Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-06

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)

Currently, members of workforce happily select to run their own business rather than serve as an employee. Although working as a self-employed have few demerits of financial crisis, and mental health disturbance; I believe people choose this because they find merits of higher earning and work-life balance.

To begin with, the chief reason why workers are at benefits of choosing to be solopreneur is they maintain professional and personal life smoothly with flexible working hours. Since freelancers get unlimited earning potential in running their own business, they are at a major advantage of financial stability. For example, legends of the business world have taken the financial risk to take their business at higher level. Therefore, being entrepreneurs is the better option if individuals want to earn unlimited money.

However, running one's own company has disadvantage of financial instability due to start-ups cannot success everytime. Considering, entrepreneurs does not have fixed-hour work that creates high stress and burnout. For example, youngsters who work in 9-to-5 job has not only limited working hour but also limited work load. Consequently, non-stop working provide mental as well as physical stress, which creates over-work pressure.

Overall, although self-employed has bane of financial instability and high stress, it has boons of unlimited income and work-life balance. I believe being a freelancers give

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing reasons for self-employment and its disadvantages. However, the essay is significantly under the 250-word minimum requirement, which negatively impacts the development of ideas. While the position is clear, the arguments are somewhat superficial and lack the depth required for a higher band. The conclusion is incomplete, cutting off mid-sentence, which indicates a failure to fully develop the response. To improve, you must expand on your points with more detailed explanations and ensure the essay meets the minimum word count to allow for a comprehensive discussion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, and there is a basic attempt at logical progression. You use some cohesive devices like 'To begin with', 'However', and 'Consequently' to link ideas. However, the flow is sometimes mechanical, and the abrupt ending of the essay severely disrupts the overall coherence. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the second paragraph where the example about 'legends of the business world' is vague and does not effectively support the point about financial stability. Improving the transition between sentences and ensuring a complete, well-structured conclusion will help improve this score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'solopreneur', 'financial stability', and 'burnout'. However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'have few demerits of financial crisis' and 'cannot success everytime'. Some phrasing is repetitive, and the vocabulary lacks the precision needed for a higher band. To improve, focus on learning common collocations and ensuring that words are used in their correct grammatical form. Expanding your range of topic-specific vocabulary will also help you express your ideas more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Examples include 'working as a self-employed have few demerits', 'entrepreneurs does not have', and 'youngsters who work in 9-to-5 job has'. Subject-verb agreement and article usage are consistent areas of weakness. While you attempt complex sentences, the high frequency of errors in basic grammar limits your score. Focus on proofreading for subject-verb agreement and ensuring that plural/singular nouns are used correctly to improve your accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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