How has your hometown changed since you were a child?
A strong Part 1 answer puts the actual answer in the first clause, adds one reason or one example, and stops. Two or three sentences, roughly forty seconds.
The question, as the examiner gives it
How has your hometown changed since you were a child?
no preparation, about 45 seconds to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 78 words at a natural pace — roughly what 45 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.Enormously, mostly at the edges. The centre looks much the same, but the fields I used to cycle through are now apartment blocks, and the ring road has doubled in width. There are far more cafes and gyms than there were, which tells you something about who has moved in. I am in two minds about it, really. The town feels busier and better supplied, and at the same time much less quiet than the place I remember.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- enormously
a strong adverb instead of the flat a lot
- doubled
a precise verb for quantity, easy to say quickly
- cafes
concrete evidence rather than a vague claim
- supplied
collocates with well and better in British usage
- busier
comparative form used naturally in a change answer
- remember
carries the personal time frame the question asks for
How a strong answer is built
- 1Answer the degree of change first, in one word.
- 2Contrast one thing that stayed with one that did not.
- 3Use a specific childhood detail as evidence.
- 4Finish with a balanced judgement, not a complaint.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “How has your hometown changed since you were a child?” be?
About 45 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
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