IELTS Academic Speaking Test - Prepare for IELTS

IELTS Academic Speaking Test

To study in a country where English is a native language, you must have a good IELTS Academic band score.

The Academic test is conducted on all 4 language skills - Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. Here, we are going to IELTS Academic Speaking Test.

IELTS Academic Speaking Test

The IELTS Academic Speaking Test is conducted face-to-face or via a video call with an experienced and well-trained examiner to check your proficiency in speaking skills. It is conducted in 3 parts - part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Speaking Part 1

It is an introduction part where the examiner will ask you questions about yourself, your work, family, education, interests, hobbies, etc. The purpose of the introduction is to build rapport between you and the examiner so that you get warmed up for the upcoming parts and to perform better.

Speaking Part 2

In part 2, you have to talk for at least 2 minutes on the given topic that you have been provided with by the examiner. The test taker will give you 1 minute to prepare for the topic and you can draft your response in the paper and start speaking on what you have prepared. This part of the speaking test is named as Cue Card and Task Card as well. The purpose of this part of the speaking test is to evaluate whether you are able to talk at length or not.

Speaking Part 3

It is the last part of your speaking test; you’ll be asked questions related to the Cue Card given to you. The test taker will ask you the questions which are thematically connected to your Cue Card. It is a two-way communication and you are expected to be descriptive with your answers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

IELTS Academic Speaking Test is conducted to test your ability in spoken English. The examiner takes your speaking test to know how good you are at English speaking.

For part 2, there is not a separate band score so, if you don’t speak for 2 minutes but speak confidently and correctly and give all the answers to parts 1 and 3 then you will get a good band score in IELTS.

Yes, many candidates find the speaking test difficult as compared to the other tests. The main reason behind this is that it is like an interview process where the test taker asks some questions in English and you are required to answer correctly. So, it can be a stressful exercise for many test takers.

A naturally slow rate of speech is completely acceptable in IELTS. You need to avoid long thinking pauses before your responses but speaking slowly is fine.

Never speak the memorized answers. As many candidates think that remembering scripted answers to all common questions helps to get a good band score. But this is a bad idea. The reason behind this is that examiners are trained and can easily spot the memorized answers.

No, as long as your pronunciation is correct, your accent does not matter. You need to be aware of the correct pronunciation features and you are good to go. It is a misconception that you need to use a native accent to score well. However, faking accents can reduce your scores significantly.

Yes, you should. Adding idioms while you speak reflects a good command of the language and gives an impression that you know it very well. But you need to be sure about what idiom to use and where.

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