Part 2 · · 5 samples

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.

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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.

Sample answers

Target Band 9 · Original model answer

257 words · Illustrative target band

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 r…

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