Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-03

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

It is ten years since you left college. You'd like to organise an event to celebrate this anniversary with all your friends and classmates from college.

Write a letter to one of your college friends. In your letter

• say what kind of celebration event you'd like to organise

• explain why you think it would be good to celebrate in this way

• describe what help you need to organise this event

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

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

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Thomas,

I hope you and your members are in great spirits! I am writing this letter to plan a reunion of college classmates, since it has been 10 years. Our favorite teacher, Mr. Andrew's birthday is October 12th this month, and it would be a great opportunity to celebrate his birthday and meet our classmates.

Every student in our class loved attending our professor's lecture; he was an anchor of our class. I remember you and I were his favorite students. He used to bring cookies for everybody; however, for us, always the bigger ones. I contacted his wife and asked her to bring him to the Philips Restaurant on that day.

Moreover, I will need help from most of our classmates. I remember how much we enjoyed your baking, so I was hoping you could bake cookies for us. Since Tina and Shawn are in contact with you, would you be able to contact them and take care of the decorations for the hall at Phillips? I will be handling the invitations and operations.

The whole class would love to meet each other. Their old memories will be surfacing in their minds, and especially our professor will enjoy their birthday with old students.

Yours truly,

Nakul

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You successfully cover all parts of the task by proposing a reunion celebration centred around Mr. Andrew's birthday, explaining why this type of event is meaningful, and outlining the specific help needed from Thomas. The response shows a clear purpose and appropriate semi-formal tone suitable for a letter to a friend. However, some aspects are developed more fully than others; for instance, the explanation of the help needed touches upon baking and decorations, but the overall organisation of operations lacks deeper extension. To reach a higher level, you could provide more fully fleshed-out details regarding the schedule of the event and the specific duties assigned, ensuring every bullet point is explored with equal depth and elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas from the purpose of the letter to the details of the event and finally the requests for assistance. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct topics, such as the initial greeting and purpose in the first paragraph, background memories in the second, specific requests in the third, and concluding sentiments in the fourth. Cohesive devices like 'Moreover' and 'Since' are employed to link ideas, although referencing and transition management occasionally feel slightly mechanical rather than entirely natural. To improve further, ensure smoother transitions between sentences and clearer referencing to enhance the overall flow and make the connections between past memories and present plans seamless.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, attempting less common expressions such as 'in great spirits', 'anchor of our class', and 'memories will be surfacing'. Word choices are generally appropriate and communication is never impeded, though there are minor inaccuracies in collocation and style, such as 'I hope you and your members are in great spirits' which feels slightly unnatural for a personal friend. Spelling and word formation are generally accurate. To achieve a higher score, you should incorporate a wider variety of sophisticated, less common lexical items and idiomatic phrases with precise control over style, ensuring that all word combinations sound completely natural to a native speaker.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You display a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilising structures such as conditional and dependent clauses effectively ('Since Tina and Shawn are in contact with you, would you be able to contact them...'). There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as the comma placement in 'Mr. Andrew's birthday is October 12th this month' and minor prepositional or structural slips, but these errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear throughout. To move towards a higher band, you need to produce a greater proportion of error-free sentences while employing a wider variety of complex grammatical structures with consistent accuracy across the entire text.

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