Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A family member is coming to stay with you. He/she will be arriving by train in the morning, but you won’t be home until the evening.

• explain arrangements you have made for them to have keys and get into the house

• tell your relative how to get from the train station to your house

• say when you will be home and suggest what you could do together that evening

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Hello Katie,

I hope you're doing great and set for tomorrow's trip to my city. I am so excited to have you here, its been a ages since we last saw each other. I'm sorry but I won't be able to pick you up at the train station when you arrive. I was just informed that my team will be going out of town for a field trip. Although I already informed my next door neighbour about your arrival, the keys to my apartment will be at her place so she will hand it over to you when you arrive. Her name is Justine, her mobile contact is [redacted phone].

Once you alight at the last train stop, you'll see a taxi part just beside the station. Take a taxi going to Western Avenue lane, its a straight journey to my area. Immediately you alight, opposite the bustop is the entrance to my estate. Take an estate shuttle heading Taric junction, my aprtament is the first build to your right, its brown in colour.

I'll prepare your favourite meal jollof rice and chicken with plantains. Make sure to feel at home, I'll be back before you know it. There is a firework event happening later in the evening, we can take a stroll to the venue as its not far from my estate. We've a lot of things to talk about, see you soon.

Take care,

Sandra.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The letter addresses all three requested points and maintains a warm, appropriate tone for a relative. You explain that Justine will hold the keys, give her name and contact number, provide a route from the station, and suggest sharing a meal and visiting the fireworks. The route includes several useful landmarks, while the evening plans are appealing. Some details are less fully explained: the directions are difficult to follow in places, and “I’ll be back before you know it” does not tell Katie when you expect to arrive home. State a specific time or approximate time and make the route steps clearer to strengthen the response further.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter is organised into clear sections: the arrival and key arrangements, directions, and evening plans. This gives the reader a logical progression, and linking expressions such as “Although,” “Once,” and “Immediately” help show how events relate. The friendly opening and closing also suit the letter format. Some connections within the directions are less clear, particularly the move from Western Avenue to the bus stop and then to the estate shuttle; the reader may not know exactly where to go next. A few sentences also pack several instructions together. Use shorter, numbered or clearly sequenced directions and make references such as “the entrance” more explicit to improve cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for a personal letter, including relevant travel and home-related terms such as “train station,” “neighbour,” “estate shuttle,” and “venue.” The food and activity details make the message specific and engaging. There are, however, some inaccurate word choices, spelling errors, and awkward collocations that reduce precision: “taxi part” appears to mean “taxi park,” “alight” is repeated, and “first build” is not the natural phrase for a building. “Mobile contact” is also less idiomatic than “phone number.” Check spelling and choose familiar, precise expressions where a less common word may not fit the context. This would make the vocabulary more controlled.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response includes a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, for example, “Although I already informed my next door neighbour about your arrival, the keys…,” and most of the message remains easy to understand. Some grammatical errors persist, however. In “its been a ages,” the contraction and article are incorrect; “I already informed” would be more appropriate as “I have already informed” in this context. There are also sentence-boundary and punctuation issues, such as joining “I’ll prepare your favourite meal” directly to the list of dishes without a colon or clearer structure. Review articles, tense choices, apostrophes, and punctuation, while keeping the useful variety of sentence patterns.

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

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