IELTS Speaking Part 1

Tickets: questions and Band 8 answers

The examiner asks three to five short questions on two or three everyday topics in the first four to five minutes. Here are 5 questions about tickets written by BandLadder in the examiner's style, each with a Band 8 sample answer. Aim for two or three sentences each: answer, reason, one detail.
  • 5 questions
  • 5 Band 8 answers
  • 4 to 5 minutes

5 answers

Sample answers

1

Do you often buy tickets online?

Yes, pretty much all the time. It is just far more convenient than queuing up at a ticket office. For example, I booked a train ticket across to Manchester just last week on my mobile phone, and the whole process took less than a couple of minutes.

2

What kind of tickets do you usually buy?

Mostly public transport passes and cinema tickets. I commute by rail a fair bit for work, so I am constantly purchasing day returns. Occasionally, I will splash out on concert passes if one of my favourite indie bands happens to be touring nearby.

3

Do you prefer digital tickets or paper tickets?

Definitely e-tickets on my phone. They are much harder to misplace, and it saves wasting paper. That said, I still keep physical ticket stubs from special music festivals as souvenirs in a memory box in my flat, which is quite nice.

4

Have you ever lost a ticket?

Unfortunately, yes. A few years ago, I dropped my boarding pass while rushing through a busy airport terminal. I had a moment of sheer panic, but luckily the ground staff at the gate were really helpful and printed me a replacement straight away.

5

Are tickets expensive in your country?

To be honest, I think travel fares can be quite steep, especially peak-time trains. On the other hand, cultural events like museum exhibitions or local theatre shows are usually fairly reasonable, especially if you take advantage of student or early-bird discounts.

Details are invented. Use the shape, not the sentences: examiners mark memorised answers down.

Answer out loud and get a band

The AI examiner asks Part 1 questions like these, listens, and scores fluency, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, with the words that cost you.

Log in to practise this with AI scoring — free →

8 words

Useful vocabulary

  • queuing up

    standing in a line waiting for something

  • day returns

    tickets valid for travel to a place and back in one day

  • splash out on

    spend a lot of money on something pleasant

  • misplace

    lose something temporarily by forgetting where it was put

  • ticket stubs

    the remaining parts of paper tickets kept as proof

  • sheer panic

    a sudden and complete feeling of fear

  • steep

    very high or expensive in price

  • early-bird discounts

    price reductions for buying or booking well in advance

  • →Avoid simply listing the types of tickets you buy; give a specific context or recent experience for each.
  • →Use natural travel and booking collocations like 'peak-time fares' or 'e-tickets' to boost your vocabulary score.
  • →When asked about preferences, compare both options briefly to show grammatical range before stating your choice.

Keep practising

More Part 1 topics

© 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

Log in to practise free