Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch.

Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter

• say what the participants liked about the hotel
• explain why they were unhappy about the food
• suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear sir,

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction regarding food services on last meetung that was held september 15, 2026.

To begin with, the positive notes that was given by participants that is hotal culture was overall very good such as everything was very hygine and properly maintened. Due to that, every participant gave thier best through out the meeting.

However, everyone was really concernd about food. Firstly, I would say food was served with unhygine way. In addition, food was not hot or i would say not properly baked. As a result, meeting end has been failed with that food.

I would appriciate if you would inform your cooking line members and waiters to improve their quality for serving and making of the food. This would be enhance your hotal ranking and reputation among the new customers. I look forward to you response.

Your faithfully

Parvej Khan

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You successfully mentioned what the participants liked about the hotel ('hotal culture was overall very good such as everything was very hygine'), explained why they were unhappy about the food ('food was served with unhygine way'), and suggested improvements ('inform your cooking line members and waiters to improve their quality'). However, the tone is slightly overly critical for a formal business complaint letter, and the response is 1 words short of the 150-word minimum requirement (containing 149 words). Because of this minor under-length penalty and some limited development of ideas, this is placed at band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organised into logical paragraphs, beginning with a clear purpose, moving to positive points, followed by complaints, suggestions, and a sign-off. However, transitions are at times mechanical or faulty, such as 'To begin with, the positive notes that was given by participants that is...' and 'As a result, meeting end has been failed with that food'. Referencing and paragraph transitions can be clumsy, leading to a score of 5.5. Paragraphing is present, but overall progression lacks sophisticated cohesive devices.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but contains numerous spelling and word choice errors (e.g., 'meetung' instead of meeting, 'hotal' instead of hotel, 'hygine' instead of hygienic, 'concernd' instead of concerned, 'appriciate' instead of appreciate). Less common items are attempted, but inaccuracies in collocation and spelling ('maintened' instead of maintained) are noticeable and occasionally cause strain for the reader, placing the response firmly at band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There is a mix of simple and attempting complex sentence forms, but control is weak. Frequent grammatical errors occur throughout the text, such as 'food services on last meetung that was held' (missing articles and preposition issues), 'the positive notes that was given' (subject-verb agreement), and 'This would be enhance' (modal verb error). While the meaning is generally communicated, the high frequency of errors across basic and attempted complex structures restricts the score to a 5.0.

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