Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

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

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You work for an international company. You have seen an advertisement for a training course which will be useful for your job.

Write a letter to your manager. In your letter

• describe the training course you want to do
• explain what the company could do to help you
• say how the course will be useful for your job

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing this to seek your attention to the cyber security training course that was advertised recently on social media. I am highly interested to take the course and upgrade my skills, which will be helpful for my job position currently and will benefit the company in many ways.

However, I will need a referal letter from the company mentioning my job position which will be used for documentation purposes. Apart from that, the class timings are 5-6 and I my shift here ends at 6 too. To manage this time clash, I request you to allow me leave at 4:30PM. The course will be for a two months

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You identify the course as cyber security training and explain two forms of support: a reference letter and permission to leave work early. These are relevant responses to the first two bullet points. However, the course description is very brief, and the final bullet is not adequately addressed: saying it will “upgrade my skills” and “benefit the company” does not explain how those skills would help with your specific job duties. The request and its reasons also need fuller development. The response is substantially below the required minimum length, so it does not provide enough detail to cover the task fully. Add information about the course content, the skills you expect to gain, and how you would apply them at work.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter follows a generally understandable order: you introduce the course, then explain the documentation and scheduling support you need. Linking phrases such as “However” and “Apart from that” help signal the shift to your requests. The overall progression is limited, though, because the response ends abruptly after mentioning the course duration, without a closing or a developed explanation of the course’s workplace value. The second paragraph also combines several separate points, making the request less easy to follow. Use distinct paragraphs for the course and its benefits, the support requested, and a polite closing; connect each request clearly to its reason.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

Your vocabulary is adequate for communicating the main purpose, with relevant terms such as “cyber security training course,” “documentation purposes,” and “time clash.” You also attempt more formal expressions, including “seek your attention” and “highly interested,” although these are not natural in this context. “Seek your attention” would be better expressed as “bring this course to your attention” or simply “I am writing to request approval.” There is also a spelling error in “referal,” and “job position” is less precise than “role” or “responsibilities.” Overall, the meaning remains clear, but more accurate collocations and a wider range of job-related vocabulary would make the letter more natural and precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mixture of simple and more complex forms, including the relative clause in “which will be helpful for my job position” and the purpose clause “which will be used for documentation purposes.” The main message is generally understandable, but some grammatical errors remain. In “I am highly interested to take the course,” use “interested in taking”; “I my shift” contains an extra subject; and “The course will be for a two months” needs a corrected duration structure, such as “The course will last two months.” The request sentence could also be punctuated and structured more clearly. Check verb patterns, sentence boundaries, and articles when revising.

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