Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently booked a part-time course at a college. You now need to cancel your booking.

Write a letter to the college administrator. In your letter:

• say which part-time course you booked
• explain why you need to cancel your booking
• ask about booking a different course

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Dear Sir/ Madam

I booked for a part time engineering course last week. I am writing to you to inform of my decision to cancel the course, this is because the course doesn't align with my goals and aspirations.

my dream course is a health related course, however my mother has always wanted me to be an engineer. I booked the course just to please my mother. I have come to realize that futhering the course will make me unhappy in the future and i have made up my mind to cancel the booking. I have explained to mother my reasons for also cancelling the course and she understood my reasons. She encouraged me to follow my dreams and aspirations.

I would want to book a different couse in medical and health, I don't know how possible it would be book a course in public health. This has always been my dream course. And schedule for the program is exactly what i need as it gives me the flexibility to combine my studies with my job.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

your's faithfully,

Ogenna Muomandu.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You successfully state which part-time course you booked ("part time engineering course"), explain why you need to cancel it ("the course doesn't align with my goals and aspirations" and personal realization), and ask about booking a different course ("a different couse in medical and health"). The tone is appropriately formal for a letter to a college administrator, although the personal background story regarding your mother is slightly over-elaborated. However, all communicative requirements are fully met, earning a solid band score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is generally coherent and easy to follow. Ideas are organised into logical paragraphs, separating the cancellation reasons from the enquiry about the new course. However, cohesive devices are somewhat basic or occasionally missing, leading to slightly choppy transitions between sentences, such as starting a sentence with a lowercase letter (" my dream course is..."). Paragraphing is mostly used appropriately, but overall referencing and cohesion could be smoother and more sophisticated to reach higher band levels.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with some attempts at less common phrasing such as "align with my goals and aspirations" and "flexibility to combine my studies with my job." However, there are some spelling and lexical errors, such as "futhering" instead of "furthering", "couse" instead of "course", and a missing preposition in "how possible it would be book a course". The range of vocabulary is sufficient to convey the message clearly, but inaccuracies prevent it from achieving a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional and multi-clause sentences ("I don't know how possible it would be book a course in public health"). There are several grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including missing capitalization (" my dream course", "i have made"), a comma splice ("...cancel the course, this is because..."), and a missing preposition ("it would be [to] book"). Despite these errors, communication is not impeded, and the meaning remains clear.

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

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