Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-10

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation.

Why might this be the case?

What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In the modern days, people interest in starting an own business inclined everyday instead of working as a employee for a multi-layered organization. There may be a long list of reason for this ideology and negative impacts of being self -employed. The upcoming essay will shed light on both the reasons and demerits related to small business.

To begin with the reasons of self employment is that unemployment. With the increase in human population, chance of getting a job declined. Since, individual who are skilled and educated use their knowledge to start new business opportunities with latest technology. Another positive impact of starting own business is that it provide flexibility to employer. Pupil can schedule work, holidays according to their own plan. As it provide feeling of independence to person. People do not need permission from anyone for family outings.

To commence with the disadvantages of self employment is that it do not provide paid leaves like multi national companies. Self employment also does not provide personal insurances related to disease conditions on work. Moreover, starting a new business is extremely stressful due to inclined in responsibilities, economical burden, non-assurance with success and ups and down in profit. The another crucial demerit of business is lack of learning new skill. People usually do not attend classroom conference, lectures and training related to upgraded technology which make them unfamiliar with new tools and effect quality of work.

To conclude, self employment provide flexibility with time table and employment for skilled labor whereas it also give hard times in context to mental health and lack of on going training may decrease productivity.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for choosing self-employment and the disadvantages. However, the development of ideas is somewhat superficial. For instance, the point about unemployment is mentioned but not fully explained in terms of how it drives self-employment. The discussion on disadvantages, such as the lack of paid leave and stress, is relevant but lacks depth. To reach a higher band, you should provide more detailed examples or logical chains of reasoning. The position is clear, but the overall development of the arguments remains basic, which limits the score to a 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use some cohesive devices like 'To begin with', 'Moreover', and 'To conclude'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly inaccurate, such as 'To commence with the disadvantages... is that it do not provide'. Additionally, there are issues with referencing and flow; some sentences feel disjointed, and the connection between ideas within paragraphs could be smoother. Improving the variety and accuracy of your linking words will help elevate your score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it is often repetitive and lacks precision. You use basic phrases like 'start an own business' and 'give hard times'. There are also some noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'inclined in responsibilities' (instead of 'increased responsibilities') and 'non-assurance with success'. While the meaning is generally clear, the range of vocabulary is limited, and the errors occasionally draw attention. To improve, focus on learning collocations and more sophisticated synonyms for common words.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There is a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. You frequently make errors with subject-verb agreement, such as 'people interest in' (should be 'are interested in'), 'it provide' (should be 'it provides'), and 'it do not provide' (should be 'it does not provide'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with hyphens and commas. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to lower the score. You need to focus on basic grammatical accuracy, especially verb forms and pluralisation.

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