Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-17
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)
In modern age, most of the people want to work freely without any stress and the only way for this is to be self-employ. Nowadays, people do not want to work under a person, company or an organisation even the salary is good enough. Because they want freedom, they want to work for themselves not for the others. This idea is good but it has some advantages and disadvantages. I will support my answer with the following reasons.
The advantages of self-employment, a self-employed person earns more than a person who work for a company or an organisation. Furthermore, self-employment cultivates the stress and a person who is self-employed lives his life with freedom and enjoyment. It gives the life to a man or woman which they want to live. In my perception, in this modern age the self-employment is best in all type of cases because people of today don't want to work for others.
On the other hand, it has some disadvantages and these disadvantages can't be ignored. Initially, the person who start his business will face more difficulties than an employ because business wants sacrifice. Secondly, it may take long process like 10 to 30 years to become a successful business and a person can't wait upto 30 years. Even though, a person can take a step to suicide if his or her money goes waste.
Conclusively, the idea of the self-employment is good but for the person who can take risks. Beacuse it want sacrifices and some persons can't even do a sdingle sacrifice.
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 task by discussing both the reasons why people choose self-employment and the potential disadvantages. The student presents a clear position throughout the essay, stating that while the idea is good, it comes with specific challenges. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For example, the reasons for becoming self-employed are largely restricted to 'freedom' and 'earning more' without deep elaboration. Similarly, the disadvantages mentioned, such as facing difficulties and the extreme example of 'suicide if his or her money goes waste,' lack well-reasoned support and proper balance. While the prompt is answered, the depth of explanation aligns closely with the Band 5 descriptors, where ideas are somewhat limited and under-developed.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay is divided into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing some basic organisation. Paragraphing is attempted, though some paragraphs contain weakly linked ideas. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Furthermore', 'On the other hand', and 'Conclusively', but their application is sometimes mechanical or imprecise. For instance, 'cultivates the stress' and transitional phrases lack smooth logical progression. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the sentence 'Beacuse it want sacrifices and some persons can't even do a sdingle sacrifice.' The overall progression lacks a polished flow, placing the response firmly in the Band 5 category for cohesion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The lexical resource is limited and basic. The student uses simple vocabulary repeatedly, such as 'company', 'organisation', 'person', and 'money'. There are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors that detract from the writing, such as 'self-employ' instead of 'self-employed', 'cultivates the stress' instead of 'eliminates stress' or 'reduces stress', and 'does a sdingle sacrifice'. Spelling mistakes like 'sdingle' and 'Beacuse' also occur. While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the basic meaning of the essay, frequent lexical inaccuracies restrict the score to a Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('most of the people want', 'business wants sacrifice'), article misuse ('in this modern age the self-employment is best'), and tense inconsistencies. Sentence structures are often repetitive or awkward, such as 'the person who start his business will face more difficulties than an employ'. These numerous errors frequently cause difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making Band 5 an accurate reflection of grammatical control.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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