Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)
In modren society plethora of the individuals prefer to work for themself as compared to having a job in a company . This trend can be explained by several reasons , although being self employed also has notable disadvantages.
One main causes is the desire for independence . Self employed individuals have more control over their working hours workload and the type of work they do . This flexibility allows people to achieve a better work life balance and to orgenise their free accoding to personal needs . In addition , self employment can be financially attractive . People usally are capable to keep the profits the earn they may have opportunities to increase their income based on effort and skill rather than receiving a fixed handsome salary .
However , one major drawback is that financial insecurity . Unlike employees , self employed workers often do not have a stable income paid holidays and a sick leaves . This uncertainty can be stressful especcially during periods of low demand . Additionally , self employed individuals must handle all aspects of their business , sach as taxes , admiistration as well as marketing which can be time consuming ans challenging .
In conclusion , people choose self employed mainly for freedom , flexibility , and potential finanals rewards .Nevertheless , the lack of stability benefits ans support means that self employed is not suitable for everyone.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by explaining why people choose self-employment, such as the desire for independence and financial potential, and discussing disadvantages like financial insecurity and heavy administrative workloads. However, the response falls short of the minimum 250-word requirement, containing only 236 words. This under-length impacts the full development of ideas, preventing the essay from achieving a higher band score despite covering the required points adequately. Examples such as 'the desire for independence' and 'financial insecurity' are relevantly introduced and supported with basic examples, aligning with a band 5.5 performance.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a clear overall progression with logical paragraphing, separating the introduction, reasons for self-employment, disadvantages, and conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'One main causes', 'In addition', and 'However' are used to link ideas, although some phrasing is mechanically applied or grammatically flawed (e.g., 'One main causes'). Referencing is generally clear, but paragraph transitions and internal cohesion could be smoother. Overall, the organizational structure meets the requirements for a band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student attempts a range of vocabulary suitable for the topic, including terms like 'financial insecurity', 'flexibility', and 'administrative'. However, there are numerous spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'modren' instead of 'modern', 'plethora of the individuals', 'orgenise', 'accoding', 'usally', 'sach', 'admiistration', 'ans', and 'finanals'. These errors demonstrate a limited control over spelling and word formation, restricting the lexical score to a band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'This flexibility allows people to achieve a better work life balance and to orgenise their free accoding to personal needs.' However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors, including missing articles (e.g., 'is that financial insecurity'), subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'One main causes'), and awkward prepositional phrases. While communication is rarely impeded completely, the frequency of errors prevents the grammar score from exceeding a band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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