Study questions are the other standard opening in Part 1. Many famous study idioms ("a piece of cake", "pass with flying colours") are overused, so mix one with a fresher choice like "draw a blank" or "scrape through".
The labels tell you how each one lands with a listener. Natural idioms are safe in any Speaking part. Informal ones suit relaxed Part 1 and Part 2 answers. Overused ones are correct but examiners hear them constantly, so use them once at most. Avoid means dated, slang or a cliché that sounds memorised. None of these belong in Writing Task 2.
14 idioms
study or work late at night
Before my finals I was burning the midnight oil every night.
One of the best-known study idioms, so examiners hear it constantly.
start studying hard
Exams are in three weeks, so it's time to hit the books.
Casual and more American, but widely understood.
memorise something exactly
At primary school we had to learn poems by heart.
Neutral and useful for questions about school.
know something extremely well
After teaching it for years, she knows the syllabus inside out.
Natural praise for knowledge or skill.
only just pass
I scraped through my maths exam with the minimum mark.
Honest and natural; examiners like real stories.
pass very easily with a high mark
My sister passed with flying colours.
Very common in IELTS answers. Use once at most.
very easy
The first part of the test was a piece of cake.
Probably the most overused idiom in IELTS Speaking. "It was very straightforward" sounds better.
someone who loves reading
As a child I was a real bookworm.
Natural and useful for reading questions.
a student the teacher clearly prefers
Nobody wanted to be seen as the teacher's pet.
Casual. Good for school memories.
learn something through a bad experience
I learned the hard way that you can't revise a whole subject in one night.
Strong ending for a Part 2 story.
improve a skill you have partly forgotten
I need to brush up on my French before the trip.
Natural and very useful for language-learning questions.
fail to remember something
I knew the answer, but in the exam I completely drew a blank.
Natural and relatable.
think very hard to remember or solve something
I racked my brains but couldn't remember her name.
Natural in stories.
stay away from school or work without permission (British)
A few students bunked off on the last day of term.
Casual British English. "Skip class" is the neutral version.
Part 1
Here is a sample answer we wrote to show how a few of these idioms fit into natural speech. Notice that it uses only a handful, spread out, with plain English around them.
I try to start early, because I learned the hard way that cramming doesn't work for me. In my first year I left everything to the last week and scraped through by a few marks. Now I make a timetable and spend the last few days brushing up on the topics I find hardest. I still get nervous, and occasionally I draw a blank on a question, but I'm much calmer than I used to be.
It is not wrong, but it is so common in IELTS answers that it no longer shows range. "It was very straightforward" or "I found it manageable" sound more natural from an adult speaker.
"Brush up on", "learn by heart", "draw a blank" and "learn the hard way" are natural, accurate and not over-taught.
No. Idioms belong in Speaking. Writing Task 2 is a formal essay, so idioms and contractions make it sound too casual. Use precise, neutral vocabulary there instead.
One or two, only where they fit what you want to say. Forced idioms sound memorised and can lower your score. On this page, be careful with "burn the midnight oil", "pass with flying colours", "a piece of cake": examiners hear them often or they sound dated.
Keep going
More idiom themes:
Practise them on real questions:
Written by Fizza Butool Zaidi and Ali Zaidi. Lexical Resource is one of the four Speaking criteria in the public IELTS scoring guide on ielts.org. BandLadder is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council or IDP, and no list of idioms guarantees a band score.
© 2026 BandLadder. Written and checked by the BandLadder team. You may quote or cite this page with credit to BandLadder and a link to it; republishing it in full needs our written permission. Content use policy