Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-08

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 6.5)

Dear little sister,

I hope you are doing very well! I am glad that you have asked for my experience. I am excited to tell you and guide you through it. As your elder sister I am overwhelmed at the moment.

As you know I have studied in Vancouver Island University, British Columbia, Canada. It is a beautiful place to be lost in, people around a very nice and friendly. The city itself makes you feel independent and build confidence in yourself. Apart from the life experiences, I have taken a courses in psychology which was quiet an interesting years with amazing professors at university.

This country was a great opportunity to me because I was placed as an intern as a therapist at local clinics along with great training. The place was nice to get hands on experience. Apart from this big reason, another skills that I might not be able to develop in my home country was computer skills. Also, I took additional computer course which taught me basic level programming and other excel skills which is quiet helpful for almost every job we can do later in our life.

I would be happy to say that go live your life and enjoy the new experience, if you need anything from me I am always there for you.

See you soon,

Sukhman

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The letter addresses all three bullet points of the prompt effectively. You clearly identified your study location in Canada, described the cultural and personal learning experiences, and explained the academic benefits, such as the internship and computer skills. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a friend's sister, maintaining a friendly and encouraging persona throughout. The ideas are relevant and sufficiently developed to meet the requirements of the task. To reach a higher band, ensure that the connection between the study abroad experience and your specific university course is slightly more explicit, as the current link is a bit general.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. Each paragraph focuses on a specific aspect of the prompt, which helps the reader follow your ideas. You use some cohesive devices like 'Apart from this big reason' and 'Also', though some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The paragraphing is appropriate for a letter format. To improve, try to use a wider variety of linking words and ensure that the referencing between sentences is smoother to avoid a slightly repetitive structure in the middle section.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using words like 'independent', 'confidence', and 'intern'. However, there are several instances of word choice errors and minor inaccuracies, such as 'taken a courses' (should be 'taken a course' or 'taken courses') and 'another skills' (should be 'other skills'). The phrase 'quiet an interesting years' contains a spelling error ('quiet' instead of 'quite') and a grammatical mismatch. While these errors do not impede communication, they limit the score. Using more precise collocations would elevate your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('people around a very nice' should be 'people around are very nice') and incorrect article usage ('a courses'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some awkward phrasings that affect the flow. While you attempt complex sentences, they are not always error-free. Focusing on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and article usage will significantly improve your accuracy and help you achieve a higher band score.

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

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