Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-20

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 6.0)

Dear, sarah

I received your letter yesterday. I felt really glad that you are coming in the same province where I'm right now. I know you were trying for admission in Masters of Business program since six months and finally, you got opportunity to study there I am on cloud nine to receive this news.

When i was student in the university of canada west i use to reside in front of university building there are numerous apartments. However where i was live discounted by university management you just have to pay 50% for intial 3 months and there deposites are only required of 25%. for example, i was paying 1000 in sharing so me and my roommate, paid 50 dollar each as a deposite.

To look for apartments you can log into your university portal and can read advertisement there about housing and other canteen related discounts too. Be aware of scams some kinds of scams happeing right now here on marketplace by anonymous person they will show you pictures as well as videos of house and ask you for deposit and will block you and you are not here right now so, this will be hectic for you to get bad experience before coming here. I'll come to receive you at the airport can't wait to catch you. take care!

your lovingly,

Afroza

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task: describing your past accommodation, recommending a search method, and warning about potential scams. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a friend. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the explanation of the university-discounted housing is slightly confusing in its phrasing, and the warning about scams could be more clearly articulated to ensure the advice is practical and easy to follow. Overall, the response covers the requirements well, but could benefit from more precise details to fully develop the ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The email is organised into logical paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the progression of your ideas. You use some cohesive devices, such as 'However' and 'for example', to link sentences. However, the flow is occasionally interrupted by awkward phrasing and punctuation errors, such as the missing comma after 'Dear' and the run-on sentence structure in the final paragraph. The use of referencing is generally clear, but the transition between the description of your past housing and the advice on how to search could be smoother to improve the overall cohesion of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using phrases like 'on cloud nine' and 'hectic'. However, there are several instances of inaccurate word choice and collocation, such as 'trying for admission in Masters of Business' (should be 'applying for a Master's in Business') and 'deposites are only required of 25%' (should be 'a 25% deposit is required'). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your message, they indicate a need for more precise control over vocabulary and common collocations in English.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'I use to reside' (should be 'I used to reside'), 'where i was live' (should be 'where I lived'), and 'some kinds of scams happeing' (should be 'happening'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of commas and capitalisation. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors suggests that you need to focus on subject-verb agreement, verb tense consistency, and basic sentence punctuation to improve your accuracy.

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

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