Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-16
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 5.0)
Recently, the ways to earning transform. People like to do their own work or run their personal business rather than work with other associations and companies. The prime reason of this increasing phenomena is that companies have long working hours and pay less to employers. There are some disadvantages too to be self-employed. This essay will discuss cause and possible disadvantage of self employment.
In some cases, companies take a lot of work from workers and not pay as much as they deserved. That developed higher rate of wage, Additionally the sense of unsatisfaction increased. This enscourage the employers to work by their-self. For instance, low paid employed from company earned higher by their own business. Thus, financially and mentally satability increased in society.
However, there are some drawbacks. To run personal work without experience,it may trouble some with management, budget and sometime failure. That was not concerned to the employ that work in association or company. Employs are responsible for their own task. For example, new skilled business owner might get failure due to no knowledge of management. As in this case self-employment is not fruitful.
In conclusion, In this modern era, work by-self grow significantly. Its because of work-life unbalance and low salaries. Although , self-employment can increased your living standard and bank balance, there are some failures that could be faced by unskilled, un experienced workers.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the reasons for self-employment (such as long working hours and low pay in companies) and the disadvantages (such as lack of experience leading to management issues and failure). However, the ideas are under-developed and lack sufficient explanation or concrete examples. Furthermore, the length check indicates that the response contains only 229 words, failing to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length impacts the overall development and completeness of the task, pushing the evaluation down to a Band 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay is divided into four paragraphs, showing some attempt at organization with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, there is no clear overall progression of ideas, and transitions feel mechanical or abrupt, as seen in sentences like 'In some cases, companies take a lot of work...' transitioning awkwardly into the next points. Cohesive devices are used inadequately or inaccurately, such as 'Thus, financially and mentally satability increased in society,' which interrupts logical flow and referencing. Paragraphing is present, but overall cohesion is faulty, aligning best with a Band 5.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses a limited vocabulary range that is minimally adequate for the task. There are noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'ways to earning transform', 'pay less to employers' (when referring to employees), and 'satability' (stability). Phrasal and descriptive attempts like 'work by-self' and 'bank balance' are repetitive and basic. Spelling mistakes and awkward phrasing ('un experienced workers') cause some difficulty for the reader at times, but communication of the core message is still achieved, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The text displays a very limited range of grammatical structures. Simple sentences dominate, and attempts at complex structures are frequently faulty or unnatural, such as 'The prime reason of this increasing phenomena is that...' and 'To run personal work without experience,it may trouble some...'. There are frequent errors in verb forms, prepositions, and word classes, such as 'This enscourage the employers to work by their-self' and 'Its because of work-life unbalance'. While meaning can generally be deciphered, the high density of grammatical errors places this response firmly in the Band 5.0 category.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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