IELTS Speaking Part 1: Studies
The alternative to work, and the topic where memorised answers are most obvious because everyone rehearses it.
If you are a student the examiner takes this instead of work. Most candidates have prepared it, which means a rehearsed-sounding answer here is noticed immediately and depresses your fluency score from the first minute.
Questions you can expect
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.
- What subject are you studying?
- Why did you choose that subject?
- Do you enjoy it?
- What is the most difficult part of your course?
- Do you prefer studying in the morning or the evening?
- Do you study better alone or in a group?
- What do you plan to do after you finish?
- Is your subject popular in your country?
- Do you use the library much?
- Has your opinion of the subject changed since you started?
How to answer this topic
- Name a specific module or topic rather than the degree. 'I'm doing engineering' is thin; 'we're on structural analysis this term, which I did not expect to like' is not.
- The 'why did you choose it' question is where rehearsal shows. Answer it honestly, including if the reason was practical or accidental.
- Use the difficulty question properly — it is the one place in this topic where you can show real vocabulary range.
- Have a real plan for 'what next', including uncertainty. 'I'm not decided, but I'm leaning towards…' is better English than a confident invention.
Vocabulary this topic invites
I'm in my second year
precise and natural for stage of study
a module
and 'a term' — get the academic countables right
it's quite demanding
measured register for difficulty
get my head around
for a concept you struggled with
hands-on
for practical rather than theoretical work
I'm leaning towards
hedged future plans
What costs people marks here
Delivering the polished 'I chose this subject because it combines my passion for X with my interest in Y' answer.
Examiners hear that sentence several times a day. Say something smaller and truer — a teacher, a job you saw, a subject you were good at — and it will sound like speech rather than recitation.
Three of these, answered at band 8
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.
What subject are you studying?
I'm doing civil engineering, currently in my third year. This year is mostly structures and geotechnics, which is the part I was dreading and has turned out to be the part I find most interesting — there's something satisfying about calculations where being wrong means a building falls down.
Why it worksSpecific about the year and the modules, and reverses an expectation, which is much harder to have rehearsed than a subject name.
Why did you choose that subject?
My aunt is an engineer and she used to take me onto sites when I was about fourteen, so I'd seen what the job actually looks like rather than what people imagine it is. I think that's why I've stuck with it — I wasn't surprised by any of it.
Why it worksAnswers 'why' with a cause and its consequence, and links two tenses in one breath.
Do you prefer studying alone or in a group?
Alone for anything technical, groups for anything I have to explain. I've found that if I can't explain a concept to someone else I've usually only half understood it, so the group work is a kind of test. But I couldn't do a problem set with people talking.
Why it worksTakes a position, gives the reason, then concedes a limit — three moves in three sentences is exactly the Part 1 shape.
Other Part 1 topics
Hometown
The single most likely Part 1 topic, and the one most often answered with a tourist-brochure sentence.
Home
A description topic that quietly tests prepositions and room vocabulary, which is where most candidates slip.
Family
Easy to talk about and easy to answer too briefly, because the questions have obvious one-word replies.
Friends
A topic that invites comparison — old friends against new, close friends against acquaintances — which is where the grammar marks are.
Free time
The topic most likely to produce 'I watch Netflix and sleep', which is honest and scores nothing.
Food
Rich in specific vocabulary and the easiest topic in Part 1 to sound fluent on, if you name actual dishes.
Answer these at speaking speed
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 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 University Press & Assessment.