Summary of ― Types of‖ Questions

Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking 
43
The problem with these questions is that many candidates give very direct 
―information-focused‖ responses. It is quite common for candidates to response to these 
questions in the following way: 
Maybe once a week 
In New World Department store, 
At weekends and in the evenings. 
In the evening before I sleep. 
My parent or my friends. 
As we have discovered, It is almost impossible to achieve a high score with this 
type of answer. The key to these questions is to answer the question with two or three 
different responses. Example: 
―how often do you go to the cinema?‖ 
―Well to be honest, I think I would have to say that it really depends. Like for 
instance, if I have the money, then it’s quite possible that I will watch a movie in the 
cinema, two or three times a month. You know cinema tickets are pretty pricey in China. 
Whereas in contrast, if I’m broke, it’s more likely that I’ll watch movies at home on DVD; 
you probably know that DVDs are quite cheap here, especially compared to the price of a 
cinema ticket.‖ 
The key to the answer is the structure ―it depends‖. If you use this, you can produce 
a ―situational contrast‖ which allows you to use contrast language (linking words). 
The first step is too select an opening phrase: 
Well to be honest … 
Actually to be fair … 
In actual fact … 
Well in truth … 
Well in all fairness … 
In fact, in all honesty … 
Now select a ―depends‖ phrase: 
… I think I would have to say that it is really depends. 
… I suppose I would have to maintain that it kind of depends really. 
… I imagine that it would depend on the situation. 
… I guess my answer would be determined by different conditions. 
Now select a linking phrase: 
Like for instance … 
Like more specifically … 

Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking 
44
You know like, to be exact … 
More precisely like … 
Like, to be more direct … 
Notice that all of these linking phrases include the word ―like‖. In these structures 
―like‖ is a conjunction used as a meaningless filler word. This is very typical of informal 
native-native speaker English. 
It is important to get the next step exactly right. The success of this structure relies 
on the following conditional grammar structure: 
Select one of the following: 
If (situation A) … then I will most likely … 
If (situation A) … then it’s quite possible that I will … 
If (situation A) … then as a consequence I will probably … 
If (situation A) … then I guess it’s quite likely that I will … 
Your answer is going to compare two different situations or conditions. These can 
be quite flexible. Here are some possible ideas to use: 

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