Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-04

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You work at home and have a problem with a piece of equipment that you use for your job.

Write a letter to the shop or company which supplied the equipment. In your letter

• describe the problem with the equipment
• explain how this problem is affecting your work
• say what you want the shop or company to do

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to complaint about the laptop, I recently purchased from your company.

The laptop I purchased is Dell M4 series which is highly recommended for its best battery performance. However, the battery for my equipment lasts only for 2 hours which is not sufficient for my daily tasks.

This issue hampers my meetings and delays my overall productivity in the office as it needs to be recharged atleast 3 times a day. There was a meeting yesterday with my investors and the laptop shut down automatically within 1 hour of presentation. This intervened entire schedule of everyone and the meeting had to be rescheduled.

I would like to get the piece returned as it is still under a 2 year warranty. Also, I want you to suggest some other laptop that will not have same issues.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Krupa

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You described the battery issue, explained the negative impact on your professional meetings, and clearly stated your desired outcome (a return and a recommendation). The tone is appropriate for a formal letter of complaint. To reach a higher band, you could expand slightly on the specific nature of the 'daily tasks' affected, which would provide more depth to your explanation. However, the response is well-focused and meets all requirements of the task.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. Each paragraph focuses on a single aspect of the prompt, which makes the information easy to follow. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Also', and 'This issue' to link your ideas. To improve, you could use a wider variety of linking words or transition phrases to create a smoother flow between sentences. For example, instead of starting sentences with 'This issue', you could integrate these ideas into more complex, compound sentences to improve the overall cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'productivity', 'rescheduled', and 'warranty' correctly. There are a few minor errors, such as 'complaint' (which should be the verb 'complain') and 'intervened' (which is used incorrectly here; 'disrupted' would be more natural). While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, it lacks the sophistication or precision required for higher bands. Focusing on collocations—such as 'battery life' instead of 'battery performance'—would help elevate your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While your meaning is always clear, there are several grammatical slips. For instance, 'I am writing this letter to complaint' should be 'to complain', and 'as it needs to be recharged atleast 3 times' should be 'at least'. Additionally, 'intervened entire schedule' is missing an article ('the entire schedule'). While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles will help improve your accuracy.

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

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