Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-12

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 6.0)

Dear Mr and Mr Collin

I am thankfull for your invitation to attend surprise birthday party of Chris.

This surprise would bring him immense joy, as he has recently went through the trauma of losing his wife last year. Additionally, he has submerged so much in his new job that he has become a person of habits since quite some time. Last month, when we had planned for vacations to hill station, he couldn't attend that due to his hectic office routine as he was upto ears with his office work.

Without any doubt, it is the best chance to catch my best friend on his surprise birthday party; however, I have to regretfully inform this that I have already booked my tickets to Dubai to attend the annual business conference being arrange by my organisation. Additionally, I am taksed by my organisation to deliver the key notes and handedover responsibility to invite and make arrangements for guests at the venue. Therefore, I wouldn't be able to attend this event as Chris's birthday and the event date co-incidently falling on the same date.

I understand that I won't be able to compensate the joy of the birthday bash, but I am planning to have a friends get-together next month at Furjeriah hill station. The arrangements: site booking, catering, invitations, and travelling have been made by myself, and agreed with our friend Ahmed, who would be sending formal invitations soon.

I wish a belated birthday to Chris, and feel embarssaed to not be there on his big day.

Catch up soon,

Muhammad Waqass

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

You have successfully covered all bullet points required in the task instructions. You clearly stated why Chris will enjoy the surprise party by mentioning his recent personal loss and demanding job routine. You effectively explained your inability to attend due to a conflicting business conference in Dubai where you have key speaking responsibilities. Finally, you provided clear details of an alternative plan to see Chris next month at the Furjeriah hill station. The tone is appropriate for a friendly letter to parents, and the ideas are fully developed and extended. Although there are a few minor grammatical slips throughout, every part of the prompt is addressed thoroughly, aligning well with the Band 7 descriptors for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter is well-organized with a clear overall logical progression. Each paragraph has a distinct focus: greeting and opening, why Chris will deserve the party, the reason for your absence, the alternative plan, and the closing. You made good use of cohesive devices and transitions such as "Additionally," "Without any doubt," and "Therefore" to connect your ideas. Paragraphing is used appropriately throughout the response. While referencing and linking are generally clear, occasional slightly awkward phrasing keeps this criterion at a Band 7 level rather than higher.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrated a sufficient range of vocabulary with some attempts at less common items such as "immense joy," "hectic office routine," and "regretfully inform." However, there are several word choice and collocation errors, such as writing "thankfull" instead of "thankful," "gone through the trauma" rather than "been through," and "co-incidently falling on the same date" instead of "falling on the same day." Additionally, there are minor spelling mistakes like "embarssaed" (embarrassed). Despite these inaccuracies, your vocabulary is adequate to convey your message clearly without impeding understanding, which places your performance comfortably at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You utilized a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional and relative clauses. There are, however, several grammatical errors and awkward structures throughout the text. For instance, the greeting contains a typo ("Mr and Mr Collin"), and you wrote "he has recently went through" instead of "has recently gone." Other errors include "he has submerged so much in his new job" (prepositional collocation error) and "being arrange" instead of "being arranged." While these errors are noticeable and detract from precision, they rarely impede overall communication, reflecting the characteristics of a Band 6 performance.

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

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