Question: Describe a major decision you have taken in your life.
You should say:
- what the decision was
- what other choices were available to you
- why you made the decision you did
- and explain if you think the decision was a good one.
Answer: One major decision that I’ve taken in my life was to study Law at University. This meant moving to a new town where the university was located and spending three years studying a subject that was completely new to me.
There were several other choices that I could have taken at the time. For a while I found it hard to make up my mind. I considered taking a degree in English, as this was always my favourite subject at school and I always got A grades in English exams. Another option open to me was to apply for a degree course in French. At one point I even considered trying to get in to university to study Physics, as this was another subject I loved.
Eventually, the decision I reached was to take a law degree, the reason being that I thought this would open more doors to me in the future. I had no wish to be a lawyer, but I thought that the breadth of knowledge I would gain would set me in good stead as a journalist, which is what I wanted to be at the time. I was also interested in understanding more about how our legal system works.
As to whether or not this was a good decision, I think it was definitely the right choice for me. I found studying law fascinating, and then went on to work as a journalist and researcher for some years. I also had a sideline in teaching legal English to lawyers, and eventually found that I much preferred teaching English to journalism. Gradually I took on more teaching work until I eventually dropped the journalism altogether. So that original decision to study law caused a chain of events that took me to where I am now.
