Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-25
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)
People get enough knowledge about the buisness now-a-days through their studies and experiences that they are unable to tie themselves up to an organisation from where they got nothing in the end. That firm is just paying them a little sum and not even giving a job security. So people already concluded that if they did nothing on their own then they will got nothing.
Self buisness is now getting more successful today because people now have the courage to take the risk to built something that they can run in their superiority rather than relying on someone else approval fo their hard work. There are many reasons for that case. For example, a person who gives 10 years to firm and they are just paying him just a little sum but in return they are giving him a lot of burden of work and forcing him to do extra. These things lead to such cases.
On the other hand, if a person has its own buisness he can do whatever he wants to, he can introduce any idea that he wants. Might be this is possible that his ideas help him to reach the highest peak where he always wanted to be. But this self-employment case has many disadvantages also like the risk of loss and if you loss all the money what will you eat next or how will you stand yourself up.
So while taking such decisions in consideration, you must have your backup plan and if you have so, then no one is more succesful than you in this field beacuse this is all a buisness needs.
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 discussing both the reasons why people choose self-employment (such as lack of job security and low pay from traditional employers, as well as the desire for autonomy) and the disadvantages (such as financial risk and instability). However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. Phrases like 'a little sum' and 'burden of work' are restated without deep extension. The position is generally clear throughout, but the reasoning tends to rely on broad generalisations without fully fleshed-out examples. For instance, the example of a person giving 10 years to a firm lacks specific detail. This performance aligns best with Band 6.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphs separating the reasons for self-employment from the disadvantages, followed by a concluding thought. However, cohesion within sentences and paragraphs is occasionally faulty or mechanical. For example, the transition 'On the other hand' is used, but the following sentence connects ideas loosely. Referencing is also ambiguous at times, such as 'These things lead to such cases' without clear antecedents. Paragraphing is used, but the internal logical progression between sentences requires more careful linking. Overall, the structural framework is sufficient for a Band 6 score.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, touching on topics like 'self-employed', 'job security', and 'superiority'. However, there are persistent spelling errors throughout the response, such as 'buisness' (repeated multiple times), 'succesful', and 'beacuse'. Word choice and collocations are occasionally awkward, such as 'stand yourself up' or 'if you loss all the money'. While the vocabulary attempts to cover the topic effectively, these recurring spelling and lexical inaccuracies restrict the score to Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The essay displays a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as 'a person who gives 10 years to firm and they are just paying him just a little sum'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('to firm', 'has its own buisness'), incorrect verb forms ('if you loss all the money', 'they will got nothing'), and punctuation issues. Although these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the writing from achieving a Band 6. Thus, a Band 5.0 is appropriate due to the density of grammatical slips in complex structures.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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