Part 2 · Band 5

Describe a useful skill you learnt from another person. You should say: what the skill was who taught you how you learnt it and explain why the skill has been useful to you.

Illustrative target band for this model answer · 177 words

Target Band 5 · Original model answer

I want to talk about cooking. My sister teach me cooking when I moved to a flat. Before this I cannot cook much. I eat sandwiches and food from shops. My sister is good at cooking and she say I should learn. She came to my flat on a Sunday and showed me making soup. We buy carrots and potatoes and some beans. First she cut vegetables and then I cut some too. It was difficult because I was slow. She put everything in a pot and I watch it. Then we wait and the soup was ready. After this I tried alone. The first time it was not very good because there was too much water. My sister tell me to use less water. Now I can make soup and pasta. I cook two or three times in a week. It is useful because food from shops is expensive and I do not want eat it every day. I also cook for friends sometimes and they like it. So I am happy my sister helped me.

Answer analysis

Language

The story covers the cue card, but tense and verb-form errors recur: “my sister teach”, “I cannot cook” and “I watch it”.

Development

The sequence is easy to recognise. More detail about what the learner did would strengthen the account.

Fluency & Coherence

The cooking story covers the person, the lesson, a difficulty and its current usefulness. The wording “My sister teach me cooking” is the opening practice focus. Use a short introduction and develop the actual event without memorised preambles. This is a text-based planning guide; no recorded fluency score can be inferred from the transcript.

Lexical Resource

The phrase “My sister teach me cooking” is a useful point for improving precision. Use the past tense for the completed lesson and the infinitive pattern. The alternative “My sister taught me to cook” stays connected to this particular cue card. Prefer concrete actions and observations to dramatic adjectives or broad claims about everyone’s experience.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

The revision of “I do not want eat it every day” is “I do not want to eat it every day”. Use “to” before the infinitive after “want”. Keep the tense of the event distinct from the present explanation of why it matters. Use shorter controlled clauses where the source loses a clear subject or connection; do not treat every optional style change as a grammatical error.

Pronunciation

No audio is available, so pronunciation cannot be scored. Practise “My sister taught me to cook” and “I do not want to eat it every day” as thought groups, marking the words that carry the main contrast. Record the whole answer and check whether the listener can follow the sequence without reading the transcript.

A transcript shows language and organisation. Fluency, delivery and pronunciation require an audio recording; the synthetic voice demonstrates the text, not the original speaker.

  • The cooking story covers the person, the lesson, a difficulty and its current usefulness. Use the actual event to organise the response.
  • Practise the quoted revisions in complete sentences and retain personal details already given.
  • Record one continuous answer, then check pauses and emphasis against the sequence of ideas.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Choose a skill with a clear learning story.
  • Mention a difficulty, an action and a result.
  • Explain how you now use it rather than simply calling it useful.

Suggested structure

  1. Identify the person, skill and occasion.
  2. Describe the learning process in order.
  3. Explain one challenge and how you overcame it.
  4. Give a current example of its usefulness.
Useful vocabulary & examples
a manageable step
a small action that is realistic to complete

One manageable step helped me get started.

pay attention to
notice something carefully

I began to pay attention to small details.

grow in confidence
become more sure of one’s ability

I grew in confidence after trying again.

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