Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-17

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 6.0)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to tell you about the book that has influenced me the most. The book is flying sikh, by Milkha singh.

This book is autobiography of Milkha Singh, who was the one of the most famous athletes in india. the book tells us about his difficult childhood, his journey as a runner and challenges he faces in his life. He worked vary hard and become a successful athlete.

This book influences me because it taught me the importance of hard work and never give up-. Milkha singh faced many difficulties, but he continued working his dream. His story gives me motivation when I face problems in my own life.

I think this book can influence other people, especially young people. It can teach them to stay focused, work hard and believe in themselves and follow their dreams.

Thank you for reading my letter.

Your faithfully,

Nitin..

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You successfully covered all parts of the task prompt. You identified the book as The Race of My Life (or the film/book adaptation about Milkha Singh), described what it was about by mentioning his difficult childhood and athletic journey, explained how it influenced you by teaching you about hard work and perseverance, and discussed whether it would influence others, specifically young people. The ideas are relevant and appropriate for a general correspondence task. However, the development of some points remains a little basic and brief, stopping the response from reaching a higher band. For instance, the explanation of how it motivates you when facing problems could be extended with a brief personal example. Nevertheless, all bullet points are clearly addressed, placing your work comfortably within Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter has a clear overall progression and follows a logical structure. You separated your ideas into distinct paragraphs corresponding to the introduction, the book's content, your personal influence, the effect on others, and the sign-off. Cohesive devices are used adequately, though some transitions feel a bit mechanical or repetitive, such as starting consecutive sentences with 'This book'. Furthermore, paragraphing could be slightly better managed in terms of visual spacing, but the logical flow is generally easy to follow. Referencing is mostly clear, though occasional minor slip-ups occur. Overall, the organisation is coherent enough to meet the requirements of a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrated an adequate vocabulary for the task, using words like 'autobiography', 'challenges', 'motivation', and 'focused'. However, there are notable spelling and capitalization errors throughout your text, such as 'flying sikh' (instead of Capitalized proper nouns and titles), 'Milkha singh' (lowercase 's'), 'india', and 'vary' (instead of 'very'). You also made a collocation error by writing 'never give up-' instead of the gerund form 'never giving up'. While you attempted some less common vocabulary, these inaccuracies in word choice, spelling, and mechanics limit your score. The vocabulary is minimally sufficient to convey your meaning, earning you a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You used a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses ('who was the one of the most famous athletes') and conditional-like or infinitive structures ('teach them to stay focused, work hard and believe in themselves'). However, your writing contains several grammatical errors and punctuation issues. For example, you wrote 'who was the one of the most famous athletes' (unnecessary article 'the'), 'challenges he faces' (tense inconsistency, as the rest of the narrative is in the past), and 'become a successful athlete' (missing past tense marker 'became'). You also made a sign-off error with 'Your faithfully' instead of 'Yours faithfully'. These errors occasionally distract the reader, though they rarely impede overall communication, placing your grammar at a Band 5.5.

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