Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-19

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 4.0)

Fields are growing at a continuous rate in the world now a days. Numerious ways of getting rich are introducing themselves in the market. Individuals want to become boss rather than living a life of salavery. Less salaries also account for self-employment. Its advantages and disadvantages are very prominent but I stand with the detrimental effects personaly.

When we talk about the disadvantages, the lack of experience holds the upmost place in the list.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The response is severely under-length, containing only 74 words compared to the required 250 words. Because of this, it fails to properly address the main parts of the prompt, touching only briefly upon why people become self-employed and mentioning just one disadvantage ('the lack of experience holds the upmost place') before abruptly stopping. The writer's position is stated as standing with the 'detrimental effects,' but this is left entirely undeveloped due to the incomplete nature of the essay. According to the band descriptors, this falls well below the standard for a Band 5, as the task is only addressed in a minimal and highly truncated way, leading to a score of 3.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response consists of a single opening paragraph of five sentences followed by a single incomplete sentence on a new line. There is no discernible overall progression, and the lack of a proper essay structure means paragraphing is entirely inadequate. While basic cohesive devices and logical transitions are attempted, the text breaks off prematurely before any sustained logical development can take place. Referencing is basic, and the piece reads more as a collection of disjointed introductory sentences rather than a cohesive text. This corresponds to the Band 4 descriptor where information and ideas are not arranged coherently or fully developed.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and contains noticeable errors that impede clear communication. For example, the student writes 'salavery' instead of 'slavery' and 'upmost' instead of 'utmost'. Phrases like 'Fields are growing at a continuous rate' and 'Numerious ways of getting rich are introducing themselves' are unnatural in collocation and style. Although there is a minor attempt to use less common words like 'detrimental', the frequent spelling mistakes and awkward word choices restrict the vocabulary to a limited and inadequate range, aligning closely with a Band 4 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The text displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying primarily on simple sentences with occasional attempts at complex forms. There are multiple grammatical and mechanical errors, such as missing articles ('Individuals want to become boss') and spelling errors ('Numerious', 'personaly'). The sentence 'Numerious ways of getting rich are introducing themselves in the market' demonstrates poor control of voice and subject-verb agreement. Because errors are frequent relative to the short length of the text and structures are basic, the response warrants a Band 4 for grammatical range and accuracy.

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

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