IELTS Speaking Test has three parts part 1, part 2 and part 3.
In part 1 of the Speaking test, the examiner will ask 4-6 general questions on familiar topics. It is expected that the examiner will introduce him/herself first and ask your name and then ask you to confirm your identity.
The questions in this part include familiar topics such as home, family, work, studies and interests. Part 1 of the test will last 4-5 minutes.
It is customary that the examiner will ask your name first. He/she then will ask you to show your identity (passport in this case) and want to know what you do, where are you from and some basic conversation-starter questions.
Some such common questions are given below:
Q. Good morning. My name is Katherin Hingis. Could I have your name, please?
Q. And your candidate number?
Q. Can I see your ID?
Q. Well, great. Where are you from?
Q. What do you do?
Some of the common topics and question that you can expect to encounter in your speaking test part 1 are given below for your preparation for the test. Answers to these questions vary from candidate to candidate and you are advised to think about possible answers to all these questions.
Following is a list of possible topics that you should be ready to talk about in speaking part 1.
Study
Work
Hometown/ Living place
Home/ Accommodation
Family
Friends
Clothes
Gifts
Daily routine
Daily activities
Food/ Cooking
Going Out
Hobbies
Internet
Leisure time
Music
Neighbors & Neighborhood
Newspapers
Pets
Reading
Music
Shopping
Sport
TV
Transport/Travelling
Weather
Culture/Tradition
Topic - Friends:
Q. Do you have many friends? [Why/Why not?]
Q. How often do you go out with friends? [Why/Why not?]
Q. Tell me about your best friend at school.
Q. How friendly are you with your neighbors? [Why/Why not?]
Q. Which is more important to you, friends or family? [Why?]
Q. Do you have many friends? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I have more than 10 friends and I am not sure if I should say this is many! However, I had more than 30 friends in my school days. With the passage of the time, the number plummeted. If I count my Facebook friends as real friends, the number would go high!
Q. How often do you go out with friends? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I meet my friends almost twice a week. I love to spend my weekends with them and sometimes I visit different places, watch movies and discuss different topics with them. I do not go out with all of my friends. I mostly hang out with 2-3 close buddies and go out with them almost 3-4 times a month.
Q. Tell me about your best friend at school.
Answer: My best friend at school was John and he was a great friend. He was tall and brave. He taught me how to show courage when we are in trouble. He has a great impact on my life. Though he lives in Australia now, we regularly communicate via Skype. I specifically liked him because he was more like a brother than a friend to me.
Q. How friendly are you with your neighbors? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I must say I am quite lucky to have good neighbors who are always supportive and well-behaved. I am quite close to them. We have been living in our neighborhood for more than a decade and our neighbors have become our close relatives. We have a mutual understanding and an invisible bond that ties us together as good neighbors. I respect their opinion, privacy and try to step forward whenever they need me.
Q. Which is more important to you, friends or family? [Why?]
Answer: To be honest, family comes first. However, there are some friends who become our family members. The bond between family members is often stronger but this does not mean that we do not have friends who are less important in our life. Being with the family makes us who we really are and friends make our life worth living.
Topic - Names:
Q. Did your parents choose your name(s)?
Q. How did your parents choose your name(s)?
Q. Does your name have any special meaning?
Q. Is your name common or unusual in your country?
Q. If you could change your name, would you? [Why/Why not?]
Q. Did your parents choose your name(s)?
Answer: Yes, my parents selected my name. When I was born, my parents wanted me to have a great name, at least to them. I have heard from my mother than my father brought a baby-name-book even before I was born. So the credit of my name solely goes to them.
Q. How did your parents choose your name(s)?
Answer: I learned that they were inspired by a name they found in the book and they took the surname from my grandfather. Thus they combined the name and selected it for me. However, this was the final step they went through to pick my name. As far as I know, they had to choose from hundreds of names, spend considerable hours to finally become satisfied with the name.
Q. Does your name have any special meaning?
Answer: My name is very special to me as it is to my parents. The first part of my name, Clyde, came from the name of a river, more specifically it is a Scottish river. The river was close to the location where I was born and I believe my parents wanted me to be as big as a river! The second part of my name, which is Entriken', is the family name of a famous ancient dynasty from Great Britain.
Q. Is your name common or unusual in your country?
Answer: Statistically speaking, this is not a very common name. However, from my experience, I can tell that I have personally met at least 10 others with the same name but with a different family name.
Q. If you could change your name, would you? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: My name is very special to me and I would never change it. For anyone, his/her name is quite unique and significantly important. I might take an alias someday if I need to ghost-write some articles, but changing my real name to something for the sake of modernism or style, is something I will never accept.
Topic - Food and cooking:
Q. What sorts of food do you like eating most? [Why?]
Q. Who normally does the cooking in your home?
Q. Do you watch cookery programmes on TV? [Why/Why not?]
Q. In general, do you prefer eating out or eating at home? [Why?]
Q. What sorts of food do you like eating most? [Why?]
Answer: I prefer homemade food and a fan of my mother's recipe. She is an amazing cook and I always enjoy her cooking. Whenever we go to a restaurant, we like to order Chinese menus. Apart from that, I like buttered popcorn, pizza, Indian Masala dosa, Mexican Tacos, doughnuts and sandwich - a mixture of many foreign food items actually.
Q. Who normally does the cooking in your home?
Answer: My mother does the cooking in our house and as I have said, she is a magnificent cook. I often compliment her and inspire her to start a restaurant in the city and she always laughs hearing this. Sometimes, my elder sister Emma assists my mother in the kitchen. I, on the contrary, in charge of the grocery and daily shopping.
Q. Do you watch cookery programmes on TV? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Not much, I would say. I am not a big fan of TV programmes and mostly watch movies on my laptop. Once in a while, I watch programmes related to travel and cooking and 'Hell's Kitchen', 'Iron Chef' and 30 'Minute Meals' are my favourite.
Q. In general, do you prefer eating out or eating at home? [Why?]
Answer: I like to eat at home. Homemade food has better food value and offers a wide range of choices. It is more hygienic and less expensive. However, we like to eat at a restaurant whenever we have special occasions to celebrate. As dining out in a restaurant offers my mom plenty of time to socialise rather than getting stuck in the kitchen, my father and I often insist her to go to an eatery on occasions like wedding anniversaries and birthdays.
Topic - Photographs:
Q. What type of photos do you like taking? [Why/Why not?]
Q. What do you do with the photos you take?
Q. When you visit other places, do you take photos or buy postcards? [Why/Why not?]
Q. Do you like people taking photos of you? [Why/Why not?]
Q. What type of photos do you like taking? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I often experiment with my camera and mobile phone camera and that's why I like to take a wide range of photos that include nature, people, gift items, sky, river, flower and so on.
However, I am inclined to take photos of people. Some of the best photos that I took were taken in unknown places where people posed for my camera. Their genuine smile, sad expression and sometimes bewilderment make the photograph worth cherishing.
Q. What do you do with the photos you take?
Answer: After I take around 20-30 photographs in my camera or my mobile phone, I connect it to my laptop and sort out the best clicks. Then I name those phones according to the theme and prepare those to upload to my Flickr account. Flickr is a great photo storing and sharing website owned by Yahoo! and it offers enormous storage space. Sometimes, I share a few pictures with my friends on Facebook and Instagram. I usually print a photo if I want to gift it to someone or frame it.
Q. When you visit other places, do you take photos or buy postcards? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I used to buy postcards whenever I visited a new place with my parents in my childhood. Perhaps I did so to bring souvenirs of the places I had been to. But with the increasing use of the smartphone and cameras, we can now take our own picture and video and frame it to our digital storage. In this age of technological advancement, we are more inclined to take picture and video and then share those with friends and family rather than purchasing souvenirs, especially postcards.
Q. Do you like people taking photos of you? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: If someone asks me firsts and I feel like being captured in a photo, I do not mind. Otherwise, I do not prefer to be in a photograph, especially with less known or unknown people. I think this is a personal choice and I am not the type of person who likes taking selfie or self-photograph now and then.
Topic- Bicycles:
Q. How popular are bicycles in your hometown? [Why?]
Q. How often do you ride a bicycle? [Why/Why not?]
Q. Do you think that bicycles are suitable for all ages? [Why/Why not?]
Q. What are the advantages of a bicycle compared to a car? [Why?]
Q. How popular are bicycles in your hometown? [Why?]
Answer: Well, I would say bicycles are moderately popular in my hometown. It was widely used when I was a child and I have seen so many people using bicycles to reach their destinations. In fact, the majority of people used to ride bicycles to travel to and from their offices at that time. But, the motorized vehicles have become more popular these days and this trend has decreased the prevalence of bicycles. However, It's a good sign that many young people these days are using bicycles.
Q. How often do you ride a bicycle? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Honestly speaking, I scarcely ride a bicycle these days. Busy lifestyle, faster speed of motorized vehicles and our apathy to get involved in physical activities have forced us to use a bicycle less often. Once in a while, I ride a bicycle and that's primarily to have fun and not to travel. Personally, I more often use a car than a bicycle because the former one is faster and more comfortable to ride in.
Q. Do you think that bicycles are suitable for all ages? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, I absolutely believe that bicycles are suitable for people of all age groups. Bicycles are cheap, have almost zero maintenance costs, and good for the environment and for our health. Since it doesn't take much physical labour, children, youth and senior citizens alike can ride it without any hassle. The health benefits of riding a bicycle are unparalleled and that's why people from all age groups should consider this as their primary means of transportation.
Q. What are the advantages of a bicycle compared to a car? [Why?]
Answer: Bicycles have far more benefits than cars except for the fact that a car is faster. The most important advantage of riding a bicycle is that it keeps us healthy. Bicycles do not pollute the air and they are environment-friendly. They are cheap and requires no costly maintenances or services. While cars take larger spaces to be parked into, bicycles do not. Considering the environmental consequences, bicycles could be a great replacement for motorised vehicles in our hometown.
Topic - Giving gifts:
Q. When do people give gifts or presents in your country?
Q. Do you ever take a gift when you visit someone in their home? [Why/Why not?]
Q. When did you last receive a gift? [What was it?]
Q. Do you enjoy looking for gifts for people? [Why/Why not?]
Q. When do people give gifts or presents in your country?
Answer: In my country, we mostly give gifts to others on a special day like a birthday, a wedding ceremony, and on an anniversary day. It's a widely followed custom to exchange gifts during the Christmas holidays. We often buy gifts for a classmate, colleague or a teacher on their farewell days.
Besides, we often buy candies to children and flowers to our relatives whenever we visit their house.
Q. Do you ever take a gift when you visit someone in their home? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, I most often buy a gift on such an occasion. I do it as it is a broadly followed convention in our country, and the idea of giving a host some sort of gifts is exciting, especially when the host loves the gift. Besides, it's a token of appreciation and a good gesture as a guest.
Q. When did you last receive a gift? [What was it?]
Answer: Well, that's an interesting question and it reminds me of a gift that a close friend of mine gave me a few weeks ago. Maria went to Italy last November to visit her grandparents and after she returned, she gave me a perfume made in Italy. 'Gucci Premiere Eau De Parfum' that she gave me was expensive and I really appreciate her gift.
Q. Do you enjoy looking for gifts for people? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, most of the time I love to browse different shops to find a suitable gift for someone I care for. Finding a suitable gift idea and then getting the item can be time-consuming, but it represents our care and love for the person we are presenting the gift. If the person likes the present, the time we spend to find it worths every second of it.
Topic - Games:
Q. What games are popular in your country? [Why?]
Q. Do you play any games? [Why/Why not?]
Q. How do people learn to play games in your country?
Q. Do you think it’s important for people to play games? [Why/Why not?]
Q. What games are popular in your country? [Why?]
Answer: People in my country are crazy about football. You will find most of the youths playing football in the evening. Among the indoor games, people love to play chess and cards most of the time. Finally, computer games are highly popular among the young generation.
Q. Do you play any games? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, I like to play badminton most of the time. Football was, and still is my favourite sports, but I can't manage time to practice football in the evening. I am a great fan of chess and I often visit a few of my friends who are also passionate about playing chess. Sometimes, a single chess match between me and my friend takes multiple days to finish!
Q. How do people learn to play games in your country?
Answer: I think most of the people in my country learn to play different games in their childhood and their family, classmates and friends have a great role in teaching these games to them. Young children often mimic elders and play games that are popular in their area.
Those who are serious about sports or want to become professional sportsmen often get admitted to different training institutes to develop their skills.
Q. Do you think it’s important for people to play games? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, I do believe that sports and games are vital for a balanced life. Games are highly entertaining and beneficial for our health. Many games are helpful for children's physical and cognitive developments. It also teaches them important skills like how to be a team member and develops their decision-making capabilities.
Topic - Telephoning:
Q. How often do you make telephone calls? [Why/Why not?]
Q. Who do you spend the most time talking to on the telephone? [Why?]
Q. When do you think you’ll next make a telephone call? [Why?]
Q. Do you sometimes prefer to send a text message instead of telephoning? [Why/Why not?]
Q. How often do you make telephone calls? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I do not use a landline that much except for some official purposes, but I use a mobile phone very extensively and daily.
I use the mobile phone to make or receive calls, send or receive text messages and sometimes to use the internet. I often play games on my mobile phone and listen to my favourite music. There is scarcely any day when I do not use it.
Q. Who do you spend the most time talking to on the telephone? [Why?]
Answer: I believe that would be my mom. She is very close to me and starts worrying if she does not hear from me for more than a few hours. She calls me a few times each day whenever I am out and I can tell her virtually anything. For these reasons, she is the person I spend the most time talking to on a telephone or on a mobile phone.
Q. When do you think you’ll next make a telephone call? [Why?]
Answer: I will call my mom after I leave the exam hall to let her know that I am fine and my exam went very well. I will call her as I am sure she is eagerly waiting to hear from me and to know how well I had performed in the exam.
Q. Do you sometimes prefer to send a text message instead of telephoning? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, sometimes sending a text message is more convenient and makes more sense than calling someone. For instance, if I'm in a meeting or in a crowded place, I would prefer SMS than phone calls. Moreover, if I need to send an address, a number or an email ID, I would rather send a text message than to call the intended recipient.
Topic - Your friends:
Q. Do you prefer to have one particular friend or a group of friends? [Why?]
Q. What do you like doing most with your friend/s?
Q. Do you think it’s important to keep in contact with friends you knew as a child? [Why/Why not?]
Q. What makes a friend into a good friend?
Q. Do you prefer to have one particular friend or a group of friends? [Why?]
Answer: I think it's a tough question to answer. But I will try. Naturally, I would like to have a group of friends from my school, my neighbourhood and a few online friends but someone truly special would become my best friend. One particular friend, who I believe would be a truly great friend and completely reliable, is hard to find but will remain my buddy for a long time while many other friends would be for a short span of time.
Q. What do you like doing most with your friend/s?
Answer: I like to have conversations with my friends and hang out with them. I often play indoor and outdoor games with them. Since we can virtually say anything to our friends and do anything with them, we can be truly ourselves with our friends. I sometimes, prefer to travel to different cities with my friends, and I went to Milan a few months ago with two of my close buddies.
Q. Do you think it’s important to keep in contact with friends you knew as a child? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I think childhood friends are special in a sense. We make friends during this phase of life very innocently and without any expectation from them. Besides, childhood memories are truly special and our childhood friends are a part of these reminiscences. So keeping in touch with those buddies are important. However, from a practical point of view, having regular contact with all childhood friends is not possible as we lose contacts with many of them as we grow older.
Q. What makes a friend into a good friend?
Answer: I believe it takes time, common interests and similar mentally to bring friends even closer. We make many friends in our life and some of them become close friends as they prove through their activities that we can trust them and share anything with them.
Topic - Musical instruments:
Q. Which instrument do you like listening to the most? [Why?]
Q. Have you ever learned to play a musical instrument? [Which one?]
Q. Do you think children should learn to play a musical instrument at school? [Why/Why not?]
Q. How easy would it be to learn to play an instrument without a teacher? [Why?]
Q. Which instrument do you like listening to the most? [Why?]
Answer: I mostly like the sound of a piano. The note that a piano produces is so delightful and melodious. It soothes the ear and refreshes my mind. The guitar is perhaps my second most preferred musical instrument and it is widely used with most of the music types.
Q. Have you ever learned to play a musical instrument? [Which one?]
Answer: I once tried to master the skills of playing the guitar. I even got admitted to a music school to learn to play the guitar but could not finish the whole course. I can play some basic tones and music in the guitar but I am not a skilled guitarist.
Q. Do you think children should learn to play a musical instrument at school? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: I believe schools should have the facility for the interested students who want to learn to sing and play a musical instrument, but it should not be forced to all. If a child at school feels passionate about learning it, he/she should be given the choice to do so.
Q. How easy would it be to learn to play an instrument without a teacher? [Why?]
Answer: I think it was quite impossible in the pre-internet era. However, the online courses and the interactive video tutorials make it a bit easier to learn to play a musical instrument like a guitar or a drum without the direct supervision of a mentor these days. Nevertheless, having a teacher is tremendously beneficial as he /she inspires to learn and can be a role model for mastering the skills of playing a musical instrument.
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