Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently did a short cookery course. The cookery school has asked for your feedback on this course. Write a letter to the course director at the cookery school. In your letter

• describe what you enjoyed about the course
• say how much cooking you've done since the course
• suggest another cookery course you’d like the school to offer

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear madam,

i hope you are doing well. I just finished my cooking course from your school. I enjoyed it a lot with my teacher, i learned a lot of cooking and i tried those recipes at home and my family was really surprised from my cooking. Additionally, i did cooking for almost six months in this course and i enjoyed every single day. Moreover, my relatives and family members love the food when i cook for them, its really great achievement for me. I am really glad that i finished my cookery classes from your school. Now i want to request you to give me chance to learn about bakery. I will love the opportunity to learn baking from your school. Furthermore, your staff is very kind and they helped me a lot to learn, because of them now i am planning to go for cooking competitions.

kind regards,

Sonali

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The letter addresses all three bullet points required by the prompt. You described your enjoyment of the course, mentioned your cooking practice since completion, and suggested a bakery course. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the description of what you enjoyed is quite general; mentioning specific techniques or dishes would have provided better support. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a course director, though the structure could be more formal to better suit the context of a feedback letter.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organized into a single block of text, which lacks proper paragraphing. In IELTS writing, it is essential to use clear paragraph breaks to separate the different points requested in the prompt. While you use some cohesive devices like 'Additionally', 'Moreover', and 'Furthermore', the flow is somewhat mechanical. The progression of ideas is logical, but the lack of paragraphing makes the letter feel like a list of sentences rather than a well-structured piece of correspondence. Improving the use of paragraphing would significantly enhance the readability and coherence of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but remains quite basic. You rely on simple descriptors like 'a lot' and 'great', which limits the precision of your writing. There is some repetition of words such as 'cooking' and 'course'. To reach a higher band, you should aim to incorporate more varied and precise vocabulary related to the context of culinary arts. For example, instead of saying 'I learned a lot of cooking', you could use terms like 'culinary techniques' or 'gained proficiency in food preparation'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, particularly regarding capitalization (e.g., 'i' instead of 'I') and punctuation. You also have some issues with sentence structure, such as the run-on sentence: 'I enjoyed it a lot with my teacher, i learned a lot of cooking and i tried those recipes at home and my family was really surprised from my cooking.' The range of structures is limited, consisting mostly of simple sentences. To improve, focus on using a wider variety of complex sentence structures and ensure that basic punctuation and capitalization rules are followed consistently.

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

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