4.2. Part 1 Practice Topics
Prepare facts for the five topic groups that come up most, then answer whichever question arrives.
Now, in this first part, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.
Let's talk about your hometown.
- Where is your hometown?
- What do you like most about it?
- Has it changed since you were a child?
- How often do you go back there?
The short version
5 topic groups cover most Part 1 questions: home, work or study, free time, food, weather or transport.
Prepare facts and words for each group: a street, a dish, a bus number. Never a script.
Every answer has the same shape: the answer, a reason, one detail. About 20 seconds.
The question decides which facts you use. A prepared paragraph does not bend.
What you have to do
Part 1 is four to five minutes of short questions about your own life. The examiner starts with where you live or what you do, then moves to one or two more topics. The topics come from a small set, so you can prepare, but not predict the exact question. Prepare facts for each group: a street name, a dish, a bus number. Answer every question the same way: the answer, a reason, one detail. The marks are for your English, not your facts.
Five topic groups and the questions they produce
What is your hometown like? Do you live in a house or a flat? What do you like most about the area where you live?
Do you work or are you a student? What do you like most about your job or your course? Would you like to change it in future?
What do you do at the weekend? Do you prefer spending free time alone or with other people? Is there a hobby you would like to start?
What is a typical meal in your home? Do you prefer eating at home or in a restaurant? Did you eat differently as a child?
What is the weather like where you live at this time of year? Do you prefer hot or cold weather? How do you usually get to work or college?
Step by step
- 1Listen for the question word, whatever the topic
Home, food or weather, the question word tells you what the first sentence contains. Do you live in a house or a flat? wants one of the two. How do you get to work? wants a means: by bus, on foot. What is your hometown like? wants a description in one clause: a small port town. Catch the word and the topic looks after itself.
- 2Give the answer, a reason and one detail, from the facts you prepared
For each topic group, have three facts ready. For work or study: your real job or course, one thing you like, and one detail such as a Friday routine. The work or study question usually comes early. Your honest answer decides the follow-up questions. Say the fact, give the reason, add the detail, stop.
- 3Use the question's own words to start
Start with what you heard. What do you do at the weekend? becomes At the weekend I usually... Do you prefer eating at home or in a restaurant? becomes At home, mostly, because... The opening is free. By the end of it, you have found the reason.
- 4What not to say
Not the prepared paragraph. If you learned 60 seconds about your hometown, Do you live in a house or a flat? does not fit it. The examiner hears the join. Not the list: six weekend activities is not an answer, one activity with a reason is. Not both are good to a preference question. Pick one and say why.
- 5If you are stuck, buy time and give the simplest true answer
Stuck on a hobby you would like to start, or a childhood meal you cannot remember? Hold the turn with I've never really thought about that, but... Then say the plainest true thing. I don't think I ate very differently, actually, except that my grandmother cooked. Add one detail and stop. Nobody is marking the facts.
Do you live in a house or a flat?
A flat, on the fourth floor of a block near the station. My parents chose it for the commute, because my father worked in the city centre for thirty years. The lift breaks about once a month, so I know the stairs quite well.
The answer is the first word. The reason is the commute. The detail is the lift, with a number in it. Nothing here had to be prepared except the facts.
Quiz time5 questions
Each drill gives you one question from a different topic group and works on one step. Practise the judgement, not the whole answer.
Answer, reason, detail
Three candidates answer this work question. Choose the answer that gives the answer, a reason and one detail.
Read thisWould you like to change your job in the future?
Which answer has all three parts?
Spot the one-word answer
Three candidates answer this weather question. One gives a one-word answer with extra words around it. Which?
Read thisDo you prefer hot or cold weather?
Which sentence contains the error?
Turn the question's words into an opening
This candidate stalled on a food question. Say the opening again, starting with the question's own words, then finish the sentence with a true answer of your own.
Read thisDid you eat differently as a child?
Er... yes... different. Rice.
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Pick the time-buying phrase
The candidate has gone blank on this free-time question. Choose what they should say next.
Read thisIs there a hobby you would like to start?
Which reply buys time and then answers?
One question, out loud
Answer this free-time question in three sentences, about 20 seconds: pick one, give a reason, add one detail. Start with the question's own words if you need a moment.
Read thisDo you prefer spending free time alone or with other people?
Do you prefer spending free time alone or with other people?
Record your answer (30s maximum)
0:00 / 0:30
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Full answers
Below is a full three-sentence answer on the hometown topic, with its shape marked. Read it once, then record your own answers to three questions from three different groups.
What is your hometown like?
What is your hometown like?
It is a small port town on the east coast, about an hour from the capital by train. Most people either work at the harbour or commute, so it is quiet during the day and busy from six. I like it in summer, but from November the wind comes straight off the sea and the seafront is empty.
The answer is the first clause: a small port town. The reason it is the way it is comes next (harbour or commute). The one detail is the wind in November, with a contrast built in. Three sentences, about twenty seconds.
Your turn to speak3 questions
Work or study
Answer, reason, one detail. Name the one thing you like most in the first sentence. Then time yourself: about 25 seconds is right.
What do you like most about your job or your studies?
Record your answer (40s maximum)
0:00 / 0:40
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Food
Answer in the first sentence. Name one real dish or one real place. Do not list everything you eat.
Do you prefer eating at home or in a restaurant?
Record your answer (40s maximum)
0:00 / 0:40
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Weather
Say what the weather is like now in the first sentence. Then a reason or effect, then one detail about what you do because of it.
What is the weather like where you live at this time of year?
Record your answer (40s maximum)
0:00 / 0:40
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Tips
- Time yourself at 25 seconds
Record an answer and stop the clock. If you pass 25 seconds, find the sentence that changed the subject and cut it. Three sentences is enough.
- Facts, not sentences
Write your prepared facts as single words on one page: bus number, dish, street, module, colleague. A fact bends to any question. A sentence learned by heart does not.
- One detail with a name in it
A dish, a street, a month, a figure. One named detail makes an answer sound true, and it gives the examiner something to ask about next.
Recap
The topics repeat: home, work or study, free time, food, weather or transport. Prepare facts for each.
Every answer is the same shape: the answer, a reason, one detail, about 20 seconds.
Let the question choose the facts. A prepared paragraph does not bend, and the examiner hears the join.
Next: Part 2, the card and the long turn.