Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-13

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You would like to reduce your working hours in order to study part time.

Write a letter to your boss. In your letter

• explain why you want to reduce your working hours
• say which hours you would like to work
• describe how your part-time studies would benefit your employer

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ....................................,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Mr. Rai,

I am writing to request you to provide me limited hours in order to finish a part-time course.

Although huge working hours are excessively beneficial to support financial conditions, I believe education is more worth to make a quick growth in professional life; therefore, I enrolled at part-time business analysis program. When I continued work for long hours, it makes me hard to focus on an education and I lacked behind to clear essential concepts.

Because of this situation, I want to do work for minimum hours. As currently I am working around 60 hours per week including overtime; however, now I preferred flexible schedule and can come for five hours everyday from 2pm to 7pm, by which I can concentrate on my studies simultaneously.

I believe this course would not only beneficial for my personal growth but also highly demandable to handle rigorous situation, which comes in your company. As now we are using ordinary software for making projects, whereas this study helps me to enlighten the advance skills and quickly boost the production.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to your prompt response.

Kind regards,

Harjit Lehar

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You clearly explained the reason for your request (the part-time course), specified the desired working hours (2pm to 7pm), and described the benefits to your employer (advanced skills and improved project production). The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a manager. To improve, ensure that your arguments are fully developed; for instance, you could have provided a more specific example of how the business analysis course would directly impact your current projects to make the benefit to your employer even more compelling.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter follows a logical structure with clear paragraphing. Each paragraph focuses on a specific aspect of the task, which helps the reader follow your argument. You use some cohesive devices such as 'although', 'therefore', and 'whereas' to link ideas. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or forced, such as 'Because of this situation'. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensure that the progression between sentences is smoother and more natural, rather than relying on standard connectors.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'rigorous', 'simultaneously', and 'professional life'. However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'huge working hours' (should be 'long working hours'), 'more worth to make a quick growth' (should be 'more valuable for professional development'), and 'highly demandable' (should be 'highly beneficial' or 'in high demand'). These errors occasionally hinder the precision of your message. Expanding your vocabulary to include more natural collocations would improve your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is appropriate for this task. However, there are frequent grammatical errors that affect the flow of your writing. Examples include 'request you to provide me limited hours' (should be 'request a reduction in my working hours'), 'it makes me hard to focus' (should be 'it makes it hard for me to focus'), and 'this study helps me to enlighten the advance skills' (should be 'this study will help me develop advanced skills'). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they are frequent enough to limit your score.

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

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