Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-16

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 Jame,

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing this letter in regards to advice you about learning a new sport in the town. I know that your family background is from the United Kingdom, and you are quite attached to your family roots despite of you being grown up in a different country.

As you once mentioned that you want to learn a new sport as part of new advanture that you want to try. I would surely recommend you to take on baseball as a new sport. The only reason I am suggesting you to take on baseball because I know you watch and play cricket, and baseball is quite similar to cricket except some rules and regulations, but the plot is same.

In order to learn baseball, I would recommend you to start watching this sport on television, youtube or somewhere else where this sport is broadcasted. Apart from this, you can also join a coaching centre to learn more and make yourself expert in it.

I would also love to try my hand on it, as this sport brings some excitements in my dry life. So, if you have a time and if your schedule allows you, we can learn and try playing this sport over this coming weekend at anytime.

I hope my suggestion over learning a new sport may help you to take decision, and will catch you soon to play this game. Hopefully this weekend.

Your sincerely,

Shivam Desai

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response covers all bullet points of the task well. Shivam successfully recommends a new sport, baseball, to his friend, explaining the choice by comparing it to cricket. He also clearly explains how his friend can learn the sport, suggesting television broadcasts, YouTube, and joining a coaching centre. Furthermore, he successfully suggests that they both learn the sport together this coming weekend. The tone is appropriately friendly and informal for a general training email, and the ideas are well-developed throughout. Minor awkward phrasing regarding family background and heritage does not detract from the clear fulfillment of all communicative requirements of the task. Therefore, this fulfills the criteria for a solid band 7.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The email has a clear logical organisation and progression. It opens with appropriate email greetings and pleasantries, moves smoothly into the recommendation, explains how to learn it, and concludes with an invitation to play together and a closing sign-off. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, separating the distinct points of the task into readable sections. Cohesive devices such as 'In order to learn', 'Apart from this', and 'So' are used adequately to connect ideas. Referencing is generally clear, though occasional mechanical transitions occur, which places this performance firmly at band 7.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, including some less common lexical items and phrases such as 'family background', 'attached to your family roots', 'coaching centre', and 'schedule allows you'. However, there are some noticeable lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations, such as 'advice you about' instead of 'advise you about', 'new advanture' with a spelling error, 'except some rules' instead of 'except for some rules', and 'brings some excitements in my dry life'. These minor errors and non-idiomatic choices prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making 6.0 the most accurate score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

Shivam demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures like 'if you have a time and if your schedule allows you'. However, there are several grammatical errors throughout the text, including prepositional and particle errors ('advice you about', 'despite of you being', 'suggestion over learning'), missing articles ('at anytime'), and minor punctuation or spelling slips. While these errors do not impede overall communication, their frequency prevents the writing from reaching the higher standard of error-free sentences required for band 7.0. Therefore, a band 6.0 is well-deserved.

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

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