Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-02
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 Janu,
How are you doing? I graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with a master's degree in Biotechnology last year. My campus was situated at Cambridge, Ontario,Canada. I lived at a studio apartment, which was 15-minute walk away from college.
Well, without any doubt, Canada is the most beautiful country I have ever been to, as it has magnificent mountains and clear water lakes. Additionally, people are really friendly, they make you feel right at home. However, be mindful of certain individuals with racial profile and do not engage with them .
The time i spent away from home was essential for my overall growth, as not only it opened my eyes to vast career opportunities but also shaped me into a better person. Moreover, i realised the value of family, because when you are by yourself abroad and having nobody to come home to, it does change your perspective.
if you need anything else, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Regards,
Najmin
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 6.5 |
| Overall | 6.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, successfully covering where you studied, what you learned about the country, and why the experience was helpful for your studies. However, some aspects are more fully developed than others. For example, while the description of Canada being a beautiful country with friendly people is relevant, the explanation of how the year abroad specifically helped with university studies is slightly broad, focusing more on personal growth and career opportunities rather than direct academic benefits. To reach a higher level, the ideas need to be more fully extended and supported with specific academic examples from the university course.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5
The letter maintains a clear overall arrangement and logical progression, successfully moving from your graduation details to your observations of the country, personal reflections, and a polite closing. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct topics. However, cohesion at times feels a bit mechanical or simple, such as relying heavily on basic linkers like 'Additionally' and 'Moreover'. Referencing is mostly clear, though transitioning between ideas could be smoother to achieve a fully seamless flow. The tone is consistently informal and appropriate for a letter to a friend's sister.
Lexical Resource: Band 6.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying your message with a generally clear range. You attempt some less common vocabulary, such as 'magnificent mountains', 'overall growth', and 'perspective', which demonstrates a satisfactory lexical scope. However, there are occasional word choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as 'racial profile' instead of 'racial profiling', and minor phrasing issues like 'at a studio apartment' instead of 'in a studio apartment'. These lexical slips do not impede communication, but eliminating them and using a wider variety of precise phrasing would enhance the quality.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5
The letter demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, effectively utilizing relative clauses like 'which was 15-minute walk away from college' and conditional structures. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing articles ('a 15-minute walk'), lower-case capitalization at the start of sentences like 'if you need anything else', and punctuation issues with spacing around commas and lowercase pronouns ('i realised', 'not only it opened'). Nevertheless, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, allowing the meaning to remain clear throughout the response.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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