Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-05

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A magazine wants to include contributions from its readers for an article called 'The book that influenced me most'.

Write a letter to the editor of the magazine about the book that influenced you most. In your letter

- describe what this book was about
- explain how this book influenced you
- say whether this book would be likely to influence other people

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to express my gratitude after reading the book called The Trading Zone.

This book is about trading journey of a profitable trader. It mainly focused on a psychological relation of humans in their daily life with the trading style. In other words, it teaches consumers that the skill of trading is lying in a human mind not the charts and that narrative was created by many experienced traders.

The most impactful part for me was examples in the form of stories which explains the idea behind a logic of particular topics. As a result, I was able to relate myself with the trading style very easily. In the subsequent stage, I was able to change the losing pattern of buy and sell.

Since this book consist of each and every details of the journey of novice trader to veteran one, users can feel their own style of thinking and allows them to be profitable in the future. Therefore, almost all of the consumers will have impact after reading thoroughly.

Kind regards,

Dhruvish Panchal

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the task. You described the book's focus on trading psychology, explained how it helped you change your trading patterns, and provided an opinion on its potential to influence others. The ideas are relevant and clearly presented. To reach a higher band, ensure that your explanations are slightly more detailed; for instance, you could have elaborated more on the specific 'losing pattern' you overcame to provide a more compelling personal narrative. Overall, the response is well-focused and meets the requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. Each paragraph has a central theme, which helps the reader follow your argument. You use some cohesive devices such as 'In other words', 'As a result', and 'Therefore' to link your ideas. However, the flow between some sentences is slightly mechanical. To improve, try to vary your transition words and ensure that referencing (e.g., 'that narrative') is always crystal clear to the reader. The paragraphing is appropriate for a formal letter format.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for this task, using terms like 'psychological relation', 'novice', and 'veteran'. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'trading journey of a profitable trader' (missing an article) and 'relate myself with' (should be 'relate to'). While these errors do not impede communication, they prevent the vocabulary from being considered 'flexible' or 'precise'. To improve, focus on learning common collocations and ensuring articles are used correctly with nouns.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical slips throughout the text. For example, 'this book consist of each and every details' contains subject-verb agreement and pluralization errors ('consists' and 'detail'). Additionally, 'the skill of trading is lying in a human mind' is slightly unnatural; 'lies in the human mind' would be more accurate. You have a good grasp of basic structures, but more attention to subject-verb agreement and article usage would significantly improve your accuracy.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.