Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-20

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 Jon,

First of all, congratulations for getting enrolled in the Toronto University. I'm glad that you got admission in Canada's one of the best institutions. Now you're in the search of an accomodation in there, I've some recommendations for you.

When I was student in there, I rented an apartment in HNT, which is the north side of the Toronto city. It was one bedroom apartment with all appliances; however, I bought my own furniture. The location was quite convenitent as frequent buses used to come and made my trip to college mch easier.

Marketplace would be the best option to find accomodation. You can filter your prefrences and it will sohw you all the available places near the university. You can also connect to EDR estate, they are very helpful to provide affordable apartments and rooms to students, I'll attach there contact details along with this email.

There are couple of warnings I would suggest you. First, never pay rent before checking the place itself beforehand. There were incidents happened when students paid rent but when they moved there, not place to live. Second, always keep records of renting documents.

I hope you will find best place to live in. Good luck for studies.

Thanks

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You address all three requested points and maintain a friendly, appropriate email tone. The description of your former apartment includes its location, size, furnishings and transport links, while the advice to use Marketplace and contact EDR gives the reader practical options. Your warnings about paying before viewing and keeping rental documents are also relevant. These ideas are clear and supported with some detail, although the warning about checking a property could be explained more precisely—for example, mention verifying the landlord or confirming what is included in the rent. A more specific explanation of how to compare listings would also make the recommendations more fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The email is organised in a clear sequence: congratulations and introduction, your own housing experience, search recommendations, warnings, and a closing. Paragraphing helps the reader distinguish each part of the advice, and transitions such as “however,” “First,” and “Second” make the progression easy to follow. The overall structure is effective for an informal email. Some links between ideas are less smooth, particularly in “Now you're in the search of an accomodation in there, I've some recommendations for you,” where the sentence joins two ideas awkwardly. The final “Thanks” also feels slightly abrupt after the good-luck closing. Smoother sentence connections and a more natural sign-off would make cohesion more polished.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the housing advice, including relevant terms such as “appliances,” “frequent buses,” “affordable apartments,” and “renting documents.” However, several spelling errors and unnatural word combinations reduce precision and make the range seem limited: “accomodation,” “convenitent,” “prefrences,” and “sohw” are examples. Phrases such as “in the search of an accommodation” and “connect to EDR estate” are also not idiomatic. Aim to learn common collocations for housing and use a spelling check, especially for key task vocabulary. More precise wording would help your practical recommendations sound confident and natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mixture of simple and more complex sentences, including the contrast in “It was one bedroom apartment with all appliances; however, I bought my own furniture.” Most of the message remains understandable, but grammatical errors recur and sometimes make relationships between ideas unclear. For example, “When I was student” needs an article, and “There were incidents happened” combines two verb structures incorrectly. The sentence beginning “Now you're in the search…” also joins clauses without a suitable grammatical connection. Review articles, verb patterns and sentence boundaries, and check that each clause has a clear subject and verb. Greater accuracy in these areas would make the advice easier to read.

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

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