IELTS Speaking Part 1: Social media
The questions
Asked in this order, in one sitting.
- When did you start to use social media?
- Do you think you spend too much time on social media?
- What do people do on social media?
How to answer it
Only three questions, so each one has to carry more than usual. The second is the one worth preparing: "too much" is a judgement, and a candidate who says yes and then says exactly what they lose to it — the first hour of the evening, the last twenty minutes before sleep — sounds far more fluent than one who lists the platforms. The third question is general and is your chance to speculate rather than report.
What moves the band
- Give the age or the year for the first question, not "a long time ago". I was about thirteen, so around 2015.
- Screen-time lexis: scrolling, doom-scrolling, posting, lurking, a time sink, deleted the app off my phone.
These are candidate recalls. These are questions reported by test-takers after their exams, not official or leaked IELTS material. Wording varies by test version, location and memory. Use them for timed practice — never as a prediction of what you will be asked.
Practise these next
Know the number. Now move it.
A conversion table tells you where you stand today. Langujet's AI marks your writing and speaking against the real rubric and tells you exactly which criterion is holding your score down.