You applied for a college course and were accepted, but you cannot join the course. Write a letter to the principal of the college. In your letter: - say which course you applied for - explain why you cannot join the course - ask about the possibility of taking the course in the future
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, It is quite a privilege for me to have been granted admission toat your renowned college, but unfortunately, I will not be able to enrol in the course because of an unavoidable conflictbecause of some unavoidable reasons. However, I hope to enrolI am expecting to enrol in this same course at a later dateat a favourable time, with your approvalif you allow me to do so. During the last fall semester, I applied for a two-year master's degreea 2-years Master's degree in Business Administration and was acceptedgot accepted immediately with classes due to startas the classes were to start from mid-September. I have always wanted to study Business Administration because I wanted to be a business-management professionala business administration and management personnel since my early high-school yearsfrom my early high school years. Due to this, I completed my bachelor's degreehave completed my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. So, I was naturally quite excited to gain admission tohave an admission to your college. Then, suddenly, after receivinggetting the admission letter from your college, I received an offer for a paid internshipgot an offer of a paid internship from a very prestigious bank in my country to work as a management traineeas a Management Trainee. SinceAnd, since it was a great opportunity for me to gain some valuable experience in the field of managementManagement, I immediately decided to accept the offer. But, I would still like to take the same course at your collegestudy at your college in the same course if you consider me for the next semester. Kindly tell me about the procedure. Yours faithfully, Peter Joshua
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly identifies the MBA course, gives a credible and well-developed explanation involving a paid management internship, and asks directly about joining in the next semester. Its strongest feature is complete task coverage in a respectful formal tone. The main limitation is occasional awkward phrasing and unnecessary background detail; prioritise concise explanation and more natural academic and admissions vocabulary.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose is achieved, all three bullet points are fully addressed, and the tone is consistently suitable for a college principal.
Ask a more specific future-enrolment question, such as whether the admission can be deferred and which documents or deadlines apply.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from the inability to enrol through course background and the internship reason to the future request.
Use separate paragraphs for the original admission, the reason for deferral, and the request for the next intake, removing repeated background.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied for formal educational correspondence, though several collocations are awkward or imprecise.
Use 'two-year MBA', 'pursue a career in business management', 'gain admission', and 'defer my place'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures communicates the message clearly, but noun forms, articles, prepositions, and sentence openings contain noticeable errors.
Correct forms such as 'a two-year master's degree', 'admission to your college', and 'I would like to enrol in the same course next semester'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You applied for a college course and were accepted, but you cannot join the course. Write a letter to the principal of the college. In your letter:
- say which course you applied for
- explain why you cannot join the course
- ask about the possibility of taking the course in the future
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.