The three parts of the Speaking test
The Speaking test lasts 11 to 14 minutes and is a face-to-face conversation with an examiner. It is recorded.
- Part 1 (4 to 5 minutes): familiar questions about your home, work, studies, hobbies and daily life. Answer naturally, in two or three sentences, with a reason or example.
- Part 2 (3 to 4 minutes): you get a cue card with a topic and some prompts, one minute to prepare and then speak for up to two minutes. The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions.
- Part 3 (4 to 5 minutes): a discussion linked to the Part 2 topic, with more abstract questions. You need to give opinions, compare, speculate and explain.
You are marked on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.
Fluency versus accuracy
Many Doha professionals speak English fluently at work, but workplace English is often short and practical: "Please send the file", "The patient is stable", "Site inspection is done". In the test, those short answers are not enough.
On the other hand, students who have studied grammar carefully sometimes speak so slowly, correcting every sentence, that their fluency score drops.
The balance to aim for:
- Keep talking. Small errors matter less than long silences.
- Extend every answer with a reason, an example or a contrast.
- Use natural fillers sparingly: "That's an interesting question" once is fine; using it for every answer is not.
- Self-correct only important mistakes, then move on.
Pronunciation for Doha's many language backgrounds
Pronunciation is about being easy to understand, not about sounding British or American. Every accent is acceptable. Still, speakers of particular languages often work on the same few sounds, and knowing yours helps you practise efficiently.
- Arabic speakers often work on the difference between p and b ("pen" and "Ben"), on short vowels, and on not adding a vowel before clusters, saying "espeak" for "speak".
- Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi speakers often focus on v and w ("vest" and "west") and on word stress in longer words such as "development" and "photography".
- Filipino and Tagalog speakers commonly practise f versus p and v versus b, and the "th" sounds in "think" and "this".
- Nepali, Bengali and Sylheti speakers often work on z versus j and on clusters at the start of words like "school" and "street".
- Urdu and Punjabi speakers frequently practise v/w and the vowel difference between "ship" and "sheep".
- Speakers from Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana are usually very fluent and may focus on vowel length and sentence stress, so that key words stand out.
Choose one or two sounds and practise them deliberately for a few minutes daily, rather than trying to change everything at once.
Practising when you have no speaking partner
Plenty of people in Doha live alone, share accommodation with people on different shifts, or simply have nobody to practise with. You can still make real progress.
- Record yourself answering questions, then listen back. You will notice repetition, long pauses and unclear words that you never hear while speaking.
- Use a real timer for Part 2. One minute of preparation goes faster than you think, and two minutes of speaking feels long the first time.
- Read your transcript. Seeing your answer written down shows where you used the same word five times or stopped mid-sentence.
- Talk through your day aloud during the walk from the Metro station or while cooking, in English.
- Shadow short audio clips, copying the rhythm and stress of the speaker.
Speaking practice on IELTS Learning
IELTS Learning has 186 Speaking prompts for Parts 1, 2 and 3. Part 2 cue cards use a real one-minute preparation timer and a two-minute speaking timer, so you learn exactly how long that feels. After you answer, you get AI feedback on your transcript, highlighting fluency, vocabulary range and grammar, with suggestions for improvement.
AI cannot fully replace a real conversation, so many students add Book a Teacher: 1-to-1 online sessions of about 20 minutes from $5. A teacher can run a mock Speaking test with you, ask follow-up questions you did not expect, and give honest feedback on your pronunciation. Because sessions are online, you can join from home without crossing the city.
Register free to try Speaking prompts from the free sample mock test. Full Access, $12 for 2 months, unlocks every prompt and all AI feedback.