Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-19

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 Ibrahim,

I hope you are doing well. Thanks for sharing the news of you being offered a place on a course at the university. I am really glad and I wish you all the very best.

You have rightly asked, and indeed timely, about the finding a place to live. This is the foremost important checkbox to tick before you start your course at the university. I had seen my classmates suffering only because of the wrong decision they took while selecting their residence during their time at the university. Most of them did not check the basic requirements like commute, utilities and surroundings.

To start your search, please do so by visiting the real-estate websites for the available listings. For any property you find worthy of your time to check, please do not hesitate asking the realtors for the latest pictures of the property. Please do ensure that the property comes with the all the utilities and specially Wi-fi connectivity. Once you have shortlisted the properties, please ensure you have scheduled your visits for physical verification. If, for any reason, you cannot visit the property, please ask the realtors for remote seeing through video calls. A little effort at this moment will save you from regrets later.

I would recommend to check the Zahia Town, where I used to live at my time at the university. That was the best decision of my life at that time. The commute, because of the 5-minutes walk to the subway station, really saved lots of my time. With the nearby park, my evenings were sorted out as I used to study at the park in the evenings. Supermarkets closer to my place meant having the luxury of day-to-day items at the affordable prices and within reach at all times. Please do checkout that area, you wil find it worth investing.

Please let me know f I can be of any help. Once again, I wish you the every best.

Thanks,

Hayyan tahir

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address all three points: you describe living in Zahia Town, recommend searching property websites and arranging viewings, and warn against overlooking practical requirements such as commuting, utilities and surroundings. The specific benefits of the area—its subway access, park and nearby supermarkets—make the personal recommendation relevant and helpful. The advice about checking listings is also practical, though the warning about common mistakes could be developed more explicitly: for example, explain why students should not rely only on photos or choose a place without checking the commute and total costs. The email is appropriately friendly and its purpose is clear. To strengthen the response further, make each task point equally explicit and extend the warning with one or two concrete examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The email has a clear overall arrangement: an opening, advice about searching, a personal recommendation, and a friendly closing. Paragraphs generally group related information, and phrases such as “To start your search” and “Once you have shortlisted the properties” help guide the reader through the process. The progression is understandable, but the order could be more purposeful: you discuss common mistakes before giving the search method, then introduce your own area later. Some linking phrases, including repeated uses of “please ensure,” make the advice sound mechanical, while “That was the best decision” has a slightly unclear reference. Grouping the warning, search steps and recommendation more deliberately, and varying transitions, would make the flow smoother and more flexible.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use an adequate range for a friendly advice email, including relevant terms such as “available listings,” “physical verification,” “commute,” and “utilities.” The details about the subway, park and supermarkets also help make the description specific. There are, however, several inaccurate or unnatural choices that reduce precision: “foremost important checkbox,” “remote seeing,” and “luxury of day-to-day items” do not express the intended ideas naturally. “Real-estate websites” and “realtors” are understandable, but “property websites” and “letting agents” may sound more natural in this context. Spelling slips such as “wil” and “checkout” also need attention. Aim for precise, conventional collocations rather than combining formal-sounding words in unfamiliar ways.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the conditional “If, for any reason, you cannot visit the property” and the relative clause “where I used to live.” Most of the message remains easy to understand, but some grammatical errors recur. Examples include “news of you being offered” (the construction should be “news that you have been offered”), “about the finding a place,” and “do not hesitate asking” (use “hesitate to ask”). There are also article and agreement problems in “comes with the all the utilities” and “I wish you the every best,” as well as the typo “f I can.” These errors do not usually block meaning, but proofreading and practising verb patterns, articles and sentence phrasing would improve accuracy.

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