Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Mrs Barrett, an English-speaking woman who lives in your town, has advertised for someone to help her in her home for a few hours a day next summer.

Write a letter to Mrs Barrett. In your letter

• suggest how you could help her in her home
• say why you would like to do this work
• explain when you will and will not be available

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Mrs Barrett,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Mrs Barrett,

I am writing this letter in the response of an advertisement about requirement of someone for help in the next Summer.

I am a master's student living in this town and would be free from school during summer vacations. I would love to help you at your home as I have worked in the hotel as a housekeeping staff. I can assist with cleaning and cooking.

On my summer break it would be a great opportunity for me to work as well as stay with my family. In additon, your family is the only english speaking family in our town and my english speaking skills could make our conversations easy and smooth.

Eventhough I will have three months summer break, I would only be availabe from June 3 to August 13, as afterwards I have planned a trip with my friends to Bali.

Please let me know whether this arrangement suits you.

I look forward to hear from you soon and see you soon.

Your faithfully,

Simrat

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You address all three points clearly: you offer cleaning and cooking, explain your housekeeping experience and interest in working while staying with family, and give a specific availability period with a reason for its end. The letter also maintains an appropriate, polite purpose throughout. Your reasons are relevant, especially the opportunity to practise English with the family, though this point could be explained more fully and the offer of help could include a little more detail about particular household duties. The availability is clear, but it would be useful to state explicitly whether you are unavailable at any other times during the summer. Overall, the task is covered effectively, with some ideas more developed than others.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter has a clear progression from responding to the advertisement, to describing your experience and motivation, and then to setting out your availability. Paragraphing helps separate these functions, and linking expressions such as “In addition” and “as afterwards” make relationships between ideas clear. The closing request for confirmation is also a logical next step. Some connections could be smoother: the sentence about staying with your family is not clearly linked to why you want the work, and the final sentence repeats the idea of seeing Mrs Barrett soon. A more focused paragraph structure and less repetition in the closing would make the progression even more polished.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the situation, including “housekeeping staff,” “assist with cleaning and cooking,” “summer break,” and “arrangement suits you.” These choices communicate your experience and intentions clearly. There are, however, several inaccurate or awkward expressions, such as “in the response of an advertisement,” “requirement of someone,” and “stay with my family,” which do not sound natural in this context. Spelling errors in “additon,” “english,” “Eventhough,” and “availabe” also reduce accuracy. Aim to learn common letter-writing collocations and check spelling, while keeping the tone consistently polite and natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, and several sentences are clear and controlled, such as “I can assist with cleaning and cooking” and the sentence explaining your dates and planned trip. The conditional clause beginning “Even though” also shows an attempt to vary structure. Some grammatical errors remain, including “I look forward to hear” instead of “I look forward to hearing,” and “Your faithfully” instead of “Yours faithfully.” The opening sentence also has an awkward grammatical construction, while “as afterwards I have planned” would be clearer as “as I have planned a trip afterwards.” These errors rarely prevent understanding, but proofreading verb patterns and sentence construction would improve accuracy.

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

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