Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-17
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 Anu,
I hope you are doing well. I would like to recommend few places where you can stay as I also took same course in the same university.
Fisrt half year of the course I lived within University campus, they also provide food. After that I lived with my classmate in a sharing room which was close to the University and grocery stores.
There are several options that you can select as per your need. If you like to stay in University campus then you can ask administration staff as well as they have their own website where you can find all information in detail with living costs. Also, If you like to stay outside the campus then you can find rental website on google.
Living in the private rooms sometime it is expensive however you can negotiate the price of your rent. Additionally, if you are selectiong from website you should visit the place before finallizing it as they might upload wrong information about place.
I'll see you soon and all the best for your bright future.
Yours lovingly,
Jinal.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 7.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 7.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 6.0 |
| Overall | 6.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0
The response successfully covers all three bullet points required by the task prompt. You described your living situation as a student by mentioning that you lived on campus for the first half year and later shared a room with a classmate close to the university and grocery stores. You also recommended the best ways to look for accommodation, such as asking administration staff, checking the university website, or using rental websites on Google. Furthermore, you effectively warned your friend about common mistakes, including high prices for private rooms and the risk of misleading online listings, advising them to visit the place before finalizing it. Your tone is appropriately friendly and conversational for a General Training email. Overall, the task is fully addressed with relevant and well-developed ideas.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0
The email has a clear logical organization and progression throughout. You used appropriate paragraphing to separate your introduction, your personal experience, your recommendations, your warnings, and your sign-off. Cohesive devices such as 'After that', 'Additionally', and 'If you like' are used reasonably well to connect your ideas. While paragraph transitions and referencing are generally clear, there are slight mechanical slips, such as the missing article in 'Fisrt half year of the course' and 'sharing room'. Nonetheless, the overall arrangement is coherent, making the email very easy to follow from beginning to end.
Lexical Resource — Band 6.0
You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating your ideas about accommodation. You attempted some less common phrases and topic-specific vocabulary such as 'administration staff', 'rental website', and 'negotiate the price'. However, there are a few lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'sharing room' instead of 'shared room', 'selectiong' instead of 'selecting', and 'finallizing' instead of 'finalizing'. Despite these spelling and word-choice errors, your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly without impeding communication, fitting the criteria for Band 6.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0
You utilized a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating conditional structures like 'If you like to stay in University campus then you can ask...' and relative clauses. There are several grammatical errors and punctuation slips present throughout the text, such as missing articles ('within University campus', 'on google', 'about place'), spelling mistakes ('Fisrt', 'selectiong', 'finallizing'), and a run-on sentence structure in 'Living in the private rooms sometime it is expensive however you can negotiate...'. Although these errors are noticeable, they do not impede communication, and you maintain a good overall command of basic sentence patterns.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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