Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-01

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have bought some clothing online and are not satisfied with your purchase.

Write a letter to the company that you bought the clothing from. In your email:

• give details of the purchase
• describe the problem
• explain why you need a replacement urgently

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 would like to inform that I recently purchased some clothes from your online store on 20th Spetember. My bill number is PQR4321. I am dissatisfied with clothing material.

I have bought 4 jeans of levis band. Firstly, jeans color is not similar to product display on site. Secondly, material is not stretchable. Thirdly, My other black color denim levis jeans zip is not working. Furthermore, I tried to coordinate with support team unfortunately I am not getting any prompt response from them.

I would be grateful if you could make a replacement with in three working days. As I have a flight to New York this coming weekend and will not be here for 2 months. I do not have enough time and money for more shopping.

I hope you understand my problem and ready to assist me with replacement.

I am waiting for your response.

Thanks and Regards,

Shruti

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You successfully covered all parts of the task by giving details of the purchase, describing the problems with the clothing, and explaining why you need a replacement urgently. The response demonstrates a clear purpose and meets all requirements of the prompt, showing features of both the expected level and the next band. You addressed all required bullet points, mentioning the purchase date of 20th September, the bill number PQR4321, specific issues regarding the color, material, and zip of the Levi's jeans, and your upcoming flight to New York. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed rather than fully extended, such as the mention of your attempts to contact customer support, which lacks detail on how many times you tried. To reach higher bands, you should expand on each point with more specific elaboration, such as describing the exact color discrepancy or providing more context about your travel schedule.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical sequence from stating the purchase details to describing the problems and requesting an urgent replacement. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different sections of your letter, such as the introduction, the specific complaints, and the call to action. You attempted to use cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'Thirdly', and 'Furthermore' to structure your points clearly. However, the use of these connectors can feel somewhat mechanical and repetitive. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the phrase 'make a replacement with in three working days', where the connection between the items and the action could be smoother. To achieve a higher band, you should employ a wider variety of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure that referencing between sentences creates a seamless flow of ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You used an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating your dissatisfaction and specific product issues. You attempted less common lexical items such as 'dissatisfied', 'coordinate', and 'replacement', and included relevant terms like 'bill number', 'denim', and 'support team'. Nevertheless, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that prevent you from reaching a higher band. For example, 'Spetember' contains a spelling error, '4 jeans of levis band' contains an awkward collocation and capitalization issue, and 'make a replacement' is less natural than 'send a replacement' or 'process a refund'. Furthermore, 'product display on site' lacks an article. To improve your lexical score, you need to use less common vocabulary with greater precision, eliminate spelling mistakes like the one in your date, and pay closer attention to standard collocations in business correspondence.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You demonstrated a mix of simple and complex sentence forms throughout your letter, showing good control over basic structures. Sentences such as 'I would be grateful if you could make a replacement with in three working days' illustrate an attempt at more complex grammatical structures. However, your writing contains several grammatical and punctuation errors. For instance, you omitted the word 'that' in 'I would like to inform that' (it should be 'inform you that'), made a preposition error in 'with in' (within), and missed articles in phrases like 'jeans color is not similar to product display'. Punctuation and capitalization errors also appear, such as lower-case letters in 'levis band'. These errors rarely impede communication, placing your grammar firmly in the expected band. To move higher, you should increase your range of error-free complex sentences and ensure accurate preposition usage and article placement.

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

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