Letter to a Friend's Sister About Studying Abroad

The younger sister of one of your friends is thinking about spending a year studying abroad as part of her university course. You did this recently, and she has asked you about your experience. Write a letter to your friend's sister. In your letter • tell her where you studied during your year abroad • describe what you learnt about the country you studied in • explain why your year abroad was helpful for your studies Dear .....................,

Annotated response

8 correction notes

Dear Anna,

Thanks for your letter! I hope you are doing well. I know that studying abroad can seem scary for young people, and it may be difficult to . Recently, I was in the same situation, so I'd be happy to .

I studied at an art university in Germany for five years and graduated in 2022. "Medieval Arts," and I really enjoyed it, because I've always found the Middle Ages fascinating.

Germany is a wonderful country with a rich history and many famous writers, composers and painters, which is . In addition, Germany has some of the highest-ranked universities in Europe.

Overall, my university programme helped me improve my painting skills and develop my . I met many friendly people there, learned a new language and even had the opportunity to organise my own art exhibition and get a job.

your plans and . the information you needed. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

Best regards,

Elena

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The letter has a warm, appropriately informal tone and covers the purpose of sharing study-abroad experience with clear, well-organized paragraphs. The main limitation is uneven task coverage: the description of what was learnt about the country is generic, and the 'five years' detail conflicts with the year-abroad premise, so some bullet points receive only partial development.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

6.0

The letter addresses a friend's sister in a suitable friendly register and touches on all three bullet points, but the country knowledge is described only in general terms and the claim of studying 'for five years' conflicts with the year-abroad context, leaving some parts underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are organized logically into paragraphs with a clear opening, body, and closing, and cohesive devices such as 'In addition' and 'Overall' are used naturally throughout.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is flexible and mostly precise for the informal context, with natural collocations like 'highest-ranked universities', 'rich history', and 'organise my own art exhibition', though some phrases are slightly imprecise, such as 'soft and communication skills'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A good range of sentence structures is used accurately, including relative clauses, complex sentences with 'because' and 'which', and varied tenses, with only minor errors that do not impede meaning.

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