IELTS Speaking Part 1: Losing things and finding your way
The question
What will you do if you find something lost by others?
Have you ever lost things?
Do you post on social media if you lose your item?
Do you report lost items to the police when you find them? Why?
Have you ever lost your way?
How can you find your way when you are lost?
Can you read a map when you get lost?
Have you ever helped someone who got lost?
How to answer it
This is really two topics stapled together — lost property, then lost people — and the join happens at question five. Have one lost-object story and one got-lost story ready and the whole set is covered, because six of the eight questions are just angles on those two events. Do not spend ninety seconds on the first story: Part 1 answers are two or three sentences, and the examiner will cut you off, which costs fluency marks you did not need to lose.
What moves the band
- Phrasal verbs live here: hand it in, track it down, retrace my steps, ask around, end up somewhere.
- "Can you read a map" is a yes/no invitation to compare yourself with your phone — take it.
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.