Speaking
The IELTS speaking test is a recorded conversation with a certified examiner that lasts between eleven and fourteen minutes and is divided into three parts. It is the same test for the Academic and the General Training module, and the same test whether you sit IELTS on paper or on computer. This page explains how the test is structured, how it is marked, and what the examiner in front of you is actually listening for.
The speaking test may be held on the same day as your reading, writing and listening papers, or on a different day within a week either side. Your test centre will tell you which. The test itself is always one candidate and one examiner, and it is always recorded.
Before the assessment begins, the examiner reads some administrative details into the recorder: the date, the test centre, your name and your candidate number. You will also be asked to confirm your full name and show your identification. None of that is assessed. The test proper starts immediately afterwards.
Four to five minutes. The examiner asks questions about you and about familiar topics such as your home, your work or studies, food, weather and free time. Three topic areas, up to four questions in each.
Three to four minutes in total. You are given a cue card, one minute to prepare, and then you speak alone for up to two minutes. The examiner may ask one short rounding-off question afterwards.
Four to five minutes. The examiner asks broader, more abstract questions connected to the theme of your cue card. This is the part where the language is expected to be most formal and most developed.
Your opinions, your general knowledge, and whether what you say is true. You are assessed only on the English you produce. An invented answer that is fluent and well organised scores better than a true one you cannot express.
The examiner scores you on four criteria. Each one carries equal weight, and your speaking band is the average of the four, reported as a whole or a half band.
How much you speak, how easily it comes, and whether your ideas connect. Hesitation while you search for an idea is normal and is treated far more kindly than hesitation while you search for a word. Repeating yourself, correcting yourself constantly, or losing the thread of your own answer all sit here.
The range and precision of your vocabulary, including your ability to paraphrase when the exact word will not come. Using a less common word accurately is worth more than using a common word repeatedly.
Whether you use a variety of structures, and how often those structures contain errors. Range matters as much as accuracy here. Consistently correct simple sentences will hold your band down.
How easy you are to understand, and whether you use stress, rhythm and intonation to carry meaning. Having an accent costs you nothing. Being hard to follow costs you a great deal.
The examiner is not comparing you with the previous candidate, and is not deciding whether they like you. They are matching what they hear against four published descriptors. That is the whole job.
A great deal of what is written online about this test is out of date or simply wrong. Work through the eight statements below and check yourself.
The speaking test takes between eleven and fourteen minutes.
True. The timing is tightly regulated, so do not be surprised if the examiner stops you mid-sentence at the end.
There are three parts to the test.
True. An interview, a two-minute talk from a cue card, and a discussion.
In Part 2, it is acceptable to stop speaking after one minute.
False. Fluency is being assessed, and stopping early gives the examiner less evidence to work with. Aim to still be speaking when you are stopped.
You must cover every point printed on the cue card.
False. The points are there to help you keep talking. There is no penalty for leaving one out, as long as you stay broadly on the topic.
The examiner takes the cue card back after about a minute, while you are still speaking.
False. The card stays with you until you have finished your long turn.
Short answers are appropriate in Part 1.
False. Extend every answer. If the examiner has heard enough, they will move you on themselves.
The speaking test is different for Academic and General Training candidates.
False. The speaking test is identical for both modules. Only reading and writing differ.
You lose marks for correcting a mistake you have just made.
False. Successful self-correction is treated as evidence of control. Repair the sentence and move on.
After thousands of assessments, the same handful of problems account for most of the gap between the band a candidate has and the band they need.
A one-clause answer gives the examiner almost nothing to assess. Aim for around thirty seconds per question in Part 1 and roughly double that in Part 3.
Grammatical range is a quarter of your speaking band. Conditionals, passives and perfect forms all need to appear somewhere, and Part 3 is where they belong.
Speaking to the examiner in Part 3 exactly as you did in Part 1 caps your lexical score. The language is meant to become more formal as the test progresses.
Memorised material is audible, and it collapses the moment the question shifts. Learn structures and phrases you can apply to anything, not scripts.
Everything on IELTSforFREE stays free. If you want your speaking assessed rather than self-checked, IELTStestONLINE adds speaking assessments, writing assessed against the four criteria, and a support tutor who answers your questions.
Free guides
Each guide covers one part of the test or one common topic.
Part 2
Ten cue cards, each answered in full, with the language that makes the answer work.