Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-14

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:

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

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

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Dear Justin,

How are you doing? I hope you are fine. I got your mail yesterday about my opinion/advice on learning a new sport.

Well i strongly believe that learning a new sport is cool, Which is why i "ll be recommending on basketball. The sport is tedious and also an intellect activity that requires calmness, constant practising and mental strength to play it. It's also a nice sport that can gurantee you been very sucessful in the future, Because the sport pays well.

You can learn basketball by constantly going to the court to practice everyday and also by washing videos on the youtube. I believe it will really help to nurture your skills.

I strongly advice that we both can learn about the sport together by going to rock foundation training ground to practice and horn our skills, so we can get better at the sport and be good at it too.

I hope to seeing you at the training ground.

Warm wishes,

Raphael

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address all three points: you recommend basketball, explain that Justin can practise at a court and watch online videos, and invite him to train with you at Rock Foundation. The friendly opening and closing also suit an email to a friend. Your reasons that basketball is enjoyable and may offer future opportunities give the recommendation some support. However, the learning advice is quite general, and the claim that the sport will “guarantee” success is not explained or qualified. The invitation is clear, but you could make the plan more specific by suggesting a day or describing how you would practise together. The response covers the task well overall, though some ideas need fuller development and more realistic support.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The email has a clear overall shape: an opening, a paragraph recommending basketball, a paragraph on learning it, an invitation to practise together, and a friendly sign-off. This sequence makes the main purpose easy to follow. You also use linking expressions such as “Which is why,” “also,” and “so” to connect ideas. At times, however, the links feel mechanical or the relationship between ideas is not fully clear; for example, the claim that basketball is “an intellect activity” is followed by a statement about being successful because it pays well. The long recommendation paragraph would be clearer if its points were separated or connected more precisely. Overall progression is sound, but more natural transitions and clearer links would strengthen cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the topic and maintain a friendly tone, including “mental strength,” “nurture your skills,” and “training ground.” There are also attempts at less common expressions, but several choices or spellings are inaccurate and make parts of the message less natural. For example, “washing videos” does not convey the intended meaning, “horn our skills” is not the right expression, and “guarantee you been very successful” is awkward. Spelling errors such as “gurantee” and “sucessful” are noticeable. Aim for accurate, natural collocations rather than adding ambitious wording: “watch instructional videos,” “improve our skills,” and “could help you succeed” would express your ideas more clearly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple sentences and longer structures, including “I believe it will really help…” and the sentence explaining why you recommend basketball. The main message remains understandable, but errors in verb forms, sentence construction, and punctuation are frequent enough to affect fluency. For example, “I strongly advice that we both can learn” has an incorrect verb form and an awkward clause structure; “I hope to seeing you” uses the wrong form after “hope”; and “I’ll be recommending on basketball” has an incorrect grammatical pattern. Capitalisation after “Well” and “Which” is also inconsistent. Practise reliable patterns such as “I advise that we learn…” and “I hope to see you,” then check each sentence for a clear subject and verb.

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