What is your favourite place?
A describing question. The examiner wants place vocabulary (spot, view, corner, quiet, crowded) and the reason it's your favourite: what you do there, or how it makes you feel.
It can be anywhere: a room, a café, a bench, a city. Small and specific usually beats big and famous, because you'll have more to say about it.
Sample answers at 3 bands
Same question, three answers. Read them out loud and notice what changes: not longer words, but more detail, better linking and a bit of you in it.
My favourite place is the beach. I like to go to the beach in the summer. It is very beautiful and I can swim there. It is relaxing.
Why it scores Band 5.5: Clear but generic: "beautiful" and "relaxing" could describe any beach. The word "beach" is repeated, and there's no particular place in the answer.
There's a small café near my university that's my favourite place in the city. It's on the second floor of an old building, so you can sit by the window and watch the street below. I go there to study when the library's too quiet, which sounds strange, but I focus better with a bit of background noise.
Why it scores Band 7: A specific place, a clear picture and a personal reason with a small, honest twist. Good relative clauses and linking.
It's an unremarkable little bench on a hill behind my parents' house. From there you can see the whole town and the mountains behind it, and at sunset the whole valley goes orange. It's where I've done all my serious thinking since I was about fifteen, so it feels a bit like an old friend.
Why it scores Band 8: "Unremarkable" is a deliberate, high-level choice, the description is visual, and the last line adds emotional meaning. Fluent and precise.
Bands are our estimate against the public IELTS Speaking band descriptors. In the real test your band comes from all three parts, not one answer.
The follow-up questions
Part 1 stays on one topic for three or four questions. These are the ones that usually come next.
- How often do you go there?
- Two or three times a week during term. It's become part of my routine, so the staff know my order before I say it, which is either nice or slightly embarrassing.
- Do you prefer quiet places or busy places?
- Quiet places to think and busy places to work, strangely. If it's too silent, I notice every little sound. A bit of life around me helps me concentrate.
- Is there a place you'd like to visit in the future?
- Japan, mainly Kyoto. I've seen so many photos of the temples and gardens that I want to see whether it's really that calm, or if it's just very good photography.
- Did you have a favourite place as a child?
- My grandparents' garden. They had an apricot tree I used to climb, and I'd sit up there for hours pretending nobody could see me. They could, of course.
Words that lift this answer
- a hidden gem
- A great place not many people know about.
- a stunning view / overlooks
- "The café overlooks the river."
- peaceful / lively / tucked away
- Words for the feel and location of a place.
- it's where I go to…
- A natural way to explain why a place matters.
- background noise
- Sound around you that you don't really listen to.
- unremarkable
- Ordinary, nothing special (useful for contrast).
Mistakes that cost marks here
- Choosing somewhere you've never been. You'll run out of things to say.
- "It is very beautiful" with no picture. Say one thing you can see there.
- Turning it into a Part 2 talk. Three or four sentences, then stop.
Reading answers won't move your band. Saying them will.
Take a full Cambridge Speaking test: the examiner's questions are played out loud, you answer, and you get a band for fluency, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. 10 free corrections a day.