Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A large company in your area has decided to spend a certain amount of money, either to sponsor a local children's sports team for two years, or to pay for two open-air concerts. It has asked for feedback from the general public.

Write a letter to the company. In your letter

• describe the benefits of sponsoring the sports team
• summarise the benefits of paying for the concerts
• say how you think the company should spend the money

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 to express my opinion about how your company should spent money. I think you should spend money on local children sports rather than paying for open air concerts. There are meny benefits of spending on supports first of all, it can help children to partiapate in physical activity, which will be beneficial for their health and fitinerss. Secondly, by partiapating in sports they are more likely to develop other skills such as, teamwork, Coperation, communication skills. et cetera.

However, benefits of paying for concerts is also may not be neglected. As concerts may give people from age groups to get together and enjoy with each other. Moreover, concerts may be beneficial for the economy as well as tourist may visit the concerts and local business may get benefit from this.

But In my opineon I strongly want that company should sponser children sports.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The letter addresses all three bullet points, covering the benefits of the sports team, the concerts, and providing a clear recommendation. However, the response is slightly under the 150-word minimum, which impacts the development of ideas. The arguments for the sports team are relevant, but the discussion regarding the concerts is somewhat brief and lacks depth. To improve, you should expand on your reasoning for each point to ensure a more comprehensive response that comfortably meets the length requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organised into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use some cohesive devices such as 'first of all', 'secondly', and 'moreover' to link ideas. However, the transition between the second and third paragraph is abrupt, and some sentences feel slightly disjointed. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensure that your sentences flow more naturally into one another to create a more cohesive argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but there are several spelling errors, such as 'meny' instead of 'many', 'fitinerss' instead of 'fitness', 'partiapating' instead of 'participating', and 'opineon' instead of 'opinion'. These errors are noticeable and detract from the overall quality of the writing. While you attempt to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'physical activity' and 'economy', the range is somewhat limited. Focus on proofreading your work to correct basic spelling mistakes and try to incorporate more precise synonyms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as 'how your company should spent money' (should spend), 'local children sports' (children's sports), and 'tourist may visit' (tourists may visit). You rely mostly on simple sentence structures, and the attempts at more complex sentences contain errors that occasionally impede the flow. To improve, work on subject-verb agreement, pluralisation, and the correct use of modal verbs. Increasing your control over basic sentence construction will significantly improve your score.

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

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