Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-30

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 Akshita,

I am writing to tell you about my overall experience of last year as an international student in Canada.

Last year I enrolled in foreign semester exchange program arranged by our university in Canada's first college called Centennial college. It is located in Toronto which is a heart of Ontario.

In Canada, various cultures are living together at same places and the government welcomes everyone warmly. I learnt and loved one particular thing about this Country is everyone saving nature and beauty of the nation by treating whole country as a home. Not under the pressure of officials its purely out of curtesy.

One year away from your home country for studies is the most valuable year I spent in my whole life. It gives me several lessons of life including multi-cultural experience, and it enhance your social interaction as well.

Please accept this offer for your better future.

Best regards,

Gourav Saini

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully covers all the bullet points outlined in the prompt, establishing a clear purpose right from the opening. You told Akshita where you studied by mentioning Centennial College in Toronto, Canada. You also described what you learned about the country, specifically noting how people live together and respect nature, and explained how the year helped your studies by highlighting the multicultural experience and enhanced social interaction. However, some of these ideas remain somewhat broad and under-developed, which prevents the response from reaching a higher band. To improve, you should expand further on your specific academic experiences and provide more detailed examples rather than general statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a generally coherent overall arrangement with a friendly and appropriate opening and sign-off. The progression of ideas makes sense as you move smoothly from introducing your experience to describing the location, cultural observations, and finally the benefits of the study abroad year. Paragraphing is used to separate different thoughts, though some paragraphs are quite brief. Cohesion within sentences is sometimes a bit mechanical, and referencing could be smoother, such as when shifting between ideas about the community and your personal reflections. For a higher score, you should ensure a more seamless flow between paragraphs using a wider variety of natural cohesive devices without relying on repetitive structures.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating your message with understandable phrasing. You attempt some less common vocabulary, such as 'multicultural experience', 'international student', and 'foreign semester exchange program'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, such as writing 'Toronto which is a heart of Ontario' instead of 'the heart', and misspelling 'courtesy' as 'curtesy'. Additionally, phrases like 'several lessons of life' sound slightly unnatural in this context. To enhance your lexical score, focus on using precise word choices, correct spelling, and natural collocations to elevate the style of your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, allowing you to convey your experiences relatively well. There are several error-free sentences, such as your opening line and the introduction of your college. However, grammatical inaccuracies persist, including missing articles ('in foreign semester exchange program', 'at same places'), incorrect prepositions ('saving nature and beauty... by treating whole country as a home'), and issues with pronoun-verb agreement ('it enhance your social interaction'). These errors do not heavily impede communication, but they occur frequently. To achieve a higher band, you need to demonstrate greater control over complex structures and eliminate basic grammatical slips.

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