Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-21

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The parents of your Australian friend Chris have invited you to a surprise birthday party for him/her. Write a letter to Chris's parents. In your letter:

• say why you think Chris will enjoy the surprise party
• explain why you won't be able to attend the party
• give details of a plan to see Chris at a different time

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Mr and Mrs Collins,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Mr. and Mrs Collins,

How are you? I am glad to hear from you that you are invited me for the surprise birthday party of Chris.

Chris always love surprises. I am sure that Chris will be happy when he see the surprise birthday party which you are organizing. I hope you put a lot of efforts to make his day special such as invited his friends, doing decoration, arranging some activities for playing that make his day more memorable.

However, I am not able to attend this party as i have an appointment with the doctor. Actually, these day I am suffering with a fever and I have a regular appointments with doctors. According to my prescription, I will not be travel to long distances until I will be fully recovered.

I am making a plan to meet with Chris in winter holidays as I have a birthday on 25 December and at that day we will celebrate Christmas together.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Wishes,

Shivani

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the prompt. You clearly explain why Chris will enjoy the party, provide a valid reason for your absence, and propose a concrete plan to meet him later. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a friend's parents. To improve, ensure that your ideas are fully developed; for instance, the explanation regarding your medical condition is slightly repetitive. Overall, the response is well-focused and meets the requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each addressing a specific part of the prompt. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'However' and 'Actually' to transition between ideas. While the flow is generally good, some transitions feel a bit mechanical. To reach a higher band, try to vary your linking words and ensure that the progression between sentences is smoother. For example, the connection between your medical condition and your inability to travel could be more tightly integrated to improve the overall flow of the paragraph.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for this task, using words like 'memorable', 'prescription', and 'recovered' correctly. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'doing decoration' (should be 'decorating') and 'invited his friends' (should be 'inviting his friends'). You also use 'these day' instead of 'these days'. While these errors do not impede communication, they indicate a need for more precise control over common collocations and grammatical forms of words to achieve a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'you are invited me' (should be 'you have invited me'), 'he see' (should be 'he sees'), and 'I will not be travel' (should be 'I will not be able to travel'). Additionally, there are issues with subject-verb agreement and tense consistency. While your meaning is always clear, the frequency of these errors prevents a higher score. Focusing on proofreading for basic verb forms and tense consistency will significantly improve your accuracy.

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

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