IELTS Cue Card # Practical Skill

August 30, 2022 IELTS Research

Describe a practical skill that you have –

What is the skill?

How often you use it?

Who taught it to you?

and explain how it helps you in your daily life.

Sample Answer One

I believe that typing on a computer is the one practical skill that has helped me a lot in the career. I have chosen computer and even in the daily things that I do. My father got us a computer when we were very young and he taught us to type using our both hands. There used to be times when he would dictate me the lessons so that I could understand the lesson as well as improve my typing speed.

There were times, when I would just type for a novel or may be an article in my summer holidays. I might not be the world record holder for the fastest typing but I think I type pretty fast, with minimal errors. Being a software engineer, I think, it is really important for me to be able to type fast. I am not worried about typing the code, but as soon as the code comes to my mind, I go about and type it. This practical skill makes coding all the more fun. Even more, being a freelance blogger, there are times when I have to juggle between both my jobs. It is because of my typing speed that I am able to put down more articles giving me room for some relaxation.

I can definitely say, that typing is that one thing that has actually helped in my life, be it in the IT field or the freelancing thing. It is because of a good typing speed that I am not frustrated over the wrong stuff that gets put up in the computer, the only thing that I need to worry is my work.

Sample Answer Two
We are living in digital world and the one thing I believe has truly helped in leading life is my knowledge of the office suite. So, be it Macintosh or Windows, I am pretty good at the office suite of Microsoft. There are times when I need to prepare presentation on certain things and then days when I need to prepare some other kinds of documents. When that happens, it never is a big deal for me.

I remember my father got us a computer when we were young and my mother was doing a course on Computer Science, so she was learning things like Unix, Powerpoint, Word, C, C++ and out of other languages she taught us very well how to make presentations and documents. So, at the age of 10 or 12 I could make pretty good presentations and that with time has improved.

I think it has truly been very helpful, taken in consideration my career in a software company where you need to make presentations or edit some documents every now and then. Having the skills to make presentations has allowed me to make formal presentations right from the start of my career. It has even helped me get lot of opportunities which might have been skipped other wise.