Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-04

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

There have been several complaints about the reception area where visitors to your company arrive. Your manager has asked you to suggest how the reception area could be improved.

Write a letter to your manager. In your letter

• describe the complaints that have been made
• say why the reception area is important
• suggest how the reception area could be improved

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ................. ,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Smith,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you in response to your request for suggestions to improve the reception area.

Recently, there have been several complaints about the reception area. The visitors often complaint about the inadequate seating capacity of our reception area. Additionally, I've received complaints about dirty toilets, lack of arrangement to dispose off food waste inlcuding left-over, wrappers, etc. Furthermore, as we are extremely busy due to the high demand for our services, we need more staff to avoid delays, and serve aur visitors effectively.

I strongly believe that the reception area is extremely important, as it is the first impression of our company. We should make sure that our visitors are comfortable and happy. These complaints must be addressed immediately. Our reception area is already very spacious so we can easily increase our seating capacity. Moreover, we can hire additional staff to deal with the visitors. I also know someone who provides expert cleaning staff to companies. We can talk to him and hire a full time cleaner. Further to this, we can add dust-bins to our reception area so that the waste can be disposed off properly.

Many thanks,

Asad

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all parts of the prompt, addressing the complaints, the importance of the area, and suggestions for improvement. The student adopts a clear, appropriate tone throughout. However, while the ideas are relevant, some points lean towards over-generalisation and could benefit from further extension. For example, mentioning the complaints about dirty toilets and food waste is a good start, but these details are introduced briefly without deep expansion. Similarly, the suggestion to hire cleaning staff is stated straightforwardly. To move towards higher bands, the student needs to fully develop all parts of the task with more detailed elaboration and precise supporting points rather than relying on brief mentions.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter maintains a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. The response is divided into logical paragraphs, with an introductory greeting, a body tackling the description of complaints and importance, a paragraph offering solutions, and an appropriate sign-off. The student uses cohesive devices adequately, such as 'Additionally', 'Furthermore', and 'Moreover', ensuring the flow of ideas is coherent. However, referencing is occasionally slightly mechanical, and the transitional links could be handled with greater flexibility to avoid a formulaic feel. To achieve a higher band, the student should aim for more seamless and sophisticated transitions between sentences and paragraphs without relying on repetitive listing markers.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating a sufficient range to communicate ideas clearly. The student attempts some less common lexical items, such as 'inadequate seating capacity', 'extremely spacious', and 'expert cleaning staff'. However, there are notable word-choice and spelling inaccuracies that prevent a higher score, such as 'complaint' used as a verb where 'complain' is required, 'dispose off' instead of 'dispose of', and the spelling slip 'inlcuding'. There are also minor collocation issues like 'serve aur visitors effectively' (our). To reach the next band, the student must improve precision in word choice, eliminate spelling errors, and demonstrate tighter control over phrasal verb prepositions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilising structures such as 'I strongly believe that the reception area is extremely important, as it is the first impression of our company.' There is a good variety of verb tenses and modals used appropriately across the letter. However, some errors in grammar persist, such as subject-verb agreement or prepositional tracking, which place the writing firmly in this band. While these errors do not impede communication, they prevent the text from displaying frequent error-free sentences. To improve, the student should focus on tightening grammatical accuracy in complex clauses and ensuring consistent control over punctuation and prepositions.

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

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