Job Discussion Forums

[hivans]

I am helping a friend who will be doing the EIKEN grade one oral exam soon, and I am thinking of suggesting the strategy below to him.
It seems as if the questions can be divided into those seeking an opinion (e.g. “Should more be done to help the working poor?”) and those trying to establish a fact (e.g. “Is age discrimination widespread in Japan?”).
I was going to suggest to my friend that he pick an opinion question (there always seem to be “should” questions on the practice papers) and tailor his answer round a structure for that such as
1) I believe we should / we shouldn’t
2) Firstly,
3) Furthermore,
4) On the other hand, some people say
5) I disagree with this argument (4) because…
6) In conclusion, we should/ we should not because 2) and 3) show that..

This seems to make sense based on the practice book I have seen, but I would love to hear from people with real experience in teaching Eiken students (or helping friends through the exam) how practical this approach is. I would hate to recommend a strategy to my friend, and then come the day it proves to be unworkable in the exam.