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

10 correction notes

Dear Sandra,

I hope this letter finds you well. Your brother told me you spending a year studying abroad as part of your university course. I did this not too long ago, and I am to share my experience with you.

I studied in Benin Republic. It is a country in West Africa and one of Nigeria's closest neighbours. It is a Francophone country although English.

I learnt about the country's rich history particularly the Dahomey women. They are a great part of Benin Republic's culture as there is a large the city center which tells their story. The site is a well-known visitors from near and far.

was very helpful as I was able to in French and also . I had a French exam to write so I needed an environment where I could assimilate quickly.

I hope you also have a great time . Send my regards to your brother.

Yours sincerely,

Neso.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response fully achieves its communicative purpose, covering all three bullet points in a consistently warm, friendly register with relevant, developed detail. The main limitation is recurring grammatical inaccuracy and occasional imprecise word choice, though these rarely interfere with the clear message.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.0

The letter clearly covers all three bullet points from the prompt with relevant detail about the location, cultural learning, and academic benefit, and the tone is consistently appropriate for a friend's younger sister.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are organised into logical paragraphs with clear progression and appropriate cohesive devices, though referencing is occasionally awkward, as in 'although some are the citizens are able to understand English'.

Lexical Resource

6.5

Vocabulary is generally adequate for describing the study experience, with natural expressions such as 'a well-known tourist attraction' and 'visitors from near and far'. However, 'hold basic communication' and 'very much happy' are awkward, and 'assimilate quickly' does not clearly identify the intended language-learning benefit.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

6.5

A range of structures is used with reasonable flexibility, but noticeable errors recur, including 'some are the citizens are able' and redundant phrasing such as 'I hope you also have a great time over there too'.

More responses with feedback

View all 4 responses (6.0–7.0)