Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-05

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.George,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing today to request to decrease my working hours to focus on my university exams.

My final exams are going to start from the following week and due to my current work schedule I could not able to study efficiently and it might affect my academic performance so reducing a working hours would be benifits both my exam and for our company.

I belive, working twice a week particularly on afternoon hours would be great as I like to study in morning hours. Moreover, after this examination I'm going to graduated and become fully registered which allows me to do more than half of task i am doing as a student now and I will able to work more confidently.

I hope you understand my situation and agree to reduce my working hours only for the final test which lats only a month.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Your faithfully,

Rayen

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The letter addresses all three bullet points of the prompt: the reason for the request, the preferred hours, and the benefits to the employer. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a manager. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the explanation of how the studies benefit the employer is a bit vague, focusing more on the student's personal graduation than on specific value-added skills for the company. Despite this, the purpose of the letter is clear, and the reader is left in no doubt about the request being made.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each serving a distinct purpose. The progression of ideas is easy to follow. Cohesive devices such as 'Moreover' and 'I hope' are used to link sentences, though the transition between the request and the justification could be smoother. The paragraphing is appropriate for a formal letter, and the overall structure supports the message effectively. There is a slight mechanical feel to the use of some connectors, but the flow remains consistent throughout the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to express their needs clearly. There are some minor errors in word choice and spelling, such as 'benifits' instead of 'benefits' and 'lats' instead of 'lasts'. Additionally, the phrase 'do more than half of task' is slightly unnatural. While the range is sufficient to convey the message, it lacks the sophistication or precision required for higher bands. The student relies on fairly basic vocabulary, which is functional but not particularly varied.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The letter contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'I could not able to' (should be 'I was not able to'), 'reducing a working hours' (should be 'reducing my working hours'), and 'I'm going to graduated' (should be 'I am going to graduate'). These errors are frequent enough to be noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding the intended meaning. The punctuation is generally correct, but the sentence construction needs more attention to ensure accuracy.

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

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