Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-12

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 Shanon,

I hope you're doing well. I was really happy to hear that you're planning to study abroad as part of your university course, just as I did. I'd be happy to share my experience of studying abroad with you.

I studied Web Development at the University of Waterloo in Canada. I chose this particular university because It's focuses not only on theory of subjects but also its advanced laboratories help to work on real-time IT projects.

While studying abroad, I learnt about many different aspects of Canadian cultures and lifestyles. In addition, I also got the chance to try their local cuisins which made this experience more surreal.

I believe studying aborad for year would benifit me in many ways. I was able to experience of foreign culture and their teaching methods. Apart form that, I built an international contacts that would help me in future to get job opportunities.

I hope this would be helpful for your studying aboroad. Please let me know if you need any additional information about what accomodations or transport services are available.

Best regards,

Axay Nayi

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task prompt in a natural and polite tone suitable for a letter to a friend's sister. You successfully stated where you studied, mentioning Web Development at the University of Waterloo in Canada. You described what you learned regarding Canadian cultures, lifestyles, and local cuisine, and you explained how the experience was helpful for your studies by mentioning real-time IT projects, foreign teaching methods, and future job opportunities. The ideas are relevant and adequately developed for a General Training Task 1 response, showing a clear purpose and satisfying all prompt requirements appropriately.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter is logically organised with a clear opening, body paragraphs addressing specific aspects of your experience, and a polite closing. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points, such as the university choice, cultural learning, and study benefits. Cohesive devices like 'While studying abroad', 'In addition', and 'Apart from that' are used to connect ideas smoothly. Although referencing is generally clear, there are minor slips such as shifting pronouns in 'benefit me' when addressing a letter about your own past experience, but this does not disrupt the overall progression and logical flow of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'real-time IT projects', 'foreign teaching methods', and 'international contacts'. However, there are a few noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'cuisins' instead of 'cuisines', 'aborad' instead of 'abroad', 'benifit me' instead of benefiting your studies, and 'form' instead of 'from'. Despite these lexical errors, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your message clearly without impeding communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writing includes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses ('university because It's focuses...') and participial phrases. However, there are several grammatical and mechanical errors present, including punctuation and agreement issues like 'It's focuses', spelling errors like 'accomodations', and awkward phrasing such as 'I was able to experience of foreign culture'. While the majority of sentences are understandable, these recurring errors in grammar and word forms show that control over complex structures is not yet fully consistent, placing this response firmly in the Band 6 range.

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