IELTS GT Task 1 request letter band 7 sample, scored against the descriptors

Below is a complete request letter that reaches band 7, with the evidence for each of the four criteria set against the published wording, and three specific reasons it does not reach 8. The task and the letter were both written for this article — no real exam material is reproduced — and the marking is done against the public Band Descriptors (Updated May 2023) rather than by an examiner, because IELTS does not publish band 7 GT letter samples.

One thing worth naming before the letter, because it is what separates request letters from every other GT type: the criterion is Task Achievement, not Task Response, and band 7 asks for a letter that "presents a clear purpose" in a tone that is "consistent and appropriate to the task". A request is the one letter type where those two requirements pull against each other. The politer you are, the easier it is to bury what you are actually asking for.

A request letter has no built-in urgency. That is exactly why its purpose is the thing most likely to go missing.

The task and the letter, in full

You are taking an evening course at a local college. A change to your work schedule means you can no longer attend at the current time. Write a letter to the course administrator. In your letter: explain why you need to change; say which class you would like to move to; ask what you need to do to arrange it. Write at least 150 words.

Dear Mr Alden,

I am writing about my place on the Tuesday evening Business English course, which I began in September.

My employer has recently moved me onto a late shift on Tuesdays, and I can no longer reach the college before eight o'clock. I was wondering whether it might possibly be feasible to look into the question of my current class time at some point.

The same course is also taught on Thursday evenings at six, and that session would fit my new hours. I have attended every class since September and would much prefer to transfer rather than withdraw. If it is not too much trouble, and only if it is genuinely convenient for the department, I would like to be moved onto the Thursday group from the start of next month.

Could you tell me what I need to do to arrange this? I would be most grateful for any assistance you may be able to offer in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Marta Alvès

The letter runs to 167 words against a published minimum of at least 150. There is no published maximum.

Scored against the four criteria

Criterion	Band 7 wording	Evidence in this letter	Verdict
Task Achievement	"All bullet points are covered and clearly highlighted but could be more fully or more appropriately illustrated or extended. It presents a clear purpose. The tone is consistent and appropriate to the task. Any lapses are minimal."	All three bullets are covered, each in its own paragraph. The purpose is clear — but it is clear from paragraph three, not from the sentence that was meant to carry it. Bullet three is answered by a single twelve-word question.	7
Coherence and Cohesion	Logically organised; clear progression; a range of cohesive devices used with some flexibility.	One bullet per paragraph, an opening line establishing the subject and a closing line returning to the request. Referencing is handled without repetition (that session, this).	7
Lexical Resource	Sufficient range to allow some flexibility and precision; some awareness of style and collocation.	Late shift, the department and arrange are precise and correctly collocated. Against that: feasible, grateful for any assistance and in this matter are formulaic rather than chosen.	7
Grammatical Range and Accuracy	A variety of complex structures; frequent error-free sentences; good control of grammar and punctuation.	Conditional clauses, a modal question, a relative clause and a passive infinitive (to be moved). No errors that obscure meaning.	7

Four sevens, so band 7 for Task 1. Worth remembering how little that moves the Writing score on its own: IELTS states that "Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to the Writing score", so a letter and an essay do not weigh the same.

The band 6 line is what shows why this is not a 6. Band 6 Task Achievement says "the purpose is generally clear. There may be minor inconsistencies in tone." Neither half describes this letter: the purpose is stated outright, and the register never slips — it stays semi-formal from Dear Mr Alden to the sign-off, with no lurch into either contractions or legal-sounding formality.

When politeness blurs the purpose

Three hedged sentences and their rewrites. Politeness belongs in the verb, not in the noun.

Three sentences in this letter do the same thing: they wrap a request in so much hedging that the reader has to work out what is being asked. None is an error. All three are why the tone judgement is a 7 with lapses rather than an 8.

1. I was wondering whether it might possibly be feasible to look into the question of my current class time at some point.

Four hedges stacked in one sentence — was wondering, might, possibly, at some point — and the request itself has evaporated into look into the question of. This sentence was supposed to carry the consequence of bullet one. It carries nothing.

Rewrite: I would therefore like to ask whether I can change to a different class time.

2. If it is not too much trouble, and only if it is genuinely convenient for the department, I would like to be moved onto the Thursday group from the start of next month.

The request is intact here, which is why the letter keeps its clear purpose. But the reader meets 17 words of apology before reaching it, and the double condition invites the answer no, it is not convenient.

Rewrite: If a place is available, I would like to move to the Thursday group from the start of next month.

3. I would be most grateful for any assistance you may be able to offer in this matter.

A closing formula that says nothing the letter has not already said, and any assistance is vaguer than the specific thing being asked for.

Rewrite: I would be grateful if you could confirm whether the transfer is possible before the end of the month.

The pattern is the same each time. Politeness belongs in the framing verbs and in the conditional — I would like to, if a place is available — not in the noun. Once the thing being requested turns into the question of or any assistance, the tone has started eating the purpose.

Three things stopping this from being an 8

Band 8 Task Achievement asks that "all bullet points are clearly presented, and appropriately illustrated or extended", allowing only "occasional omissions or lapses in content".

1. Bullet three is answered, not extended. Could you tell me what I need to do to arrange this? covers the bullet and stops. Extending it costs one clause: Could you tell me whether I need to complete a transfer form, and whether there is a deadline for doing so? The request now specifies what a useful reply would contain.

2. The hedging lapses are content lapses, not style choices. Sentence 1 above occupies 22 words of a 167-word letter and delivers no information. At band 8 that space either carries the request or carries a detail that supports it — whether the shift change is permanent, for instance, which the letter never says and which is exactly what an administrator would need to know before moving someone between groups.

3. Politeness comes from one drawer. Every softener in the letter is the same kind: a would-conditional (I was wondering whether, I would like to, I would much prefer, I would be most grateful), and the closing trio — grateful, any assistance, in this matter — is prefabricated rather than chosen. Band 8 Lexical Resource expects a wide resource used fluently and precisely, and one register reused four times is not wide, however correct each instance is.

None of these three is an error. That is the point about the 7–8 boundary in GT Task 1: at that level you are no longer being marked on what is wrong, but on whether every sentence is doing work.

Request vs complaint: what changes in the tone

A complaint letter has a built-in purpose — something went wrong, and you want it fixed — so the risk there is tone: too much heat and the register slips out of range. The band 7 formal complaint letter shows that failure mode, where the lapses all run towards over-familiarity.

A request letter has the opposite risk. Nothing has gone wrong, you are asking for a favour, and the natural instinct is to soften — which is precisely how the purpose blurs. The two letters need opposite corrections: a complaint usually needs its temperature lowered, and a request usually needs its subject restored.

Register itself is set by the prompt, not by the letter type. A request to a course administrator you have not met is semi-formal; the same request to a colleague is not. The band 7 informal letter marks the same criteria at the informal end, and the band 7.5 semi-formal letter sits between the two.

FAQ

Should I end with "Yours faithfully" or "Yours sincerely"?

The faithfully/sincerely pairing is a British letter-writing convention, not an IELTS rule, and no descriptor mentions sign-offs. Consistency of tone is what is marked.

Does a request letter have to be semi-formal?

No. The prompt decides, because the prompt names the recipient. IELTS describes GT letters as "personal, semi-formal or formal in style" without tying a style to a purpose.

Do I need a subject line?

It is a convention some course books teach; nothing in the descriptors requires one.

How short is too short?

The published minimum is 150 words, and IELTS states that "responses of 20 words or fewer are rated at Band 1". There is no published penalty scale between those two points, and no published maximum length.

Related reading

• IELTS GT Task 1 band 7 formal complaint letter — the opposite tone risk, scored the same way
• IELTS GT Task 1 informal letter band 7 — the same criteria at the informal end
• IELTS GT semi-formal letter band 7.5 — the register between the two
• Task Achievement vs Task Response — why GT Task 1 uses a different criterion

Official task instructions are on ielts.org.