Part 2 · Band 9

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 · 257 words

Target Band 9 · Original model answer

A surprisingly useful skill my sister taught me was how to cook without treating a recipe as a set of unbreakable rules. This happened when I had just moved into my own flat and realised that being able to heat something up was not quite the same as being able to feed myself. She chose a simple vegetable soup for our first lesson. We shopped together, then she stood beside me while I did the actual cooking. What I remember most is that she kept asking questions: Did the onions smell sweet yet? Was the heat too high? Did the soup need more salt? She was teaching me to pay attention, rather than just telling me what to do next. A few days later, I made it again on my own and added far too much water. I thought I had ruined it, but she suggested simmering it with the lid off. Watching it gradually become the right consistency was a small breakthrough. I understood that I could respond to a problem instead of starting over or giving up. That skill has been useful in a very practical sense: I spend less on takeaway food and waste fewer ingredients. More than that, though, it has made everyday cooking feel manageable. I can adapt a meal to what I have and trust myself to correct it along the way. I think that is why the lesson stayed with me. My sister gave me a method, but she also gave me permission to make mistakes and work through them.

Answer analysis

Language

The text combines a clear narrative with reflective language and precise descriptions of the learning process.

Development

Every cue-card point is addressed, and the explanation of usefulness develops naturally from the concrete experience.

Delivery

Practise this as a flexible story. Avoid memorising the wording; actual fluency and pronunciation must be assessed from your recording.

Fluency & Coherence

The ideas develop in a clear sequence: your sister teaches you through a soup lesson, you describe a later mistake, and you finish with practical and personal benefits. The reflection, “I could respond to a problem instead of starting over or giving up,” gives the story a satisfying turning point. To practise speaking, give a timed two-minute retelling using the same sequence, then check whether you explain both how you learnt the skill and why it matters.

Lexical Resource

Your vocabulary is precise and natural, especially “a set of unbreakable rules” and “gradually become the right consistency,” which make the cooking lesson vivid without overstatement. You also distinguish practical value from personal confidence. A small refinement for spontaneous speech would be to use a few more contractions or shorter transitions so the polished phrasing sounds conversational, while keeping the specific details that make the story memorable.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

You use a confident range of accurate sentence forms, including the time-setting clause “when I had just moved into my own flat,” embedded questions, and the contrast in “My sister gave me a method, but she also gave me permission to make mistakes.” The longer sentences remain easy to follow, and punctuation supports the meaning. There is no clear grammatical error to correct; you could practise delivering the longer sentences in natural thought groups.

Pronunciation

This is text only, so pronunciation cannot be assessed. For practice, stress the key content words in “vegetable soup,” “right consistency,” and “make mistakes,” and group the final sentence into two thought groups: “My sister gave me a method / but she also gave me permission to make mistakes and work through them.” Record a spoken retelling, check that these words are clear, and compare your delivery with the text. This guide is not an assessment of a recording.

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

  • Practise a two-minute retelling with four checkpoints: moving into your flat, the soup lesson, the too-watery soup, and how the skill helps now.
  • Keep the contrast between practical benefits and personal confidence, but try saying each benefit in one concise sentence so the answer remains natural under time pressure.
  • Record yourself saying the final two sentences, then check whether the contrast in “a method, but…” and the phrase “make mistakes and work through them” are clearly grouped and emphasised.

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.

Practise your answer →

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