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Master the IELTS Speaking test with realistic cue cards, follow up questions, and examiner style interviews and receive a detailed band score evaluation from an expert IELTS examiner based on the official IELTS Speaking band descriptors, helping you improve fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
24 tests · Test 1 is free
The IELTS Speaking test is an 11–14 minute face-to-face interview with a certified examiner. On test day it's a real conversation; on this site you record your responses and our AI examiner transcribes them, then scores against the four official IELTS Speaking criteria - calibrated against hundreds of samples graded by certified IELTS examiners. Same module for Academic and General Training. Cue cards rotate quarterly - our test bank reflects the current January–April 2026 rotation.
Part 1 (4–5 minutes): the examiner asks short personal questions on familiar topics - your hometown, your work or studies, hobbies, food. Part 2 (3–4 minutes): the cue card. You get one minute to prepare, then speak for 1–2 minutes uninterrupted on the assigned topic. Part 3 (4–5 minutes): the examiner extends Part 2 themes into more abstract discussion - opinions, comparisons, predictions about society.
Fluency and Coherence - speech rate, hesitations, ability to develop ideas at length without falling apart. Lexical Resource - range and precision of vocabulary; can you paraphrase, use idioms naturally, find the right word for the moment? Grammatical Range and Accuracy - variety of structures and frequency of errors. Pronunciation - individual phonemes (/θ/ vs /s/), sentence stress, intonation, intelligibility. Each is scored 0–9; final band is the rounded average.
Use your one-minute prep to plan four anchor points: 1) opening line that names the topic, 2) two specific examples or reasons, 3) a personal story, 4) a closing reflection. Don't memorise scripts - examiners spot rote answers and penalise lexical resource. Aim to use 2–3 less common topical phrases per response (e.g. 'I'm somewhat ambivalent about', 'on reflection') without forcing them. Stop talking at the 2-minute mark even mid-sentence.
Not 'native-like accent' - IELTS doesn't reward Americans over Indians or Britons over Australians. They reward intelligibility and natural sentence stress. Common band-killers: monotone delivery (no falling intonation at sentence end), missed contractions ('I have' instead of 'I've'), and word-stress errors on long words ('photoGRAPHy' vs 'photoGRAPHy'). Record yourself, listen back, and you'll spot 80% of these without a coach.
Each Speaking test on this site presents authentic Part 1 topics + a current cue card + Part 3 follow-ups. Your microphone records every answer; the AI examiner grades it and a band-by-criterion report is ready in minutes. Test 1 is free with full AI feedback; you only pay to unlock more tests.
The IELTS Speaking test is an 11 to 14-minute interview in three parts. Part 1 (4 to 5 minutes) asks short personal questions on familiar topics: hometown, work or studies, hobbies, food. Part 2 (3 to 4 minutes) is the cue card: you get one minute to prepare, then speak for 1 to 2 minutes uninterrupted. Part 3 (4 to 5 minutes) extends Part 2 into more abstract discussion: opinions, comparisons, predictions. The Speaking module is identical for IELTS Academic and General Training.
Yes. Speaking Test 1 is free with no sign-up. You record Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 answers in the browser, our AI examiner transcribes them and grades against the four official IELTS Speaking criteria, and a band-by-criterion report is ready in minutes. The same AI examiner feedback is included on every paid test in the library.
Speaking is scored on four equally-weighted criteria, each on the 0 to 9 band scale. Fluency and Coherence covers speech rate, hesitations and the ability to develop ideas at length. Lexical Resource covers range and precision of vocabulary. Grammatical Range and Accuracy covers variety of structures and error frequency. Pronunciation covers individual phonemes, sentence stress and intonation. Your final Speaking band is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest half band.
Part 2 is a one-to-two-minute monologue on a specific cue-card topic after one minute of preparation, scored most heavily on Lexical Resource and Fluency and Coherence. Part 3 is a four-to-five-minute back-and-forth discussion where the examiner extends the Part 2 theme into more abstract territory: societal impact, comparisons, predictions. Part 3 is where Band 7+ candidates pull away from Band 6 candidates by sustaining complex argument across follow-up questions.
Most universities in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand ask for at least IELTS Speaking 6.0 at undergraduate level and 6.5 at postgraduate. Russell Group, Ivy League, U15 Canada and Group of Eight institutions frequently require Speaking 6.5 or 7.0; Medicine, Nursing and Teaching often require Speaking 7.0 to 7.5 specifically because the role involves clinical or classroom communication. See the IELTS score requirement by university for the verified Speaking minimum at your target institution.
Canada's IRCC scores Speaking via the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB). CLB 7 (Canadian Experience Class floor) needs Speaking 6.0. CLB 9 (competitive Federal Skilled Worker) needs Speaking 7.0. UK work visas (Skilled Worker, Health & Care) require CEFR B1 (IELTS for UKVI Speaking 4.0); the Nursing and Midwifery Council asks for Speaking 7.0 and the GMC asks for Speaking 7.0. Australia's Department of Home Affairs awards 0 visa points for Speaking 6.0 (Competent), 10 for Speaking 7.0 (Proficient) and 20 for Speaking 8.0 (Superior).
