Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-01

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 Siddharth,

I hope you are doing good!

I am writing this letter to request you for reducing my current working hours as I am planning to apply for Pharmacist exam in next 6 months.

As I am working as an assistant pharmacist since 2 years which makes me eligible to fill pharmacist exam as per Canada's policy. However for qualifying this exam in the first attempt, regular and dedicated study is required for which I need to spare some hours of the day continuously for 6 months. Currently I am working 50 hours per week which makes 10 hours a day. I would like to request you to reschedule my shift by reducing these 50 hours to 40 hours which is 8 hours a day. This will help me getting atleast 2-3 hours per day for studying. Also, I would like to request to provide my shifts during morning on week days and manage to schedule my weekly offs on weekends only, this will give me a constant time to manage my studies.

Part time studies and qualifying this exam would also benefits our organization as I would be able to take more leadership roles and manage responsilibilities even better. Also, it would be beneficial as the organization need not to hire any pharmacist from outside which would cost more.

Thank you in advance for considering my requirement. Looking forward to your response.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The letter successfully addresses all bullet points required by the prompt. You clearly explain your motivation for reducing working hours by stating your intention to study for the pharmacist exam, specify the exact shift adjustments you need, and describe how your qualification will benefit your employer. Your position and purpose are clear from the beginning to the end. However, some ideas show a slight tendency to over-generalise or lack deeper extension—for instance, the benefits to the employer could have been expanded further with specific examples of how you would apply your advanced knowledge in the workplace. Overall, the communication of your message is clear and fulfils all requirements effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your letter demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from stating the request to explaining the details and concluding politely. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate different points, such as your reasons, proposed hours, and employer benefits. Cohesion is present, but it relies on some somewhat mechanical devices and transitions like 'However', 'Also', and 'This will help', showing elements of the next band where cohesion becomes more flexible. To fully achieve a higher band, referencing and linking between sentences could be smoother and less repetitive, avoiding the frequent starting of sentences with transitional adverbs.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and workplace terminology such as 'reschedule my shift', 'leadership roles', and 'organization'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and phrasing, such as 'request you for reducing' instead of 'request a reduction', 'fill pharmacist exam' instead of 'sit for the pharmacist exam', and 'qualifying this exam' rather than 'passing this exam'. Spelling is generally accurate, and these vocabulary errors do not impede communication, placing your lexical control comfortably at this level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms effectively, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'which makes me eligible' and 'which would cost more'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, including preposition usage like 'during morning on week days' instead of 'in the mornings on weekdays', missing articles before singular countable nouns like 'pharmacist exam', and tense consistency issues such as 'since 2 years' instead of 'for 2 years'. Fortunately, these errors are relatively minor and rarely impede communication, demonstrating a solid foundation with typical patterns of control at this level.

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

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