You have been invited to attend an interview for a place studying a course at a college. Unfortunately, because of a previous appointment, you cannot come at the time they wish. Write a letter to the admission tutor. In your letter: - explain your position - apologise and offer to come on another day or later the same day - also ask how long the interview will be, and whether there will be any tests during it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I have received your invitation for an interview on 1414th May at 11:00 amat 11.00 in the morning to finalise my admission to the MBA programme at your college and thank you very much for the invitationI profoundly thank you for that. Unfortunately, I cannot come at the specified time because of another commitment. I hope that you will allow meI am hoping that you would allow me to meet you on a different date. I have been working for a multinational company for the last three yearsI am working with a multinational company for the last three years and they have scheduled a seminar on the same day at 10.30 am. The company has designated me to attend the seminar and I can not skip it. It will start in the morning and continue untiltill 4.00 pm in the afternoon. This makes it impossible for me to attend the interviewmeet you in the interview at the scheduled time. Please accept my apology for not being able to attend the interview as planned. I would be happy to attend on any other day that is convenient for you.However, I can meet you any other day whichever is convenient for you. Meanwhile, I would appreciate it if you could tell me the duration of the interview. Also, will it be an oral interview only or will I have to take any testsdo I have to take a test as well? Once again my sincere apologiesapology for not attending the interview at the scheduled time. I look forwardI look looking forward to hearing from you soon. Yours faithfully, Mansoor Afzal
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fully communicates the scheduling conflict, apologises, proposes another date, and asks both required interview questions, giving it a clear and effective purpose. Its main limitation is that the response is presented as one dense block and includes several unnatural formal phrases and grammatical slips; the highest-priority improvement is to divide the content into clear paragraphs and proofread for more natural, accurate wording.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly explains the clash with the college interview, apologises, offers another date, and asks about interview length and tests. The purpose is fully achieved, though the offer could include the option of later the same day, as the task specifically allows that.
Add one sentence offering a later time on 14 May as well as another date, so every part of the prompt is explicitly covered.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas follow a logical order from invitation details to the scheduling conflict, apology, alternatives, and questions. Cohesion is generally smooth, but the whole response is presented as one block and a few links are repetitive.
Use clear paragraphs for reason, apology and alternatives, and interview questions to make the letter easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is appropriate for a formal college letter, with phrases such as "specified time" and "duration of the interview". Some word choices are slightly unnatural, such as "profoundly thank you" and "designated me".
Choose natural formal collocations, for example "thank you very much" and "asked me to attend", rather than overly heavy wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
There is a good range of sentence forms and meaning is clear throughout. Errors with tense, modality, word form, and a repeated word reduce grammatical control.
Check verb tense around current work and scheduled events, and proofread the closing sentence for duplicated words.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have been invited to attend an interview for a place studying a course at a college. Unfortunately, because of a previous appointment, you cannot come at the time they wish. Write a letter to the admission tutor. In your letter:
- explain your position
- apologise and offer to come on another day or later the same day
- also ask how long the interview will be, and whether there will be any tests during it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.