Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-04

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 John,

How you have been ? It’s been ages since we last caught up. I’ve heard that you are willing to learn a new sport and seeking some advice about it. I personally feel you will be doing good at cricket because you have vast knowledge of it and you are very found of it too.

However, learning any sports is not a one day task as it requires lots of sweat and blood to develop the skills. There are few sports training centres and academy nearby which offer free trial classes, so you try them and find the best one for yourself. I believe it’s the best way to learn because you will have more people of your age learning the same sport, which eventually will help you to become a team player and develop competitive behaviour.

Moreover, I was also willing to spend my evening learning a new skill and guess what? I believe we can join the academy together because it’s great opportunity for me to learn something new.

Drop me a line and let me know.

Take care,

Rish

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all three bullet points of the task. You recommend cricket, explain how to learn it through local academies, and suggest learning together. The tone is appropriate for an informal email to a friend. The ideas are relevant and clearly presented. To reach a higher band, you could expand slightly on the benefits of the specific sport or the logistics of the training sessions to provide more depth. Overall, the task is fully covered, and the purpose of the email is clear from the beginning.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The email is logically organised into clear paragraphs, each serving a specific purpose. You use cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Moreover', and 'because' to link ideas. The progression of ideas is smooth, moving from the recommendation to the practical advice and finally the suggestion to join together. The use of paragraphing is appropriate for an email format. To improve, ensure that referencing is always precise; for example, 'they' in 'so you try them' refers back to 'training centres', which is clear, but the flow could be slightly more natural with more varied transition words.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task. Phrases like 'caught up', 'sweat and blood', and 'drop me a line' are natural and appropriate for an informal letter. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'you will be doing good at cricket' (should be 'doing well') and 'you are very found of it' (should be 'fond'). While these do not impede communication, they indicate a need for more attention to collocations and word forms to reach a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some grammatical errors, such as 'How you have been ?' (should be 'How have you been?'), 'learning any sports is not a one day task' (should be 'sport'), and 'There are few sports training centres' (should be 'a few'). These errors are frequent enough to be noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding your message. To improve, focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles and auxiliary verbs in questions.

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

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