Part 2 cue cardEducation and schools

Describe a teacher who has influenced you

"What they taught you" is the trap: naming the subject wastes the bullet. The marks are in the lesson beyond the syllabus and a visible change it caused, such as a decision or a habit, with a present perfect for what has lasted.

1 minute to prepare
Up to 2 minutes
Samples at Band 6, 7 and 8
Updated 20 October 2026

Describe a teacher who has influenced you.

You should say:

who the teacher was
what they taught you
what they were like
and explain how they influenced you

Rehearse the long turn

1 minute to prepare · 2 minutes to speak

Sit this card with the AI examinerThen the Part 3 discussion, and a full report

A 60-second plan

who the teacher wasMr Haddad, physics, Amman, Grade 10
what they taught youphysics, but really: mistakes are information
what they were likechaotic, funny, wrote wrong answers up
and explain how they influenced youfrom failing maths to civil engineering

Sample answers

233 words · about 2:02 spoken at a Band 6 pace

OK, so I'm going to talk about Mr Haddad, who was my physics teacher in grade ten at a boys' school in Amman. He was quite young at that time, maybe in his late twenties, and he was new in our school, so at first nobody took him very seriously.

Officially he taught us physics, but actually the most important thing he taught us was that making mistake is not a disaster. Before him I was very afraid from maths and physics. I always got low marks and I thought my brain is just not made for numbers.

He was a very funny and energetic person. Every week he made us to build something, like a small water rocket from plastic bottles, and when it failed he laughed and asked us why. He also used to write students' wrong answers on the board, without names, and then the whole class discussed about them. It sounds embarrassing, but it was really helpful.

He influenced me a lot because he changed my attitude completely. I started to make questions in class instead of hiding at the back, and my marks get better slowly. In the end I chose to study civil engineering, which I never imagined when I was fifteen. Now, when I make a mistake in a design project, I can hear his voice in my head, asking what the mistake is telling me.

The mistakes that keep it at Band 6

he was new in our school should be he was new at our school
making mistake is not a disaster should be making mistakes isn't a disaster
very afraid from maths should be very afraid of maths
I thought my brain is just not made should be I thought my brain just wasn't made
he made us to build something should be he made us build something
discussed about them should be discussed them
I started to make questions should be I started to ask questions
my marks get better slowly should be my marks slowly got better

Why this is Band 6, not Band 7

Fluency and coherence: Keeps going and answers all four bullets in order, with one clear turn ("Officially he taught us physics, but actually"). It stays at Band 6 because most links are "and", "so" and "because", and the last part announces the influence ("He influenced me a lot") before it shows it.
Vocabulary: Topic words are there ("water rocket", "civil engineering", "low marks"), but some choices are not yet English: "make questions" translates a phrase where English uses ask, and "afraid from" takes the wrong preposition. Band 7 would add less common items, such as a way to describe the fear precisely.
Grammar: There is a relative clause and a past habit with "used to", but the harder structures break: "I thought my brain is" keeps the present inside a past thought, "made us to build" adds an infinitive marker, and "my marks get better" slips out of the past. Errors this regular are Band 6.

Pronunciation is the fourth criterion; it is judged from your voice, so a written sample cannot show it.

255 words · about 1:58 spoken at a Band 7 pace

I'd have to choose Mr Haddad, who taught me physics in Grade 10 at a boys' school in Amman. He'd only just qualified, I think, and on his first day half the class decided he'd be easy to ignore. They were wrong.

On paper he taught us mechanics and electricity, but the real lesson was about getting things wrong. Until then I'd been convinced I simply wasn't a numbers person; I'd freeze whenever a teacher called on me, and my marks were nothing to write home about.

What was he like? Lively, a bit chaotic, and completely unembarrassed by failure. Every Thursday we'd build something in the yard, water rockets out of plastic bottles or a bridge made of spaghetti, and when it collapsed he'd grin and ask, 'Right, what went wrong?' He also had a habit of copying our wrong answers onto the board anonymously and getting the class to work out where each one had gone off track. Strangely enough, it took all the fear out of it.

As for how he influenced me, it was gradual but it was huge. I started putting my hand up, I stopped hiding at the back, and by the end of that year I'd moved from near the bottom of the class into the top five. That's ultimately why I'm studying the civil engineering now, which would have sounded ridiculous to my fifteen-year-old self. Even today, when a calculation doesn't work out, I find myself asking his question: what is this mistake trying to tell me?

The slips

studying the civil engineering should be studying civil engineering

Why this is Band 7, not Band 8

Fluency and coherence: Speaks at length with flexible signposting ("On paper", "What was he like?", "As for how he influenced me"), and the story builds rather than lists. Not Band 8 because the bullets are still announced one by one, so the structure shows instead of one scene flowing into the next.
Vocabulary: Less common, idiomatic language used naturally ("nothing to write home about", "gone off track", "a numbers person"). Band 8 would be this precise throughout; here ordinary wording such as "it was gradual but it was huge" still carries some of the key points.
Grammar: A good range, mostly accurate: past perfect for the earlier belief ("I'd been convinced"), "we'd build" for a past habit, a past hypothetical in "would have sounded ridiculous". One slip, "studying the civil engineering", where a field of study takes no article.

Pronunciation is the fourth criterion; it is judged from your voice, so a written sample cannot show it.

287 words · about 1:59 spoken at a Band 8 pace

The teacher who's had the biggest influence on me is Mr Haddad, who taught me physics when I was fifteen, at a boys' school in Amman. He'd arrived fresh out of teacher training, and I remember the back row sizing him up as an easy target. Within a fortnight they'd changed their minds.

Technically, the syllabus was forces, circuits and so on, but what he actually taught me was that a wrong answer is information rather than a verdict. That mattered enormously, because I'd more or less written myself off as someone who just didn't have the brain for science. I'd go blank the moment I was asked anything, and my results reflected it.

He was infectiously enthusiastic, slightly disorganised and utterly unfazed by things going wrong. Every Thursday he'd march us out to the yard to launch bottle rockets or test spaghetti bridges to destruction, and the more spectacular the failure, the happier he seemed. He'd also put a few of our incorrect answers up on the board, anonymously, and get us to trace exactly where the reasoning had come unstuck. Oddly, seeing everyone else's mistakes laid out like that made my own feel far less shameful.

The influence crept up on me rather than arriving all at once. I began volunteering answers, then asking questions I'd previously have kept to myself, and by the end of the year I'd climbed from the bottom third of the class into the top five. Without that shift I'd never have dreamt of applying for civil engineering, which is what I'm studying now. And to this day, whenever a structural calculation refuses to come out, I can practically hear him asking what the mistake is trying to tell me.

Why this is Band 8, not Band 9

Fluency and coherence: Effortless and fully coherent: each bullet gets a scene, and the ending ties back to the central idea ("what the mistake is trying to tell me"). Short of Band 9 only because a few links, such as "Technically" and "Oddly", are predictable openers rather than part of the thought.
Vocabulary: Precise and idiomatic throughout: "written myself off", "come unstuck", "crept up on me", "test spaghetti bridges to destruction". Band 9 would bring the same exactness to the plainer sentences, where "That mattered enormously" is good rather than vivid.
Grammar: A wide, flexible range with no errors: "I'd previously have kept to myself", a comparative correlative ("the more spectacular the failure, the happier he seemed"), past perfect for the earlier self-image. The gap to Band 9 is a handful of safe, familiar structures.

Pronunciation is the fourth criterion; it is judged from your voice, so a written sample cannot show it.

Rounding-off questions

Are you still in touch with this teacher?: Loosely, yes. We're connected on Facebook, and when I got into engineering I sent him a message. He replied with a photo of our collapsed spaghetti bridge, which he'd apparently kept all these years.
Do you think you'll remember them in years to come?: Definitely. Most of my teachers have already blurred together, but he changed how I deal with failure, and that's something I use every week. I can't imagine forgetting the person who gave me that.