You have recently migrated to another country. Now write a letter to your friend to describe your present life. In your letter say: - when you have moved to this country - why you chose this country - how things are now for you

Same questionCompare 2 different answers (Band 7.5–8)

Sample Response

1

Dear Lee, I hope youDear Lee, Hope you and your family are doing fine. I'm sorry that I couldn’t get back to you with an update from mefrom my end earlier after moving to Australia about a month ago, but that’s so because I was terribly busy gettingbusy with getting my things settledorganized after moving to Australiathis new country. Anyway, now I am settled into my new lifeall set with my new life and trying to adapt to the new environment and way of life hereconditions of this new country slowly. Of course, it will take a bit longer for me to understand the life and culture, but the people are charming and friendly herepeople are charming and friendly here. The place where I live nowThe place, where I live now, is a small town but it is certainly a beautiful place with lots of trees and beautiful scenerylandscape. So I guessSo, I guess, you can say that I am enjoying my time here. By the way, in case you were wonderingin case if you were wondering, I decided to move to Australia because my professional skillsthe profession and skills I have are in high demand here. I am expecting to work in Australia for at least 10 years. That should do it for now, but I sure would like to get back to you with some more updates soon. Warm wishes, Ghim

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The letter successfully covers the move’s timing, motivation and present circumstances in a friendly, informative tone, with enough specific detail to make the situation clear. Its main weakness is presentation: the single dense paragraph, repetitive references to the new country and several awkward fixed expressions reduce polish. Prioritise dividing the content into purposeful paragraphs and replacing unnatural phrasing with concise, idiomatic language while checking articles and sentence boundaries.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TA

Task Achievement

8.0
Scoring rule

The letter answers when the move happened, why Australia was chosen, and how life is now. More current-life detail would make it stronger.

Next step

Keep the relevant content, then revise the wording and organisation points highlighted in the essay comments.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

7.5
Scoring rule

Progression is clear, but everything is in one block and some links are casual or repetitive.

Next step

Use clearer paragraphing and smoother links so each bullet point is easy to follow.

LR

Lexical Resource

7.5
Scoring rule

Vocabulary is flexible, but phrases like “from my end” and repeated “new country” sound unnatural.

Next step

Prefer natural collocations and precise topic vocabulary over overformal or translated-sounding phrases.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0
Scoring rule

Grammar is mostly clear, with weaknesses in long sentences, articles and fixed expressions.

Next step

Proofread tense, articles, prepositions and sentence boundaries before submitting.

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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1

You have recently migrated to another country. Now write a letter to your friend to describe your present life. In your letter say:

- when you have moved to this country

- why you chose this country

- how things are now for you

Your response

Words0
20:00

Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.