The three parts of the Speaking test
The Speaking test lasts 11 to 14 minutes and is face to face with a certified examiner.
- Part 1 (4 to 5 minutes): questions about familiar topics such as your home, studies, work, hobbies and daily routine.
- Part 2 (3 to 4 minutes): you get a cue card with a topic and some prompts. You have 1 minute to prepare and then speak for up to 2 minutes. The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions.
- Part 3 (4 to 5 minutes): a discussion of more abstract questions linked to the Part 2 topic.
You are marked on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.
Fluency or accuracy?
Students often ask which matters more. The honest answer is both, but in the right order. If you stop every few words to correct yourself, your Fluency score drops. If you speak quickly with errors in every sentence, your Grammar score drops.
The fix is to practise speaking at a steady, comfortable pace, and to correct only the mistakes that change your meaning. Small slips are normal for native speakers too. What examiners want is that you keep going, link your ideas and expand your answers.
Pronunciation points for Bhopal speakers
Bhopal is a Hindi-speaking city with a long Urdu tradition, especially in the old city, and many students from surrounding districts also speak Bundeli or Malvi at home. These are rich languages, and you do not need to lose your accent. IELTS does not reward a British or American accent; it rewards being easy to understand. A few points are worth practising:
- v and w. Hindi has one sound between them, so "vest" and "west" or "vine" and "wine" can sound the same. For /w/, round your lips without touching your teeth; for /v/, touch your top teeth to your lower lip.
- th. The sounds in "think" and "this" are often replaced with a "t" or "d" sound. Put the tip of your tongue lightly between your teeth.
- Extra vowels before clusters. "School" can become "iskool" and "station" can become "istation". Practise starting directly on the "s".
- z and j. Urdu speakers usually say "z" clearly, but some Hindi speakers say "jero" for "zero". Practise words like "zone", "busy" and "reason".
- Word stress. English stresses one syllable strongly: PHO-to-graph, pho-TO-gra-pher, pho-to-GRA-phic. Saying every syllable with equal weight makes speech harder to follow.
- Intonation. A flat tone can sound uninterested. Let your voice rise and fall naturally, especially on key words.
Practising with no partner
Most students do not have someone at home who can give useful IELTS Speaking practice in Bhopal. That is fine. You can still practise effectively:
- Record yourself. Answer a Part 1 question on your phone, listen back, and note one thing to improve.
- Use the real timer. IELTS Learning has 186 prompts for all three parts. Part 2 cue cards come with a genuine 1-minute preparation timer and a 2-minute speaking timer, so you learn what 2 minutes actually feels like.
- Read your transcript. After you answer, you get AI feedback on the transcript. Look for repeated words ("basically", "actually"), very short answers and sentences you did not finish.
- Talk about Bhopal. Part 1 often asks about your hometown. Practise describing the Upper Lake, a weekend at Van Vihar, the food in the old city or how the city has changed. Real details make answers natural.
Practise at the right time of day
Speak out loud in a quiet room. Early mornings or late evenings usually work well in a busy household. If you share a room in a hostel near MANIT or a PG in MP Nagar, a terrace or an empty classroom can work. Speaking quietly does not train you for the test; speak at full volume.
When to book a teacher
In IELTS Speaking test preparation, recording yourself builds fluency, but a real conversation builds confidence. Book a Teacher gives you about 20 minutes 1-to-1 online with an IELTS teacher, from ₹299. Use it for a full mock Speaking test, or for focused work on your pronunciation or Part 3 answers. Many students book one session early to find their level and another a week or two before the test.
Start speaking
Register for free and try the free sample mock test, which includes Speaking. Full Access, ₹999 for 2 months, unlocks every Speaking prompt. For new words to use in your answers, try Daily Vocabulary, free every day.