Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-16
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 Tomi's sister,
i am glad to hear about your decision in studying abroad. that is an excellent decision and iwant to assure you that you willnot regret yor action.
I am also an hold student of Toronto university Canada, I lived and study in toronto for more than two years and i can boldly tell you that I enjoyed my stay throughout the course of my study. It was really a great experience for me, ranging from conducive enviroment of the school, to the friendly and accommodating student. In addition, the lecturer are well experienced and intelligent.
However, studying in Canada as thought me alot. the weather was extremely cold compare to our country, they have a wide range of tourist attractions. And their cultural diversity was great.
This university really helped me to achieve a good experience. you can apply for work in diiferent country and you will be employed. It also helped me to get more scores for my permanent resident application.
I wish you success as you proceed in your academic journey. I hope you enjoy your stay. best wishes.
Yours faithfully,
Sofiat.
Advice for Next Attempt
Your letter successfully addresses all parts of the prompt and provides good details about your study abroad experience, including the weather, cultural diversity, and benefits for your future. To improve your score in future writing tasks, you should pay closer attention to basic grammar rules and mechanics, such as capitalizing the pronoun 'I' and checking your spelling before submitting. Make sure to review your verbs and prepositions, such as using 'compared to' instead of 'compare to'. Additionally, try to use a wider variety of cohesive devices and ensure your paragraphs flow smoothly from one point to the next. Practising proofreading will help you eliminate simple careless errors.
How Others Answered This Task
9.0
Dear Riya, It is so great to hear that you are considering a year abroad for your university course! I still cherish my time studying in Lyon, France, last year, and I am more than happy to share my experience with you. Living there taught me so much about French culture and daily life. Beyond imp …
8.5
Dear Sarah, I hope you’re doing well! Your brother mentioned that you are thinking about spending a year studying abroad, so I am writing to share my experience and give you some advice. As you might know, I recently completed my exchange program at the University of Barcelona in Spain. I stayed i …
8.0
Dear Riya, I hope you are celebrating for new adventure. It was so great to hear from your brother that you are thinking about doing a year abroad for your university course. Honestly, it is one of the best decisions you could possibly make, and I am so excited to let you know that I just finishe …
8.0
Dear Kavya, I am so excited to hear that you are thinking of spending your year off in Canada as part of your university studies. I still cherish the time I spent in Canada and would love to share that experience with you. When I was in Canada, I studied at Conestoga College. That experience was …
8.0
ear Sarah, I hope you are doing well. I was really pleased to hear that you are considering spending a year abroad as part of your university course. Since I recently had a similar experience, I would be happy to tell you about it. I spent my year abroad studying at the University of Melbourne in …
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AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5
The response covers all three bullet points from the prompt effectively. You mentioned where you studied ("Toronto university Canada"), described what you learnt about the country ("the weather was extremely cold", "wide range of tourist attractions", and cultural diversity), and explained how the year abroad helped your studies ("helped me to achieve a good experience" and assisted with future plans). The tone is appropriate for a letter to a friend's sister, fulfilling the general training letter requirements well. Ideas are relevant and developed adequately, placing the response securely in the Band 6 to 7 range. To reach higher bands, the descriptions could be expanded with more specific, extended details about daily life and academic benefits.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The letter is organized into logical paragraphs, each addressing a different aspect of the experience, which provides a coherent overall arrangement. However, referencing and basic cohesion are sometimes faulty due to punctuation and capitalization errors (e.g., lower-case 'i' and missing punctuation between sentences). Cohesive devices are minimal, relying mostly on basic connectors like 'In addition' and 'However'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the letter, but smoother transitions between ideas would improve the flow and elevate the score. Overall, the organization is clear enough to be easily understood, matching Band 6 descriptors.
Lexical Resource — Band 6.0
The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, with attempts at less common lexical items such as 'conducive environment', 'accommodating', and 'cultural diversity'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('iwant', 'yor', 'hold' instead of old, 'diiferent') and minor word-choice inaccuracies, such as referring to professors as 'the lecturer' and writing 'has thought me alot' instead of 'has taught me a lot'. These lexical errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict the score to Band 5.5 or 6.0. Using a more accurate and varied range of vocabulary would help improve this criterion in future tasks.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but it is heavily impacted by basic grammatical and mechanical errors. There are persistent capitalization issues (such as failing to capitalize the pronoun 'I' and the start of sentences) and punctuation mistakes. Furthermore, there are errors with verb forms and prepositions, such as 'compare to' instead of 'compared to' and 'decision in studying' instead of 'decision to study'. While the meaning remains clear throughout, the frequency of basic errors prevents the response from achieving a higher grammar band, aligning closely with Band 5.5 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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