Everyone has an answer and almost everyone gives the same one — the genre name and nothing else.
Music is universal, requires no specialist knowledge, and lets the examiner hear preference language and a little description in a low-pressure context.
Asked quickly, one after another, with no comment on your answers. Read them aloud and answer each in two or three sentences before you look at the approach below.
I'm into
informal and natural for musical taste
upbeat
and 'mellow' — two adjectives most candidates never reach for
it grew on me
for taste that developed over time
background music
for music while doing something else
a wide range of
for eclectic taste, without saying 'all kinds'
it puts me in a good mood
concrete answer to the mood question
It is the most common answer in the topic and it says nothing. Name two genres you actually listen to and one you cannot stand.
Read these for the shape, not the words — two or three sentences with a reason or an example attached. The details are invented and yours should be your own; an examiner can hear a recited answer, and it costs you more than the answer gains.
Fairly wide, but the thing I keep returning to is old jazz — a lot of piano trios. I like music where you can hear people responding to each other in real time. I go through phases with everything else and that one has been constant for about ten years.
Why it worksExplains a preference by a quality rather than naming a genre and stopping.
I played the guitar badly for years and stopped, and I've recently started again with a teacher, which I should have done originally. The difference between practising and just playing the things you can already play turns out to be the entire thing. I'm worse than I was at nineteen and improving much faster.
Why it worksHandles three time frames cleanly and lands on a real insight about learning.
Quite a lot, and mostly by subtraction. I listen to far fewer things than I did at twenty but I listen to them much more closely. I suspect that's just what happens — you stop wanting novelty and start wanting depth, or you get lazy and tell yourself it's depth.
Why it works'Mostly by subtraction' is precise, and the self-doubt at the end is the sort of thing that cannot be memorised.
A topic where the honest answer is often 'not much', and where that answer can still score well if you handle it properly.
Works for people who do no sport at all — watching, school memories and opinions are all valid material.
The online-versus-in-person comparison is the whole topic, and it is the one question everybody answers the same way.
Invites an opinion, which is unusual for Part 1 — and the balanced opinion scores better than the enthusiastic one.
A routine topic that runs almost entirely on frequency adverbs and time expressions — which is exactly what it is testing.
Splits cleanly into pets you have, pets you had and animals in general — three answers from one topic.
Oliver asks Part 1 questions the way the real examiner does — quickly, with no reaction, moving on before you have finished deciding what you think. Reading them is not the same exercise. The first test is free.
This guide is written from the publicly published IELTS Speaking band descriptors, in our own words. For the official wording, see the British Council's band descriptors. MockLive AI is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge Assessment English.