, banking, marketting, trading, insurance, realator and so on. If you have any doubts please let me know.
Yours Lovingly,
Krishna.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
You successfully address all parts of the prompt by explaining why your friend would not enjoy college, why getting a job is a good idea, and suggesting suitable types of work. However, the development of your ideas is uneven. While the suggestions for jobs related to finance and banking are quite extended at the end of the letter, your points regarding college are under-developed and rely on somewhat repetitive descriptions of assignments, seminars, and attendance rules. A clearer and more balanced expansion of all bullet points would elevate your task response further.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
Your letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear division between paragraphs discussing college and those discussing employment. You attempt to guide the reader using cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Furthermore'. However, the referencing and connection of ideas are at times mechanical or slightly awkward, such as when transitioning abruptly into the mandatory attendance rule or linking sentences with repetitive phrasing. Improving the logical flow between sentences and ensuring smoother transitions would strengthen the structure of your writing.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
You demonstrate an adequate vocabulary range to communicate your message, attempting less common terms like 'over qualified', 'communicator', and 'data entry'. However, there are noticeable lexical and spelling errors that occasionally detract from the reading experience, such as 'advise' instead of 'advice', 'vaccant' instead of 'vacancy', 'fiels' instead of 'fields', 'marketting', and 'realator'. These inaccuracies, along with some slight word-choice slips, show that your lexical control needs more precision to reach a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
You employ a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, successfully using conditional structures and relative clauses. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation that appear throughout the text. These include article misuse ('the each month', 'the class include'), incorrect prepositions ('on the each month', 'as the part'), and issues with subject-verb agreement ('the class include'). While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they do represent the types of persistent grammatical slips typical of this level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.