Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

There have been several complaints about the reception area where visitors to your company arrive. Your manager has asked you to suggest how the reception area could be improved.

Write a letter to your manager. In your letter

• describe the complaints that have been made
• say why the reception area is important
• suggest how the reception area could be improved

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ................. ,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to suggest some changes for the improvement of reception area on your request, because multiple complaints have been made by the visitors.

Several complaints have been made, but the most frequent was about the location of the reception area, which is difficult to find by the visitors. Few complaints were about the nasty environment of the reception area.

I think reception is the most important area , because it is the first area which welcome visitors and first impression is always the last impression, therefore utmost importance should be given to this area.

For the improvement of this area , I would like to suggest to address the complaints. This area should be shifted to front area, so that it can be found easily by the visitors. Similarly, cleaning should be done every day so that it have good impression.

I look towards positive changes from you.

Yours sincerely,

Ahmad

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You successfully covered all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You described the complaints regarding the difficult location and the nasty environment of the reception area, explained why the area is important due to first impressions, and suggested actionable improvements such as shifting the location and increasing cleaning frequency. The tone is appropriate for a workplace letter to a manager. Although the ideas are straightforward and could be extended further for a higher band, all parts of the prompt are addressed relevantly and clearly, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.0 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

Your letter has a coherent overall arrangement, and you have attempted to organise your ideas into logical paragraphs corresponding to the points in the prompt. However, there are some mechanical transitions and cohesion issues. For example, using 'Several complaints have been made, but the most frequent was...' is a bit repetitive, and 'I look towards positive changes from you' is an unnatural closing collocation. Paragraphing is present, but referencing and logical flow between sentences could be smoother. These issues place your cohesion at a Band 6.0 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You used an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating your message with terms like 'frequent', 'environment', and 'impression'. However, there are notable limitations and word-choice errors, such as 'nasty environment' (which is slightly unnatural in this context; 'unpleasant atmosphere' would be better) and 'front area' instead of 'the front of the building'. You also repeated the root word 'complaint' and 'area' multiple times rather than using varied synonyms. This demonstrates the characteristics of Band 5.5 to 6.0, fitting comfortably at Band 6.0 for achieving adequate communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrated a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as using subordinate clauses with 'because' and 'so that'. However, there are noticeable grammatical errors and awkward phrasings throughout the text. For instance, writing 'reception area on your request' should be 'at your request', and 'so that it have good impression' contains a subject-verb agreement error ('it has') and a missing article ('a good impression'). Additionally, 'difficult to find by the visitors' should be 'difficult for visitors to find'. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher band.

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

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