IELTS Speaking — three parts, one examiner

Part 1 is a warm-up conversation on familiar topics — where you live, your work, hobbies, food, weather. It tests whether you can hold everyday conversation in English at a natural pace. Short, direct answers with one or two supporting sentences work well; a memorised paragraph reads as a memorised paragraph.

Part 2 is the individual long turn. You receive a cue card with a prompt (describe a person, a place, an object, an event, an activity) and have one minute to prepare. You then speak for one to two minutes without interruption. The examiner is checking whether you can develop a topic on your own without being prompted, not whether your talk is perfect.

Part 3 is a two-way discussion that extends the Part 2 topic into more abstract territory: causes, comparisons, opinions, predictions. This is the part that separates Band 6 from Band 7+, because it demands opinions supported by reasoning, not just factual answers.

Speaking is graded on four public criteria. Understanding what each criterion rewards is more useful than any 'template' answer.

Memorised answers are the single biggest ceiling. Examiners hear the same rehearsed openings and closings across thousands of candidates and are trained to price them into Lexical Resource. A candidate who speaks naturally about their own life, even with small grammar slips, usually outscores one who recites well-formed but generic sentences.

The second common ceiling is under-developing Part 3. If your Part 3 answers are one sentence long, you cannot demonstrate the range the descriptors require. A two-to-three-sentence answer with an opinion, a reason, and an example is the shape to aim for.

The third is over-focusing on accent. Pronunciation is one of four criteria, and it rewards clarity, not accent flattening. Time spent on stress, intonation, and word linking pays back far more than time spent trying to sound British or American.

Most preparation is solo. Record yourself answering Part 1 questions and Part 2 cue cards, then listen back the same day. Hearing your own hesitations and repeated words is the single highest-yield feedback loop you can build without an interlocutor.

Build a small bank of personal 'evidence' — three or four stories, hobbies, or experiences you can adapt to different cue cards — so you are never scrambling for content. The examiner is not checking whether your Part 2 story is true; they are checking whether you can hold a coherent narrative for two minutes.

For Part 3, practise generating opinions with reasons on abstract topics — the role of technology, family structures, the environment. This is where structured practice, not casual conversation, moves the band.