Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-29

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 Samantha,

How are you, I hope you are doing great. I received your letter concerning your interest to study abroad for a year as part of your university course. I must commend you for having such thoughts, here are the details of my expericnce.

I studied in Brazil at the Federal University of Bahia and had the most wonderful time of my life, the university is among the oldest in the country, everyone was very hospitable, from the tutors, students to other administrative staff.

The offical language in Brazil is Portuguese, I took a three months language course which greatly helped with my daily communication and learning, Brazilians are higly religious and practised different forms of religion.

Studying abroad helped me with my final year thesis, as I researched on the effect of westernization on the various cultural practises in Brazil. Being able to speak Portuguese fluently is also an added advantage.

I would encourage you to consider the thought and make proper research about the country you will like to study in. You can always reach out to me for further clarification and questions.

Warm regards to my bestie Bolu, hope to see her soon

Best wishes,

Izere

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all bullet points outlined in the task instructions. You clearly stated where you studied by mentioning Brazil at the Federal University of Bahia, described what you learned regarding the official language and the religious practices of Brazilians, and explained how the experience was helpful for your final year thesis. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a friend's sister, maintaining a friendly and informative register throughout. Your ideas are relevant and well-developed, addressing every prompt fully. This performance meets the criteria for Band 7.0, as all parts of the task are appropriately addressed with clear supporting details.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter is logically organised with a clear beginning, middle, and end, following standard informal letter conventions. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas, such as your university details, cultural learnings, and academic benefits. However, there are some punctuation issues and comma splices, such as in the sentence 'I studied in Brazil at the Federal University of Bahia and had the most wonderful time of my life, the university is among the oldest in the country...' which creates slightly mechanical or faulty cohesion at times. Nevertheless, overall progression is clear, warranting a Band 6.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'hospitable', 'administrative staff', 'fluent', and 'westernization'. There are a few spelling and word choice inaccuracies, such as 'expericnce' instead of experience, 'offical' instead of official, 'higly' instead of highly, and 'practises' instead of practices. Additionally, the phrase 'proper research' could be improved to 'thorough research'. These errors do not impede communication, but they keep the lexical score at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms effectively, such as conditional and relative clauses ('as I researched on the effect...', 'Brazilians are highly religious and practised...'). There are some grammatical errors and punctuation flaws, notably comma splices in the opening and second paragraphs (e.g., 'How are you, I hope you are doing great' and '...time of my life, the university is...'). Preposition choice also shows minor inaccuracy in 'researched on' rather than simply 'researched'. Despite these errors, the sentences remain largely understandable, fitting the descriptor for Band 6.0 well.

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

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