Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-22

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 7.5)

Dear Samuel,

I hope you are doing well. It's been a long time since we have met. I am really surprised that you are interested in learning a new sport. I would love to advise you about this.

I'm thinking of joining a horse riding school. If you also love adventurous sports, we can join together. Joining together may help us to get membership discount. Since, we both are working day shifts, evening classes are suitable for us.

There is a well-known horse riding school in our town. They have trained multiple national level players and have more than 100 horses. Recently, they launched a 60-day course for beginners at just $999. Later on, we can also enroll in their advanced course.

Nevertheless, I am not forcing you to join with me. If you want to learn something else like soccer, cricket or rock-climbing, those options are also available in our town. I can share the details of those sports shortly.

Let me know about your preference. I hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Mark

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 8.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You recommended horse riding, explained how to learn it by mentioning the 60-day course, and suggested learning together. The tone is appropriate for an email to a friend, and the purpose of the letter is clear throughout. The ideas are well-developed, particularly the details regarding the riding school's offerings. To reach a higher band, you could provide slightly more personal detail or enthusiasm to fully capture the 'friend' persona, but overall, the task requirements are fully met.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 8.0

The email is logically organized with clear paragraph breaks for each point. You use cohesive devices such as 'Since', 'Nevertheless', and 'Later on' to connect your ideas effectively. The progression of information is smooth, moving from the recommendation to the logistics and finally to alternative options. The referencing is clear, and the structure of the email follows standard conventions. The flow is natural, and the use of transition words is appropriate for the informal context of the task.

Lexical Resource — Band 7.0

You demonstrate a good range of vocabulary suitable for the task, such as 'adventurous', 'well-known', and 'enroll'. The word choices are accurate and convey your meaning clearly. While the vocabulary is functional and appropriate, it lacks some of the more sophisticated or idiomatic expressions that would characterize a Band 8 or 9 response. However, there are no significant errors in word choice or collocation, and the language used is natural and fits the context of a friendly email perfectly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures effectively. For example, 'If you also love adventurous sports, we can join together' is a well-constructed conditional sentence. There are very few grammatical errors; however, there is a minor punctuation error in 'Since, we both are working', where the comma after 'Since' is unnecessary. Additionally, 'I am really surprised that you are interested' is grammatically correct but slightly less natural than 'I was surprised to hear'. Overall, the majority of your sentences are error-free and clear.

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

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