Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The younger sister of one of your friends is thinking about spending a year studying abroad as part of her university course. You did this recently, and she has asked you about your experience.

Write a letter to your friend's sister. In your letter

• tell her where you studied during your year abroad

• describe what you learnt about the country you studied in

• explain why your year abroad was helpful for your studies

Begin your letter as follows:
Dear........,

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Dear Victoria,

Trust you're doing good, it's been a long time you reached out . I have read the letter you sent to me and I see that you are thinking about spending a year studying abroad as part of your university course. I have done this before and I will share my experience with you.

To start with, I studied business administration in the university of Edinburg in London and it was a year course. I also met a lot of people that came from the same country as mine and we became friends.

I discovered that the country is a very strict one and you have to be well behaved in order to avoid any possible harasment from the police. Also, there are no enough jobs in the country and that was why I left immediately after my studies.

My year abroad was beneficial for my studies because I made new connections with different people from different backgrounds which has helped me develop my career skills.

I hope to see you soon to so that we can catch up better.

Yours faithfully,

Seun.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address all three bullet points: you name a place of study, comment on what you learned about the country, and explain how the experience supported your studies. However, the response only partially fulfils the task because key details are unclear or under-developed. “The university of Edinburg in London” gives conflicting location information, and the description of the country as “a very strict one” is broad; a specific example of a custom, rule, or cultural difference would make this more informative. The benefit to your studies is also stated generally as developing career skills through connections, without explaining how this helped your academic work. The letter’s purpose is clear, but a more accurate and developed account would strengthen it.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening, separate paragraphs for your study location, observations about the country, and the benefit to your studies, followed by a closing. This makes the main points easy to locate. You also use basic signposting such as “To start with” and “Also” to connect ideas. Some linking is mechanical, however, and the paragraph about the country moves from strict behaviour to job availability without explaining the relationship between these points. The opening sentence is also crowded with several ideas. To make the progression more natural, use transitions that show the connection between points and develop each paragraph around one clear idea.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main experience, including “studying abroad,” “different backgrounds,” and “career skills.” There are also attempts at more specific language, such as “business administration” and “connections.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural and reduce precision: “doing good” is not the usual expression in this greeting, “the country is a very strict one” is vague, and “there are no enough jobs” is an awkward construction. “Harasment” is also misspelled. Aim for more precise descriptions of cultural observations and use natural collocations. This would make the account clearer and more fluent without requiring unusually advanced vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mixture of simple sentences and some longer structures, including “My year abroad was beneficial for my studies because…” The main message remains understandable, but errors occur in sentence construction, tense, agreement, and punctuation. For example, “it’s been a long time you reached out” needs a clearer time clause, while “which has helped me” does not agree smoothly with the plural idea “connections.” In “I studied … in the university,” the article and preposition pattern is inaccurate, and the opening has a space before its full stop. Work on accurate clause formation and agreement, and check articles and punctuation. More controlled complex sentences would help you express the links between your experiences and their effects.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.