Part 1 – Introduction & Interview
[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]
Weekends
Q. How do you usually spend your weekends? [Why?]
Answer: I usually like to spend my weekends outdoors by hanging out with my friends and families either at our favourite restaurants, enjoying some of our favourite food, or at some local café where we could enjoy some snacks and freshly-brewed coffee. Of course, I also like to travel to some nice places where I have never been to when I have a long weekend.
Q. Which is your favourite part of the weekend? [Why?]
Answer: To be honest, it is difficult to pinpoint the particular part(s) of the weekend since every minute of a weekend seems to be special and favourite to me. However, I would say that the mornings of the weekends are my favourite parts since I don’t really have to worry about waking up early, getting ready to reach the office and take a drive to my office. Another part of my weekend, which I really like, is when I get to enjoy the outdoors by getting close to “Mother Nature”.
Q. Do you think your weekends are long enough? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: To tell you the truth, I sometimes do feel that my weekends are not long enough mainly because it doesn’t allow me to fully recover from the extreme burnout of my work weeks. Besides, I don’t seem to find enough time to do the things, that I really enjoy doing, during the weekends because there are just too many house “choirs” to take care of.
Q. How important do you think it is to have free time at the weekends? [Why?]
Answer: It is absolutely important to have free time during the weekends as it helps us to recuperate from the fatigue of our works during the week and get ready to face the challenges of the next week. Besides, it also helps us enjoy some quality times with our family and friends which are very crucial to maintain a work-life balance.
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Part 2 – Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card
[The topic for your talk will be written on a card which the examiner will hand you. Read it carefully and then make some brief notes.]
Describe someone you know who does something well.
You should say:
- who this person is
- how you know this person
- what he/she does well
and explain why you think this person is so good at doing this.
[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]
Sample Answer:
Ms Nefertiti teaches art and painting at a local school in Alexandria. She is also a prominent painter and able to paint anything she wants or her students ask for. She believes painting is her silence of thought and music of sight. Completing her post-graduation from Paris, she returned Egypt and been engaged in teaching art, painting drawing cartoons etc. Besides, she is smart and intelligent. This is an outstanding cue card and I love the questions. Here go the remaining answers.
I first met with Ms Nefertiti at the school of Ubaid, my son. I went to bring him back to home and found her waiting. She wanted to talk to me about some issues of Ubaid. She informed me about the potentials of my boy in painting. She told me that Ubaid creates with heart. Painting is voyage and my son could be a great sailor here someday.
She is highly skilled in painting contemporary issues. Even she is engaged with a local newspaper where she draws cartoons. She is a young lady with painting in her heart and mind. I have seen some of the paintings of this lady and got amazed. She expresses her thoughts in painting beautifully and selects out of the box themes. Each of her paintings carries a message for her audience.
After years of practice, she mastered painting. Before starting to teach painting at the school, she arranged exhibitions with her painting. Luckily I had the chance to visit one of such exhibitions. Undoubtedly those were some masterpieces. Her vision in mind makes her outstanding than other painters. She imitates what she thinks and so the paintings are stunning. She also takes less time to paint for her strong imagination skill. For all the reasons, I think she is good at painting.
Part 3 – Two-way Discussion:
Discussion topics:
Skills and abilities
Q. What skills and abilities do people most want to have today? Why?
Answer: It all depends on what kinds of career one would want to pursue and what types of skills and abilities are in demand in the job market. But, as evidence suggests, people want to learn skills like computer programming skills, good communication skills, project management skills, multi-tasking abilities, technical skills and good time management skills. They want to learn them primarily because the job market has become extremely competitive today where just mastering a particular subject or trade, in which one would want to pursue his/her career, is not enough.
Q. Which skills should children learn at school? Are there any skills which they should learn at home? What are they?
Answer: Children should learn any skills, be it at schools or homes, which would help them become good and productive citizens. These skills may include proper communication skills and good time management skills, in addition to other soft skills, as they would help children, no matter what professions they choose in the future. However, having said that, it is also important that children are encouraged to learn mostly those skills, in addition to their regular subjects and trades, which are more aligned with their future career aspirations.
Besides, parents should try to instil good moral qualities among their children at home and teach them to be helpful and sympathetic to all creatures- small or big.
Q. Which skills do you think will be important in the future? Why?
Answer: I think that technical skills and computer skills will prove out to be more and more important in the future because people would be relying lesser and lesser on manual works and skills and depending more and more on machines, computers or robots. Therefore, it is fair to assume that only those skills, which are needed to collaborate with machines and train them, will be important. However, I also feel that soft skills like communication skills, interpersonal skills, project management skills, multi-tasking skills and time managed skills would also be important no matter what the professions are in the future.
Salaries for skilled people
Q. Which kinds of jobs have the highest salaries in your country? Why is this?
Answer: As I see it, I think that “engineering professionals”, “medical doctors”, “computer programmers”, and “bank executives” are the highest salary earners in my country primarily because the sectors they work in are making a huge profit these days because of a great economic growth, enjoyed by my country over the last decade or so. Besides, they possess special skills which are in great demand in my country. So, if the economy is in good shape, and if there are not enough qualified people to get the job done, it is only natural that huge salaries will be paid to these professionals.
Q. Are there any other jobs that you think should have high salaries? Why do you think that?
Answer: Yes, I do think that some other professionals, such as teachers and agricultural professionals, should be getting high salaries as well. In fact, in my opinion, teachers essentially are the ‘ultimate’ architects of a nation as they spend years in creating good and productive citizens for the nation. Besides, it is because of the passion and persistence of the teaching professionals that a nation enjoys the services of medical doctors and engineers. Talking about agricultural professionals, without their sincere and hard-working efforts in the sun or rain, we wouldn’t be able to get any food.
Q. Some people say it would be better for society if everyone gets the same salary. What do you think about that? Why?
Answer: It would really be great if everybody would get the same salary, but unfortunately, this is not realistically possible because not every skill is valued or sought after in the same way, nor every job involves the same level of hard work and risks. Besides, if everybody “were” paid the same kind of salaries, nobody would care to follow the leads of others, and as a result, the hierarchy of the authority in the professional world would be completely destroyed, which certainly would not be good for a civilized society and country.
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