Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You work at home and have a problem with a piece of equipment that you use for your job.

Write a letter to the shop or company which supplied the equipment. In your letter

• describe the problem with the equipment
• explain how this problem is affecting your work
• say what you want the shop or company to do

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 want to express my disatisfication with a laptop which i recently purchased from your shop.From day first unfortunately, the device has severel problems despite been advirtised as high-performance model suitable for office use.

However, within two days of purchse laptop is shutting down unexpectly mltiple times about performace it seem to laggy.Sometimes it did't start on serverel occasions .On the other hand, I contact the customer support multiple times and do the trobuleshooting with the instructons provided but problem persists.The product has official warrenty on it and I am sure that this peice is decfitive and good for office work.

I would appreciate if company could arrange a replacment or either refund the money back.All the orignal recipts of purchase & documents are with me I can provide those as requested.Futhermore, I will appreicate if you could tell me the procedure for returning the faulty device.

I look forward to your prompt response and hope matter will resolved without further inconvenience.

Yours faithfully,

Hamza Masood

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points required in the prompt. You described the problem clearly by mentioning that the laptop shuts down unexpectedly and lags. You also explained how this affects your work by stating that it is not suitable for office use despite troubleshooting efforts. Finally, you clearly stated what you want the company to do by requesting either a replacement or a refund. Your tone is appropriately formal for a business complaint letter, and all requirements of the task have been met effectively. You have presented a clear purpose from the beginning to the end, demonstrating a good understanding of General Training Task 1 requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter is structured with appropriate paragraphing, including standard formal greetings and sign-offs. There is a logical progression from describing the issue and troubleshooting steps to requesting a resolution and offering receipts. However, some cohesive devices and transitions are faulty or missing, and referencing is occasionally unclear (for instance, the transition 'On the other hand' is used incorrectly here as it does not present a contrasting point to the previous sentence). Paragraph breaks are generally clear, but sentence-level cohesion would benefit from smoother linking words to connect your ideas more naturally and guide the reader effortlessly through your complaint.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for this task, attempting functional terms like 'high-performance model,' 'customer support,' and 'official warranty.' However, there are numerous spelling errors throughout your response, such as 'disatisfication' instead of dissatisfaction, 'severel' instead of several, 'advirtised' instead of advertised, 'purchse' instead of purchase, 'unexpectly' instead of unexpectedly, 'mltiple' instead of multiple, 'did't' instead of didn't, 'trobuleshooting' instead of troubleshooting, 'warrenty' instead of warranty, 'peice' instead of piece, 'decfitive' instead of defective, 'replacment' instead of replacement, 'orignal' instead of original, 'recipts' instead of receipts, and 'Futhermore' instead of Furthermore. These frequent spelling mistakes restrict your score for lexical resource, as they indicate a lack of precision in word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional and relative clauses ('I would appreciate if company could arrange a replacement...'). However, your writing contains frequent grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes. Examples include missing articles ('laptop is shutting down', 'company could arrange'), incorrect prepositions or phrasing ('From day first unfortunately'), and errors with participles ('despite been advirtised'). Additionally, there are punctuation and capitalization issues, such as missing spaces after periods and commas. While your meaning remains generally understandable, the frequency of these grammatical and mechanical errors means that simple sentences are often more reliable than your attempts at complex structures.

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

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