Is it better to stay in one place for life or move often? Why?
A strong Task 1 answer states the choice immediately, gives two supports or one support with an example, and lands its last word around forty seconds. Fifteen seconds of preparation is enough for the plan, not for the wording.
The prompt and the clock
Is it better to stay in one place for life or move often? Why?
15 seconds to prepare, up to 45 seconds to speak
A model answer at the right length
107 words — what 45 seconds actually holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record yours first. A memorised TOEFL answer is audible in the rhythm, and raters mark delivery, which is exactly what memorisation damages. Read this afterwards for the shape and the vocabulary.Moving a few times and then stopping, which I think most people arrive at without planning it. Moving in your twenties is close to free, because the relationships you leave are young and the ones you make replace them quickly. That stops being true somewhere around thirty-five. The friendships that took fifteen years are not reproducible on demand, and a person who keeps moving after that tends to accumulate a long list of people they used to be close to. Staying forever has its own cost, which is that you never find out whether the life you have was chosen or simply the one that was nearest.
The words that carry it
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- reproducible
five syllables with the stress on the third
- accumulate
four syllables with the stress on the second
- relationships
four syllables with the stress on the second
- demand
used in the phrase on demand
- chosen
the key participle of the closing thought
- nearest
superlative doing precise work at the end
How to build the 45 seconds
- 1Give a pattern rather than one of the two options.
- 2Explain why moving early is cheap.
- 3Explain when that stops being true.
- 4Name the cost of the other option too.
Sounds to watch
Straight answers
How long should this answer be?
Forty-five seconds, which is roughly 110 to 130 words at a natural pace. The model below is 107. If your version runs past fifty seconds the recording cuts off, and raters hear an answer that stops mid-sentence.
Does it matter which side I take?
No. Raters mark delivery, language use and topic development, never which opinion you chose. Pick one in the first second and spend the preparation time on two supports rather than on deciding.
What does sayit score here?
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar. The transcript is shown in full, so you can judge your own wording and development yourself.
What the score on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.Drill it until the clock stops mattering
A free account keeps every take, so you can watch your pace settle and your filler count fall across a fortnight.