How would you respond to these IELTS speaking practice test questions?
IELTS Speaking Practice
Topics: Public Transport, Weekends, Study, School, Careers, Salaries, Jobs in Future, Highly Paid Jobs
IELTS Speaking Test Part 1
Where are you living currently?
At the moment, I’m staying with my sister and her husband; they have a house here in the city.
What do you like most about where you live?
Their house is beautiful; it’s in a cul-de-sac so it’s nice and quiet. I love the fact that it’s close to the city center but yet it’s still a nice neighborhood where the children can play without any worries.
They also have the most amazing garden, which we’ve been spending a lot of time in recently. The kids like to play there and since I’ve been staying with them my favorite place to read is in the garden.
How is the public transport there?
It’s not too bad, there’s a bus stop at the end of the road and from there you can get to most of the places you’d want to go. It’s just a short bus ride to the station and there are also loads of taxis which go past, so getting somewhere is never really a problem.
How could it be improved?
That’s difficult to know – I’ve only been staying with my sister for a few months and really I’ve never had any problems with transport so I’m not sure what needs to be improved if anything.
The only thing I noticed once one day was that there did seem to be a lot of people lining up to get on just one bus, but I’ve no idea where it was going or if that was normal, or maybe it was just a special situation – maybe another bus had broken down or something. I couldn’t really say to be honest.
What do you usually do on weekends?
In the past I used to spend most of my weekends studying. But recently, since I’ve been staying with my sister we usually take the children out somewhere at least one day of the weekend.
Last weekend, for example, we took them to the park near where we live. They played for about two hours there, because there are a lot of rides and swings and other stuff they can climb on, slide down, and generally just have fun. There were also a lot of other kids there so they made friends with them too.
Apart from that, I normally help my sister out around the house, you know help her with the housework and grocery shopping, things like that. Nothing really exciting, but it’s a nice change from the intense studying I was doing a few months back.
How would you like to spend your upcoming weekend?
Well, we actually already have plans. On Saturday we’re taking my nieces to the movies to watch Moana, the new Disney movie. That’ll probably be in the afternoon and then in the evening my sister and her husband are going to attend a dinner, something to do with her husband’s work, so I’m babysitting my nieces for the night.
Then on Sunday we’re going to go and visit a special place nearby, where there is a huge lake, and you can go on a boat tour around the lake.
So, it’ll be a busy weekend, but the good thing is I’ll be getting to spend time with the people I love, so that’s good. My nieces are at a really fun age when everything is super exciting and fun, and next year I’ll probably be in Australia, so I love getting to spend lots of time with them just now, while I can, because in the future I won’t be seeing so much of them.
IELTS Speaking Test Part 2
If you have time in the future to enroll in a course, what would you like to study?
You should say:- which course it is
- what you would learn from it
- why you want to take this course
IELTS Cue Card Answer A course you would like to study
I would really like to enroll in an MBA course next year. I’m not sure how I’m going to find the time though because I’m already super busy and don’t have much free time at the moment.
Work has been crazy recently, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon – so I’ll have to figure out how to work an MBA into my already tight schedule.
It’s something I really want to do – and I’ve been looking into it since last year, so I guess I’ll have to make time for it somehow. I’m seriously considering doing it online because now there are some extremely good options.
And online MBAs tend to be more flexible in terms of the time commitment and when you can take classes and things like that, so it might be a good way of solving the problem of not having a lot of free time to enroll in a regular university-based MBA course.
The MBA courses that I’ve researched so far cover mostly the same fields, Finance, Marketing, Economics, and so on, with some other elective courses and specializations on offer, so I think I would get a good grounding in the core business areas by studying an MBA.
I don’t think it would be too difficult – obviously it will be demanding, but it’s something I’m really interested in doing and so I’m very motivated. The most difficult thing for me, personally, will be managing my time so that I can do all the necessary assignments and really get the maximum benefit from doing the course.
I’ve already made my mind up that I need to do an MBA for my future career, so now it’s just a case of organizing when and how exactly, but I don’t want to put it off for another year, because I know that I will need it for my professional development in the future and it will help me in applying for a position within one of the companies I would like to work for.
IELTS Speaking Test Part 3
Do you think schools should only provide education related to future careers? Why do you think that?
Not necessarily, I mean it’s important that education in schools gives children opportunities to explore many different areas and not only those which might lead to a career in the future.
While certain skills are essential, such as reading and writing, etc. there should also be ample scope to allow children to learn about other things and gain an insight into different aspects of the world and our daily lives.
I mean, most schools already provide some kind of sports class or physical education, but I’m sure schools don’t expect all students to become professional athletes, so there’s no need to focus only on the subjects or areas that are associated with careers.
Do you think a routine job where you do the same thing all the time is good or bad? Why?
A lot depends on the individual who is doing the job. Some people like doing the same thing every day because they don’t have to think too much and they can think about other things while working, or chat with their work colleagues.
There are also people who really like routines, you know, they like doing the same thing, going to the same places, eating the same foods, and so on, so I guess that kind of job would suit them perfectly.
So whether it’s a good thing or bad thing really depends on the person doing it – and some jobs are just monotonous by nature, there’s little you can do to make them more interesting, and those jobs need to be done by someone.
Can you give me some examples of how different jobs have different salaries?
Yes, well, here it’s the same as most other places; being a doctor or lawyer are two of the best choices for careers in terms of earning a good salary, although you don’t always earn a big salary at the beginning of your career.
Other jobs that pay well are high-level corporate positions, but people are usually a bit older before they manage to achieve those positions. And then there are the other professions such as banking, accounting, architecture, engineering and so on, which provide good salaries and relatively stable career paths.
The jobs which pay the least are the unskilled jobs which don’t require any, or minimal, training and qualifications; for example, working in a factory, stacking shelves, and other primarily manual work, working in restaurants, and temping, etc. Many of those are on zero-hours contracts and they offer little security. Sometimes you work and sometimes you don’t.
What are the most popular jobs in your country? Why do you think these jobs are so popular?
Based on my experience, a lot of people want to be lawyers, but many enroll and then drop out soon after because it’s really difficult. Being a doctor used to be more popular than nowadays, I’m not sure why people seem to have gone off the idea but it may have something to do with the fact that doctors, although still paid well, are not paid as well as they were in the past, for example, five years ago.
Some of the newer careers are becoming very popular now, such as media studies and film production, graphic design and other media related careers.
Young people seem to go through phases, they either chase the high salaries or go after the latest trend in careers; it always seems to be changing.
Overall, I think that some of the most popular jobs are those which offer the possibility of working abroad or which involve skills which translate easily for example, jobs related to design, media, and marketing are much easier than law, etc. which is different for each country.
What are some jobs that you think might be popular in the future?
Probably jobs that haven’t even been invented yet. If you think back around 10 years ago or so, nobody would have thought that there would be so many jobs associated with social media and everything that goes with it.
In my parent’s time there were no social media consultants or SEO experts or anything like that, or very few of them maybe.
Honestly, the pace of change is so fast nowadays, that within five years or so there might be new jobs which don’t exist now, simply because the technology or idea hasn’t been invented yet.
But in general, I think that jobs which offer people more freedom and flexibility will become more popular in the future. I think that as more and more traditional jobs disappear, young people will look to do more for themselves, either working freelance or starting their own business, because it’s much easier now than ever to reach a global marketplace.
Which type of jobs do you think will be the most highly paid in the future?
I guess it’ll be the jobs which are most in demand. And that’ll probably be high-end technology related positions, such as in design and technology solutions for business.
There’s a high probability that we’ll also see more and more young entrepreneurs inventing technology-based ideas which then become global norms like TikTok and Uber, and so on, so being able to design apps and platforms like that will probably pay well, as long as it’s innovation driven, and they become super popular with the public.
How would you answer these recent IELTS speaking test questions?