IELTS General Training Task 1: A Band 7.0 Letter (Replying to a Job Offer), Graded
A reply to a friend's job offer — graded band-by-band by Cuepen's AI examiner. All bullets covered clearly, held to Band 7.0 by a register that keeps sliding business-formal and a few grammar slips.
Question:
A friend has offered you some work in his company. You are currently employed and not able to start for three months. Write a reply to your friend. In your letter:
- give details of what you know about his company
- explain your current situation
- give your answer to the offer and explain why
Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear ...,
Candidate's answer:
Dear Mani,
I want to begin by congratulating you on your success with your company. It is extremely joyful news for me to hear that your startup grew 10x with active user base of 100 million.
I am elated to receive your message regarding a product manager job opening to lead your customer acquistion vertical. I believe it’s an excellent fit given my experience in high-growth companies in consumer space. I also strongly believe that this new opportunity will supercharge my career and give me enough experience to start a venture on my own after a few years.
Firstly, I accept this offer and am very keen to join at the earliest. I would like to inform you that my current company policy prohibits me to quit immediately and requires me to serve a notice period of 3 months. In the meanwhile, I plan to continue doing some research and prepare for the new job to avoid further delays.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Phil
Full Cuepen report:
This is the complete assessment, exactly as the model returned it. Click a criterion card to filter the line-by-line view, or any flagged sentence for its feedback.
Candidate's Answer
Task Achievement feedback (3)
I want to begin by congratulating you on your success with your company.
💡All three points are covered; a touch more warmth (it is a friend) and one line on your current role would round the letter out.
It's been too long, Mani — huge congratulations on how far your company has come!
I would like to inform you that my current company policy prohibits me to quit immediately and requires me to serve a notice period of 3 months.
💡'I would like to inform you that my current company policy prohibits me' is stiff, business-like language for a letter to a friend.
The only catch is that I have to give my current employer three months' notice before I can leave.
Yours sincerely, Phil
💡'Yours sincerely' and the overall business register are formal for a close friend; a warmer, informal close suits the recipient.
Can't wait to work together — take care, Phil
The fastest route to Band 8
- Keep one register: for a friend, swap "I would like to inform you", "prohibits me" and "Yours sincerely" for warm, informal wording.
- Fix the grammar slips: "prohibits me to quit" → "from quitting", and "looking forward to hear" → "to hearing".
- Correct the spelling (acquisition) and add the missing articles ("an active user base", "in the consumer space").
Frequently asked questions
What band is this IELTS job-offer reply?+
It scores an overall Band 7.0 — Task Achievement, Coherence, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range each at Band 7.
Why does a clear, complete letter only get Band 7?+
The register keeps sliding business-formal ('I would like to inform you', 'Yours sincerely') for a letter to a friend, and there are grammar slips like 'prohibits me to quit' and 'looking forward to hear'.
Does Cuepen grade General Training letters?+
Yes — Cuepen's AI examiner scores GT Task 1, Academic Task 1 and Task 2 against all four IELTS criteria with line-by-line feedback.
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