Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18

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 Upkar,

I hope you are doing well! I am also doing great.

I received your letter in which you mentioned about studies abroad as part of your university curriculum. I'm glad you're taking this tough decision, and also you are grown up now. I chose America as my destination country to study as a second-year student.

I took studies in Business Management with a major in accounting, and in my course every student have to choose to study abroad to know how market in other foreign countries works. As we all know, the USA is one of the leading nations, and it has business contacts with every country in the world. So, I learned a lot during my stay and education, first

I consider myself lucky that I gained valuable experience, when I came India in 2025, it was easy for me to get my first job because I had a part-time job in accounting in USA, which act as a competitive edge among those candidates who have only domestic knowledge about the trade and business.

I hope this letter will give you some sott of assurance that your decission to study aboard for a year would be beneficial.

Your friend,

Anamika

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response covers all bullet points of the prompt well. You successfully mentioned where you studied ("America"), described what you learned about the country and its business market, and explained why your year abroad was helpful for your future career and job prospects. The letter adopts an appropriate informal and friendly tone suitable for writing to a friend's sister. However, there are some slight confusions in the address greeting and sign-off regarding who the letter is intended for, as you addressed it to "Upkar" but signed off as "Anamika" while the prompt asked you to write to your friend's sister. Overall, the ideas are clearly relevant and well-developed, earning a solid band score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is generally coherent and follows a logical overall structure from the greeting to the concluding remarks and sign-off. Paragraphing is used to separate different thoughts, such as your introduction, your course details, and your post-study career benefits. However, referencing and transitions are at times slightly mechanical or abrupt, such as the sudden shift after "first" in the third paragraph where the sentence is left incomplete. Cohesive devices are used adequately, but smoother transitions between paragraphs and ideas would elevate the flow of the letter.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a general task, using terms like "curriculum," "destination country," "competitive edge," and "domestic knowledge." However, there are several lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text. For instance, writing "mentioned about studies abroad" is incorrect as "mention" does not need "about" here. Additionally, phrases like "take this tough decision" and "sortt of assurance" contain spelling and collocation errors. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to communicate your message clearly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The letter features a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as "I chose America as my destination country to study as a second-year student" and "I consider myself lucky that I gained valuable experience." However, there are notable grammatical errors and awkward phrasing. For example, "every student have to choose" contains a subject-verb agreement error, and the third paragraph ends abruptly with a dangling clause after "first". There are also punctuation and spelling slips, such as "decission" and "aboard". These errors occasionally cause slight hesitation for the reader but do not impede overall comprehension.

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

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