Teachers

The answer stays clear and correct throughout but relies on plain connectors and short factual sentences ('She was patient and never made me feel my drawings were wrong'), which keeps it modest rather than impressive.

Did/Do you have a favourite teacher at school?

Yes, my art teacher in secondary school, Miss Huong. She noticed I liked drawing and let me stay after class to practice. She was patient and never made me feel my drawings were wrong.

Why this band

• FC“Yes, my art teacher in secondary school, Miss Huong.” — 'Yes, my art teacher in secondary school, Miss Huong' answers the yes/no question and names the teacher in the very same breath, with no hedge or lead-in. That fact-first directness is the Band 6.5 fluency target almost exactly — answer immediately, elaborate afterward — and it's noticeably plainer than the hedged, delayed openers ('if I'm honest') that appear in higher-band answers on similar questions.
• LR“She was patient and never made me feel my drawings were wrong.” — The description leans on one common adjective, 'patient', plus the plain phrasing 'never made me feel my drawings were wrong', without reaching for anything more specific like 'encouraging' or 'unflappable'. This is squarely within the Band 6.5 lexical ceiling of everyday, high-frequency words, at most one slightly less-common item — and here even that single upgrade isn't taken.
• GRA“She noticed I liked drawing and let me stay after class to practice.” — The two actions — noticing the interest, letting the speaker stay after class — are joined simply with 'and' rather than through subordination, such as a relative clause explaining why the teacher noticed. That coordination-over-subordination pattern is the basic sentence structure the Band 6.5 grammar target describes: mostly simple sentences, accurate but not ambitious.

Who did/do you like more, your teachers from primary/elementary school or your teachers from secondary/high school?

I liked my primary teachers more, honestly. They were gentle and patient with us as children. My secondary teachers were stricter and focused mainly on exam results, so the classroom felt less relaxed.

Why this band

• GRA“so the classroom felt less relaxed” — The result is tacked on with the basic connector ‘so’ rather than a more varied structure such as ‘which made the classroom feel less relaxed’ or ‘as a result’. This is accurate and clear, but it relies on the single simplest way of linking cause and effect. That narrow but correct range of connectors is exactly what Band 6.5 grammar looks like.

Are you still in contact with any of your teachers?

Yes, my old art teacher, Miss Huong. We are connected on Zalo, and she sometimes comments on the designs I post. It is nice that she still takes an interest after all these years.

Why this band

• LR“takes an interest” — ‘Takes an interest’ is a common, everyday phrase used here instead of anything more specific, like ‘stays invested in my work’ or ‘keeps up with what I'm doing’. The word choice is accurate but unremarkable, staying safely within high-frequency vocabulary. That plain, correct but narrow lexical choice is typical of Band 6.5.

Do you think teaching is a good job?

I think it can be a good job, but a tiring one. My friend Trang teaches at a primary school, and she often works late preparing lessons. Still, she says she likes seeing her students improve.

Why this band

• FC“I think it can be a good job, but a tiring one.” — The opinion is delivered as one short, balanced statement joined by ‘but’, with no further elaboration before the example sentence begins. A higher band would likely expand this initial opinion with a reason or a qualifying clause before moving to the example. Here, the flat, single-sentence opinion followed immediately by an anecdote is the minimal-development pattern typical of Band 6.5 fluency.

Each response is developed with one concrete reason plus a natural spoken hedge such as 'if I'm honest', giving it a fuller flow than 6.5 without the reflective asides of 7.5.

Did/Do you have a favourite teacher at school?

Probably my English teacher in grade 10, Mr. Duc. He used to bring in short clips from English songs and let us guess the lyrics, which made the lesson feel less like studying and more like a game. I think that's why I actually looked forward to his class every week.

Why this band

• GRA“which made the lesson feel less like studying and more like a game” — A non-defining relative clause ('which made the lesson feel...') is combined with a 'less like X and more like Y' comparative frame in a single sentence, describing how song-guessing games changed the feel of English class. That comfortable mixing of a complex clause with a comparative structure is the Band 7.0 grammar target almost exactly — accurate and natural without reaching for anything unusual. A Band 6.5 version would likely split this into two short simple sentences instead of combining them.

Who did/do you like more, your teachers from primary/elementary school or your teachers from secondary/high school?

I'd say my secondary teachers, if I'm honest. My primary teachers were caring, but everything was quite gentle and slow. In secondary school, a couple of teachers actually challenged us and treated us more like young adults, and I responded well to that.

Why this band

• FC“if I'm honest” — 'If I'm honest' is a spoken hedging phrase dropped in mid-sentence, softening the opinion and signalling that the speaker has actually weighed it rather than blurting it out. This kind of natural spoken connector is exactly what the Band 7.0 fluency target asks for — linking an opinion smoothly to the question — and it's noticeably more developed than a flat, unhedged Band 6.5 opener such as 'Yes, my art teacher.' It also sets up the qualified comparison that follows, between gentle primary teachers and more challenging secondary ones.

Are you still in contact with any of your teachers?

Yes, actually, Mr. Duc again. We're friends on Facebook, and every Teachers' Day I send him a quick message to say thanks. He usually replies within a day, which I always find quite touching.

Why this band

• LR“quite touching” — ‘Quite touching’ is a mildly expressive, natural phrase that goes beyond a plain word like ‘nice’ or ‘good’ without reaching for anything unusual or idiomatic. It shows the speaker choosing language that carries genuine feeling, which fits Band 7.0's target of mostly common words plus a few flexible ones. A 6.5 answer would likely settle for ‘nice’, while a 7.5 answer might reach for something more figurative.

Do you think teaching is a good job?

On the whole, yes, though it's clearly demanding. My aunt teaches at a secondary school, and she spends a good chunk of her evenings marking papers. That said, she genuinely enjoys it, so I think it depends a lot on how much patience you have.

Why this band

• LR“spends a good chunk of her evenings” — 'A good chunk of' is a natural collocation slightly beyond high-frequency vocabulary, matching the Band 7.0 target of mostly common words plus a few flexible ones.

The closing question becomes a genuine reflection rather than description ('Whether that's worth the hours, only a teacher can say'), and the flexible, idiomatic control throughout is typical of Band 7.5.

Did/Do you have a favourite teacher at school?

A literature teacher in my last year of school in Hue. She once read us the same short poem twice, first at speed, then very slowly, and asked which one we'd actually heard. Nobody could answer, and that silence taught me more about attention than anything since. She never raised her voice and never let a lazy sentence pass. Half my class was slightly afraid of her and all of us remember her.

Why this band

• LR“that silence taught me more about attention than anything since” — 'Silence taught me' personifies an absence of sound as an active teacher, paired with the abstract comparison 'more about attention than anything since' — genuinely figurative language rather than literal description. This is precisely the 'one figurative or idiomatic touch' the Band 7.5 lexical target calls for, used sparingly rather than piled on. It also does real work in context: it turns a small classroom memory, the poem read twice, into a durable insight about how the speaker still listens today.

Who did/do you like more, your teachers from primary/elementary school or your teachers from secondary/high school?

At the time, the primary ones, because they were kind and the world was small. Looking back, the secondary ones, because a few of them were genuinely interesting people with opinions, and at fourteen that's what you need. Kindness matters most when you're six. By sixteen you want someone who takes you seriously.

Why this band

• GRA“Looking back, the secondary ones, because a few of them were genuinely interesting people with opinions” — Opening the second half of the comparison with the participial phrase ‘Looking back’ instead of a plain ‘Now I think’ varies the sentence structure in a way lower bands rarely attempt. It also lets the answer mirror its own earlier structure (‘At the time... Looking back...’), creating a deliberate parallel that most 6.5–7.0 answers would flatten into two separate simple sentences. That controlled, symmetrical use of a fronted phrase is characteristic of Band 7.5 grammatical range.

Are you still in contact with any of your teachers?

One — the literature teacher. I send her a message every New Year, and she replies with a question about whatever I'm designing, which she insists on calling 'my writing'. She retired a few years ago and grows orchids. It's a small connection, one exchange a year, but it's lasted nearly twenty years, which is longer than most friendships.

Why this band

• FC“which is longer than most friendships” — Ending on a comparison to friendships rather than just stating the number of years adds a reflective, evaluative twist instead of flat description. A 6.5 or 7.0 answer would likely stop at the fact itself — ‘it's lasted nearly twenty years’ — but this answer pushes one step further into interpretation. That extra evaluative move at the close of the answer is the kind of development Band 7.5 fluency and coherence rewards.

Do you think teaching is a good job?

Watching my sister do it, I'd say it's a good job and a hard life. She's exhausted every evening and paid less than she deserves, and yet former students stop her in the street to tell her what they've become, which nobody has ever done for me about an app. It's the rare job where the results walk up and thank you, years later. Whether that's worth the hours, only a teacher can say.

Why this band

• FC“Whether that's worth the hours, only a teacher can say.” — Rather than closing the point with a flat verdict, the answer inverts the normal order — 'Whether that's worth the hours' comes before the main clause — and leaves the question genuinely open with 'only a teacher can say'. That unresolved, reflective close is exactly the Band 7.5 fluency target of ending on evaluation rather than mere description. A 6.5 or 7.0 answer describing the same sister would more likely close with a settled statement like 'It's a hard job but a good one', rather than declining to answer its own question.
• GRA“which nobody has ever done for me about an app” — The relative clause 'which nobody has ever done for me about an app' is grafted onto the end of the sentence purely for wry contrast, setting the teacher's visible legacy against the speaker's own line of work. Embedding a self-deprecating aside inside a relative clause like this is the kind of flexible, register-shifting grammar the Band 7.5 descriptor asks for beyond mere accuracy. A Band 7.0 speaker would more likely make the same point as two separate sentences rather than folding it into one clause.