Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-03

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 John,

I hope you are doing well. My name is alexa , one of your paying guest and I am writing this letter to request you to allow me stay at the apartment despite that six-month agreement is coming to an end.

I have been living in the apartment for almost six months and now I wish to stay a little longer for about a year due to unseen circumstances.

There are a couple of reasons to extend the agreement. One of the most important is that my probation period of current job has been extended to next july. Since the apartment is near my office so I wish to stay here a little longer. Moreover, before renting, I paid an advance of 6 months excluding the monthly rent which was meant to be returned before the agreement expires. I would like you to compensate this by extending my agreement.

Eventually, I would like to draw your attention to the problem in maintainence system of the apartment. As this was included in the agreement , I request you to send an electrician to install a fire alarm as this is one of the important prerequiste to follow.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my proposal.

Kind regards,

Arzoo

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You successfully cover all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You state that you want to rent the apartment for about another year, explain that your probation period has been extended, and raise the issue regarding the fire alarm. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat uneven. While the explanation regarding your job probation is clear, the part about compensating through an advance payment is slightly unclear and under-developed. Furthermore, the mention of the maintenance system is abrupt and connects the lack of a fire alarm to a broader issue without full clarification. To reach the next band, you should ensure that every bullet point is fully expanded with smooth, logical explanations and clear intentions throughout the letter.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear purpose established in the opening paragraphs and appropriate signposting such as 'Moreover' and 'Eventually'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate your intentions, reasons, and the maintenance issue. However, referencing and cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or slightly faulty, such as the use of 'Eventually' to introduce a problem, which is not the most natural lexical choice for sequence here. To achieve a higher level of coherence, you should work on making transitions between ideas flow more naturally and ensure that referencing pronouns and connectors tie the sentences together seamlessly without drawing attention to themselves.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases like 'unseen circumstances', 'probation period', and 'prerequiste'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('maintainence', 'prerequiste'), punctuation and capitalization errors with names ('alexa'), and occasional slight inaccuracies in word choice or collocation, such as referring to yourself as 'one of your paying guest' instead of 'guests'. These errors do not impede communication, but they prevent you from accessing a higher band. To improve your lexical score, you should focus on precision in word choice, correct spelling of common terms, and ensuring that word forms match their grammatical contexts consistently.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating a reasonable command of sentence structure overall. You successfully use structures like 'Since the apartment is near my office so I wish...' and relative clauses. However, there are some grammar errors, such as the redundant 'so' in the aforementioned sentence, missing articles ('the six-month agreement', 'a fire alarm'), and minor preposition or agreement issues like 'allow me stay' instead of 'allow me to stay'. These errors are present but they rarely impede communication. To move up to the next band, you need to increase your proportion of error-free complex sentences and eliminate minor slips in articles and infinitive verb forms.

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

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