Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-15

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 Disha,

I hope you are doing well. Recently, I got a letter from you to take my advice about weather you should go to college or start working, and according to me it is best choice for you to get job and work.

Firstly, You will not enjoy going to college and attend lectures. Beacuase I still remember you always hated sitting in high school classroom and styuding for hours. Also college has same teaching system and a lot of assignments and projects along with exams.

As you want to be independent, getting a job is a really prefect idea for you, and you are a very open-minded and active person so if you started earing a money you would become independent. As you are a active and talkative person, I would like to suggest you look for a job as a customer service agent. You should start looking for internship first in some small start up company. Let me know what you think about it.

Looking forward to hear back from you soon.

Best wishes,

Kinal Hirpara

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three points and make your recommendation clear: “it is best choice for you to get job and work.” The reasons are relevant to Disha, especially her dislike of classroom study and her wish to become independent, and the customer-service role is a suitable suggestion given her talkative nature. However, some points are only briefly explained. For example, you say college involves assignments and exams but do not explain why these would particularly make her unhappy; the job advice could also be developed with another suitable role or more detail about the internship. Overall, the letter fulfils the task, though its ideas are not equally developed. To strengthen it, add specific support for each reason and job suggestion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening that gives your advice, a paragraph about college, a paragraph about employment and a suitable job, and a friendly closing. Sequencing words such as “Firstly” and “Also” help show how the reasons connect. The progression is generally easy to follow, but some links feel mechanical, and the repeated use of “As” to introduce reasons makes the employment paragraph less varied. The opening sentence is also long and combines the background to the letter with your recommendation, which slightly weakens clarity. Use clearer sentence boundaries and vary linking expressions; for example, connect Disha’s wish for independence directly to the benefits of earning and gaining workplace experience.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is adequate for a friendly advice letter, and phrases such as “independent,” “open-minded,” “customer service agent,” and “internship” communicate relevant ideas. However, noticeable spelling and word-choice errors reduce precision, including “weather” for “whether,” “Beacuase,” “styuding,” and “earing a money.” Some expressions are also unnatural, such as “take my advice about” and “a really prefect idea.” These errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your main message, but they make the letter less fluent and polished. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations for giving advice and discussing work, such as “consider my advice,” “earn money,” and “gain work experience.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including clauses with “because,” “as,” and “if,” as in “if you started … you would become independent.” The main message remains understandable, but some grammatical errors occur. Examples include the missing article in “it is best choice,” the article and noun pattern in “a active person,” and the construction “Looking forward to hear back,” which should use a gerund after “to” in this expression. Capitalisation is also inconsistent in “Firstly, You.” Some sentences join several ideas with commas, making their structure less controlled. Review articles, verb patterns and sentence punctuation, and divide long sentences where needed.

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