Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-30

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 Emma,

I am writing to provide guidance about searching an accommodation at the location where I used to live and study. I would like to congratulate you on your enrollment at the college.

During my study, I lived near the city centre in a high-rise apartment which was close to the campus. It was 2-BHK unit shared between two people. It had all the amenities such as swimming pool, gym and underground parking. I naver felt inconvenience living in the apartment at anytime but finding a place may be challenging.

There are certain ways which you can employ either online platforms or offline. The most popular one is that you could contact student corner at the college and ask them to unite yourself with other students who are looking for a roommate. It is because some students who already secured a place, come to the helpdesk to connect with seekers. Another efective option is that you could search on facebook marketplace where property owners usually post listings related to lease. However, be extra causious as there are many scammers on facebook..

Apart from scams, you should also visit the property before renting it and make sure it offers central air and heat along with laundry. Additionally, stay away from the apartments that has carpet flooring as it contain a lot of dust and result in asthama in the long run.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask me. I hope this helps.

Warm wishes,

Steve

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all parts of the communicative task. The student appropriately addresses the friend, Emma, congratulating her on college enrollment, and clearly describes their former student accommodation, mentioning a '2-BHK unit shared between two people' close to the campus. Furthermore, the recommendation for finding accommodation is well-articulated, suggesting both the college student corner and Facebook Marketplace. The student also effectively warns of common pitfalls, such as online scammers and problematic apartment features like carpet flooring. Ideas are well-extended and supported throughout, establishing a clear friendly tone and purpose. To reach a higher level, the response could provide even more detailed elaboration on the personal experiences of living there or offer further nuanced advice on avoiding rental scams, which would develop the ideas more fully and reduce minor over-generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The email demonstrates a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Information is grouped appropriately into paragraphs, starting with a friendly greeting and congratulations, moving smoothly into the description of the past accommodation, followed by search methods and warnings, and concluding with an offer for further help. Cohesive devices such as 'During my study', 'The most popular one', 'Another efective option', and 'Apart from scams' are used effectively to guide the reader through the text. Paragraphing is handled sufficiently and appropriately to separate distinct themes. To achieve a higher band, the student could ensure that referencing and cohesive links are slightly more varied and seamless, avoiding minor mechanical transitions and ensuring that every sentence flows naturally into the next without any abrupt shifts in topic.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and specific housing terms such as 'high-rise apartment', 'amenities', 'roommate', and 'property owners'. There is a sufficient range to convey meaning with some precision, such as 'property owners usually post listings related to lease'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, including 'searching an accommodation' instead of 'searching for accommodation', 'naver', 'inconvenience', 'efective', and 'causious', alongside phrasing like 'unite yourself' rather than 'connect yourself'. To improve to a higher band, the student must expand their repertoire of less common vocabulary while eliminating basic spelling errors and ensuring more natural collocation and precision in word choices.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating control over relative clauses and conditional structures, such as 'which was close to the campus' and 'If you have any further questions, feel free to ask me.' There is a good attempt at varied structures throughout the email. Nevertheless, several grammatical and punctuation errors persist, including article misuse ('searching an accommodation' and 'the college student corner'), subject-verb agreement issues ('apartments that has carpet flooring'), and spelling mistakes that occasionally disrupt the flow. To reach the next band, the student needs to produce a higher frequency of error-free sentences, exercise greater control over complex sentence structures, and carefully proofread to eliminate basic grammatical slips.

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

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