How IELTS Speaking is marked
The examiner gives a band for four equally weighted criteria: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. Your Speaking band is the average of the four, so improving any one of them helps.
The test in three parts
The Speaking test lasts 11-14 minutes and is the same for Academic and General Training.
- Part 1 (4-5 minutes): short questions about familiar topics such as your home, work or studies.
- Part 2 (3-4 minutes): a cue card. You get one minute to prepare and then speak for up to two minutes.
- Part 3 (4-5 minutes): a discussion of more abstract ideas linked to the Part 2 topic.
Fluency and coherence
How easily you keep talking and how clearly your ideas connect. Long pauses to search for words, repeating yourself and answers that stop after one sentence all lower this band. Linking words such as "on the other hand" or "that's partly because" help, but only when they fit naturally.
Lexical resource
The range and precision of your vocabulary. Higher bands use less common words and natural phrases correctly, and can explain an idea another way when the exact word doesn't come. Memorised "impressive" words used in the wrong place do not help.
Grammatical range and accuracy
Whether you can use a mix of simple and complex sentences, and how many mistakes you make. A band 7 speaker uses complex structures often and makes some errors that do not stop the meaning getting through.
Pronunciation
How easy you are to understand: individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress and intonation. An accent is fine. What matters is clarity and using features such as stress to make meaning clear.
How to practise
- Answer Part 1 questions with two or three sentences: an answer, a reason and an example.
- Use the one minute in Part 2 to note four or five key words, not full sentences. Practise with the cue card timer.
- Record yourself and listen back for long pauses and repeated words.