Both modules
All three parts, with the real timings. Shopping, the news, holidays, and where you would like to live.
This is the second complete IELTS speaking practice test on this site, covering shopping, the news and holidays in Part 1, then a cue card about where you would like to live.
Part 1 answers should be two or three sentences: answer the question, then add a reason or an example. A one-word answer gives the examiner nothing to assess, and Part 1 is where they form a first impression of your level.
Part 1 · four to five minutes
Answer each one in two or three sentences: the answer, then a reason or an example. Speak aloud rather than reading.
1Let’s talk about shopping. Do you often go shopping for clothes?
2Do you think it’s important to dress well?
3Do you have particular national dress in your country?
4I’d like to talk about the news now. Do you often read newspapers?
5Where do you go to get news?
6Do you listen to news broadcasts on the radio?
7Let’s move on to talk about holidays. Did you often go on holiday when you were a child?
8Would you prefer to travel overseas for a holiday?
9Do you have plans for a holiday in the future?
Part 2 · three to four minutes
One minute to make notes, then speak for one to two minutes. Start the timer and it will move you on automatically.
Describe a place you’d like to live in the future
You should say:
You should also say why you would like to live there.
Stopping after forty seconds is the commonest problem in Part 2. Plan a beginning, a middle and an end during the minute so you always have somewhere to go next.
Part 3 · four to five minutes
These are abstract and this is where the higher bands are decided. Take a position and justify it, even if you have never thought about the question before.
1What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a rural area?
2Has the standard of living changed much in your country over the last ten years?
3Do you think more people will choose to leave their native country and live abroad in the future?
4Do you think students should be encouraged to study overseas?
5Do you think that increased mobility has had a negative effect on communities?
The honest limit of a free page
This page gives you the questions, the timings and the pressure of not seeing what is coming. What it cannot do is tell you what your answers would score, because speaking is judged against four criteria: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation.
Recording yourself is worth doing and tells you how you sound. It does not tell you which of those four is holding your band down, and that is nearly always the thing worth working on first.
IELTStestONLINE assesses your speaking against those four criteria, as often as you like, using a system built by a former IELTS examiner and examiner trainer.
See what membership includesEleven to fourteen minutes in total: four to five minutes for Part 1, three to four for Part 2 including the preparation minute, and four to five for Part 3.
Yes. Speaking and listening are identical in the Academic and General Training modules. Only reading and writing differ.
One minute to make notes, then one to two minutes speaking. The examiner will stop you at two minutes, and stopping early at forty seconds is the commonest problem.
No. Speaking is judged against four criteria by listening to you, so no free page can score it. That is what full membership on IELTStestONLINE is for.
No. Examiners hear memorised material constantly and it lowers your band. Prepared vocabulary for common topics helps; prepared sentences do not.