Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · 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 7.0)

Dear Amanda,

How are you doing? I hope all is well? I want to congratulate you on your course placement at my previous university. I am writing this letter to give you advice about finding an accommodation.

The university has two main accommodations; these are the Westwood hostel and the Eastwood hostel. I lived at the Eastwood hostel during my time at the university. The Eastwood hostel is a lot better than the second hostel, as it is much cleaner and bigger. The hostel wardens ensure the hostel is well organized and safe. They go as far as punishing the law offenders in the hostel and rewarding the exceptional student.

Getting the Eastwood hostel is not often easy, as it requires students to be part of an extracurricular activity. I will recommend you join the red cross organization or the lion's club. These organizations help their members to apply for the preferred hostel.

It is very important to choose your accommodation wisely, as you cannot change your hostel. Ensure you join those organizations on time. Students need to be constantly reminding their organization leaders of the hostel application. Most students forget to do this and suffer the consequences.

I hope you get your preferred accommodation. Take care of yourself and see you soon!

Yours sincerely,

Abigail

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.5

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You described your experience at the Eastwood hostel, provided specific recommendations regarding extracurricular activities to secure housing, and offered a clear warning about the importance of timely applications. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a friend, and the ideas are well-developed and relevant. To reach a higher band, you could provide more descriptive detail about the living experience itself or offer more nuanced advice on the 'mistakes' students make, perhaps by mentioning specific pitfalls like ignoring deadlines or failing to research the location of the hostels relative to the campus.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The email is logically organized, with each paragraph focusing on a specific requirement of the prompt. You use clear paragraph breaks to separate your ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'The university has two main accommodations', 'as it requires', and 'It is very important' help guide the reader through the text. However, the flow could be improved by using a wider variety of linking words and phrases to connect sentences more fluidly. Some transitions feel slightly mechanical, but the overall progression of ideas is clear and easy to follow throughout the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for this task, using terms like 'extracurricular activity', 'exceptional student', and 'consequences' effectively. While the vocabulary is generally accurate and fits the context well, it remains somewhat basic. To improve, try to incorporate more precise or idiomatic expressions that would sound more natural in an informal email to a friend. For example, instead of 'punishing the law offenders', you might use 'penalizing those who break the rules'. Your spelling is accurate, and the word choice is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly without ambiguity.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The Eastwood hostel is a lot better than the second hostel, as it is much cleaner and bigger.' Your control over basic grammar is good, and your sentences are generally error-free. However, there are minor issues with article usage and phrasing, such as 'finding an accommodation' (accommodation is uncountable) and 'punishing the law offenders' (which sounds slightly unnatural). Increasing the variety of complex grammatical structures, such as using more conditional sentences or passive voice constructions, would help demonstrate a wider range and improve your score.

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

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