Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-04

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have seen an advertisement in an Australian magazine for someone to live with a family for six months and look after their six-year-old child.

Write a letter to the parents. In your letter

• explain why you would like the job
• give details of why you would be a suitable person to employ
• say how you would spend your free time while you are in Australia

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to convey my interest in living with your family for six months and looking after your six-year-old child.

I work as an employee in a senior care home in Canada for almost five years now. Before becoming a senior caregiver, I was helping with younger generations who were between one year and 12 years old. As I am looking for new opportunities in the same field, I believe that this would fit me very well. In addition, as I am planning to go to school next year, I can save up more money if I received this position.

I believe that, my experience in working with people, my peronality and behaviour towards everyone would be a greatest benefit for you and your family.

I will look after your kids and try to understand her personality properly whenever I get free time. In addition, I will try to learn more about your families culture and tradition. So that I will be more dedicated to understand very well.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincererl,

Kee Kuu

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response addresses the task only minimally. While all three bullet points are touched upon, the development is very limited and contains major inaccuracies regarding the prompt requirements. For instance, the salutation uses 'Dear Sir,' instead of the required 'Dear Sir or Madam,'. Furthermore, the letter confuses the details of the job, mentioning 'kids' (plural) and referring to the child as 'her', whereas the prompt clearly specifies looking after a single six-year-old child of unspecified gender. The reasons for wanting the job and how free time would be spent are also underexplored and briefly handled, resulting in a thin and partially tangential response that fails to fully cover the requirements of the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response shows some organization with basic paragraphing, but there is no clear overall progression of ideas throughout the text. Cohesive devices are minimal, repetitive, or inaccurate, such as the frequent reliance on 'In addition' to start consecutive sentences. Referencing is also faulty in places, notably when switching abruptly between singular and plural pronouns regarding the child ('your kids' followed immediately by 'her personality'). While the letter opens and closes with standard letter-writing conventions, the internal flow between sentences and paragraphs lacks logical connection, leading to a disjointed reading experience that impedes smooth progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for the task. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary related to employment and caregiving, such as 'convey my interest', 'senior caregiver', and 'greatest benefit', but these attempts are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'helping with younger generations' instead of working with young children. There are also spelling errors, including 'peronality' instead of personality and 'sincererl' instead of sincerely, along with occasional word form issues. While these lexical slips do not completely obscure the main message, they create noticeable difficulty for the reader and prevent the vocabulary from achieving a higher standard.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The text displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on basic sentence forms with frequent attempts at complex sentences that turn out faulty. There are persistent errors in verb tenses, such as 'if I received this position' instead of receive, and issues with prepositions inside grammatical patterns, like 'experience in working' versus experience working. Article usage and pluralization errors also occur, such as 'families culture' missing the possessive apostrophe. Punctuation errors are present, including unnecessary commas that disrupt sentence flow. These frequent errors in grammar cause noticeable difficulty and strain for the reader throughout the text.

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