IELTS: Speaking 1: Speaking module overview
This section aims to give students an overview of what they will encounter in the speaking exam.
General points
- An interview takes place between one examiner and one candidate for between 11 and 14 minutes.
- The candidate’s speaking is assessed on fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation.
- A band mark is awarded between 1 and 9 with 9 being the highest.
Speaking test format
| Part 1 | Examiner and candidate introduce themselves, candidate answers general questions on familiar topics e.g. family, job, studies, free-time etc. | about 4 to 5 minutes |
| Part 2 | Candidate asked to speak on a given topic (information is written on a task card) for 1-2 minutes. One minute of preparation in which the candidate can make notes is allowed. | 4 minutes |
| Part 3 | Discussion on more abstract issue related to the chosen topic in part 2 of the test. | about 4 to 5 minutes |
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Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | Mon, 15 Apr 2013 3:26 pm
useful.
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tiffsoriano | Fri, 4 Jan 2013 1:59 am
Hello thanks for sharing. I am currently enrolled at an IELTS review center and based on my diagnostic exam, I am very poor at the speaking part. I hope I will be able to improve myself. I am really having jitters when talking in English. I hope this will help me a lot. This article is good resource too http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/learning-in-an-ielts-review-center-in-davao-ways-to-complete-the-speaking-assessment-efficiently-6323057.html
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Web Editor | Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:04 am
Thank you for drawing our attention to this! The article has been amended.
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Jackie D | Thu, 26 Jul 2012 3:17 pm
Half marks are awarded on the speaking test. One of my students has just been awarded 5.5.
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