1. Gerund as subject: "Being popular at school has a lot of advantages" uses a gerund phrase as the subject, which is a common and natural way to start an IELTS Speaking answer.
2. Present simple tense: The answer consistently uses the present simple tense ("tend to have", "get picked", "helps", "boosts") to talk about general truths and typical situations, which is appropriate for this type of question.
3. Relative clauses: "which can make school life more enjoyable" and "which helps them develop social skills and boosts their confidence" use relative clauses to add detail and explanation, making the answer more complex and fluent.
4. Parallel structure: "develop social skills and boosts their confidence" uses parallel structure to list benefits, which improves clarity and coherence.