NEW IELTS Speaking Test Questions & Answers

IELTS Speaking Test

Part 1

  • What is your full name?
My full name is [first name, middle name, family name].

  • Can I see your ID?
Yes, of course, here it is.

  • Where are you originally from?
I’m originally from [city] in [country].

OR

I was born and grew up in [city] in [country].

  • Where do you live now?
At the moment I’m living in San Francisco.

  • Do you like it? Why?
Yes, very much, because it something I’ve always wanted to do. Ever since I can remember I had this dream to live and work in the USA, so I’m really happy now that it’s come true.

  • Is there public transport available near your home?
Yes, there are plenty of buses and also the subway is only about a 10-minute walk from the apartment where I’m staying, so public transport in the city is really convenient.

  • Do you intend to live there for a long time? Why? Why not?
Yes, that’s my plan at the moment. It’s a good location and the people I share the apartment with are really nice and we’ve become good friends. One of them actually works in the same department as me at the university. I guess I’ll be here until, maybe, I decide to look for another job, or get transferred to another city.

  • Do you like flowers?
Well, yes, I suppose so but I’m not a flower fanatic or anything, like I know the common flowers like roses and some others, but I’m not particularly interested in flowers.

  • Do you have any plants in your home?
Yes, there are a couple of house plants in the apartment. They add a nice touch of greenery to it.


  • What kind of plants are they?
Well, there’s a cactus plant which is quite an interesting shape, and then there’s another big tall plant, I can’t remember the name of it but it looks like one of those tropical type plants you see in the jungle or something like that, and then there are a couple of flowering plants, one of them has really cute red flowers a bit like a sunflower, and the other one, I don’t know, it’s just like a small flowering bush or something.

  • When was the last time you bought a plant?
I honestly can’t remember. Not for a long time, it would probably be when I was a kid. I remember buying a poinsettia plant for my grandmother at Christmas time one year. I think that’s the only time I ever actually bought a plant myself. Like I said, I’m not a big fan of flowers.

  • Have you ever had a garden?
My own garden? No. My parents have a garden, but as an adult I’ve never had my own garden. Maybe some time in the future, I’ll buy a house with a garden if I have a family and settle down.

  • On what occasions do you buy flowers in your country?
Well, it’s normal to buy flowers for women on various occasions, such as a birthday, an anniversary, if it’s you mother, aunt, or grandmother, for example; and if it’s your girlfriend or wife it doesn’t have to be a special occasion – a lot of guys buy flowers regularly for their partner.

IELTS Speaking Test

Part 2

Talk about an instance when you received some good news.

You should say:
  • what the news was about
  • how you received the news
  • what your reaction was
and explain what you did after that.




IELTS CUE CARD ANSWER | An instance when you received good news

Okay, so just recently I was informed by my supervisor, and his boss, that my contract would be extended for another two years. This was extremely good news for me, because I was beginning to wonder if my position would be eliminated as part of some cutbacks being implemented at the university – so when she [my boss] told me that not only was she going to renew my contract but extend it from 12 months to two years – I was delighted - over the moon!

Now, this happened just a couple of weeks ago. It was a Friday afternoon, and my supervisor called me into his office, where he was waiting, with his boss, too. I usually don’t have that much interaction with her, I normally deal with my immediate supervisor, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I entered the office and saw here there.

Anyway, I needn’t have worried because she told me that she and my supervisor were more than happy with the work I had been doing, and based on this they were going to recommend that my contract be extended for another two years.

She asked me if I was still enjoying my time there at the university, and she also asked me about any future plans I might have. I told her that I was extremely happy living and working there, and that in the short term I would very much like to continue doing so – and maybe in the future investigate further research opportunities in relation to my specialization.

Then I thanked her, and my supervisor, for telling me the good news and left the office to go back to my own department.

By the time I left the office I was incredibly excited – it really was great news, and since it was the weekend, I went out to celebrate with some friends that evening.

IELTS Speaking Test | Part 3


Let’s talk about the news

  • Do you think people have the right to know the true news?
Absolutely, it’s one of the problems nowadays, there’s so much filtering of the news on the big news channels. By the time you see something you can never really be sure just how much of it has been filtered or manipulated. Sometimes if you watch the mainstream news reporting about a story and then watch some independent news sources – you get quite a different picture of an event.

  • Do you prefer to read or to listen to the news? Why?
Personally, I prefer to watch the news; I know that wasn’t an option, but I rarely listen to the news on the radio, for example, or read it. I usually watch news stories online or the TV news sometimes, because it’s quicker and easier to get an idea of what’s happening and the visual aspect provides another interesting dimension rather than just listening or reading the facts.

  • What qualifications should a person have to work in a top position of a news corporation?
Well I suppose a background in journalism is essential, along with possibly some further experience and qualifications in an area of expertise, such as finance, or foreign relations or something like that depending on the type of reporting the person does exactly.

Some people might think that being a news anchor is the top position – which is basically just delivering the news, or maybe a senior correspondent who reports on a specific topic because they are usually highly experienced and qualified to report on the subject.

And then – there are people who might consider someone in a top position to be the CEO or Chairman of the organization, someone who doesn’t actually report the news but runs the company.

Either way, they need to have some integrity and knowledge and experience of the media industry to be able to perform their job well.

Let’s talk about online business

  • How helpful are online businesses in your opinion?
Personally, I think they’re amazingly helpful – I mean they’re available 24 hours a day – seven days a week – how can you get something more convenient and helpful than that? With the option to shop or make use of services online around the clock, it’s extremely helpful to a lot of people.

Now, is the service you get from a website the same as walking into a store or walking into your local bank? No, clearly it’s not. And there may be some times when you need more contact with an individual – but on the whole you can buy something or do banking online without the need for contact with an actual person – and even when something does go wrong, online support services are far superior now to what they were just a few years ago.

  • Do you think starting an online business is a good or a bad idea? Why? Why not?
Well, it all depends on what you want to do – and what type of business you want have, doesn’t it? I mean, if you are a specialist in something which requires you to be in contact with your customer or client, like a dentist, then having an online dental practice doesn’t make sense, does it?

But if you want to sell something, then having an e-commerce website makes perfect sense, because nowadays the technology makes it incredibly simple to sell and deliver goods to customers all over the world quickly, efficiently and competitively.

Overall, if you have a business idea which is possible to do online – I think it’s a good idea.

After all, the risk and investment are much less – you don’t have to invest a lot of money in a brick and mortar store just to sell your products – you can sell them straight from the warehouse to the customer, which keeps business overheads down, and allows you to invest more into your business.