IELTS Speaking test: the three parts, how it is marked and sample answers

Speaking is the only section where you deal with a real person, which makes it the most stressful for many candidates. It is also the section where small changes in technique show up quickly in your band.

Part 1: introduction and interview (4–5 minutes)

The examiner checks your identity and asks questions on two or three familiar topics, such as your home town, your work or study, and an everyday subject like weather, music or food.

What works: answer directly, then add one or two sentences: a reason, an example or a comparison. Two to four sentences per answer is about right.

Q: Do you like cooking?

Weak: Yes, I like it.

Better: Yes, quite a lot, especially on weekends when I have time. During the week I tend to make something quick, but on Sundays I usually try a new recipe, often something from my grandmother's cookbook.

Part 2: the long turn (3–4 minutes)

You get a task card with a topic and three or four prompts, a pencil and paper, and one minute to prepare. Then you speak for one to two minutes. The examiner will stop you at two minutes.

What works:

• Use the minute to write key words, not sentences. One word for each prompt and an idea for the ending.
• Tell it as a story with a beginning, middle and end. Stories are easier to keep going than descriptions.
• If you run out of things to say, go back to a prompt and add a detail: who was there, what it looked like, how you felt.

Card: Describe a journey that took much longer than you expected. You should say where you were going, who you were with, what caused the delay, and explain how you felt about it.

Opening that works: "I'd like to talk about a train trip from Melbourne to Sydney that I took with my cousin two years ago. It was supposed to take about eleven hours, but just after we passed Albury, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere…"

Part 3: discussion (4–5 minutes)

The examiner asks more general questions related to the topic in Part 2. For example, after a Part 2 topic about a long journey, Part 3 might include questions such as "Why do people choose to travel by train rather than plane?" or "How might people's travel habits change in the future?"

What works: focus on broader issues rather than just your personal experiences. Part 3 is designed to assess your ability to discuss general topics, explain opinions and explore different perspectives.

For example, instead of simply explaining what you would do or prefer, consider how different groups of people might think or behave. You could compare younger and older generations, people from different countries or those with different lifestyles, and explain the reasons behind these differences.

You can still express your own opinions, but make sure you support them with explanations, examples and broader observations. The key is to move beyond personal experiences and demonstrate your ability to discuss ideas in a more general and developed way.

Q: How might people's travel habits change in the future?

Answer: For work, I think people will travel less. During the pandemic a lot of companies discovered that online meetings work well enough for most things, and flying someone to another city for a one-hour meeting is now hard to justify, both on cost and for environmental reasons. Holiday travel is a different story, though. If anything, people seem keener than ever to travel for pleasure, and cheaper flights have made it possible for more people. So I'd expect business travel to shrink but tourism to keep growing.

How Speaking is marked

An accent is not a problem. The question is whether the examiner can understand you without effort.

Habits that hold people back

• Memorised answers. Examiners are trained to spot them and may change the question.
• One-word answers in Part 1. They give the examiner nothing to assess.
• Long silences while searching for a word. Paraphrase instead: "the thing you use to… I'm not sure of the exact word".
• Speaking too fast. It usually makes pronunciation and grammar worse, not fluency better.

It is fine to…

• Ask the examiner to repeat a question: "Sorry, could you repeat that, please?"
• Take a second to think: "That's an interesting question. Let me think…"
• Correct yourself once in a while. It shows control.

Practise speaking out loud

The AIL practice tests include a recorded Speaking test in all three parts. Your answers are transcribed and marked on the four criteria, with comments, so you can hear and read where you hesitate.