Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)
It has now become more common for people to prefer being self-employed rather than working for a company. Many people who are self employed find freedom in not working for anyone else. Meanwhile others choose to be employed by companies because they want the stability that comes with the job.
People who are self employed want freedom and work life balance, such as being able to work at your own pace and also having the freedom to work whenever they want. Moreover, self-employed poeple may have different mindset compared with a regular employee. for example, they dont want to spend their life working for someone else and want to be an entrapenaure.
Although the idea of being self-employed sounds fascinating but it comes with a cost. To be self-employed you have to take risk by putting your career aside leaving a stable job which promises a pay every month, instead youre going to be spending lots of time in working or creating something that you are not even sure of whether its going to give you any sort of financial return or not.
In my opinion being employed for someone else should be an temporary goal for everyone. Furthermore,i believe in people having the ability to manage their work life balance and their final goal should be to have freedom. In my opinion working for yourself will allow you to have a purpose in your life
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing reasons why people choose self-employment (such as freedom, flexibility, and avoiding a 9-to-5 routine) and the disadvantages (financial risk, uncertainty, and losing a stable monthly income). However, the ideas are somewhat limited and under-developed, lacking specific, well-reasoned examples. Furthermore, the length requirement has NOT been met; the response contains only 236 words, falling 14 words short of the 250-word minimum. This negative impact on development and word count pulls the task achievement score down to Band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is divided into four paragraphs, which provides a basic organisational structure. There is a general progression of ideas, moving from an introduction to reasons, disadvantages, and a personal conclusion. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes faulty or repetitive. For instance, the transition 'Meanwhile others choose to be employed...' is slightly abrupt, and the conclusion lacks smooth integration. Paragraphing is used, but transitions between sentences and ideas require better management to achieve a higher band. Overall, the coherence meets the criteria for Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with some attempts at less common lexical items such as 'self-employed', 'work life balance', and 'financial return'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, including 'poeple' instead of 'people', 'dont' missing an apostrophe, and 'entrapenaure' instead of 'entrepreneur'. Additionally, phrases like 'temporary goal' and 'fascinating' are used slightly awkwardly in context. Because these errors do not severely impede communication but prevent precise expression, a score of Band 5.5 is appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like 'Many people who are self employed find freedom in not working for anyone else.' However, grammatical control is inconsistent. There are punctuation errors (e.g., missing commas and periods in 'for example, they dont want...'), run-on constructions like 'Although the idea of being self-employed sounds fascinating but it comes with a cost', and missing articles. The frequent presence of basic grammatical slips keeps the score at Band 5.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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