IELTS Speaking practice

IELTS Speaking is the one section you cannot practise with a book, because it is a live interview: 11 to 14 minutes, three parts, one examiner. StudySes gives you sample questions for each of the three parts, so you can practise against the official timings set out below, and gives feedback on your answers afterwards. It does not give you a band score and it is not an examiner; it is the daily speaking practice that turns a nervous candidate into a prepared one.

The IELTS Speaking test, by the numbers

• 11–14 minTotal time, face to face with an examiner
• 3 partsInterview, long turn, discussion
• 1 minuteTo prepare your Part 2 talk
• 2 minutesTo speak on the Part 2 cue card

How it works

You choose a part, get a sample question of the kind the examiner asks, answer it, and read feedback on what you said. The feedback shows where the answer was clear, where the grammar or vocabulary let it down, and a stronger way to express the same idea. Then you answer again. Over a few weeks this builds the thing IELTS actually rewards: a habit of saying more, more precisely, without stalling.

The three parts are practised differently because they test different things. IELTS’s test-format page describes Part 1 as an introduction and interview of 4 to 5 minutes on familiar topics such as home, family, work, studies and interests; Part 2 as a long turn of 3 to 4 minutes in which you get a task card, one minute to prepare with pencil and paper, and then talk for 2 minutes; and Part 3 as a 4 to 5 minute discussion of more abstract issues linked to the Part 2 topic. StudySes’s sample questions follow those shapes: personal questions for Part 1, cue-card topics for Part 2 that you plan for one minute and speak on for two, and opinion questions that push you to justify and speculate for Part 3.

When you want the whole exam rather than one section, the IELTS mock tests run the full length with all four sections, and the study plans spread the practice over the weeks you have left.

What it is for

This feature is for the candidate who knows the English but has never answered IELTS-style questions out loud, timed, to someone who is listening. That is most candidates. Reading model answers does not fix it; producing your own, hearing where they fall short and producing them again does.

In practice, the three parts need three kinds of work:

• Part 1 rewards natural, extended answers rather than one line. Our guide to IELTS Speaking Part 1 questions and answers shows how to add a reason and an example to every answer.
• Part 2 is a timing problem first. Candidates who practise using the whole minute to plan and the whole two minutes to talk stop fearing the cue card. The Part 2 cue cards guide has a planning method that fits in sixty seconds.
• Part 3 is where bands are won or lost, because the questions are abstract. The Part 3 questions guide covers how to give an opinion, support it and concede a point without running dry.

If your test is close, the IELTS Speaking test next week scenario gives a seven-day plan. If you are also building general fluency, the AI conversation practice and the English hub sit alongside the exam work.

What it does not do

StudySes does not estimate your IELTS band score, does not score pronunciation and is not an examiner. IELTS lists four assessment criteria on its key assessment criteria sheet: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. The app’s feedback helps with the first three, because they are about the words you choose and how you connect them. Pronunciation it leaves to your ear: use the audio pronunciation guide in the lessons, record yourself, and ask a teacher if you can.

It also cannot reproduce the examiner’s room, the identity check or the nerves. Treat the practice as the rehearsal that makes the real room familiar, not as a prediction of your result.

The three parts, and what to practise for each

Part	Official time	What happens	What to practise in StudySes
Part 1 — Introduction and interview	4–5 min	The examiner checks your identity and asks about familiar topics	Answers of two or three sentences with a reason; the sample questions by topic
Part 2 — Long turn	3–4 min, including 1 min to prepare	A task card, pencil and paper, then you talk for 2 min; one or two follow-up questions	Planning in one minute and talking for the full two, then reading the feedback on your answer
Part 3 — Discussion	4–5 min	Abstract questions linked to the Part 2 topic	Giving an opinion, justifying it and speculating; the discussion-style sample questions

Timings are those on IELTS’s Speaking format page; the British Council’s test-format page adds that Speaking may fall on the same day as the other sections or within seven days of them, and IDP’s Speaking page confirms the test is conducted face to face with a certified examiner and recorded.

Getting the most from it

Practise one part a day, in rotation, for at least three weeks before the test. Answer, read the feedback, answer again with the improvement; the second attempt is the one that counts. Once a week, run a full Speaking set of all three parts in one sitting, timed, and once in the final fortnight take a complete mock test so the Speaking section arrives when you are already tired, as it may on the day.

Download StudySes for free and start with Part 1, where the questions are about you and the answers are easiest to improve.

StudySes is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IELTS test owners.