Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-22

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 Prachi,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing in respond to your letter about my experience of a year studying abroad as part of a university course.

As an increasing demand of Cybersecurity in Canada, I decided to choose Cybersecurity as a university course and spend a year studying it in one of the major cities in Canada is Toronto. Initially, I shortlisted universities offering one year course in my domain. After spending few days looking for the best university, I found a university for this course and that is York University.

This is the best country for everybody who wants to spend learning about themselves and I've learned a lot through out my stay there. This country taught me time management, money savings, importance of learning, truth about being independent and valuable life lessons. I found it very difficult at first but then I managed it and I know you will come out as a new personality.

I think being detached from a comfort zone will absolutely give you a lesson that you will never forget in your life.

Yours truly,

Om Pethani

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all the bullet points outlined in the prompt. You mentioned where you studied by stating 'one of the major cities in Canada is Toronto' and identifying 'York University'. You also described what you learned about the country, noting elements like 'time management' and 'independence', and explained how the year abroad was helpful for your studies by choosing a specific domain ('Cybersecurity'). While the organization of ideas in the second paragraph is slightly convoluted, the overall purpose of the letter is clear and completely addresses the communicative requirements of a General Training Task 1. The tone is appropriately informal and friendly throughout the letter to your friend's sister.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter opens with a standard and appropriate salutation ('Dear Prachi,') and closes correctly. Ideas are generally organized logically into introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. However, paragraphing could be managed more effectively, as the second paragraph attempts to cram several distinct thoughts—the subject choice, the location, and the search process—into a single block of text. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Initially' and 'After spending few days', but referencing and transitions occasionally feel mechanical or slightly awkward, such as in the phrasing 'spend a year studying it in one of the major cities in Canada is Toronto'. Overall, the message flows clearly enough for the reader to follow without confusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'Cybersecurity', 'shortlisted', and 'detached from a comfort zone'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors that prevent a higher band score. For example, you wrote 'writing in respond' instead of 'response', and 'spend a year studying it in one of the major cities in Canada is Toronto', which creates a grammatically awkward phrase. Additionally, phrases like 'money savings' would be more naturally expressed as 'saving money'. Despite these vocabulary inaccuracies, communication is never impeded, and your meaning remains clear throughout the letter.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use varied structures. There are, however, several grammatical errors present. For instance, 'writing in respond' contains a prepositional error, and 'spend a year studying it in one of the major cities in Canada is Toronto' results in a run-on or malformed clause. Furthermore, 'After spending few days' misses the article 'a', and 'through out' should be written as one word ('throughout'). While these errors persist, many simple sentences are error-free, and complex structures do not prevent your overall message from being understood by the reader.

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