IELTS speaking: good and bad answers

IELTS speaking part 1: good and bad answers

Let's take a look at what constitutes a good answer for the first part of the speaking test.

Multiple Choice

Which answer is the best for this question?

Do you come from a small family or a large family?

• Large. There are my parents, me, and my 2 brothers and 2 sisters.

• Large.

• Large. There’s my mother, Anna. She’s a teacher. My father, Paul, is an engineer. I have 2 older brothers, Phil and Dave. They’re at university. And then my 2 younger sisters, Chris and Helen. They’re still at school.

Multiple Choice

Which answer is the best for this question?

What is the area like where you live?

• It’s boring. There isn’t anything to do. There are no shops, or parks, or cinemas, or restaurants, or discos or sports centres.

• It’s boring.

• It’s quite boring. There isn’t much to do – no shops or cinemas or anything.

Multiple Choice

Which answer is the best for this question?

What do you find most difficult about learning English?

• The grammar, especially the tenses. Sometimes I don’t know the right one to use.

• The grammar. The tenses are very difficult and I don’t know when to use the present perfect or the past tense or when to use the continuous or simple, or when to use ‘will’. Very difficult.

• The grammar.

In part 1 of the speaking test, you should...

• give natural replies, neither too long nor too short.

• not list things.

• try not to give one word answers.

• not rehearse/memorise answers.