The examiner asks you some questions about yourself and about familiar, everyday topics. Answer each question aloud and record yourself if you can; the model answers unlock after you submit.
Topic 1 — Your home
"I live with my parents and my younger sister in a rented flat in Mirpur. My grandmother also stays with us for a few months every year, so the place can feel quite full at times, but I don't mind."
"I'd say the balcony. It faces east, so it gets lovely morning light, and my mother has filled it with potted plants. It's the one spot where I can sit with a cup of tea and feel slightly removed from the noise of the street."
"I do now, thankfully. Until I was about fifteen I shared with my sister, which led to a lot of arguments over the lights and music, so having my own space, even a small one, feels like a real luxury."
"Quite often, actually. Relatives tend to drop in without much warning, which is very normal in Bangladesh, so there's usually someone having tea in the living room at the weekend. My mother always keeps snacks ready just in case."
Topic 2 — Concentration
"It depends a lot on where I am. If it's quiet I can focus for a couple of hours without any trouble, but the moment my phone starts buzzing my attention just disappears, so I usually leave it in another room."
"Sometimes, yes, especially after lunch. If a lecturer simply reads from slides for an hour, my mind starts to wander, so I've got into the habit of taking handwritten notes, which forces me to keep listening."
"I've recently started using a timer. I work for twenty-five minutes and then take a five-minute break. It sounds simple, but it's made a noticeable difference, because I know a break is coming and I'm less tempted to check my messages."
Topic 3 — Fruit
"Mangoes, without a doubt. Bangladesh has so many varieties, and in early summer the markets are full of them. I could honestly eat three or four a day during the season, which my family thinks is a bit excessive."
"Yes, mainly because my grandfather had a few guava and jackfruit trees behind his house. Whenever we visited, we'd climb up and pick the fruit ourselves, so it always felt like a treat rather than something healthy we were made to eat."
"Fresh fruit, generally. Juice from shops tends to be full of sugar, and I like the feeling of biting into something. The one exception is fresh lime juice on a really hot day, when honestly nothing beats it."
"It's become noticeably more expensive over the last couple of years, especially imported fruit like apples and grapes. Local seasonal fruit is still fairly affordable, though, so most families just buy whatever is in season."
Read the card, then use the 1-minute preparation timer to make quick notes. When it ends, start the 2-minute timer and speak until it stops, covering all four points.
"The place I'd like to describe is Bandarban, a hilly district in the south-east of Bangladesh, not far from the border with Myanmar. I went there about two years ago, during the winter break, with three friends from university, and we stayed for four days.
What makes it so striking is that it looks nothing like the rest of the country. Most of Bangladesh is completely flat, so when our bus started climbing through steep, forested hills, we were all glued to the windows. In the early morning the valleys are often filled with cloud, and from some viewpoints you genuinely feel as if you're looking down on a sea of white.
We managed to do quite a lot in a short time. We took a jeep up to Nilgiri, which is one of the highest points you can reach by road, and we visited a beautiful golden Buddhist temple on a hilltop just outside the town. My favourite day, though, was when we hired a small boat on the Sangu River and stopped at a village, where a local family invited us in for tea and explained how they grow rice and vegetables on the steep slopes around them.
The reason I found it so interesting is that it changed the way I think about my own country. Bandarban is home to several indigenous communities, such as the Marma and the Bawm, each with their own language, food and festivals, and I realised how little I'd been taught about them at school. It was a bit humbling, to be honest. I'd always assumed you had to go abroad to experience a different culture, but that trip showed me there's an enormous amount of diversity just a day's journey from Dhaka, and since then I've been determined to see much more of Bangladesh."
The examiner asks you some more general questions connected with the topic in Part 2. Answer each question aloud; the model answers unlock after you submit.
Theme 1 — Tourism and local communities
"Most international visitors seem to head for the Sundarbans, mainly for the mangrove forest and the slim chance of seeing a tiger, and for Cox's Bazar because of its enormously long beach. The historic mosques and ruins around Dhaka and Bagerhat attract a smaller but quite dedicated group of people who are interested in history. Generally, though, Bangladesh is still seen as an off-the-beaten-track destination rather than a mainstream one."
"It's a mixed picture. On the positive side, tourism creates jobs in hotels, transport and handicrafts, and it can bring money into areas that have few other industries. On the other hand, local people may find that rents and food prices rise, and that their town is gradually reshaped around visitors rather than residents. Whether the overall effect is positive really depends on how much of the money actually stays in the local community."
"I'd lean towards fewer, higher-spending visitors, at least for fragile places. Mass tourism produces impressive figures, but it also brings overcrowding, litter and pressure on water supplies and transport. A smaller number of visitors who stay longer and spend more tends to create better jobs with less damage. The risk, of course, is that travel becomes something only wealthy people can enjoy, so I think governments need to strike a balance."
"I suspect it'll become far more regulated. We're already seeing cities limit visitor numbers or introduce tourist taxes, and as the climate impact of flying attracts more attention, that trend is likely to accelerate. At the same time, technology might change the experience itself. Virtual tours could satisfy some people's curiosity, although I doubt they'll ever fully replace the experience of actually being somewhere. I also wouldn't be surprised if more people chose holidays closer to home, simply because they're cheaper and greener."
Theme 2 — Travel and learning
"I think they learn different things. Reading gives you the background, the history and the reasons why a place is the way it is, and it can be more accurate than a quick visit. But travelling teaches you things a book can't, like how people actually behave, what daily life feels like and how your own assumptions are challenged. Ideally the two go together, because reading before a trip makes the experience far richer."
"Yes, I think they should, as long as the trips have a clear educational purpose. Seeing a historical site or a different community in person makes lessons far more memorable than anything in a textbook, and it can reduce prejudice towards people from other regions. The main obstacles are cost and safety, so schools would need some public funding and proper supervision, but I believe the benefits would justify it."
"I think it's likely, at least among those who can afford it. The idea of a gap year used to be associated mainly with a few Western countries, but it's spreading as young people see travel content online and as remote work makes it easier to earn money while moving around. However, rising costs and the pressure to get ahead in a competitive job market may hold many back, so it might remain something of a privilege rather than the norm."