Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-20
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 contemporary era numerous individuals prefer to be self-employed and rather than work for a company or organisation. Self-employed generate good earning and it give stability in life. As a compare to private employer. business gives flexibility and freedom.
On the one hand, many self-employed think that it gives them work life balance. This because is business provide freedom and flexibility they can their time according they come and go to other places. As a result, they can spend much time with their family, they can travel and enjoy life. Furthermore, they can do their work without boss pressure. They can generate high income from their business, but company worker get fixed salary. Business provide good pathways for long term career, because people can easily secure family future and they can give excellent education to their children. To illustrate, American numerous kids want to start their own business because they influence to rich person such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates. As a consequence, a lot of children run their startup at 16 age.
On the other hand, there are also have some drawbacks. High level stress and spend long hours on their business as well as skills. Because without knowledge individuals can not run to business. It is very time consuming and stressful. If people become self-employed they initially need investment. For instance, many people need significant amount of money and recover their losses.
In conclusion, people who self-employed they feel freedom. They can generate high income rather than normal jobs. However, it is time consuming and many people often suffer from depression and because they faces big losses in their business.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for choosing self-employment and the potential disadvantages. However, the development of ideas is somewhat superficial. For example, the explanation of 'flexibility' is repetitive, and the example regarding American children starting businesses at 16 is not entirely relevant to the broader context of adult self-employment. While the main points are clear, the arguments lack depth and analytical rigor. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your points with more logical reasoning and provide more pertinent, well-integrated examples that directly support your claims about the challenges and benefits of being self-employed.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. Phrases like 'This because is business provide' and 'As a compare to' are grammatically incorrect and disrupt the flow. Furthermore, the transition between ideas within paragraphs is sometimes abrupt. While there is a logical progression from reasons to drawbacks, the lack of sophisticated linking words and the frequent errors in referencing (e.g., 'they' referring to unclear antecedents) limit the coherence of the response. Improving the variety and accuracy of your transition signals will significantly enhance the readability of your work.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for higher bands. You rely on basic terms like 'good', 'big', and 'things', and there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'Self-employed generate good earning' instead of 'The self-employed generate a good income' and 'without boss pressure' instead of 'without the pressure of a supervisor'. There are also minor errors in word formation, such as '16 age' instead of 'the age of 16'. To improve, focus on learning collocations and using more academic, topic-specific vocabulary to express your ideas more naturally.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'Self-employed generate', 'business provide'), article usage, and sentence construction (e.g., 'This because is business provide freedom'). These errors are noticeable and occasionally make the reader work harder to understand the intended meaning. While the meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of basic grammatical slips prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. You should focus on mastering basic sentence patterns and proofreading for common errors like pluralization and verb tense consistency.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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