Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-19

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 4.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my concern regarding an issue with my laptop, which regularly use for my work.

Last monday, I noticed that my laptop automatticaly restart after every 40 minute. Firstly, I thinked that it was software issue then I update the software OS 25 to OS 26. Unfortunately, laptop did not any responding and it showed black screen. Moreover, keyboard and mouse also stop working.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response fails to meet the minimum length requirement, containing only 70 words instead of the required 150 words. Because of this significant under-length, the task cannot be fully addressed. While the student successfully attempts to describe the problem with the laptop, the third bullet point regarding what the shop should do is entirely missing, and the explanation of how the problem affects work is extremely brief and underdeveloped. As a result, the response falls into the lower bands for Task Achievement due to its incomplete nature and severe brevity.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter maintains a basic logical flow and opens with an appropriate salutation ("Dear Sir,"). Paragraphing is attempted to separate the introduction from the description of the issue. However, due to the extreme brevity of the text, cohesive devices are scarce, and the progression of ideas is abruptly cut off before the final requirement of the prompt can be introduced. Referencing is generally clear ("my laptop", "it"), but the overall structure lacks the development needed for higher bands.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is basic and adequate for simple communication, such as "laptop", "software", and "screen". However, there are notable lexical and spelling errors that affect precision, including "automatticaly" instead of automatically, and "responding" instead of a response. The student attempts some task-specific terms like "software OS", but the range is limited and repetition occurs, restricting the lexical score to a modest level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The text contains a mix of simple sentence forms and attempted complex structures, but grammatical accuracy is notably low. There are frequent errors in verb tense and agreement, such as "regularly use" (missing pronoun), "Last monday" (capitalisation error), "restart after every 40 minute" (pluralisation error), and "I thinked" (incorrect past tense form). Furthermore, phrases like "laptop did not any responding" demonstrate poor control over basic verb complementation. These persistent errors hinder readability.

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

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