A 6.0 when you needed a 6.5 stings. I've seen that score report face. But it's a detour, not a dead end, and detours still get you there. Plenty of universities accept a 6.0 overall, especially outside the top 50, and even the pickier schools have doors you haven't checked.
First door: pre-sessional English courses. A huge number of UK and Australian universities will admit you conditionally with a 6.0 and put you through six to twelve weeks of English before term starts. You pay extra, yes, but here's the upside nobody mentions: you show up with better academic writing than the students who scraped a 6.5 and skipped it. Second door: pathway and foundation providers attached to universities, where IELTS floors are often 5.5 or 6.0 and completion guarantees you progress to the degree.
Third door, and this one surprises people: some universities publish different minimums by department. Engineering might take 6.0 while the business school wants 6.5. Same university, different door. Always read the program page. The general admissions page lies by averaging.
So should you just retake? Depends on the shape of that 6.0. If it's a 5.0 in writing with 6.5s everywhere else, a focused four week writing sprint plus a retake is the fastest route I've seen. If all four sections are flat at 6.0, another test date won't save you; you need real study time. A study plan app for test prep with daily tasks will tell you which situation you're in after about a week of honest practice.
Not sure whether to retake or reroute? The 8-week study plan at internationalstudyhelp.fyi diagnoses your section scores and gives you a straight answer.