Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-05

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 manager,

I writing this letter to express dissatisfaction about the food which you people served on 3rd of june when we had organised a meeting in your hotel.

Firstly, I want to tell you that our participants really liked the infrastructure of your hotel. It was really fascinating to see those antique paintings which have designed by famous artist called robson. We were amazed to see the digital boards with artificial tools , It was very helpful in describing new projects to our participants .

The quality of food was not good becuase it was served cold and had not enough taste to eat it. The rice was very hard to chew which leads to dental problems for some employees. As a reult, our particapants were dissappointed with the lunch.

Chefs of your kitchen should be given strict warnings if any complaints are raised aganist the food and heavy penalties or suspension should be given to them.

I will be really thankfull of you to look into this matter.

yo

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by mentioning what the participants liked about the hotel, explaining why they were unhappy with the food, and suggesting improvements for the future. However, some ideas are under-developed or expressed in a somewhat unrealistic and limited way. For instance, the explanation of the food issues mentions that the hard rice 'leads to dental problems for some employees', which makes the argument less convincing. Similarly, the suggestion for the manager focuses entirely on issuing strict warnings, heavy penalties, or suspension to the kitchen staff, lacking a balanced or fully developed professional tone. The response attempts to cover all bullet points, but the lack of fully elaborated and realistic development keeps the content profile at a partial level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure that follows the prompt's bullet points. However, the cohesion between and within sentences is sometimes mechanical or abrupt. For instance, the transition 'Firstly, I want to tell you...' is rather basic, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the sudden shift into aggressive recommendations in the fourth paragraph without a smooth transitional link. Paragraphing is generally used sufficiently and appropriately, as each main idea is separated into its own section, even though the opening and closing salutations are informal and truncated.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to use less common items and specific industry terms like 'infrastructure', 'digital boards', and 'suspension'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and spelling that reflect a limited range. Examples include 'I writing this letter' (wrong verb form), 'which have designed' (missing passive auxiliary 'been'), and spelling errors such as 'becuase', 'reult', 'particapants', and 'aganist'. While these lexical slips and spelling mistakes do not entirely impede communication, they cause noticeable difficulty and highlight the need for greater precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses in 'which have designed by famous artist called robson'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text that cause difficulty for the reader. There are issues with verb forms and tenses, such as the missing auxiliary verb in 'I writing this letter', and passive voice errors like 'which have designed' instead of 'which had been designed'. Article usage and punctuation are also inconsistent, with missing commas before conjunctions and incorrect capitalization in sentences. These frequent mechanical and structural errors demonstrate a limited control of grammar.

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