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    Speaking Part 1Reported July 2026

    IELTS Speaking Part 1: Walking

    The question

    Do you remember a long walk in your childhood?

    How often do you walk now?

    Where do the people of your country like to go for walking? (Why)

    How to answer it

    A three-question set that walks you through past, present and general — which is the whole grammar of Part 1 in one topic. The childhood question wants a narrative, so give one walk rather than a summary of many: where it went, who dragged you along, and whether you complained. The frequency question wants a real number and an honest qualification. Only the third is general, and it is the one to keep short.

    What moves the band

    • Watch the tense ladder: past simple for the childhood walk, present simple plus frequency for now, and a general present for what people in your country do.
    • Walking lexis: a stroll, a hike, we'd trudge up, it's a nice loop, I walk everywhere, I'm not much of a walker.
    • Say why for the third question even if the examiner does not repeat it — the printed prompt asks, and an unexplained answer loses the easiest mark in the set.

    Two answers, two bands

    Both answers below respond to this exact question. Read them in order: the difference between them is what a band is actually made of. They are written by us for this page — they are not candidate transcripts.

    Band 6.5

    What a 6.5 sounds like

    Do you remember a long walk in your childhood? — Yes, I remember that when I was a child my family often went walking in the mountains near our city. We walked for many hours and it was very tiring, but the air was fresh and the views were beautiful. I have good memories of those days.

    How often do you walk now? — Not very often, unfortunately. I usually take the bus or the metro because I am busy with my studies. Maybe I walk twenty minutes a day, mostly to the university and back.

    Where do the people of your country like to go for walking? — In my country people like to go to parks and to the mountains at the weekend. Parks are popular because they are free and there is fresh air, and families can take their children there.

    Why it scores what it scores: Accurate across all three tenses, which is what the set is testing, and the middle answer does the right thing by giving a number. The first answer is where it loses ground: the question asks for one walk and gets a summary of many, so no narrative language appears at all. Nothing in the answer could only have happened to this candidate — fresh air and beautiful views would fit any mountain anywhere.

    Band 8

    What an 8 sounds like

    Do you remember a long walk in your childhood? — One in particular. My uncle decided we'd walk to a village about twelve kilometres away instead of driving, and he told us it was forty minutes in. It was not forty minutes. I remember the exact point where my sister sat down in the road and refused to move, and my uncle carrying her for the last stretch while pretending it was no effort at all. We still bring it up to annoy him.

    How often do you walk now? — Far less than I should. Twenty minutes to campus and the same back, and I count that as exercise, which it probably isn't. I go for a proper walk maybe twice a month, usually when I'm avoiding something I ought to be doing.

    Where do the people of your country like to go for walking? — The mountains, overwhelmingly — partly because they're close to most cities, and partly because walking here is a social thing rather than a fitness thing. You go in a group, you stop constantly, and there's tea involved at some point. Nobody walks alone to clear their head the way people seem to elsewhere.

    Why it scores what it scores: The first answer gives one walk rather than a category of walks, and the narrative pulls in past continuous, reported speech and a punchline — none of which the candidate had to reach for. The second is honest about a small failing, which is more convincing than a good number. The third explains WHY, which the printed prompt asks for and most candidates drop, and it does so with a cultural contrast rather than a list of places.

    Phrases worth stealing

    • “he told us it was forty minutes in. It was not forty minutes.”
    • “my sister sat down in the road and refused to move”
    • “I count that as exercise, which it probably isn't”
    • “usually when I'm avoiding something I ought to be doing”
    • “walking here is a social thing rather than a fitness thing”

    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.