Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-27

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 or Madam,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing this letter to complain about the piece of equipment which I purchased from your store last year.

I have been using the HP company laptop from the last year on a daily basis for my office work. Recently, I have been experiencing problem with this laptop. For example, it shuts down without any notification when I attending important meetings, battery is unable to hold charge for a long time and storage apps makes me unwilling to save valuable documents in my laptop. Therefore, I felt frustrated and tired with this issues because they preventing me to rejoin business meetings, gaining important information about ongoing projects and store confidential office documents. As a result, it reduces my overall productivity and chances of getting promotion.

This problems makes me unable to meet the deadlines of the projects and accomplish my targets on time. Therefore, it put negative marking on my performance report and damage my professional image among the staff.

I will appreciate it if you could send qualified technician for a repairing of the laptop soon. However, my laptop is still under warranty, so you can provide me better quality and fresh piece with the replacement of older one.

I hope you consider my request and help me to overcome my problems soon. I look forward to your prompt response in this matter.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours faithfully,

Twinkle

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You described the technical issues (shutting down, battery, storage), explained the impact on your work (missed meetings, productivity loss), and clearly stated your desired outcome (repair or replacement). The tone is appropriate for a formal letter of complaint. To improve, ensure that your explanation of the impact is slightly more focused; while you mention productivity, the connection between the storage issue and the inability to save documents is clear, but the phrasing could be more concise to avoid repetition.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter follows a logical structure with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. Paragraphing is used effectively to separate the problem, the impact, and the request. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Therefore' and 'As a result' to link ideas. However, some transitions feel slightly repetitive or mechanical. To reach a higher band, try to vary your linking words and ensure that the flow between sentences is smoother, particularly in the second paragraph where the sequence of ideas feels a bit crowded.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'confidential', 'productivity', and 'prompt response'. However, there are some inaccuracies in collocation and word choice, such as 'storage apps makes me unwilling' (should be 'storage issues make it difficult') and 'negative marking on my performance' (should be 'negative impact on my performance'). These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit the precision of your writing. Expanding your range of collocations related to technical issues would be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is always clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement and article usage (e.g., 'from the last year' should be 'for the last year'; 'it shuts down... when I attending' should be 'when I am attending'; 'This problems makes' should be 'These problems make'). These errors are noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding your message. Focusing on proofreading for basic agreement and verb tense consistency will help improve your score.

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

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