Cue Card # 204: Describe a skill you wish you have learned

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 204

Describe a skill you wish you have learned.

You should say:

• what skill it is
• how this skill is useful
• why you have not learned it yet

and explain why you wish that you have learned it.

[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.]

Model Answer:

It is a pity that I haven’t fully learned or mastered that many particular skill sets, but if I was to talk about a particular skill that I really wish that I have learned, then it has to be the automotive skill.

But, despite my whole-hearted wish, I haven’t learned that skill yet, mainly because my parents think that I would become a “reckless driver” after learning how to fix a car quickly and easily. In other words, they are being just a bit “too much protective” about their only son. But, whether my parents like it or not, the truth remains that learning that skill could save a person from a lot of unnecessary pain and hassle as he/she could use that skill not only to fix his or her car but also to check for any other problems that would otherwise get unnoticed by a “not-so-expert” car mechanic. And as a result of this, we don’t only waste our valuable time, trying to take a car to a mechanic but also waste tons of money unnecessarily. At least, that’s exactly what I thought when we were having constant problems with our second car that my family had bought about a few years ago.

By the way, we kind of expected that old car to give us some problems, but what we didn’t expect was that we wouldn’t be able to get a reliable car mechanic to fix it as and when needed. In fact, whenever we needed to fix that car, up until the time we finally sold it at a very low price, the car repair shops either took a rather unreasonable period of time to fix it or charged us a very hefty amount of money.

And it was because of those bad experiences that I wish that I have learned the skill. After all, at one point, I just got tired of being “over-dependent” on the goodwill and good skills of other people. Besides, learning that skill would allow me to become more productive with any extra time I have that would get otherwise be wasted.