Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-05

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 7.0)

Dear Mr. Shiv,

I am writing this to bring to your attention that my contract which is signed for staying in your apartment is about to due next month. As you know, I am staying in this apartment since 5 months now, the contarct is ending next month, which I would like to extend for 6 months more. I humbly request you to extend my lease till May 2027.

Firstly, I was about to leave the current job which I was doing since a year but I got promotion in that company recently. Due to which I will be continue working in that company for now. The company is just by walking distance from the apartment and it will save a lot of my trave time.

I have been very comfortable living here, although there is one problem that I would like you to look into. The heating system in the bedroom has not been working properly for the past few weeks, and the room becomes quite cold at night. Furthermore, I would appreciate it if you could arrange for someone to inspect and repair it.

Please let me know if you are happy to extend the agreement. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Srushti Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

You successfully address all parts of the prompt, fulfilling the requirements for a General Training letter. You clearly state the duration for your lease extension, explaining both your change in plans regarding your promotion and detailing the issue with the bedroom heating system. The purpose of the letter is immediately clear, and your tone is appropriately polite and formal throughout. While your ideas are relevant and well-developed, pushing this criterion to the next level would require a slightly more expanded explanation of your future plans or the apartment situation, ensuring every single bullet point is elaborated with even greater nuance and depth.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

Your letter demonstrates a clear logical organization with a natural progression from your opening purpose to your job update, followed by the maintenance issue and closing remarks. You use standard paragraphing effectively, giving each main idea its own distinct section. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'although', and 'Furthermore' are employed to guide the reader through the text, though transitioning between your job news and the apartment problem could be slightly smoother. To reach an even higher band, you could aim for more flexible and less mechanical cohesive links, ensuring the flow between sentences feels entirely effortless.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a semi-formal request letter, successfully communicating your message with terms like 'bring to your attention', 'humbly request', and 'inspect and repair'. However, there are some noticeable vocabulary and collocation errors, such as 'contract which is signed' instead of 'signed contract', 'about to due' instead of 'due to expire', and 'trave time' instead of 'travel time'. To achieve a higher score, you need to minimize these lexical slips and incorporate a wider variety of less common, precise phrasing with more natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures reasonably well, as seen in sentences like 'I would appreciate it if you could arrange for someone to inspect and repair it.' Your control allows communication to remain clear despite some errors in grammar and tense consistency, such as 'I am staying in this apartment since 5 months now' instead of the present perfect continuous tense, and 'Due to which I will be continue working' instead of 'continuing'. To attain a higher band, you would need to produce more frequent error-free sentences and demonstrate tighter control over verb tenses and prepositional phrases.

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

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