Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-26

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 G,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing this letter to suggest you a new sport which is known as a marathon, because it is not only good for physical health but also helps to strengthen a mental health. There is a new academy opened last month from where you can get the professional training to learn this sport. If you want to explore more about it for free then I will share a proper document regarding marathon that contains a well organized plan for the beginners from where you can begin your training.

I am planning to learn the same sport ,because I have keen interest in running and I want to participate in marathon competition ,which is going to be held next year in our town. It is beneficial for for both of us if we choose the same sport because we can share our ideas and knowledge with each other.

I hope I will see you participating in the next year competition.

yours faithfully,

Harpinder Singh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all three bullet points of the prompt: recommending a sport (marathon), explaining how to learn it (academy and document), and suggesting learning together. The tone is appropriate for an email to a friend. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, referring to a 'marathon' as a sport is slightly inaccurate, as it is an event; 'long-distance running' would have been more precise. The ideas are relevant, but the explanation of how to learn the sport could have been more detailed to fully satisfy the 'well-developed' criteria for higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter is organized into logical paragraphs, and the progression of ideas is clear. Cohesive devices such as 'because', 'if', and 'therefore' (implied) are used to link sentences. However, the paragraphing is a bit sparse, and the transition between the recommendation and the suggestion to learn together could be smoother. The use of referencing is generally clear, though the flow is occasionally mechanical. Overall, the structure is coherent and easy to follow, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.0 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the student to convey their message clearly. There are some minor inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'strengthen a mental health' (should be 'strengthen mental health') and 'explore more about it' (should be 'learn more about it'). While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'professional training' and 'well organized plan', the range is somewhat limited. The errors do not impede communication, but they prevent the response from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'suggest you a new sport' (should be 'suggest a new sport to you'), 'a marathon' (should be 'marathon running'), and 'the next year competition' (should be 'next year's competition'). Punctuation is also slightly inconsistent, particularly with comma placement before conjunctions. While these errors are noticeable, they do not cause difficulty for the reader, placing the response firmly in the Band 6 category.

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

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