The three parts of the Speaking test
The Speaking test lasts 11–14 minutes and takes place face to face with an examiner. It is recorded.
- Part 1 (4–5 minutes): familiar questions about your home, work or studies, hobbies, food and daily routine. Answer naturally in two or three sentences.
- Part 2 (3–4 minutes): you receive a cue card, have 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 (4–5 minutes): a discussion of more abstract ideas linked to the Part 2 topic. This is where higher bands are won or lost.
You are marked on 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 they work differently. Fluency means speaking at length without long pauses or constant self-correction. Accuracy means fewer grammar errors. A candidate who stops every few words to fix a tense loses more than one who keeps going with a small mistake.
Aim to speak in connected ideas: give an answer, a reason and an example. In Part 3, compare, speculate and consider other views: "It depends on…", "One reason might be…", "In a country like Bahrain, where…".
Pronunciation points for Manama's speakers
Pronunciation is about being easy to understand, not about sounding British or American. Bahrain's mix of communities means several common patterns:
Arabic speakers
- /p/ and /b/: "pin" and "bin", "pay" and "bay". Practise minimal pairs with your hand in front of your mouth; /p/ has a puff of air.
- /v/ and /f/: "very" may come out as "fery".
- Consonant clusters: adding a short vowel, as in "istreet" for "street" or "esport" for "sport".
- Short vowels, especially "bit/bet" and "cut/cot".
Malayalam, Tamil and other South Indian speakers
- /v/ and /w/: "wine" and "vine", "west" and "vest".
- Word stress: stressing the wrong syllable, such as "deVElopment" versus "DEvelopment".
- Added "y" or "w" sounds before vowels, as in "yeleven" for "eleven".
Filipino speakers
- /f/ and /p/, /v/ and /b/: "fan/pan", "very/berry".
- Long and short "i": "ship" and "sheep", "live" and "leave".
Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and Nepali speakers
- /v/ and /w/, and /z/ and /dʒ/, so "zero" can sound like "jero".
- Initial clusters: "iskool" for "school".
Bahraini Arabic speakers who studied in English-medium schools often have very clear pronunciation already; for them the gains usually come from word stress and intonation in longer answers rather than individual sounds.
Pick the one or two points that apply to you; trying to fix everything at once makes speech slower and less natural.
Practising when you have no speaking partner
Many students in Manama live with family who speak another language at home, or share accommodation with colleagues on different shifts. You can still practise properly:
- Answer aloud, always. Thinking an answer is not the same as saying it.
- Use a timer. IELTS Learning's Part 2 cue cards have a real one-minute preparation timer and a two-minute speaking timer, so you learn what two minutes actually feels like.
- Read the transcript. After you answer, the AI gives feedback on your transcript: repeated words, grammar slips, short answers and missed parts of the question.
- Repeat the same card a day later and compare.
- Talk to yourself in English during the drive into Manama in the morning traffic or while waiting at the causeway. It feels strange for a day, then becomes normal.
There are 186 Speaking prompts covering Parts 1, 2 and 3, so you will meet a wide range of topics: technology, family, travel, festivals, the environment, work and education.
Part 2 topics with a local angle
Cue cards often ask you to describe a place, an event, a person or a possession. Students here can draw on real experience: a weekend trip to the Tree of Life, a family gathering during Eid, a visit to the Bahrain National Museum, the first day at a new job in Seef. Real memories produce natural detail, which helps fluency far more than a memorised script. Examiners notice memorised answers quickly.
Teacher sessions for Speaking
AI feedback helps with grammar, vocabulary and structure, but nothing replaces a real conversation. With Book a Teacher you can have a 1-to-1 online session of about 20 minutes with an IELTS teacher, from $5, that works like a Speaking test, with honest comments on pronunciation and fluency. Many students book one early to find their problem areas and another shortly before the test.
Create a free account to try Speaking prompts, and read more Speaking tips on our blog.