Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-13

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 Sarah,

I hope this letter finds you well.

I am delighted to hear from you that you are considering to take the course in London University. I studied Parasitology from the Microbiology Department of London University and the duration of my course was fifteen months.

The faculty there was very supportive throughout the course moreover the local students helped me a lot to complete my thesis. In addition, the department arranges extra curricular activities too like singing competition and racing so if you are interested you can participate too. I rented a room near the subway so that I could attend the class on time and explore the city whenever I had time. Furthermore, you can also your hands on local and desi cuisine, and purchase the groceries as the supermarket is on walking distance.

Studied abroad helped me in so many ways. For instance, I was able to complete my thesis on time as the experiments I needed to perform for my thesis; I could performed well because all the equipment and chemical required were available which was not possible in any Pakistan University. Moreover, my project in-charge was always there to help me. I hope now you are clear to take your decision. Lots of love and warm wishes for you.

Best regards,

Zara Shaikh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all bullet points required by the prompt. You mentioned where you studied ("London University") and specified the duration ("fifteen months"). You also described aspects of the country and university life, such as the supportive faculty, extracurricular activities, and local cuisine. Finally, you explained how the year abroad helped your studies by highlighting the availability of equipment and chemicals for your thesis that were not available in Pakistan. Your tone is friendly and appropriate for a letter to a friend's sister, and the purpose of the letter is fully achieved. Ideas are relevant and developed well, earning a solid band score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter features clear logical organisation and progression. You use appropriate paragraphing to separate the greeting, body points, and closing remarks. Cohesive devices such as "moreover", "In addition", "Furthermore", and "For instance" are used to link your ideas, although there is a slight tendency to string sentences together with conjunctions rather than varying punctuation. Referencing is generally clear, and the overall progression from introducing your experience to discussing its academic benefits flows smoothly and guides the reader naturally through the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary for the task with some attempts at less common items, such as "extracurricular activities", "subway", and "cuisine". However, there are a few lexical inaccuracies and awkward word choices. For instance, writing "considering to take the course" should be "considering taking the course", and "you can also your hands on" is missing a verb (e.g., "get your hands on"). Additionally, "supermarket is on walking distance" should be "within walking distance". These errors do not impede communication, but they prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses and conditional-style phrasing ("so if you are interested you can participate too"). There are several grammatical errors and punctuation slips throughout the text. For example, the sentence "Studied abroad helped me" contains a form error, and the sentence "the experiments I needed to perform for my thesis; I could performed well because..." features incorrect punctuation and verb forms ("could perform"). While these errors are noticeable and require the reader to occasionally pause, they do not completely impede overall communication.

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

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