Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-23

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)

The trend of being selfemployed is increasing with the time due to different circumstances which we will discuss that changes the people minds to start his own bussiness rather than to work under other person. But starting his own bussiness is not a complete solution because it comes with lot challenges.

Firstly, if we talk about the reasons of why individuals are more interested towards the self employement is the changing in the mindset of new generations, today generation are more focus on his own priorities rather being a corporate slaves. the other more crucial aspect is the changing in lifestyle which is not affordable with corporate salery alone. one more imortant reason of this trend is the lack of job opportunities in the market. a lot of People with degrees and good potential are being wasted due to the saturation in the market. For examples, if i talk about my field of study a young graduates in food technology are unemployed due the lack of job opportunities . so instead of being unemployed they start their own food bussiness.

But starting their own bussiness is not a solution because being a self employed comes with lot of self funding, a risk and competition which a young graduates cant afford. doing his own work needs strong experience that lacks young people and this thing cause a lot of damage to the person mentally and physically both like if i talk about my life experience where i see my own batchmates who lost his own money time and confidence due to the employment because corporate comes with a salery and no risk that a young graduates need.

in conclusion, both things comes with his own pros and cons so choose wisley.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both parts of the question: you suggest that changing priorities, the cost of living and limited job opportunities encourage self-employment, then identify funding, risk and competition as disadvantages. The food-technology example helps make the job-shortage point more concrete. However, several ideas are asserted rather than explained. For instance, the claim that corporate salaries cannot support a changing lifestyle needs clarification, and the disadvantages would be stronger if you explained how financial risk or limited experience affects a new business. The conclusion says there are pros and cons but does not clearly summarise your answer. Develop each main reason with a clear explanation or example, and state your overall view more directly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on reasons, a paragraph on disadvantages and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “one more important reason” and “in conclusion” help signal the stages of your answer. However, progression within the paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow because several points are crowded together, and the long sentences contain multiple ideas without clear links. The shift from general disadvantages to your personal example is also abrupt. Some references, such as “this thing” and “both things,” do not clearly identify the idea being discussed. Use one main idea per sentence, connect each example explicitly to its point, and make the conclusion refer clearly to the two parts of the question.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “self-employed,” “job opportunities,” “competition,” “risk” and “unemployed,” so the main message is generally understandable. There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “saturation in the market” and “self-funding.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or unclear, including “corporate slaves,” “self employement,” “a lot of self funding” and “due to the employment.” Spelling errors such as “bussiness,” “salery” and “wisley” are noticeable and reduce accuracy. Build a bank of accurate topic phrases and check spelling and word forms carefully; prefer neutral, precise language over expressions that sound informal or unclear.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including a conditional example beginning “if I talk about my field of study,” but complex structures are often difficult to control. Errors in agreement and verb forms appear in phrases such as “today generation are more focus,” “a young graduates … are unemployed” and “who lost his own money.” Articles, plurals and sentence boundaries also need attention; for example, the opening sentence runs several clauses together, while “both things comes” has a subject–verb agreement error. These problems sometimes make the reader work to understand the intended meaning. Practise building accurate short sentences first, then combine them with controlled clauses, checking agreement, articles and punctuation.

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