Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-29

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 Zalak,

I hope you are doing great! It’s been a long time to see you. But received a letter from you feels great. In the letter you mentioned that you received an offer letter from SK university where I studied and now you are looking for accommodation.

When I was studying I was living as a PG for a one year than I found my friend who was living in a university hostel and he told me benefits of living in hostel, so I shifted my self with them. However, nowadays there are so many apps which can show as rentals home as well as as a pain guest you can live, so, it’s easy to choose from that because as per review you can find better living place.

In addition to that few things you should careful with such as a when you go to see the home, the main thing is neighborhood because the noise comes from that give you continuous disturbance which can affect your studies. Moreover, with my opinion university hostel is the best option because we can study with the group. Furthermore, sometimes you feel lazy, not studying at all, at that time looking everyone studying keeps you encourage to study.

I hope you will find best accommodation according your type as you are very picky.

Best wishes

Ritika

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 providing a warning. The tone is appropriate for an email to a friend. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the warning about 'neighborhood' noise is a good point, but it could be more clearly linked to the process of choosing accommodation. To reach a higher band, ensure that your advice is more specific and fully extended, providing a clearer narrative flow between your personal experience and the recommendations you are offering to your friend.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The email is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas. You use some cohesive devices such as 'In addition to that', 'Moreover', and 'Furthermore'. However, some of these transitions feel slightly mechanical or are used with minor grammatical errors, such as 'with my opinion' instead of 'in my opinion'. The referencing is generally clear, though the sentence structure in the first paragraph is a bit fragmented, which slightly disrupts the flow. Improving the variety and naturalness of your linking words will help achieve a higher score.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'accommodation', 'rentals', and 'neighborhood'. However, there are several instances of awkward phrasing or incorrect word choices, such as 'living as a PG' (paying guest), 'shifted my self with them', and 'show as rentals home'. These errors do not impede communication, but they highlight a need for more precise collocation and idiomatic usage. Expanding your vocabulary to include more natural expressions for describing housing and advice would be beneficial.

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 frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the university', 'a one year'), prepositions ('with my opinion'), and verb tenses ('It’s been a long time to see you'). Some sentences are slightly disjointed, such as 'But received a letter from you feels great.' To improve, focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles. While these errors do not prevent understanding, they occur often enough to limit the score in this criterion.

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

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