Do people read less than they used to?
A strong Part 3 answer takes a position in the first clause, supports it with one reason and one concrete case, and then names where it stops being true. Around a minute.
The question, as the examiner gives it
Do people read less than they used to?
no preparation, about 1 minute to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 121 words at a natural pace — roughly what 60 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.They read enormously more and they read differently, which is why the complaint feels true. Almost everybody now reads several thousand words a day in messages and articles, far more than a generation that watched television all evening. What has declined is sustained reading, the kind where you stay with one argument for four hours, and that is a genuinely different skill. I notice it in myself. I can read all day and still find a long chapter difficult in a way I did not at twenty. Whether that matters depends on what you think long reading provides, and I would say it provides the experience of holding a complicated thing in your head long enough to disagree with it properly.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- sustained
the key adjective, stressed on the second syllable
- declined
the precise verb for a reduction
- generation
four syllables with the stress on the third
- complicated
four syllables with the stress on the first
- chapter
concrete noun that makes the claim real
- properly
British adverb carrying the closing point
- differently
three syllables with the stress on the first
How a strong answer is built
- 1Contradict the premise and explain why it feels true.
- 2Quantify the change.
- 3Name what has actually declined.
- 4Say why it matters, with a definition.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Do people read less than they used to?” be?
About 60 seconds. Long enough for the answer plus a reason or an example, short enough that the examiner can get through the rest of the set.
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.