Letter

Band 7+: 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

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Dear Amy,

It is very nice to hear that you are going to study abroad for one year. I am writing to share my experience with you in case it helps.

Last year I was an exchange student in Canada, where I studied in a couple of cities along the west coast.

During my stay there, I learnt from local community that there were many wonderful natural scenaries in this country. For example, you would see a lot of snow mountains surrounding the city if you were in Vancouver. In additional, there were polar lights in the north, where you should go for a trip during winter.

Despite beautiful nature, this year abroad is also extremely helpful in terms of my studies. I communicated with people in different languages and from different cultural backgrounds, which helped me be more confident to share my thoughts on classes. As a result, I performed increasingly better by receiving valuable feedback from my peers.

In conclusion, I believe this year will be your life-long treasury. Hope my experience helps. I am very glad to share more information if you are interested.

Best regards,

Yiming Zhao

Word Count: 191

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Overall Band Score

(+/- 0.5)

Vocabulary Complexity:
B1 - Intermediate
Using more sophisticated words could be beneficial.

Grammar Mistakes: N/A

Vocabulary Repetition:

share: 3

there: 3

Try using synonyms for the above words

Task Response

The letter appropriately addresses all three bullet points: it mentions studying in Canada (specifically along the west coast), describes some aspects of the country (natural scenery, mountains, polar lights), and explains how the year abroad helped with studies (improved confidence and feedback). The tone is friendly and suitable for a letter to a friend's sister. However, there are a few minor omissions and lapses: the first bullet point could provide more specific details about the city or university; the description of the country is a bit brief and could be expanded; and the explanation of how the year abroad helped could be more concrete. Additionally, some phrases are slightly awkward (e.g., 'natural scenaries', 'In additional', 'life-long treasury'), and the letter could be more polished. To improve, ensure all points are fully developed with specific examples, and proofread for grammatical accuracy and natural phrasing.

Coherence & Cohesion

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. The progression from sharing the study location to describing cultural learning and then to academic benefits is smooth. However, some transitions could be improved, such as 'In additional' (should be 'In addition') and the phrase 'Despite beautiful nature' could be more clearly linked to the previous paragraph. The overall flow is easy to follow, but minor lapses in cohesion are noticeable.

Lexical Resource

The vocabulary used is appropriate and generally accurate, with some good attempts at descriptive language (e.g., 'wonderful natural scenaries', 'life-long treasury'). However, there are a few lexical inaccuracies and awkward phrasings, such as 'scenaries' (should be 'scenery'), 'snow mountains' (more natural would be 'snow-capped mountains'), and 'polar lights' (more commonly 'northern lights' or 'aurora borealis'). The range of vocabulary is adequate but not highly sophisticated.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

The letter demonstrates a good range of grammatical structures, including complex sentences and conditional forms (e.g., 'if you were in Vancouver'). However, there are several errors that affect accuracy, such as 'I learnt from local community' (missing article 'the'), 'In additional' (should be 'In addition'), and 'helped me be more confident' (should be 'helped me to be more confident' or 'helped me become more confident'). Punctuation is mostly correct, but these errors prevent a higher score.

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Task Response

Coherence & Cohesion

Lexical Resource

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

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