Speaking
Most of the stress of IELTS speaking test day comes from not knowing what happens next. The English you have is the English you have by the morning of the test, but the difference between a candidate who is calm and a candidate who is rattled is often worth half a band. This page walks through the procedure and the practical decisions worth making in advance.
Your speaking test may be on the same day as the other three papers or on a separate day within a week either side. Details vary between centres and between the test centre and online versions, so confirm the specifics with yours. The pattern below is what most candidates experience.
If you are sitting a video-call speaking test, the format, timing and marking are identical. What changes is the practical setup: you will be asked to show identification to the camera, to pan the room, and to keep the desk clear. Test your connection, camera and microphone the day before, and have the centre's contact number written down in case the call drops.
From the moment you wake up, push your thinking into English. Avoid long conversations in your first language on the way to the centre. Put on an English podcast or an audiobook while you wait, unless there is somebody there worth talking to in English instead.
Cramming vocabulary in the final twenty minutes very rarely helps and reliably raises your pulse. If you want something to hold, take your own notebook of phrases you already know, or an English novel that has nothing to do with the test.
You gain nothing for a suit and lose nothing for jeans. What matters is that you will pass through a registration queue, a waiting area and a test room, all of them at different temperatures, and possibly across several hours. Take a layer you can remove and carry.
From joining the registration queue to finishing your speaking test can run to several hours. Something to eat and plenty of water are worth more than any last-minute revision. Do not assume the centre has a working vending machine.
The test officially begins when the recorder does, but the examiner is human and forms an impression from the moment they meet you. A brief hello, or a comment about how busy the day looks, as you walk to the room costs nothing and settles you both.
You are not there to be liked and you are not being interviewed for a job. You are there to demonstrate a level of English. Even in your own language you would hesitate and misspeak occasionally during a fourteen-minute formal conversation with a stranger. Expect to do the same here.
Examining is a paid job. The examiner will assess several candidates that day, will have forgotten the details of your test within minutes of you leaving the room, and has no interest whatsoever in embarrassing you. Anything you are afraid of doing in front of them, they have heard already this week.
The examiner works to a strict clock and will interrupt you mid-sentence to keep to it. That is not a signal that your answer was poor. Most candidates are stopped at least once, and being stopped in Part 2 is exactly what you want.
If you hear yourself make an error, stop, correct it and carry on. My friend have visited — sorry, my friend has visited — this place a few times. Successful self-correction is evidence of control, not a lost mark.
If you did not hear the question, ask for it again. Your listening is not being assessed. Guessing at a half-heard question and answering the wrong one is far more expensive.
Thinking time is fine if it is audible. That is not something I have given much thought to, but I suppose… keeps the fluency clock running while you find an idea.
Relaxed in Part 1, organised in Part 2, formal in Part 3. Consciously shifting gear between the parts is one of the clearest signals of a higher band.
Quick question, 10 seconds
Where do you want to study or move to?
When are you planning to go?
How far along are you?
Want free IELTS practice sent to you?
Optional. Leave it blank and your answers are still counted.
Thanks. That helps.
Back to your practice.