IELTS speaking test overview
The IELTS speaking test involves three parts.
In the first part, you will spend 4 - 5 minutes answering short questions about your life and experiences. There are no right or wrong answers. Only your language is being assessed, not your opinion. You can expect several yes/no and wh-questions, related to your past and current experiences. There may also be questions about what you expect in the future.
In the second part, you will spend 1 - 2 minutes talking about a particular topic. Before you start to speak, you will be given one minute to prepare, and paper and a pencil to make notes, if you choose to. Your notes will not be evaluated.
In the third part, you will spend 4 - 5 minutes answering questions that are related to the topic you just spoke about in the second part. These questions demand more complexity, but again, there are no right or wrong answers. Your score reflects your fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, not your opinions.
Tips:
Dress comfortably. Your clothing is not being evaluated and makes no impact on your score.
Relax and breathe. Speak at a regular pace; speech that is too rapid will lower your score.
Understand that your examiner is obligated to manage the time. This means occasionally interrupting the candidate is part of the examiner’s job. Such interruptions do not indicate that the candidate is performing poorly or that the examiner is not listening. Rather, your examiner is controlling the time in order to keep the test standardized for everybody who takes it. If you are interrupted by the examiner, relax. This makes no impact on your score.
Ignore any note taking that your examiner does. The examiner is only permitted to make notes about the timing of the exam, not the candidate’s performance.
“somebody you know” can be you. For topics like describe somebody you know who likes to cook, you may speak about yourself if you can’t think of somebody else to describe.
“interesting” means interesting to you or anything at all. Don’t overthink it. For topics like describe an interesting restaurant you have visited, you can speak about any restaurant. The restaurant doesn’t actually have to be impressive. Just keep speaking English.
