Most students can relate to academic stress, which makes this a natural conversation topic. The questions cover everything from daily study habits to comparing education systems and how pressure affects learning.
Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.
Beginner (A1-A2)
- What subjects do you like in school? What’s good about them?
- Do you study at home or at the library? What’s good about each?
- Do you prefer studying alone or with friends? What’s good about each?
- How many hours a day do you study? Is that a lot for you?
- What do you do to relax after a long day at school?
- Who helps you the most with school? How do they help?
- Do you eat breakfast before school? What do you usually eat?
- What subject gives you the most homework? How long does it usually take?
- How do you get to school? How long does it take?
- Do you do any activities after school? (Sports, music, clubs, etc.) What do you like about them?
- Do you have a best friend at school? What do you like to do together?
- What time do you wake up for school? Is that too early for you?
Elementary (A2)
- What do you (or did you) struggle with most as a student?
- What subjects don’t you like? Why?
- What is the most stressful part of your school day? What makes it so stressful?
- Have you ever fallen asleep in class? What happened?
- What’s the worst part of exam week? What makes it so difficult?
- Have you ever stayed up all night studying? How did it go?
- What do you do to stay awake when you’re tired but need to study? Why does it work?
- Have you ever missed a deadline for an assignment? Tell me about it.
- Do you get nervous before tests? What do you do about it?
- What is the worst grade you have ever gotten? What happened?
- Do your parents check your grades? How does that make you feel?
- Have you ever had a really strict teacher? What were they like?
- How often have you experienced burnout as a student? How did you deal with it?
Intermediate (B1)
- In what countries do you think it is hardest to be a student? Why do you think so?
- In what countries is it easiest to be a student? What makes it easier there?
- What’s the hardest thing about being a student in your country?
- Do you think it would be easier or harder to be a homeschooled student? Why do you think so?
- What should be changed about the school system in your country?
- What do you think about standardized tests?
- Is there a better system for evaluating students? What would it look like?
- Is it more stressful to be a student or to be an adult? What makes you think so?
- Do you think students today are under more pressure than their parents were? What makes you think so?
- Should students be allowed to choose all of their own classes? Why or why not?
- What kind of personality makes a good student? Why are those traits important?
- If you could remove one subject from the curriculum, what would it be and why?
- Is the pressure to get into a good university helpful or harmful for students? Why do you think so?
- Do you think social media makes student life more stressful? What kind of pressure does it create?
- If you could choose between going to university and learning a trade, which would you pick and why?
- How has online learning changed student life? What do you think about those changes?
Upper-Intermediate (B2)
- How much of a student’s stress is caused by other students and how much is caused by the teachers / educational system?
- What do you think are the main differences between Eastern and Western education systems?
- What is most difficult about each of the different levels of schooling in your country (elementary/primary school, high school/secondary school, college/university)?
- Is it better to study a little bit every day or study a lot right before the exam? What are the downsides of each?
- Should parents push their children to get the best grades, or should they let them find their own way? What are the good and bad sides of each?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of letting students use laptops and phones in class?
- How is the relationship between students and teachers different now compared to previous generations? What caused those changes?
- How do cultural expectations about education create different types of pressure for students? Give me some examples.
- Are students today more competitive or more collaborative than in the past? What evidence do you see for this?
- How do economic pressures influence what students choose to study? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
- How do family expectations about grades and career choices affect students’ mental health? What can be done to improve that?
- In many countries, students take on large amounts of debt to go to university. What are the long-term effects of this on their lives?
- How does the pressure to choose a career at a young age affect students? Is it fair to expect teenagers to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives?
Advanced (C1)
- Why do some students thrive under academic pressure while others struggle with the same demands? How much is about the person versus the support system around them?
- In what ways does the pressure to succeed academically both motivate students to achieve their potential and prevent them from discovering what they truly care about?
- How do study abroad programs both challenge students’ worldviews and sometimes reinforce their existing cultural assumptions?
- How do the demands of being a student today prepare young people for adult life in some ways while leaving them unprepared in others? What gets emphasized and what gets ignored?
- In many Asian countries, students face enormous pressure from entrance exams that can determine their entire future. How does a system like this shape not just education, but also family relationships, mental health, and the kinds of adults these students become?
- Schools say they want to develop well-rounded students, but then they rank everyone by test scores. How does this contradiction affect the way students see themselves and what they think success means?
- Social media lets students compare themselves to millions of people their age around the world. How has this changed the kinds of pressure students feel compared to previous generations, and is any of that pressure useful?
- Parents often pressure their children to follow safe career paths like medicine or law, but the job market is changing rapidly. How do families navigate the tension between financial security and following your passion when nobody knows what jobs will exist in 20 years?
- Student mental health problems are rising in many countries, yet the response is often to add wellness programs rather than reduce the workload. Why do education systems keep adding more instead of taking things away, and what does that say about how we think about productivity?
- Students are often told that their school years are ‘the best years of their life,’ even though many students are struggling with stress and anxiety. How does this messaging affect students who are not enjoying school, and why do adults keep saying it?