Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-03

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 Mike,

I hope you are doing well

I am writing this letter to request you in extending my agreement of half-year I made with you while renting your apartment as well a concern of cooling in it.

Firstly I am thankful to you for giving me a space to stay. As you know, I leased the apartment for 6 months.However, now I now want to extend the lease for 4 months more.

The reason behind it is that I was supposed to work from home. Nevertheless, my company changed the plan of switching the work mode. This apartment is located at convenient location, making it easy for me to go to my office. Moreover, there are all basic amenities available in this area.

Although your apartment did not give me any problem, now I am experiencing that its air conditioning system is not working properly, making it difficult to sleep at night in summer time. I got it checked by technician who told that its fan and filter need to be replaced that will cost around 500 dollars.

Hopefully you will accept my request. Looking forward to hear from you

Yours sincerely,

Manpreet Singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You address all three points clearly: you request a four-month extension, explain that your company changed its work arrangements, and report that the air-conditioning is not working properly. The reason is supported with relevant details about the apartment’s convenient location and nearby amenities, while the technician’s diagnosis and estimated repair cost make the problem specific. Your purpose remains clear throughout and the polite closing suits the relationship. To strengthen the response further, make the requested action on the repair explicit—for example, ask whether the owner can arrange or approve the replacement of the fan and filter. This would develop the final point more fully rather than leaving the owner to infer what you expect them to do.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening request, an explanation for the changed plans, a paragraph about the apartment problem, and a closing. Sequencing expressions such as “Firstly,” “However,” and “Moreover” help guide the reader, and the progression from the lease request to its reason is easy to follow. Some linking is mechanical, though, and the opening sentence tries to combine the extension request with the maintenance concern, making it harder to process. The repeated “now” in “now I now want” also interrupts the flow. Use paragraphing to separate the request, explanation, and repair issue, and rely more on natural transitions or clear topic sentences rather than adding a connector to every point.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the situation, including “extend the lease,” “work mode,” “air conditioning system,” and “replaced.” These choices communicate the main points, and the repair details are specific. However, some phrases are imprecise or unnatural, such as “request you in extending,” “a space to stay,” and “a concern of cooling.” “Convenient location” is understandable but would be more precise as “conveniently located.” There is also some repetition of “apartment” and “now.” Aim for more natural collocations and precise wording, especially in the opening request and the description of the fault. This would make the letter sound more fluent and appropriately formal without changing its clear meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the contrast in “Nevertheless, my company changed the plan…” and the participle clause “making it difficult to sleep at night.” The meaning is generally clear, and the longer sentences are mostly understandable. Some grammatical errors remain, however. In “I am writing this letter to request you in extending,” the verb pattern is incorrect; use “request that you extend” or “ask you to extend.” There is a missing space after the full stop in “6 months.However,” and “Looking forward to hear from you” needs “hearing.” Review verb patterns, infinitives and gerunds, and sentence punctuation to improve accuracy while retaining your range of structures.

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

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