Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-28

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 Smith,

It has been a long time that we have met, hasn't it? Honestly, I am so happy to know, that you are going to study Fashion designing at the University of Alberta. I must say, your campus life is going to be amazing, because I have already experienced the same at the university.

One of the main problems faced in Edmonton is to find accommodation. During my course duration, I lived in campus hostel; however, I have heard that it is very expensive these days to stay there. It costed me nearly $1000 per month, which included canteen meals too. I would suggest you to look at their pricings for rooms. Other than that, join the university groups on facebook. Sometimes, students rent apartment units and share with their friends. Living in shared unit will be cheaper than hostel.

Moreover, make sure to check the distance of the university from your home. Because, students mainly focus on rent, and forget checking transits from their places. Thus, they sometimes end up reaching late to their lectures or exams.

Lastly I would say, enjoy your campus life at the fullest along with academics.

Kind regards,

Ishika

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all bullet points required by the task prompt. You clearly described your past accommodation when you were a student, mentioning that you lived in the campus hostel which cost around $1000 per month including meals. You also recommended practical ways to look for accommodation, such as checking university room pricing and joining Facebook groups to find shared apartments. Furthermore, you effectively warned your friend about a common mistake, which is focusing solely on rent while ignoring the distance and transit options to the university. The tone is consistently appropriate for an informal email to a friend, and all parts of the task are well developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The email has a clear logical progression and is easy to follow from the opening greeting to the final sign-off. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different topics, such as past experiences, accommodation recommendations, and warnings about potential mistakes. Cohesive devices are generally well managed, with phrases like 'During my course duration', 'Other than that', and 'Moreover' helping to guide the reader through the text. However, referencing is occasionally slightly awkward, such as starting a sentence with 'Because, students mainly focus...', which disrupts the flow of the complex sentence structure. Overall, the organization is coherent and effectively structured.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The vocabulary used is adequate and appropriate for a general task about accommodation and student life. You successfully used less common and topic-specific vocabulary items such as 'accommodation', 'hostel', 'canteen meals', 'shared unit', and 'transits'. While the vocabulary range is sufficient to convey your ideas with some precision, there are a few minor lexical inaccuracies, such as 'costed' instead of 'cost' and 'pricings' instead of 'pricing'. Despite these occasional errors, communication is never impeded, and your word choices fit the informal yet informative register of the letter well.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You have demonstrated a mix of simple and complex sentence structures throughout the email, including conditional and relative clauses like 'I am so happy to know, that you are going to study...' and 'Living in shared unit will be cheaper than hostel.' There are some minor grammatical errors, such as the incorrect past tense form 'costed', a missing article in 'Living in shared unit', and an unnecessary comma in 'know, that'. Additionally, starting a sentence with 'Because' creates a minor fragment issue. Nevertheless, these errors do not impede communication, and you maintain good control over the majority of your sentences.

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

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