IELTS speaking Part-1 Question types and Answering strategies

There are many kinds of short questions asked in IELTS Speaking part-1. They are mainly about you, your home, study, job etc.

I have divided these questions on the basis of their answer development strategy.

1. Descriptive questions

In these kind of questions, you need to give a description of something, like your job, study, hometown, hobbies etc. These questions mostly begin with  ‘WHAT’

Let me explain with an example.

Suppose the question asked is “What is your job?”

The answer will describe your job profile and duties in short.

“My job comprises of designing and printing of marketing collaterals of my organization, that is, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences. I am also responsible for managing the marketing communication team of four.

     Question: What are your hobbies?

Answer may start with a brief introduction or you may start it directly.

“I do not have many of them, but I love reading novels by J.K.Rowling, Ruskin Bond, Agatha Christie since they are quite gripping from the beginning itself.”

So, here, it is quite clear that questions which require description could be answered easily with this method.

2) Opinion-asking questions

These questions call for an answer in “Yes” or “No”. So, it becomes difficult for some candidates to expand them. But using the following strategy, you may answer them effortlessly.

So, you may develop such questions by using any one of the strategies discussed above.

3) One word answer questions

Suppose you are confronted with a question that can be answered in a single word, and seems difficult to expand in 2-3 sentences.

For instance,

Question: Which language do you prefer to write in?

Only answer that strikes your mind is “English” (or any particular language).

So, you should follow a simple rule to develop it into few sentences or a complex one.

4) Opportunity based questions

In case the question asked is a conditional one, then the following strategy should be applied.

Question: If you get a chance, would you like to change your job?

Answer: Well, in case/if I am offered an opportunity with better salary and future prospects, I will surely like to change my job.

So, you may observe here that answer is also a conditional sentence, only paraphrasing is done on my part, and a reason is mentioned.

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