Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-27

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 Shahin,

Hope you are doing well. How's everyone at home? I recently got your letter and learnt that you are planning to study abroad for a year and want to know about my experience when I went to study to another country. I studied in Canada for my higher education in business. The university I chose was the University of Toronto, and it is one of the top universities in the world. The experience of studying in a foreign place is very challenging at first, but with time, things started to get better. The best thing I feel about Canada is the diverse environment. I have made really good friends while studying there, and some of them have experience in the same field I wanted to pursue for my career, and I learnt a lot of new things from them. When I came back and started working, I used the experience I gained from my friends, and it helped me to get my promotion in just one year. I hope this will help you to make your decision.

Best wishes,

Radhika

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The letter effectively covers all three bullet points outlined in the prompt. You successfully mention that you studied in Canada at the University of Toronto for business. You describe what you learned about the country, highlighting the 'diverse environment' and how you made good friends. Additionally, you explain why the year abroad was helpful for your studies and subsequent career, noting that the experience gained from your peers helped you secure a promotion within a year. The tone is appropriately informal and friendly throughout, and the purpose of the letter is clearly achieved. All parts of the task are well-developed and addressed logically, meeting the expectations for a Band 7.0 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a clear logical flow from the opening greeting and pleasantries to the recounting of your experience and final well wishes. Paragraphing, however, is an area for improvement. The entire body of the letter is presented in a single, block paragraph. While the ideas progress logically and cohesive devices such as 'and', 'but', and 'when' are used reasonably well to connect clauses, breaking the text into distinct paragraphs for introduction, studying experience, and career impact would significantly enhance readability and structure. Cohesion is functional, but lacks the flexibility seen in higher bands.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms such as 'higher education', 'challenging', 'diverse environment', and 'pursue'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, though a few collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'when I went to study to another country' instead of 'abroad' or 'in another country', and 'the best thing I feel about Canada' rather than 'what I like most about Canada'. Nevertheless, the vocabulary is clear and communication is never impeded. Spelling and word formation are accurate throughout the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response features a satisfactory mix of simple and complex sentence structures. You successfully incorporate relative and subordinate clauses, such as 'The university I chose was the University of Toronto, and it is one of the top universities in the world.' There are some minor grammatical inaccuracies, for example, 'studied in Canada for my higher education in business' is a bit wordy, and 'some of them have experience in the same field I wanted to pursue for my career, and I learnt' creates a slightly run-on sentence structure. However, grammar and punctuation control is generally good, and errors do not impede overall understanding.

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