IELTS Speaking Information and Advice

Many students seem to miss basic facts about the IELTS Speaking test, so this page is to fill in some of that missing information. There are also separate pages for more detailed information and advice for each part.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Format	The Speaking test contains three parts
Timing	11 – 14 minutes
Number of Parts	3
Interaction Pattern	One candidate and one examiner
Task Types	Short exchanges with the examiner; a 1 to 2-minute ‘long turn’; a discussion.
What does it test?	Talk at length on a given topic, using appropriate language. Communicate opinions on everyday topics and discuss common experiences. Express and justify opinions. Organise your ideas coherently. Analyse, discuss and speculate about issues.
Marks	Candidates are assessed on their performance throughout.

To prepare for the IELTS Speaking test, it best to know EXACTLY what you are supposed to do and what you can do to get a better score.

To find out exactly what is expected of you in the test, watch online videos of other people taking their tests. Most of these videos are adverts for teachers or schools, but they can be extremely useful for someone who is unfamiliar with the test.

One of the main problems about watching these videos, is they don’t give you any idea of how much pressure you will feel in the test.

IELTS can change people’s lives by helping them to study abroad or work in another country. It is really common for speaking test takers to be extremely nervous, which often affects what they say, and hence, their speaking score. Some people are so nervous they can’t speak at all!

To combat this, it is essential that you practice with different native speaking teachers or friends so you are confident that you can actually understand the questions they ask. English speakers have a vast range of accents, so practicing is recommended.

These two points will make you more confident when taking your test. If you have the money, thinking about your IELTS test as the first one of several, will make it much less stressful, and allow you to find out your biggest problems before you take the next one. The only problem is, they are not cheap.

a) Watch as many online IELTS speaking videos as you can. Pause the video after the question and answer it yourself, then press play and compare your answer. Ask yourself what the video test taker does better than you.

b) Once you understand the format of the speaking test, get an English-speaking friend to ask you questions and assess your answers for hesitation, fluency, vocabulary and so on.

c) When you start to feel more confident, take some mock tests with native English-speaking teachers online. This will give you a much better idea of your level and what you should improve.

d) Thinking of talking about topics in chunks rather than just specific vocabulary. This way, you should know these phrases or sentences are correct before you use them.

e) Don’t try to change your grammar quickly. Grammar and pronunciation usually take a long time to change.

f) Be prepared if you don’t know anything about the topic of the question. Have a plan.

g) Try and balance speaking clearly and speaking naturally. Speaking naturally means your speech should flow rather than pronouncing each word perfectly.

h) Do not pause for too long before you begin speaking. A short pause to gather your thoughts is acceptable, but anything longer than this will give you less time to produce a suitable sample of language. Being able to paraphrase if you do not know or cannot remember a word and extending your responses rather than giving a one-word answer, will help you more.

I hope that has helped to give you a better understanding of what is required for the IELTS Speaking test, and that you will look into each part in more detail. There is a full list of pages on the IELTS Speaking test here. Good luck with your test!