SKILL FOCUS | Speaking: How to talk about your job and studies

If you plan on taking your IELTS test, Part 1 of the speaking test involves answering questions about yourself, your work, your studies, your parents, brothers/sisters, pets, etc.

This post will help you talk about your job or studies. It will give you example questions about jobs and studies that you can practise answering.

Introduction

The examiner will

• introduce themselves,
• ask you to introduce yourself (“Can you tell me your full name, please?“) and
• ask you your ID.

You can watch this part here

The examiner usually says something very similar to the following words: “Now I’d like to ask you a few more questions about yourself.” Then the examiner will choose your first Part 1 topic. If the examiner chooses the topic of  ‘Your Work or Your Studies’, he or she will usually say something very similar to these words: “Let’s first talk about what you do. Do you work or are you a student?“

You must choose to talk about one of these; your work or your studies.

• if you are working or you usually work, you choose the ‘Work’ topic;
• if you are a student now or if you don’t usually work, you choose to talk about being a student.
• if you are not a student now and also don’t usually work, then you will have to talk about the last time you were a student, either at high school or university or some college. In this case, the topic is your past studies so the questions will be in the past tense and your answers should also be in the past tense.
• if you’ve been working for just a few weeks in a job that is still new to you, you have to use present perfect simple or continuous.
• if you’ve been working for a short while in a job that is just temporary, you’ll have to use present continuous.
• if you go to English classes for just a few hours a week and that is the only class you are attending, it is not ‘wrong’ to say you are a student but I suggest that you do not include that as being a student because some of the questions will probably not be suitable for you. Usually, the questions are suitable for high school and university students, either current students or graduates.
• it is suitable to say you are a student if you are a part-time student, studying one or more classes that are part of a degree course or something similar.
• if you also work, part-time or full-time, as well as attend university part-time, you could choose to answer either the questions for a student or for a working person.
  alternatively, you could tell the examiner your situation and allow the examiner to choose which topic to use for you.

It is not critically important which one you choose  –   after all, this is an English test, not a job interview or a police interview.  In general, it is best to tell the truth because you will speak more convincingly when your answers are true.  But try not to make your explanation too long and complex. This question is more or less just an introduction to the questions that will follow.

These tips will help you become more aware of what is expected of you in the test:

• You should answer in complete sentences, try not to use just yes/no.
• Speak clearly, without long pauses.
• Understand what the examiner asks you – answer accordingly.
• Demonstrate how many different English words you know.
• Use all of the tenses – past, present and future – make sure you use them correctly.
• Pronounce the words correctly.

Keep things simple! Don’t start long and complicated sentences if you are not sure how you are going to finish them. If you make a grammatical error – it’s ok to correct yourself, but don’t overdo it, you need to sound fluent.

Your work

These are example questions that you could be asked about your work:

• What is your job?
• Where do you work?
• Do you like your job?
• Why did you choose your job?
• Is it a popular job in your country?
• What responsibilities do you have at work?
• What was your first day like?
• Do you get on well with your colleagues?
• If you had the chance, would you change your job?
• Do you plan to continue with your job in the future?

Your studies

These are example questions that you could be asked about your studies:

• What do you study?
• Where do you study?
• Do you like your subject?
• Why did you choose that subject?
• Is it a popular subject in your country?
• What was your first day like?
• What are the main aspects of your course?
• If you had the chance, would you change your subject?
• Do you plan to get a job in the same subject area?

Over to you

• Record yourself answering these questions. You can use this website.
• Give a full and complete answer, not very long, 2-3 sentences.
• Pay attention to the tenses and grammatical structures the examiner uses. There’s a reason why they do that.
• Expand the short answers.