Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-24
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)
Freelancing is the modern trend, people all over the world want to be self-employed rather than a job for some organisation. This provides them with financial perks and preferable time to do work. However, this can have its own advantages and disadvantages.
Working for a company can be hectic and stressful as the organizations bound their employees with their policies and work structure. Thus, people are viewing self-employment as an escape from these boundaries. Furthermore, this provides them with the facility of mobility like they can do their work from wherever they want. This pays more and also there is less to stress about as there is no office politics. For instance, CAD designers working for organized companies are paid less than the the designers finding their work on their own.
Self-employment has disadvantages of its own as it means more responsibilities because now they need to find their work through numerous means and it can be quite difficult sometimes. Moreover, expertise in one niche will not be enough anymore because they now will have to prove their expertise, manage their portfolios and build personal branding. For instance, a designer on fiver needs to build his portfolios according to the job he might want than do the bidding himself also he needs to do personal branding on the job boards and thus, much of the patience is needed.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, exploring reasons for self-employment such as flexibility and higher earning potential, alongside disadvantages like increased responsibilities and the need for personal branding. However, the ideas are somewhat under-developed and lack extension with deeper examples. Furthermore, the length requirement has not been met: the response contains 228 words, falling short of the 250-word minimum. Because the word count penalty must be applied to Task Achievement, this pulls the score down to a 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay demonstrates a clear overall arrangement with basic paragraphing. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, moving from an introduction to advantages and then disadvantages. Cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Furthermore', and 'Moreover' are used to connect ideas, though referencing is occasionally imprecise, such as using 'this' ambiguously in sentences like 'Furthermore, this provides them with the facility of mobility.' Paragraphing is used sufficiently, resulting in a coherent structure that allows the reader to follow the train of thought easily despite some mechanical transitions.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'financial perks', 'mobility', 'niche', and 'personal branding'. There are some word choice and collocation issues, such as writing 'rather than a job for some organisation' instead of 'working for an organisation', and spelling 'fiverr' as 'fiver'. However, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without impeding communication, representing a solid Band 6 level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasing instances, such as 'than the the designers finding their work' (repetition) and 'than do the bidding himself also he needs to do' (run-on structure). Punctuation and article usage also show occasional lapses. Nonetheless, the meaning remains clear throughout, aligning well with the descriptors for Band 6.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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