Part 1 quick-fire — five topics
Part 1 on its own, at speed: your name, then five everyday topics with three short questions each — reading, exercise, birthdays, plants and noise — and a report that looks above all at the length of your answers.
Part 1 of the test lasts four to five minutes and is made of short questions about familiar things. It looks like the easy part, and length is where it goes wrong. A one-word answer gives nothing to assess; a two-minute story is the wrong size for the part. What works is the answer and then a sentence or two of reason or example — roughly twenty to thirty seconds. Fifteen questions in a row make it possible to see whether you manage that consistently or only when a topic happens to suit you.
Each topic moves in the same way: a present habit, then the past — what you read as a child, whether you played sport at school, a birthday you remember — and then other people, an opinion or the future. The tense of the question changes without warning, and following it is part of what is heard.
The examiner behaves as a real one does in Part 1. It asks one question at a time, does not comment, does not correct, and does not pursue a short answer: if you say only "yes", the next question comes. It does not interrupt a long answer either; the length is yours to control.
The report at the end gives an estimate on the nine-band scale — based on Part 1 alone, so a smaller sample than a full interview — the four criteria one at a time with your own words quoted, and then the length topic by topic: whether your answers were typically too short, about right or too long, with an example from each extreme and the topic where length was least under control. Two things to practise close it. The estimate is not a band; a band is awarded by a certified examiner.
The flashcards are about pronunciation, one of the four criteria and the one practice most often skips: word stress, sentence stress, weak forms, chunking speech into meaningful groups, linking and elision, intonation, contrastive stress, individual sounds — and the difference between having an accent, which is not a fault, and being hard to follow.
That is also why the microphone matters here more than anywhere. A typed answer carries no sound, so the report cannot judge pronunciation from it and will say so.
Written by Zestly. No IELTS material is reproduced.
- Keep Part 1 answers at the right length: the answer plus a sentence or two
- Follow the tense of each question: present, past, future and would
- Develop a yes-or-no answer without being asked to
- Tell a short past story without turning it into a long turn
- Recognise the pronunciation features a listener relies on
- See, topic by topic, where your answer length slips
Practice material written by Zestly, based on the ielts.org description of the Speaking test format and its four assessment criteria.
Sample question
Part 1. Good morning. I am your examiner and this is a practice of Part 1 of the speaking test. Could you tell me your full name, please?
- RULES OF THIS EXAMINATION, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE. Ask EXACTLY ONE question per turn — the next one in this script, in order — and nothing else. After the candidate speaks, your reply contains NOTHING BUT THE NEXT QUESTION. Never write Correct, Good, Great, Well done, Excellent, Right, Wrong, Yes or No as a judgement. Never say whether an answer was good, never correct the candidate's English, never supply a word they are reaching for, never comment on what they said. A VERY SHORT ANSWER IS PASSED OVER, NOT PURSUED: move to the next question, never ask them to say more, never ask the same question twice unless they ask you to repeat it, in which case repeat it word for word. Speak only English, whatever language the candidate uses. THE EXAMINATION IS NOT OVER UNTIL THE FINAL ROUND OF THIS SCRIPT, which is the report; five topics, fifteen questions, are still to come, so do not close the interview early whatever the count says. THIS TURN: ask for the full name and accept whatever is given.
- Expected: ask for the full name and the candidate's age in the same turn.
- Expected: ask for a passport number or other identification.
- Expected: say that you like the name.
See the answer
RULES OF THIS EXAMINATION, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE. Ask EXACTLY ONE question per turn — the next one in this script, in order — and nothing else. After the candidate speaks, your reply contains NOTHING BUT THE NEXT QUESTION. Never write Correct, Good, Great, Well done, Excellent, Right, Wrong, Yes or No as a judgement. Never say whether an answer was good, never correct the candidate's English, never supply a word they are reaching for, never comment on what they said. A VERY SHORT ANSWER IS PASSED OVER, NOT PURSUED: move to the next question, never ask them to say more, never ask the same question twice unless they ask you to repeat it, in which case repeat it word for word. Speak only English, whatever language the candidate uses. THE EXAMINATION IS NOT OVER UNTIL THE FINAL ROUND OF THIS SCRIPT, which is the report; five topics, fifteen questions, are still to come, so do not close the interview early whatever the count says. THIS TURN: ask for the full name and accept whatever is given.
The opening sets the examiner's manner for the whole drill: one question a turn, no reaction of any kind. The identity check is the only administrative question.