Describe something you do to stay healthy.
A strong long turn names the subject in the first sentence, spends most of the two minutes on the last bullet — the why — and arrives at a prepared final line rather than trailing off.
The question, as the examiner gives it
Describe something you do to stay healthy.
You should say
- what you do
- how often you do it
- how you started
- and explain what difference it makes
60 seconds to prepare, up to 2 minutes to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 190 words at a natural pace — roughly what 120 seconds holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.The single thing I do that has lasted is swimming, three mornings a week, which I have kept up for about four years after failing at roughly six other forms of exercise. How I started was not inspiring. My back had been bad for months, a doctor said swimming and I did not particularly want to, and I went because the alternative was continuing to have a bad back. What made it stick, I think, is the timing rather than the activity. It happens before anything else can interfere with it, at half past six, and there is no version of my day where something urgent comes up at that hour. Every other attempt was in the evening and every one of them died within two months. What difference it makes is more than I expected. The back is fine, which was the point, but the larger effect is on sleep and on my temper, and I can tell within about four days of stopping. I have missed perhaps twenty sessions in four years, almost all of them in one bad fortnight, and getting back was much harder than starting.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- inspiring
three syllables with the stress on the second
- alternative
four syllables with the stress on the second
- interfere
three syllables with the stress on the third
- urgent
the precise adjective in the scheduling argument
- attempt
the right noun for a failed try
- temper
concrete noun for a real, measurable effect
- stick
idiomatic in what made it stick
How a strong answer is built
- 1Name the habit and how long it has survived.
- 2Say how it started, without romance.
- 3Explain what makes it last, with the failures as evidence.
- 4Answer the difference with more than the obvious benefit.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Describe something you do to stay healthy.” be?
You get 60 seconds to make notes and then speak for up to two minutes without interruption. Aim to still be talking at ninety seconds: finishing at forty is the commonest way to lose marks on this part.
Should I memorise the model answer?
No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.
Does sayit score this answer?
It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
What the band on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.One question a day until your test
A free account remembers every take, so you watch a trend instead of a single answer, and it picks tomorrow's question for you.