IELTS Speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3: What the Examiner Asks and How to Answer
The IELTS Speaking test lasts 11–14 minutes and follows the same three-part structure every time. Here is what the examiner asks in each part, what they are listening for, and the same Part 2 cue card answered at band 6 and at band 8.
The IELTS Speaking test is a recorded, face-to-face interview with a single examiner that lasts 11–14 minutes and always has the same three parts: Part 1 is a short interview about familiar topics (4–5 minutes), Part 2 is a long turn in which you speak for 1–2 minutes on a cue card topic after one minute of preparation, and Part 3 is a discussion of more abstract questions connected to the Part 2 topic (4–5 minutes). The test is identical for Academic and General Training candidates, and the examiner scores you on four criteria worth 25% each: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.
The three parts at a glance
| Part | Time | Format | What the examiner is listening for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1: Interview | 4–5 min | Short questions on familiar topics (home, work, study, interests) | Natural, extended answers without prompting; range of tenses |
| Part 2: Long turn | 1 min prep + 1–2 min talk | Cue card with a topic and three or four prompts | Sustained, organised speech; vocabulary precision; structure variety |
| Part 3: Discussion | 4–5 min | Abstract questions linked to the Part 2 theme | Reasoned opinions, speculation, comparison, hedging |
Part 1: the interview
After checking your identity, the examiner asks about your home, hometown, work or studies, then moves to two or three further topic sets such as food, weather, reading or technology. The questions are short and personal: "How often do you cook?", "Did you enjoy art lessons at school?" Expect past, present and future questions within the same topic.
The examiner is listening for whether you can extend an answer naturally. A band 6 candidate typically answers and stops; a band 7 or 8 candidate answers, adds a reason or brief example, and shows a range of tenses doing it. Two or three sentences is right, in the pattern direct answer, reason, small detail:
Do you prefer to study in the morning or in the evening? "Definitely in the morning. My concentration drops off sharply after lunch, so I try to get anything demanding done before ten. In the evening I'm far more likely to end up scrolling through my phone than reading."
Resist memorising answers; examiners recognise rehearsed speech and simply move to a topic you have not prepared. A second of thinking time is fine, but a silence or "um, let me think" before every answer will show up in your Fluency score.
Part 2: the long turn
The examiner hands you a cue card with a topic and three or four prompts, plus pencil and paper. You have one minute to prepare, then speak for one to two minutes; the examiner stops you at two minutes and may ask one or two short rounding-off questions. You are not penalised for skipping a prompt, but they give your talk a shape, and the final "explain" prompt is where the most interesting language lives.
Do not write sentences in the preparation minute; write five or six key words, one per prompt, plus one specific detail (a name, a place, a number) that makes the story concrete, then keep going until you are stopped.
Sample cue card
Describe a skill you learned that was difficult at first. You should say: what the skill was; how you learned it; why it was difficult at the beginning; and explain how you feel about having this skill now.
A band 6-style answer
"OK, so I want to talk about driving. I learned to drive when I was, um, twenty-two years old. I learned it from my uncle, because he has a car and he is a good driver. At first it was very difficult because there are many things to think about, like the mirrors, the gears, the other cars. I was very nervous and I made many mistakes. One time I almost hit a wall. But I practised every weekend for maybe three months and then it became more easy. Now I feel good about it. I can drive to work and I don't need to take the bus. I think it is a very useful skill and everybody should learn it."
A band 8-style answer
"I'd like to talk about learning to drive, which I finally got round to in my early twenties, mainly because I'd just started a job on the other side of the city and the commute by bus was eating up two hours a day. My uncle offered to teach me, which sounded ideal until I realised how little patience he actually had. What made it so hard at the beginning was the sheer number of things you have to coordinate at once: checking the mirrors, managing the clutch, judging the speed of other cars, all while trying to stay calm. There was one particularly embarrassing moment when I stalled in the middle of a busy junction and the whole queue behind me started honking. Having said that, after a few months of practising every weekend, it gradually became second nature. Looking back now, I'm genuinely glad I persevered, partly because of the independence it gives me, but mostly because it taught me that skills which feel impossible at first usually just need consistent practice."
What separates the two answers
- Fluency and Coherence. The band 6 answer is made of short sentences joined by "and", "but" and "because", with a hesitation marker near the start. It is understandable, but the listener connects the ideas. The band 8 answer runs in long, linked stretches, and its discourse markers ("Having said that", "Looking back now") move the story forward rather than decorate it; any pause is about content, not words.
- Lexical Resource. The band 6 vocabulary is adequate but generic: "very difficult", "many things", "very useful". The band 8 answer uses precise, idiomatic collocations ("got round to", "eating up two hours", "sheer number", "became second nature", "persevered") and paraphrases rather than repeating the card.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The band 6 answer relies on simple sentences and contains a basic error ("more easy"). The band 8 answer moves comfortably between past perfect ("I'd just started"), relative clauses, a cleft sentence ("What made it so hard was..."), a participle clause ("Having said that") and a modal, with no errors.
- Pronunciation. You cannot hear it on the page, but the band 8 speaker typically groups words into meaningful chunks, stresses the content words and uses intonation to signal contrast, staying effortless to understand throughout. The band 6 speaker is generally clear but tends towards flat intonation, even stress and the occasional mispronounced sound that makes the listener work. Accent is not assessed.
Both answers tell the same ordinary story: a band 8 needs a natural topic told with precise language, not a dramatic one.
Part 3: the discussion
Part 3 moves from your own experience to the wider world, with questions linked to the Part 2 theme that become more abstract as the discussion develops. Typical question types are comparison ("How has the way people learn skills changed?"), evaluation ("Is it better to learn practical skills at school or at work?"), speculation ("Will people still need to drive in the future?"), causes and solutions. If the examiner pushes back with "But some people would say...", that is an invitation to show more range, not criticism.
A reliable framework is position, reason, example, qualification:
Do you think schools should teach practical skills such as cooking or managing money? "I'd argue they should, mainly because these are skills every adult needs regardless of their career, whereas a lot of academic content is only ever used by a minority. In my own case, I left school able to solve equations but with no idea how to budget. That said, curriculum time is limited, so something would have to make way for it."
The examiner is listening for a sustained argument, appropriate hedging ("tend to", "to some extent"), conditionals and comparatives, and vocabulary for abstract ideas. One-sentence answers in Part 3 are the commonest reason a strong speaker is disappointed by their Fluency and Coherence score.
Common mistakes in IELTS Speaking
- Memorised answers or a rehearsed opener such as "That's a very interesting question".
- One-sentence answers in Part 1 and Part 3.
- Stopping early in Part 2; under a minute is too little evidence of sustained speech.
- Writing full sentences in the preparation minute and then reading them aloud.
- Leaning on one connector ("and then... and then...") or forcing written linkers such as "moreover" into speech.
- Self-correcting every minor slip, which damages fluency more than the slip damaged accuracy.
- Speaking faster to sound fluent. Fluency is about flow, not speed.
- Panicking when a Part 3 topic is unfamiliar. Say so briefly and speculate; the test measures your language, not your knowledge.
How your Speaking band is calculated
The examiner awards a band for each criterion and the four are averaged to give your Speaking band, in whole or half bands. That is averaged with Listening, Reading and Writing for your overall band, rounded to the nearest half band (.25 rounds up to the next half band, .75 to the next whole band). An uneven profile, say strong pronunciation but weak grammar, pulls the whole component down; you can see how one component moves your overall score with the IELTS band score calculator.
Practise with a specialist
Fleydo's one-to-one IELTS preparation pairs you with a native English-speaking teacher who is a Band 8.5+ certified IELTS specialist, and every Speaking session is run in real test format with a criterion-by-criterion debrief. You can book a free trial lesson and get an honest estimate of your current Speaking band before you commit.
