Should schools teach practical skills such as cooking and budgeting?
A strong Part 3 answer takes a position in the first clause, supports it with one reason and one concrete case, and then names where it stops being true. Around a minute.
The question, as the examiner gives it
Should schools teach practical skills such as cooking and budgeting?
no preparation, about 1 minute to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 127 words at a natural pace — roughly what 60 seconds holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.Yes, and I would go further than the usual version of this argument. It is normally made in terms of usefulness, which is true but weak, because plenty of useful things are learned outside school. The stronger case is equality. A child whose parents cook and discuss money absorbs all of this at home for nothing, and a child whose parents do not arrives at eighteen without it, and school is the only place that gap can be closed. The objection is time, and it is legitimate. Something has to be removed to make room, and nobody ever volunteers their own subject. My own view is that a fortnight of genuinely good teaching on money would be worth more than several of the topics it would displace.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- usefulness
three syllables with the stress on the first
- equality
four syllables with the stress on the second
- absorbs
the verb for learning without being taught
- legitimate
four syllables with the stress on the second
- volunteers
the verb, stressed on the third syllable
- fortnight
a British time noun few candidates use
- displace
the exact verb for pushing something out
How a strong answer is built
- 1Agree and say you will strengthen the argument.
- 2Dismiss the usual reason as weak.
- 3Give the stronger reason, about equality.
- 4State the objection fairly and answer it.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Should schools teach practical skills such as cooking and budgeting?” be?
About 60 seconds. Long enough for the answer plus a reason or an example, short enough that the examiner can get through the rest of the set.
Should I memorise the model answer?
No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.
Does sayit score this answer?
It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
What the band on your result means
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