Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Your English-speaking friend who lives in your town has asked for your advice about learning a new sport. Write an email to your friend. In your email:

• recommend a new sport that would be suitable for your friend to learn
• explain how your friend could learn this sport
• suggest that you both learn this sport together

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

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

 

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Simran,

I am writing this letter to suggest a sport named as "Ice Hockey" which I believe would be best option for you.

As we are leaving in Canada and it has quite harsh climate. Around 8 months our area is covered with the snow. Being an Indian we are very comfortable with any outdoor activity and this sport will be similar with the hockey that you are playing while you were India . Moreover there a lot of options to play as our state has many clubs which are competing at regular intervals.

To learn such a sport there are many centres opened around in our area which helps the beginners to learn such a demanding game. Not only they have connections with certain clubs which means that once player is ready to play, they will send him to the club to uplift his talent with professionals.

I have enquired with some centres which are pocket friendly and rated best in our locality. I am also looking to register with such centres to learn such an amazing game.

Yours loving,

Shanu

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task: recommending a sport, explaining how to learn it, and suggesting you learn it together. The tone is appropriate for an informal email to a friend. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For example, while you mention that there are many clubs, you could have provided more specific details about the nature of the training or the equipment needed to make the advice more practical. The explanation of why it is suitable for an Indian person living in Canada is a nice touch, but the connection could be more clearly articulated to fully satisfy the 'well-developed' requirement for higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The email is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs for each point, and a closing. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the different requirements of the prompt. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'To learn such a sport', and 'Not only... but also'. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and there are minor issues with referencing, such as the phrase 'such a sport' being used repeatedly, which makes the flow feel a bit repetitive. Improving the variety of linking words would help the text progress more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'pocket friendly', 'demanding game', and 'uplift his talent'. There are some minor inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'named as' instead of 'called' or 'named', and 'leaving' instead of 'living'. Additionally, 'uplift his talent' is not a standard collocation in this context; 'develop his skills' would be more natural. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, it lacks the flexibility and precision required for a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are several grammatical errors throughout the text. For instance, 'As we are leaving in Canada' should be 'living', and 'while you were India' should be 'while you were in India'. There are also issues with article usage ('the snow', 'the hockey') and subject-verb agreement ('there a lot of options'). While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on proofreading for basic tense consistency and preposition usage would significantly improve your accuracy.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.