Advising a Friend on University Accommodation

Your friend has been offered a place on a course at the university where you studied. He/She would like your advice about finding a place to live. Write an email to your friend. In your email • describe where you lived when you were a student at the university • recommend the best way for him/her to look for accommodation • warn him/her of mistakes students make when choosing accommodation You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your email as follows: Dear ……………,

Annotated response

5 correction notes

Dear Kim,

First of all, let me congratulate you on your success in gaining admission to a great university where I also studied. I'd also like to thank you at the same time for having confidence in my advice .

Of course, the best way to find accommodation at your university is to the daily local newspaper's “classified” section where many local residents post advertisements to rent out their flats to students. You could also try reading the “student union” notice boards where students frequently post ads to either find suitable roommates or share their flats.

By the way, you could also live in one of those single-bedroom apartments on Jenkins Avenue where I also lived as a student of that university. are a bit pricey, but you would probably like them because of their calm and nice environment.

But, wherever you choose to reside, please just make sure that the has a good central heating system because that place can get really cold during the winter.

Wishing you all the best.

Warm wishes,

Minh

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The letter achieves a warm, appropriately informal tone and covers all three bullet points from the prompt, including a personal description of where the writer lived and practical warnings. The strongest aspect is the natural, friendly register with some precise vocabulary, while the main limitation is that the recommendation and warning sections are somewhat briefly developed and loosely connected.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.0

All three prompt bullets are addressed in a consistently friendly register with relevant detail, though the advice and warning points are developed somewhat thinly, with the heating warning being the only caution offered.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

The letter progresses logically through greeting, advice, personal experience, and warning, with cohesive devices used naturally, although some transitions like 'But, wherever' feel slightly informal and abrupt.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is flexible and mostly precise for the context, with natural collocations such as 'gain admission', 'post advertisements', and 'pricey', though occasionally wordy phrasing like 'having confidence in my advice in finding accommodation' reduces precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A good range of structures is used with generally strong control, including conditionals and relative clauses, with only minor punctuation and comma issues such as 'the flat or home, you decide to rent, has' affecting flow.

More responses with feedback

View all 2 responses (7.0–7.5)