Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-27

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 Ma,

I am writing to notify you of my plans of cancelling the part-time English studies that I booked on last week.

Recently, I applied for the course in the university to enable me acquire my masters in the language while attending to my daily work. I choose the Maldini university because of the proximity to my residential area, and also to my current office.

Unfortunately, the semester has clashed with my recent schedule for career tour outside the country which I wi spend at least four months.

For this reason, I would withdraw the booking and get a refund or probably re-book another course that has a different time frame to enable me attend to my career. This will also give me more space to plan ahead for the tidious semesters that are involved in the study.

I plead that my request recieve a positive consideration from the management. Thanks in anticipation.

Yours faithfully,

Eke Arinze.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task prompt. You successfully stated the part-time course you booked ('part-time English studies'), explained why you need to cancel due to an unexpected career tour abroad ('semester has clashed with my recent schedule for career tour'), and asked about booking a different course ('re-book another course that has a different time frame'). However, the greeting 'Dear Ma,' is inappropriately informal for a letter to a college administrator, violating the convention for formal correspondence as indicated by the prompt's instruction to begin with 'Dear Sir or Madam,'. Despite this lapse in register, your ideas are relevant, and the core communicative purposes are fully met, corresponding well to a Band 6.5 or 7 descriptor level for task coverage.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter exhibits a logical overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, separating the introduction, the reason for cancellation, the request for alternatives, and the closing polite remarks. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to link ideas, such as 'Unfortunately,' and 'For this reason,'. However, referencing and transitions are occasionally slightly awkward or mechanical, such as 'which I wi spend' containing a typo, and the progression between paragraphs feels a bit abrupt. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the letter, but cohesion could be managed with greater flexibility and smoother transitions to reach the higher bands.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common collocations and phrases such as 'proximity to my residential area', 'time frame', and 'positive consideration'. However, there are noticeable lexical and collocation errors and spelling slips throughout the text, such as 'plans of cancelling' instead of 'plans to cancel', 'enable me acquire' instead of 'enable me to acquire', 'choose' instead of 'chose', 'wi spend' instead of 'will spend', and 'tidious' instead of 'tedious'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as the multi-clause complex sentence 'Recently, I applied for the course in the university to enable me acquire my masters...'. You show some control over complex structures, but grammatical errors and awkward phrasing are frequent enough to affect accuracy. Examples include missing the preposition or infinitive particle ('enable me acquire', 'I would withdraw'), missing modal verbs or auxiliary typos ('which I wi spend'), and noun-form issues ('my request recieve'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but grammatical slips persist across different sentence types, placing your grammar performance firmly in the Band 6 category.

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

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