Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-04

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 John,

I hope you are doing good. I'm writing to give you an advice about finding an accommodation nearby university where you enrolled for Mobile Solution Development course.

Regarding my past rental places, I was living at 434 Chesterfield St, which is located around 2km from the university. It was twelve storey apartment building and i was living at 11th floor where i could see city lights from balcony. To addition, I was sharing this place with three more friends that helped me reduce my living cost.

When I was living in that city, real estate agents were best option to finding a place to live. But nowadays there are several websites available such as Kijiji.com, rental.ca and so on, where you can find rental places. Apart from this, visiting specific residential building office is another ways to find an accommodation.

Although there were some mistakes which i made while making decision about choosing places to live, I would like to give some advice to avoid those mistakes. First of all, make sure to have legal agreement of a rental building. Otherwise, owners have authority to leave you from an apartment without any notice. Furthermore, don't forget to take pictures of all part of house before start living there as these can be helpful to get your upfront deposit back once you finish living there.

I hope this information will help you. If you need anything from my side, don't hesitate to contact me.

Best Wishes,

Tez

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all three bullet points of the prompt. You clearly described your past living situation, provided practical recommendations for finding accommodation, and offered relevant warnings about potential pitfalls. The tone is appropriate for an email to a friend, and the ideas are well-developed and relevant. The response is fully focused on the task requirements, and the information provided is helpful and logically presented. To reach a higher band, ensure that all minor grammatical slips do not distract from the clarity of your advice, though your ideas are well-supported throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The email is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. Each paragraph focuses on a specific requirement of the prompt, which makes the structure easy to follow. You use a variety of cohesive devices such as 'Regarding', 'Apart from this', 'Although', and 'Furthermore' to link your sentences and paragraphs effectively. The paragraphing is appropriate for an informal email. While the flow is generally smooth, some minor improvements in the use of articles and prepositions would make the transitions even more natural and sophisticated.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'residential building', 'upfront deposit', and 'legal agreement' appropriately. There are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'give you an advice' (advice is uncountable) and 'leave you from an apartment' (evict you). However, these errors do not impede communication. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations and ensuring correct usage of uncountable nouns. Your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your message clearly and effectively in an informal context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as the use of 'Although' clauses and relative clauses. There are several recurring grammatical errors, particularly with articles (e.g., 'on 11th floor', 'at 434 Chesterfield St') and pluralization/uncountable nouns (e.g., 'an advice', 'another ways'). While these errors are noticeable, they do not prevent the reader from understanding your meaning. To achieve a higher band, focus on consistent article usage and subject-verb agreement. Increasing the variety of complex structures while maintaining accuracy would also strengthen your performance.

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

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