Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-15

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 Maria,

I hope you are doing great. I was glad to hear that you are planning to go to Australia to study. It would definitely benefit you in further study or career prospects.

During my trip to Australia, I took a 1-year program in MacEwan University, which is one of the best government-funded universities. The fee was reasonable and a lot more facilities were provided by them such as an accommodation and job placement. So, I felt more relaxed and got more time to explore around the country.

After visiting and interacting with people there I learned about culture and history. It helped me develop essential skills such as impressive communication, observation and it boosted my confidence. Moreover, I gained valuable international work experience, which might help me to get more career opportunities.

My program was closely aligned with my current study in India, software engineering. Therefore, it was highly useful in my current projects and assignments. In addition to this, my continue study prevented from interuption, and I did not feel distracted.

I would suggest you to make your trip worthwhile by using your time in learning things, and experiencing a work and study culture. I wish you enjoy your tour.

Best regards,

Rahul

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

You successfully covered all parts of the bullet points required by the task prompt. You addressed where you studied, mentioning a 1-year program, although there is a slight geographical confusion in your writing since MacEwan University is actually located in Canada rather than Australia. Despite this factual slip, you clearly described what you learned about the country, noting cultural understanding and observational skills, and explained how the year abroad helped your studies by aligning with your software engineering projects and preventing interruptions. Your ideas are relevant and well-directed to the reader, maintaining an appropriate semi-formal letter tone from start to finish. Therefore, you meet the criteria for a Band 6.5, as all parts are addressed with relevant information, though some details could have been further extended.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

Your letter has a clear overall progression and logical arrangement, starting with an appropriate greeting, moving through your personal experiences, academic benefits, and concluding with encouraging remarks and a standard sign-off. You made use of cohesive devices and transitional markers such as 'During my trip', 'Moreover', and 'In addition to this' to link your ideas together. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, with each paragraph focusing on a distinct aspect of your experience abroad. However, referencing is occasionally a bit mechanical, and some transitions feel slightly abrupt. Overall, your organizational structure provides a coherent flow that is easy for the reader to follow, placing your performance comfortably within the Band 7.0 descriptor.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrated an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a general task, employing terms such as 'government-funded', 'job placement', 'international work experience', and 'career opportunities'. You made some attempts at less common lexical items with varying degrees of success. There are a few lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations, such as 'MacEwan University, which is one of the best government-funded universities', and the grammatical error in 'my continue study prevented from interuption', which features a spelling mistake ('interuption') and a form error ('continue study'). Nevertheless, your vocabulary choice is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly without impeding communication, matching the criteria for a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You used a mix of simple and complex sentence forms throughout your response, including relative clauses ('which is one of the best government-funded universities') and conditional or temporal framing ('After visiting and interacting with people there I learned...'). While you demonstrated good control over basic structures, there are several noticeable grammatical errors and awkward phrasings. For instance, you wrote 'explore around the country' instead of 'explore the country', and 'my continue study prevented from interuption', which contains grammatical and spelling inaccuracies. Punctuation is generally acceptable, though commas are missing in a few necessary places. Because your errors occasionally distract the reader but rarely impede overall communication, this corresponds to a Band 6.0.

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