Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-19

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Your friend has been offered a place on a course at the university where you studied. He/She would like your advice about finding a place to live.

Write an email to your friend. In your email

• describe where you lived when you were a student at the university
• recommend the best way for him/her to look for accommodation
• warn him/her of mistakes students make when choosing accommodation

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your email as follows:

Dear ..........,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Limy,

How are you? I’m extremely delighted to hear that you have been offered a course at the university where I completed my course a year back.

While perusing my studies, I lived two kilometres away from the university campus with one of cousin sister. We accommodated a shared room to reduce our rents. Moreover, this also diminished much of my travel time to university and also gave me ample of free time to make other social connections and playing some sports to rejuvenate my mood before the class begin.

You can approach various rental rooms visiting the place, from university campus, which are pretty affordable. There are umpteen adverts will be posted on notice board and also from the social networks like market place.

Finally, I would like to warn you about one general mistake which most of the students make online payment without visiting physically, and also highly advise to read the lease agreement before you sign.

All the very best for your career and let me know if have any further concerns.

Warm regards

Anjali

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task effectively. You described your past living situation, provided a recommendation for finding accommodation, and included a warning about common mistakes. The tone is appropriate for an email to a friend, and the purpose of the letter is clear throughout. To reach a higher band, you could expand slightly more on the 'why' behind your recommendations or provide more specific details about the university area to make the advice feel more personalized and fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The email follows a logical structure, with each paragraph focusing on one of the required points. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'Finally', and 'While perusing', which help the flow of ideas. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the paragraphing could be more distinct. The referencing is generally clear, though the connection between sentences in the second paragraph could be smoother to improve the overall progression of your argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using phrases like 'rejuvenate my mood' and 'perusing my studies'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'one of cousin sister' (should be 'one of my cousins') and 'umpteen adverts will be posted' (should be 'are posted'). The phrase 'accommodated a shared room' is also slightly unnatural in this context. Focusing on more precise collocations will help improve your score in this area.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is good. However, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'before the class begin' (should be 'begins'), 'most of the students make online payment' (missing an article 'a' or 'the'), and 'let me know if have any' (missing the subject 'you'). While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Proofreading for subject-verb agreement and article usage would be highly beneficial.

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

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