IELTS questions, by theme.

Environment

Climate change, plastic waste, deforestation, renewable energy, animal extinction, individual vs government responsibility. Environment prompts test whether you can argue past the easy emotional response. Examiners reward essays that pick one concrete mechanism (a tax, a ban, a behaviour shift) and trace its effects, rather than listing every green idea you know.

Family & Children

Parenting, working mothers, only children, elderly care, marriage age, family meals, generational change. Family & Children prompts often hide a values question inside a practical one. Best essays acknowledge that the "right" arrangement varies by culture and class, and ground their position in observable trade-offs rather than nostalgia.

Food & Diet

Gender & Equality

Globalisation

Free trade, multinational companies, migration, English as a lingua franca, cultural homogenisation, FDI. Globalisation prompts ask whether the gains outweigh the losses, or who captures the gains. Examiners look for essays that distinguish between economic, cultural, and political globalisation, collapsing them into one fuzzy concept caps you at Band 6 Task Response.

Government & Law

Crime and punishment, voting, taxation, free speech, surveillance, government spending priorities. Government & Law prompts often hinge on the balance between individual freedom and collective security. The strongest essays name a specific policy lever (term limits, mandatory voting, a tax rate) and discuss its second-order effects, not just its intent.

Health

Public vs private healthcare, obesity, sleep deprivation, mental health, fast food, exercise, ageing populations. Health prompts reward specific causal chains: not "junk food is bad" but "subsidised corn makes processed food cheaper than vegetables, which raises obesity rates in low-income areas." Avoid hedging into "everything contributes" generalities.

Immigration

Media

Television, social media, advertising, news bias, celebrity culture, regulation of online content. Media prompts test whether you can separate the medium from the message. Avoid the trap of arguing that "social media is bad", the band-7 move is to specify which behaviours on which platforms produce which outcomes for which users.

Poverty & Development

Society & Culture

Tradition vs modernity, art and museums, public space, religion, multiculturalism, equality, generational values. Society & Culture prompts ask you to defend a value judgment with evidence rather than assertion. The best essays anchor abstract claims ("communities are weaker") in concrete observation (declining bowling-league membership, reduced neighbour interaction in dense apartments).

Sports & Recreation

Technology

Smartphones, AI, automation, online learning, screen time, digital privacy, remote work. Technology is the most-tested IELTS theme. Strong essays separate the technology itself from how people use it, and pick a single concrete effect to trace in depth rather than listing every concern. Examples beat alarm.

Travel & Tourism

Mass tourism, eco-tourism, cultural respect, language learning while travelling, holiday spending, working abroad. Travel & Tourism prompts often pit economic benefit against cultural or environmental cost. Best essays name a specific destination type (Venice, Bali, Iceland) and the specific mechanism (overtourism, water stress, housing displacement) rather than arguing in the abstract.

Urban Life

Urban planning, car dependency, public transport, housing, green space, rural depopulation, smart cities. Urban Life prompts test your ability to think about a city as a system. Strong essays connect one intervention (congestion charge, cycle lanes, height limits) to changes in behaviour, land value, or quality of life.

Work & Career

Career choice, work-life balance, remote work, retirement age, automation, salary vs satisfaction, generational attitudes. Work & Career prompts usually probe a tension: money vs meaning, security vs growth, individual ambition vs collective good. The best essays acknowledge the tension exists, then defend a clear position with worked examples.