Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-03

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 Sara,

How are you? Hope you are doing well. I am really happy to know that you are thinking about spending a year studying abroad. Since I did the same recently, I would like to share my experience with you.

I spent my year abroad at the University of Toronto in Canada. I lived in a room in a shared house with other two families who was stay there for 5 years. It was really glad to stay with them since they have numerous aspects of experiences.

During my stay, I got lot of experience regarding different cultures, foods, people since various kind of people are there in canada. Moreover, I learnt how to sacrifice things since we were struggling with money as international students.

It was really helpful me to develop my research skills, communication skills because of I met various kind of students with huge knowledge. Last but not the least, I improved my english language communication since I often used english language.

I highly reccomment you to spending a year studying abroad, because you can improve your future in different factors.

Thank you so much and have a safe and wonderfull jorney.

Kind regards,

Umaya.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all parts of the prompt. You tell Sara where you studied by mentioning the University of Toronto in Canada, describe what you learned about the country such as experiencing different cultures and foods, and explain how the year helped your studies through developing research and communication skills. However, some of these ideas lean towards the requirements of a higher band while remaining somewhat under-developed overall. For instance, your explanation of how the year was helpful for your studies touches on communication skills and English language improvement, but these points are expressed briefly without fully extending the argument or providing deeper specific context. To reach a higher level, you would need to expand on each bullet point with more elaborate and thoroughly supported examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your letter presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear, friendly beginning and sign-off, effectively organizing information into distinct paragraphs for each part of the prompt. You make use of basic cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'During my stay', and 'Last but not the least' to guide the reader through your experiences. At the same time, your cohesion sometimes feels slightly mechanical, and referencing is not always clear, such as in the sentence 'with other two families who was stay there for 5 years', where the connection between ideas is a bit clunky. To achieve a higher standard, you should employ a wider variety of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure that your paragraph transitions flow more smoothly without relying on repetitive connectors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully communicating everyday experiences related to university life and studying abroad. You attempt some less common vocabulary items, such as 'sacrifices' implied through your discussion of struggling with money, but these attempts are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and spelling. For instance, phrases like 'numerous aspects of experiences', 'got lot of experience', and 'various kind of people' show limited lexical precision. Additionally, there are vocabulary and spelling errors such as 'reccomment' instead of recommend, 'wonderfull' with an extra letter, and 'jorney' instead of journey. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they restrict your lexical score and highlight the need for greater precision and accuracy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating that you can construct multi-clause sentences like 'Since I did the same recently, I would like to share my experience with you.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, particularly concerning subject-verb agreement, verb forms, and prepositions inside grammatical patterns. Examples of these errors include 'other two families who was stay', 'It was really glad', 'It was really helpful me', and 'spending a year studying abroad' following 'recommend you to'. These errors occur regularly and can occasionally cause some difficulty or hesitation for the reader. To improve, you need to exercise greater control over basic grammatical structures, verb tenses, and infinitive patterns.

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

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