Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-22

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently did a short cookery course. The cookery school has asked for your feedback on this course. Write a letter to the course director at the cookery school. In your letter

• describe what you enjoyed about the course
• say how much cooking you've done since the course
• suggest another cookery course you’d like the school to offer

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 am writing to share my feedback on a three months cookery course that I have recently completed on October 4th. Overall, I found it really rewarding experience and I would like to share my thoughts and suggestion for the future course.

I enjoyed the most about the hands-on experience and step by step guidance on the each cooking class with the exposure of different cuisines before we actually go for the cooking attempt at our own. I perticularly learnt the knife skills that I was always nervous about along with that the prepration of sauce from the scratch was also a fruitful learning for me that I will be keeping along in my recipe log.

However, I was not able to practice alot of the cuisines that we have learned on the ground but I am pleased to inform you that I surely have included some amazing tips and tricks for my daily routine meals like adding different seasonings to the salads, baking mouthwatering browing and trying to setup some culinary skills at my dinning table.

I would like to make a suggestion to add some persian cuisine while designing the future courses as It could give a unique addition to the course reason for this request is that I have experience the phenomenal taste these dishes and would like to learn some more skills from future courses offered by the school hopefully soon.

Kind regards,

Misbah

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The candidate successfully covers all parts of the task prompt. First, she describes what she enjoyed about the course, highlighting the hands-on experience, knife skills, and sauce preparation. Second, she explains how much cooking she has done since the course, noting that while she hasn't practiced all cuisines on the ground, she has integrated tips and tricks into her daily meals and baking. Third, she suggests another cookery course for the school to offer, specifically proposing Persian cuisine. The tone is appropriate for a semi-formal feedback letter, and the purpose is clearly communicated throughout. The ideas are relevant and sufficiently expanded, meeting all criteria for a Band 7.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter is logically organised into clear paragraphs, each addressing a different aspect of the prompt. The response begins with an appropriate greeting ('Dear Sir or Madam,') and concludes with a standard sign-off. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'However', and 'and would like to learn'. However, there are some minor mechanical issues with cohesion and referencing, such as 'on the each cooking class' and run-on phrasing in the third paragraph ('on the ground but I am pleased...'). Despite these minor faults, the progression of ideas is clear and easy to follow, making this a solid Band 6.5 or 7.0 performance; Band 6.5 is well-suited here due to occasional faulty cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The candidate demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a General Training task, including terms like 'hands-on experience', 'culinary skills', 'phenomenal taste', and 'recipe log'. There are, however, several lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'a three months cookery course' (should be 'three-month'), 'go for the cooking attempt at our own' (unnatural collocation), and 'mouthwatering browing' (likely a typo for 'brownies'). These inaccuracies do not impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 6.0, as the candidate attempts less common vocabulary with mixed success.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and conditional-like phrasing ('that I was always nervous about along with that...'). There are several grammatical errors and punctuation slips throughout the text, such as missing articles ('on the each cooking class'), incorrect pluralisation/modifiers ('a three months cookery course'), and run-on sentences that lack appropriate punctuation. For instance, the sentence beginning with 'I enjoyed the most about...' is structurally tangled. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the letter, they occur frequently enough to prevent the grammar score from reaching Band 6.5, placing it firmly at Band 6.0.

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

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