Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-11

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 Alex,

I am so happy while writing this letter to you as you have got the offer you were always looking for. As a former student, I would really want to say that accommodation will be the significantly important part of your this journey. I was lucky enough to find a decent sharing appartment near to the university. It was 3 bed and 2 bath unit where I was able to get private room with attached washroom. I even got small but private balcony with my room. It was spacious unit and kitchen comes with all appliances. It also had in-unit laundry facility. It was a quite expensive for me as I have to pay 1000$ per month. However, amentities of that building makes it worthy to pay for. It has indoor swimming pool, fitness area, sauna and party room.

I will suggest that you should sign up on 'Findit' application. It is app for renting and buying houses which helped me to secure that room. It is very convinient as you will be able to see all the available houses, listings on a single plateforms. You can even find sub-leases options as well. Tha major plus point of it that everything on that plateform is verified including properties and even realtors. Also, you can even see the reviews of the previous tenants on that app. There is no charge to register and you can use all the features for free.

I really want to tell you about the few common mistakes student often do when finding place. You should not select the place very far from the universities as the transit sytem of that city will be really affected in the winters. Also, you should not attracted to cheap apratments as the area doeshave the bed bugs problem and people tend to hide this issue with low price. You need to check the lease aggrement carefully before paying any deposits since it will help you to identify fradues.

Hope it helps and wishing you very best time at the university.

Yours truly,

Pankti

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

The email addresses all three requested points and maintains a friendly, appropriate tone. You describe your former accommodation in useful detail, including the private room, balcony, facilities and cost, then recommend a specific app and explain why it helped. Your warnings about distance, pests and checking the lease are also relevant and practical. These details make the advice clear and generally well supported. To develop the response further, make the warning about choosing a cheap apartment more precise: the link between low rent and bed bugs is presented as a broad claim. You could instead advise Alex to inspect the property and ask directly about pest history before committing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The message is organised into clear paragraphs that correspond to describing your accommodation, recommending a search method and warning about mistakes. The progression is easy to follow, and phrases such as “However,” “Also” and “since” help connect ideas. The opening and closing also suit an email to a friend. At times, however, linking is repetitive or slightly mechanical: “Also” and “you can even” recur in the app paragraph, while the final paragraph moves quickly from transport to pests and lease fraud. Use a wider range of transitions and make the relationship between each warning explicit. This would make the flow more seamless while preserving the clear overall structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, including specific housing terms such as “private room,” “in-unit laundry facility,” “sub-leases” and “lease agreement.” These details help make the advice concrete, and the meaning is generally clear. However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, including “significantly important,” “single plateforms,” “the transit system … will be really affected” and “identify fradues.” There are also spelling errors such as “appartment,” “convinient” and “amentities.” These do not prevent understanding, but they limit precision and naturalness. Check spelling carefully and choose more idiomatic phrases, such as “particularly important,” “on one platform” and “spot potential scams.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, and several sentences communicate detailed information clearly, such as the description of the apartment and the explanation of the app’s features. Some grammatical errors remain, though they rarely obscure your meaning. Examples include “I am so happy while writing” (a more natural structure is “I am so happy to write”), “a quite expensive” (the article is misplaced), and “I have to pay” when describing a past student experience. There are also agreement and sentence-pattern problems in “amenities … makes it worthy” and “you should not attracted.” Review articles, past-tense consistency, subject–verb agreement and verb forms after modal verbs. More accurate control of these patterns would strengthen your otherwise clear message.

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