Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-22

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 Zara,

I hope you are doing well.I received your letter yesterday but could not reply you earlier. I am happy to know that you got the admission in the same univerisity in which I studied.As far as you have asked about my accomodation in that university,I lived in a shared apartment.There is a private building named The Royal avenue which is in the 10th street.These apartments are well furnished as well as near to university.You better go and visit that building you will find many options of single,double or tri seater rooms there.Then its upto you whether you choose single or shared room according to your affordibilty and convenience. I suggest you to go for double seater room as it is economical.Further the most important thing to keep in mind is that do not go for shared homes option with fellow students as you will find it difficult to manage everything by yourself.It is a big mistake which many students do while looking for an accomodation.

Feel free to ask anything further if you need.

Best wishes

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the prompt. You successfully described where you lived as a student by mentioning the shared apartment in The Royal Avenue on the 10th street. You also recommended the best way to look for accommodation by advising your friend to visit the building and inspect the single, double, or triple-seater rooms personally. Furthermore, you warned against a common mistake, which is sharing a home with fellow students because of the difficulty in managing everything independently. The tone is appropriately informal and friendly throughout. All parts of the task are addressed clearly and relevantly, meeting the criteria for a solid performance.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The email has a clear logical progression, moving naturally from greeting and sharing personal news to describing your past living situation, giving recommendations, and finally offering warnings and a closing statement. Cohesive devices are used adequately, such as 'As far as you have asked', 'Then its upto you', and 'Further'. However, paragraphing is somewhat weak; the body of the email is presented as a single dense block of text rather than being divided into logical paragraphs for the different prompt requirements. Breaking the text into distinct paragraphs for living experiences, recommendations, and warnings would greatly enhance the overall organization and readability.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a general correspondence task, using terms such as 'well furnished', 'economical', 'affordibilty', and 'convenience'. There are some spelling errors, such as 'univerisity', 'accomodation' (repeatedly misspelled), and 'affordibilty'. Word choice is generally appropriate, though slightly repetitive. You attempt less common vocabulary items like 'economical' and 'independently' (implied), but the presence of persistent spelling mistakes and slightly basic phrasing prevents the response from achieving a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writing includes a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional and relative clauses ('whether you choose single or shared room according to your affordibilty and convenience'). There are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues, particularly missing spaces after commas and periods (e.g., 'well.I received', 'studied.As far', 'building you will'), as well as minor syntactic awkwardness like 'could not reply you earlier' instead of 'reply to you earlier' and 'got the admission' instead of 'got admission'. Despite these errors, the meaning is always clear and communication is never impeded.

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

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