Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-28

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)

In this busy world, everyone has to do work to fulfill their needs and meet their daily expenses. Majority of them work for a company or any organisation whereas some of them are self-employed and some of them are business owners or they may control the whole company.

There are many examples of successful people who rose from zero. It mainly depends on luck and hard work. Being self-employed is a good state for everyone because they do not have to face the burden of seniors and bosses. They work independently and achieve many goals in this journey. It is not easy at the initial stages but with the flow of time people understand the basics and methods for successful journey.

There are some major disadvantages for being self-employed which are described below:

1. If you lack resources and information, you can fail badly.

2. If someone fails for more than three or four times, they give up and do not return to that journey.

3. You are working independently and can work at any time but if you do not provide time and concentration to the work, it leads to downfall.

4. You face many annoying people during this journey who demotivates you continuously and you fail.

5. Everyone faces hardships and annoying customers in this journey but all they need is consistency.

Everyone needs some nerve to be self-employed. It is not an easy journey but we need to set goals and stay motive for that journey. We need to work with full devotion to achieve an astonishing rank.

If you work under companies, you definitely have to face hardships and an exhausting 9-5 job. A small mistake can create misunderstandings between the employer and the whole crew which mainly results in getting fired.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, exploring reasons why people choose self-employment, such as avoiding the burden of bosses, as well as several disadvantages, including lack of resources and potential downfall without concentration. However, the development of these ideas remains somewhat superficial. The essay relies on a numbered list for the disadvantages, which is inappropriate for an academic essay structure and limits the depth and extension of the arguments. While the ideas are relevant, they are often stated rather than fully explained with specific examples from personal knowledge or experience. Consequently, the task is addressed adequately, but the lack of fully developed argumentation prevents the response from reaching a higher band. This corresponds to the Band 6 descriptor, where all parts are addressed, but some are under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is a noticeable issue with paragraphing and structural cohesion in this essay. The use of a numbered list for the disadvantages breaks the flow of academic writing and indicates a lack of control over standard essay organisation. While individual sentences are generally linked, the overall progression can feel disjointed. Cohesive devices are used sparingly or mechanically, as seen in repetitive sentence starters like 'This journey' or 'In this journey'. Paragraphing is not used sufficiently and appropriately, as the central body of disadvantages is presented as a list rather than cohesive paragraphs. Overall arrangement shows some coherence, but referencing and logical sequencing between the main points are faulty due to the list format, fitting the Band 5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but it lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'astonishing rank', 'devotion', and 'burden of seniors', but these choices sometimes suffer from awkward collocation or slight inaccuracy. There is also repetition of basic terms like 'journey', 'work', and 'fail'. Nevertheless, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main message, and spelling and word choices do not seriously impede communication. Simple errors in word choice occur, such as 'stay motive' instead of 'stay motivated', placing the lexical performance firmly at Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, with some successful attempts at subordination and conditional structures, such as 'If you lack resources and information, you can fail badly.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasing throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'demotivates you continuously', missing articles, and preposition errors such as 'disadvantages for being' instead of 'disadvantages of being'. Punctuation is generally basic. While these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, their frequency causes some difficulty for the reader and prevents the text from achieving a higher level of accuracy. This performance aligns with Band 5.

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

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