Almost guaranteed if you are not a student, and the topic where candidates most often describe a job title instead of a job.
Work is one of the two opening topics the examiner is effectively required to choose between, along with study. It comes first, when you are least warmed up, and it sets the tone for the whole test.
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 based in
for location, more natural than 'I work in the city of'
it involves
the cleanest way into describing duties
a nine-to-five
for conventional office hours
no two days are the same
ready answer for what you like about it
it can be full-on
British and natural for demanding work
move into
'I'd like to move into management' — for career change
They will not. They move on. Answer, then add what it involves and one thing about it — two extra sentences is the entire difference in this topic.
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.
I work as a data analyst for a retail company, which in practice means I spend most of my time working out why customers abandon their baskets and then telling the product team what I found. It's less glamorous than it sounds — a lot of it is cleaning spreadsheets. But I like that the answers are usually surprising.
Why it worksNames the work rather than the title, then undercuts itself lightly. The self-deprecation makes it sound spoken rather than prepared.
Honestly, slightly by accident. I studied economics and assumed I'd end up in banking, then I did a summer project that involved a lot of data and realised I enjoyed it far more than the theory. So it was less a decision than noticing what I kept gravitating towards.
Why it worksUses the past naturally and refuses the tidy answer, which is more credible than a career narrative that was obviously constructed for the exam.
It comes in waves. Most weeks are fine, and then there's a reporting deadline at month end where everyone wants their numbers at once and it becomes quite intense for about three days. I've learned to protect the first week of the month, which helps more than any amount of time management advice.
Why it worksAnswers with a qualification rather than yes or no, and the concrete detail — three days, month end — is what stops it being generic.
The alternative to work, and the topic where memorised answers are most obvious because everyone rehearses it.
The single most likely Part 1 topic, and the one most often answered with a tourist-brochure sentence.
A description topic that quietly tests prepositions and room vocabulary, which is where most candidates slip.
Easy to talk about and easy to answer too briefly, because the questions have obvious one-word replies.
A topic that invites comparison — old friends against new, close friends against acquaintances — which is where the grammar marks are.
The topic most likely to produce 'I watch Netflix and sleep', which is honest and scores nothing.
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.