Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-07-24

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Five months ago, you started renting an apartment on a six-month agreement. You now wish to stay in the apartment for longer than the six months you originally agreed with the owner.

Write a letter to the owner of your apartment. In your letter

• say how long you now want to rent the apartment for
• explain why your plans have changed
• tell the owner about a problem in the apartment

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

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

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to inform you about a laptop that I purchased from your online website.

I paid for the laptop on 29th December during the Boxing Day sale event, on a discounted price online. It was a MacBook Air 2 with 250GB storage that was recently released by Apple. The delivery was scheduled for 31st December's evening.

However, when I received the parcel the packaging looked like it was tampered with. After opening the box, I inspected the product and I could see scratches on the laptop and after turning it on, the charging port was not working properly. I am very disappointed by the service provided.

I would like to get a refund for the laptop to the original form of payment. I have already shipped the product to the given return/exchange address mentioned in the order confirmation email.

I hope you will take necessary measures to prevent this from happening in future.

Thanks

Karan Sandhu

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response is completely off-topic. The task required a letter to a landlord regarding a lease extension and a maintenance issue in an apartment. Instead, the student wrote a complaint letter about a faulty laptop purchased online. Because the student failed to address any of the bullet points or the core scenario provided in the prompt, the task achievement is severely compromised. While the letter is written in a formal tone appropriate for a complaint, it does not fulfill the requirements of the specific task set by the examiner.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter is logically organized as a complaint. It uses standard paragraphing, with an introduction, body paragraphs detailing the issue, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'However', 'After', and 'I have already' are used correctly to link ideas. Despite the content being irrelevant to the prompt, the structure of the letter itself is clear and easy to follow, which demonstrates a basic level of coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is adequate for a formal complaint letter. The student uses relevant terms such as 'discounted price', 'scheduled', 'tampered', 'inspected', and 'refund'. While the range is not particularly wide or sophisticated, it is sufficient to convey the intended meaning clearly. There are no significant spelling or word-choice errors that impede communication, though the vocabulary is limited to the context of a product complaint.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some minor grammatical inaccuracies, such as 'on a discounted price' (should be 'at a discounted price') and 'in future' (should be 'in the future'). However, these errors do not impede communication. The control of tense and sentence structure is generally good, and the writing is clear and readable throughout the response.

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