The IELTS Speaking test is the same for General Training and Academic. It’s a face-to-face interview with an examiner that lasts 11 to 14 minutes, in three parts, and it’s recorded. This page gives you sample questions for each part, with sample answers to compare against, then 15 questions on format and strategy.

All questions and answers here are original practice written in the IELTS format. They are not official IELTS material, and the sample answers don’t come with an official band score.

The three parts

How Speaking is marked

Four criteria, weighted equally:

• Fluency and Coherence: speaking at length without long pauses, with ideas in a clear order.
• Lexical Resource: a range of vocabulary used accurately, including paraphrasing when you don’t know a word.
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: a mix of simple and complex sentences, mostly without errors.
• Pronunciation: how easy you are to understand. Any accent is fine as long as you’re clear.

Part 1 sample questions and answers

Aim for two to four sentences: answer, give a reason, add a detail.

Do you work or are you a student? “I work, actually. I’m a lab technician at a hospital, so most of my day is spent running blood tests. It’s quite demanding, but I like knowing that the results help doctors make decisions quickly.”

What do you like most about the area where you live? “Probably the river path near my building. I can walk or cycle along it for kilometres without crossing a single road, and it’s especially beautiful in autumn when the leaves change colour.”

How do you usually spend your weekends? “It depends on the season. In summer I try to get outside as much as possible, often camping with friends. In winter I’m more of a homebody: I cook something slow, like a stew, and catch up on reading.”

Do you like cooking? “Yes, quite a lot. I don’t have much time on weekdays, so I keep it simple then, but on Sundays I like trying new recipes. Lately I’ve been learning to make dumplings from scratch.”

How often do you use public transport? “Almost every day. I take the train to work because parking downtown is expensive, and honestly, I’d rather read on the train than sit in traffic.”

Is there a type of weather you dislike? “Freezing rain, definitely. It’s not just cold; it makes the sidewalks dangerous, and everything takes twice as long. I’d take a heavy snowfall over freezing rain any day.”

Part 2 sample cue card

Describe a skill you learned as an adult.

You should say:

• what the skill is
• when and how you learned it
• what was difficult about learning it

and explain how this skill has been useful to you.

One-minute notes: swimming / age 29, adult lessons at community centre / fear of deep water, breathing / confidence, holidays, swim with kids

Sample answer (about 2 minutes):

“I’d like to talk about swimming, which I only learned a few years ago, when I was twenty-nine. Where I grew up, there wasn’t a pool nearby, so I simply never had the chance as a child, and by the time I moved to Canada I was honestly a bit embarrassed about it.

What finally pushed me was a friend’s cottage trip. Everyone else jumped off the dock, and I stayed on the shore pretending I wasn’t in the mood. When I got home, I signed up for adult lessons at my local community centre. There were eight of us in the class, all adults, which made it much less intimidating than I’d expected.

The hardest part wasn’t the technique; it was fear. For the first few weeks, I couldn’t put my face in the water without panicking, and breathing at the right moment felt completely unnatural. Our instructor was very patient. She had us practise just floating and breathing out slowly underwater, again and again, until it stopped feeling dangerous.

It took about four months before I could swim a full length of the pool without stopping. Since then, it’s been useful in ways I didn’t expect. I go swimming twice a week now, which has done wonders for my back. More importantly, last summer I went back to that same cottage and jumped off the dock with everyone else. It sounds small, but it showed me that it’s never too late to learn something that scares you.”

Why it works: it covers every point on the card in order, uses past tenses accurately to tell the story, includes feelings and specific details, and fills the two minutes without rushing.

Part 3 sample questions and answers

Part 3 asks for opinions and explanations. Aim for longer answers: a view, a reason, an example, and sometimes the other side.

Why do some adults find it harder to learn new skills than children do? “I think it’s partly practical and partly psychological. Adults simply have less free time, with work and families competing for every hour. But I’d say the bigger factor is fear of looking foolish. Children don’t mind falling over a hundred times, whereas adults are used to being competent, so being a beginner again can feel uncomfortable.”

Should employers pay for their staff to learn new skills? “In many cases, yes, because the company benefits directly. If a firm trains its staff in new software, for example, the work gets done faster. That said, I don’t think employers should have to pay for skills that have nothing to do with the job. A balance might be for companies to fund work-related courses and give employees some flexibility for personal ones.”

Do you think online courses can replace learning in person? “For some subjects, almost entirely. You can learn a lot of theory, like accounting or a programming language, from good online material. But for physical skills, such as swimming or cooking, you really need someone watching you and correcting you. So I’d say online learning is a great addition, but not a full replacement.”

How might the skills people need change in the future? “It’s hard to predict, but I suspect skills that machines find difficult will become more valuable: things like communication, judgment and dealing with people. At the same time, everyone will probably need to be comfortable learning new technology throughout their careers, rather than learning one set of skills at school and stopping there.”

Check your Speaking know-how

For the full format, read the IELTS General Training test guide. For how bands translate to CLB for Canadian immigration, see IELTS band scores for Canada PR.