IELTS Speaking Part 1: Paper letters
The question
Do you ever write paper letters?
Did you receive any handwritten letters when you were a child?
Do you prefer handwritten letters, instant messaging, or texting?
Do you prefer writing letters or sending emails?
Do you think paper letters will completely disappear in the future?
How to answer it
Three tenses are built into this set and using all three is most of the work: present habit, childhood past, and a prediction. The second question is the warm one — a letter from a grandparent, a postcard, a note in a lunchbox — and a specific one lifts the whole set. For the last question, "completely disappear" is the word to argue with: letters have already stopped being how people communicate and become something else, a keepsake, and that distinction is a band-8 move.
What moves the band
- Argue with the extreme word rather than the question. Completely is doing a lot of work there.
- Handwriting lexis: a card, a note, stationery, someone's handwriting, keep them in a box.
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.
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