A healthy habit you have, a time you were ill, a form of exercise you enjoy: health and fitness are common themes in IELTS Speaking Part 2, and Part 3 often moves on to diet, stress and healthcare.
These cards are easy to answer from personal experience, so the key is to give specific details and use precise vocabulary instead of words like “good” and “healthy” again and again. Below you will find four health and fitness cue cards with band 7+ sample answers, useful vocabulary, and typical Part 1 and Part 3 questions.
You get a cue card and 1 minute to make notes. Then you speak for 1 to 2 minutes. Cover every point on the card, add a short example or story, and finish with the “explain” part.
Health and fitness cue cards with sample answers
Describe a healthy habit you have.
You should say:
- what the habit is
- when you started it
- how often you do it
and explain how it helps you.
Sample Answer:
A healthy habit I am quite proud of is that I walk to work every day instead of taking the bus. It is about three kilometres each way, so it takes me around thirty-five minutes.
I started about two years ago, when the bus company changed its timetable and my bus became very unreliable. At first I only did it because I was annoyed with the bus, but after a couple of weeks I realised I actually enjoyed it.
I do it every working day, unless the weather is really terrible. It helps me in several ways. Physically, I feel fitter and I have lost a few kilos without changing anything else. But the bigger benefit is mental: the walk in the morning wakes me up, and the walk home gives me time to forget about work before I see my family. I also save quite a lot of money on bus tickets.
Describe a time when you were ill.
You should say:
- when it happened
- what illness you had
- how you got better
and explain how it affected your life at that time.
Sample Answer:
I would like to talk about the time I had a bad case of flu, about three years ago, in the middle of my final exams at university.
It started with a sore throat and a headache, and by the next morning I had a high temperature and I was aching all over. I could barely get out of bed for almost a week. My doctor told me there was not much she could do apart from rest, plenty of fluids and medicine to bring the fever down.
So I stayed in bed, my flatmate made me soup every day, and slowly I got better. It affected my life quite a lot at the time, because I had to postpone two exams and take them a month later, which meant studying through part of the summer. Since then I have had a flu vaccination every autumn, and I take my health much more seriously when I am under stress.
Describe a sport or exercise you do regularly.
You should say:
- what it is
- when and where you do it
- who you do it with
and explain why you enjoy it.
Sample Answer:
The exercise I do most regularly is swimming. I go to the public swimming pool near my home twice a week, usually early on Tuesday and Friday mornings before work.
I mostly go alone, which I actually prefer, because swimming is a kind of quiet time for me. I swim for about forty minutes, mixing front crawl and breaststroke, and I try to do a few more lengths every month. Once a month I go with a friend from work, and we have breakfast together afterwards.
I enjoy it because it exercises the whole body without hurting my joints, which matters to me because I had a knee injury a few years ago. I also love the feeling after a swim: I am tired but relaxed, and my mind is completely clear. Somehow the problems that worried me before I got into the water always seem smaller when I get out.
Describe a person you know who lives a healthy life.
You should say:
- who the person is
- how you know them
- what they do to stay healthy
and explain whether you would like to live like this person.
Sample Answer:
The healthiest person I know is my aunt Maria, my mother’s younger sister. She is in her late fifties, but she has more energy than most people half her age.
She gets up at six every day and does twenty minutes of yoga before breakfast. She cooks almost everything from fresh ingredients, a lot of it from her own vegetable garden, and she hardly ever eats sweets or drinks alcohol. She also cycles everywhere in her small town and goes to bed early, usually before ten.
I would like to live like her in some ways, especially the cooking and the cycling, and I have started to copy her habit of cooking at home more. But I have to admit that getting up at six every day and never eating dessert sounds very difficult to me, at least for now.
Useful health and fitness vocabulary for IELTS
Try to replace basic words like “healthy”, “sick” and “sport” with more precise vocabulary:
| Topic | Words and phrases |
|---|---|
| Healthy lifestyle | a balanced diet, to stay in shape, to get enough sleep, a sedentary lifestyle, to cut down on sugar |
| Exercise | to work out, a workout, to go jogging, cardio exercise, to build stamina, to keep fit |
| Illness | to come down with a cold, a high temperature, to be off sick, to recover from, a minor / serious illness |
| Healthcare | a GP (general practitioner), a check-up, a prescription, to be vaccinated, preventive medicine |
| Useful phrases | to be as fit as a fiddle, to be under the weather, to be on the mend, to burn the candle at both ends |
IELTS Speaking Part 1: questions about health
Part 1 questions are short and personal. Give a direct answer and add one reason or example.
1Do you think you have a healthy lifestyle?
Mostly, yes. I walk a lot and cook at home, but I do not always get enough sleep, especially before deadlines.
2How often do you do exercise?
About three or four times a week. I swim twice a week and walk to work every day.
3What do you do when you feel stressed?
I usually go for a walk or a swim. Physical activity helps me much more than sitting and thinking about the problem.
4Did you do much sport as a child?
Quite a lot. I played football at school and went to swimming lessons every weekend until I was about twelve.
IELTS Speaking Part 3: questions about health and lifestyle
New to Part 3? See how to give band 7+ answers in Speaking Part 3, with simple and stronger answers compared.
In Part 3 the examiner asks about health in general. Give longer answers with reasons, examples and both sides of the argument.
1Why do many people find it hard to live a healthy life?
Mainly because of time and money. People work long hours, so cooking fresh food and exercising feel like extra tasks after a tiring day. Unhealthy food is also cheap, fast and heavily advertised. Habits play a big role too: once you are used to a certain lifestyle, it is hard to change it.
2Should governments do more to encourage healthy lifestyles?
I think they should, because poor health costs society a lot through healthcare and lost working days. Governments can build cycle paths and parks, put taxes on sugary drinks and make sure school meals are healthy. However, they cannot force people to change, so education is just as important as rules.
3Are people today healthier than in the past?
In some ways yes, and in others no. Modern medicine means people live much longer and many diseases can be cured. On the other hand, people today move much less and eat more processed food, so problems like obesity and back pain have become more common. So we live longer, but not always better.
Practise on your own
Choose one of the cue cards above, set a timer for 1 minute to make notes, and then record yourself speaking for 2 minutes. Listen back and check whether you covered every point and used some of the vocabulary from this page. For more topics, see IELTS Speaking Part 2 topics and cue cards with answers.