Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-11-02

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 Mehak,

I hope you are doing well. Congratulations on getting accepted at the same university as i did. During my years at the university i lived in a rented apartment that is a six minute walk from the university.

The best way to look for accommodation is to go on the university website and check there rental listings, as they have a tie up with a lot of realtors that will help you find out the best place you need. You can also go on facebook market place and look around for more options if the realtors are unable to help you with it.

Majority of the new students in the university make a common mistake of renting far away from the university that has a negative impact on there day to day life. It makes them suffer financially and physically, as travelling to university from far distance makes them spend more money on transportation and long rides drain there energy.

Yours lovingly

Pranav Chawla

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The email addresses all three requested points and maintains an appropriate, friendly purpose. You explain that you lived in a rented apartment a six-minute walk from the university, recommend checking the university’s rental listings and Facebook Marketplace, and warn about choosing accommodation far away. The warning is supported with practical consequences, including transport costs and tiring journeys. These relevant details make the advice clear and useful. To develop the response further, make the recommendation more specific—for example, explain how to compare listings or verify a realtor—and add another concrete mistake to avoid, such as failing to check the lease or visit the property. Some advice is therefore more fully developed than other parts.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The message has a clear progression: a personal introduction, advice on finding accommodation, and a warning about a common mistake. Paragraphing separates these functions effectively, while phrases such as “The best way” and “You can also” help guide the reader through the recommendations. The final paragraph also links the choice of a distant home to financial and physical effects. To make the flow more polished, connect the warning more directly to your own experience or to the earlier recommendation, and avoid relying on repeated “there” references, which make the final explanation less clear. Overall, the organisation is logical and easy to follow, with some room for more flexible linking.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for giving friendly, practical advice, including “rented apartment,” “accommodation,” “realtors,” and “transportation.” The meaning remains clear throughout. However, some choices are imprecise or awkward: “tie up” is not the natural expression for a university’s relationship with realtors, and “long rides drain their energy” sounds less idiomatic than a phrase about tiring commutes. There are also spelling or form issues in “market place” and the repeated “there” where “their” is intended. Aim for more natural collocations and precise wording, especially when describing how to search and the effects of a long commute.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response includes both straightforward sentences and more complex structures, such as the sentence explaining that distant accommodation affects students’ daily lives and the clause beginning “as travelling to university…”. Most ideas are understandable, and errors rarely prevent communication. Some grammatical control is inconsistent, however. In “Majority of the new students,” the noun phrase needs a determiner, and “a six minute walk” should use a hyphen when the phrase modifies “walk.” The final sentence also has an unclear construction around “from far distance,” which would be clearer as “from a long distance.” Review articles, compound modifiers, and sentence phrasing to make the complex ideas more accurate.

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