Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

During a recent plane journey, you sat next to a businessman who owns a chain of restaurants. You talked to him and he suggested that you should contact him about a possible job in one of his restaurants.

Write a letter to this businessman. In your letter

• remind him when and where you met
• tell him what kind of job you are interested in
• say why you think you would be suitable for the job

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Hudson

Hope you're doing amazing. I'm not sure that you remember or not but we met during the plane journey last week and we sat next to each other.

I am looking for a job as I've told you earlier during the flight. According to my education and interest I would say the Manager's role would be suitable for me.

I have pretty much knowledge and experience in this sector. I've handled two stores of the same owner earlier but these were in a small town whereas I want to live in a big city.

I will be waiting for your reply.

Yours obediently

Ananya Pandey

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

You successfully covered all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You reminded the recipient that you met on a plane journey last week, stated your interest in a manager's role, and explained your suitability by mentioning your previous handling of two stores. However, a major issue is the length of your response. The task requires a minimum of 150 words, but your text contains only 107 words. Because of this significant under-length penalty, the development of your ideas is limited, meaning you cannot achieve a higher score for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter has a clear overall arrangement and follows an appropriate layout for a semi-formal or friendly business communication. You greeted the recipient as requested and used paragraph breaks to separate your ideas logically, starting with the meeting reminder, moving to your job interest, and finishing with your experience. However, cohesion between sentences is somewhat basic and mechanical. You rely on simple conjunctions, and phrases like 'I'm not sure that you remember or not' could be structured more cohesively. Paragraphing is adequate, but more transitional phrases would improve the flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for this task, successfully conveying your meaning to the reader. Phrases like 'restaurant chain', 'plane journey', and 'education and interest' show a reasonable command of everyday and work-related terms. However, your vocabulary remains quite basic overall, with repetitions of words like 'job' and 'store'. There are also minor lexical awkwardnesses, such as 'pretty much knowledge', which sounds too informal and lacks precision. To reach a higher band, you need to incorporate a wider range of less common, more precise lexical items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

Your writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional or dependent clauses like 'According to my education and interest I would say the Manager's role would be suitable for me.' There are several minor grammatical and punctuation issues, including missing commas and slightly unnatural phrasing in 'Hope you're doing amazing' or 'these were in a small town whereas I want to live in a big city'. Furthermore, the sign-off 'Yours obediently' is inappropriate for this context; 'Yours sincerely' or 'Best regards' would be standard. Overall, the errors do not impede communication.

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

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