Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

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

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 6.0)

Dear Sir Mueen Awais,

I am writing to inform you that I wish to reduce my working hours because I want to study a part-time course starting next month.

To balance my work responsibilities and my studies, I would like to reduce my schedule to 24 hours per week. I propose working on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This schedule will allow me to attend my university classes on Mondays and Fridays while ensuring about I am present during our busiest workdays.

I believe this course will bring benefits to our company. I will study digital marketing, which will help me improve our company's social media pages and attract more customers. The skills I learn will help me work more efficiently and support our team better.

Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Hail

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all three bullet points from the prompt effectively. You clearly explain the reason for reducing your working hours (to study part-time), specify the exact schedule you would like to work (24 hours per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays), and describe how this will benefit your employer through digital marketing skills. However, the length requirement has not been met, as the response contains 148 words, falling just two words short of the 150-word minimum. This slight under-length prevents the task achievement score from reaching a higher band, as bullet points could have been slightly more extended to fully develop the ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

Your letter is well-structured and follows a logical progression from stating the purpose of the letter, proposing the schedule, highlighting company benefits, to a polite closing. Paragraphing is used appropriately and effectively separates your main ideas. Cohesive devices are handled naturally, such as 'To balance my work responsibilities' and 'This schedule will allow me'. The only minor issue is a slight redundancy with 'ensuring about I am present', but overall the organisation remains clear and coherent throughout.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary for the task with appropriate workplace and academic collocations, such as 'balance my work responsibilities', 'busiest workdays', and 'digital marketing'. You also make an attempt at less common lexical items. However, there is a minor unnatural collocation and grammar slip in the phrase 'ensuring about I am present'. Vocabulary is generally adequate and precise enough to communicate your ideas clearly without causing any confusion for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

You use a good mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'This schedule will allow me to attend my university classes on Mondays and Fridays while ensuring about I am present during our busiest workdays.' The majority of your sentences are clear and grammatically sound. There is a minor grammatical error with the unnecessary preposition in 'ensuring about I am present', but this does not impede communication. Punctuation and sentence boundaries are handled well.

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

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