What do I need to do in the IELTS speaking test?

So, the good news is the speaking test is very short.  It is 14 minutes maximum and is strictly timed.

Things you need to be aware of;

1)  If the examiner stops you talking, stop talking.  As I said above, the test is strictly timed.  If the examiner says “Thank you” to stop you talking, they are no being rude and you are not losing marks.  They just need to move the test on to the next part.

2)  Part 1 is easy.  The questions are about you and your experiences.  This doesn’t mean you should just talk and talk and talk.  If the examiner asks you “Do you work or are you a student?”, then you can answer “I work as a doctor in a hospital that isn’t too far from here”.  That is fine.  We don’t want to know whether you like your job, or how long you have been doing it, or details about what you do.  Wait for the next question.

3)  In part 1, if the examiner asks you “Why?” then it means you are not developing your answers enough.  If you are asked

“Have you ever climbed a tree?”

And you say,

“No, never”,

the examiner will ask you

“Why not?”

You will need to add more information to what you say.

3)  In part 2, try to talk for 2 minutes.  If your question card is this,

and you finish talking about it in 90 seconds, talk about another book, or a magazine, or a newspaper.  It doesn’t matter.  The prompts are there to help you speak for longer so the examiner can listen to your English.

4)  In Part 3, stay away from personal experiences.  Talking about yourself is easy and Part 3 is to see if you can talk about more general topics.  Candidates that are Band 6.0 and below refer back to personal experiences because they can’t handle talking about more general topics.  Band 7+ candidates have the vocabulary and grammar to be able to talk about things in the news and global topics for example.

5)  The examiner is being recorded, for your benefit and to make sure the examiner is doing their job properly.  At the end of the test, don’t ask “How did I do?”.  The examiner cannot say anything and it will just lead to awkwardness.

If you want to do a Full IELTS Speaking Test and get a report on your performance, with all your mistakes corrected, a band score for each part of the criteria, then you can buy one here.  You can also see an example here.   You only get this detail from IELTS examiners.