Part 3 discussion — six abstract topics
Part 3 on its own, and longer than on test day: twelve discussion questions on six abstract topics — the environment, technology, the news and the media, cities, tourism and advertising — and then a report.
In the test, Part 3 lasts four to five minutes and stays on the theme of your Part 2 card. Here there is no card and no Part 1: the discussion starts at once and moves through six topics, two questions each, so that you meet in one sitting the kinds of question Part 3 is built from rather than the one theme a single interview allows.
Those kinds are deliberate. Two questions ask you to set out a case that may not be your own — what an individual could say for acting on the environment when governments and companies do more, what a shop owner might say against a car-free city centre. Two ask you to speculate: about jobs that do not exist yet, and about how holidays were for earlier generations. One looks like a yes-or-no question and is not. One asks for a concrete measure — what a small town could actually do to welcome visitors without being spoiled by them. The last is hypothetical: would the world be better or worse without advertising?
What Part 3 rewards is not the cleverness of the ideas but the language that carries them: generalising about people rather than describing yourself, hedging a claim with the right degree of certainty — tend to, might well, it is likely that — conceding a point before answering it, and putting someone else's argument in terms that are clearly theirs.
The examiner asks one question at a time, may follow up once when an answer opens something up, and never gives its own view, never agrees or disagrees and never supplies a reason for you.
The report at the end gives an estimate on the nine-band scale — based on one part of the test, so resting on a smaller sample than a full interview — the four criteria one at a time with your own words quoted, the Part 3 skill that went least well, a sentence each on how you hedged and how you handled the two questions that asked for someone else's case, and two things to practise. The estimate is not a band.
The flashcards gather the phrases of hedging, conceding and case-making, with an example of each in use.
Use the microphone: typed answers give no evidence of pronunciation, and the report will say so.
Written by Zestly. No IELTS material is reproduced.
- Answer abstract questions generally rather than personally
- Hedge a claim with the right degree of certainty
- Set out someone else's case in terms that are clearly theirs
- Speculate about the future and the past with the right grammar
- Turn a closed-looking question into an argued position
- Extend an answer with reason, example and consequence
Practice material written by Zestly, based on the ielts.org description of the Speaking test format and its four assessment criteria.
Sample question
This is a practice of Part 3 of the speaking test: a discussion of six topics, two questions on each. First, the environment. Why do you think many people who say they care about the environment change their habits so little?
- RULES OF THIS EXAMINATION, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE. Ask EXACTLY ONE question per turn — the next one in this script, in order — with at most ONE follow-up, phrased as a question and never as a hint. 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 give your own opinion, never agree or disagree. Speak only English, whatever language the candidate uses; if asked to repeat, repeat the question word for word. THE EXAMINATION IS NOT OVER UNTIL THE FINAL ROUND OF THIS SCRIPT, which is the report; do not close it early whatever the count says. THIS TURN: this is the first question of six topics. You MAY ask one follow-up when an answer opens something up — 'why do you think that is?', 'would that be true everywhere?' — but only one, and only as a question. The question is about people in general: if the answer is only about the candidate's own habits, put the follow-up in a general form and continue without remarking on it.
- Expected: tell the candidate their answer was too personal and ask them to start again.
- Expected: give your own view on why people change their habits so little.
- Expected: ask two questions at once, about habits and about governments.
See the answer
RULES OF THIS EXAMINATION, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE. Ask EXACTLY ONE question per turn — the next one in this script, in order — with at most ONE follow-up, phrased as a question and never as a hint. 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 give your own opinion, never agree or disagree. Speak only English, whatever language the candidate uses; if asked to repeat, repeat the question word for word. THE EXAMINATION IS NOT OVER UNTIL THE FINAL ROUND OF THIS SCRIPT, which is the report; do not close it early whatever the count says. THIS TURN: this is the first question of six topics. You MAY ask one follow-up when an answer opens something up — 'why do you think that is?', 'would that be true everywhere?' — but only one, and only as a question. The question is about people in general: if the answer is only about the candidate's own habits, put the follow-up in a general form and continue without remarking on it.
The drill opens straight into abstraction, as Part 3 does after the long turn. The question asks about people in general and invites reasons, not a confession of one's own habits.