Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-21

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)

Nowadays many individuals choose beign self employed and independent to work instead of engaging with company or organisations .This opinion brings certain advantages but i strongly believe that it holds some disadvantages too .In this essay will discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of this opinion and draw a conclusion.

On the first hand , the major disadvantages is they may have to invest their own money on some biggest project which may brings some positivie or negative result the high financial risk may hampered them more personally.Another disadvantages is being self employed leads to take high number of responsibility have to work for a long hours.For instant to make your company more broaded you have to work hard for a long time in weekend or in day and night.Similarly , more responsibility required while choosing being self employed because beign a head of company have to manage every work schedule such as mange customer ,finance , taxes etc.

However the disadvantages outweigh the advantages but it brigns some advantages to self employed and the reason to beign self employed such as freedom and independence beign flexible to make you own decision without depending on other employler.fexible work hours like you can often choose when and wherever to do work .

In conclusion , increasing the popularity of choosing to self-employed has brings certain advantages of freedom and independence and flexible work time but it holda the disadvantages that outweigh the advantages such as high financial risk , more preesure and responsiblity .Consequently , i believe that because to beign independent and freedom to work and for job satisfaction they choose to beign seld employed whereas thet disadvantages outweigh the advantages .

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the reasons for choosing self-employment (such as freedom, independence, and flexible work hours) and the disadvantages (including high financial risk, long hours, and high responsibility). A position is stated in the introduction and maintained throughout the essay. However, the ideas are somewhat repetitive and lack deeper development. For example, while financial risk is mentioned, it is not supported with a specific, fully realized example. The explanation of responsibilities remains slightly surface-level. Nevertheless, all prompt requirements are met, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, separating the introduction, disadvantages, advantages, and conclusion. However, cohesion is often faulty or mechanical. Phrases like 'On the first hand' (a misuse of 'On the one hand') and repetitive transitions create a clunky flow. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly with pronoun use ('they may have to invest... which may brings some...'). Paragraphing is present, but internal logical progression within the body paragraphs is disrupted by frequent grammatical and phrasing issues, placing this firmly at Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student attempts some less common vocabulary related to the topic, such as 'self-employed', 'financial risk', and 'independence', but lexical control is weak due to frequent word-formation errors and spelling mistakes. Examples include 'beign' instead of 'being', 'broaded' instead of 'broaden', 'fexible' instead of 'flexible', and 'preesure' instead of 'pressure'. While the range is minimally adequate to convey the basic meaning of the ideas, these persistent errors cause distraction and occasional difficulty for the reader, matching the Band 5 descriptor criteria.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is very low throughout the response. There are numerous basic errors in subject-verb agreement, verb forms, and prepositional use, such as 'choose beign self employed and independent to work', 'In this essay will discussed', and 'because to beign independent and freedom'. Complex structures are frequently faulty, leading to sentences that are hard to parse. Because errors are extremely frequent and occasionally obscure the exact meaning, the response fits the Band 4.5 to 5.0 range, leaning toward Band 5.0 for attempting complex thoughts.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.