IELTS Speaking Test with sample answers(3 Parts)

Part One - Introduction

[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or
studies and other familiar topics.]

Friends:

Q. How often do you go out with friends? [Why/Why not?]

A. I go out with my friends almost two or three times a week. During my

university years, it was more frequent but these days, I cannot hang out with
friends or see them that much as I have got busy with my jobs and other
responsibilities.

Q. Tell me about your best friend at school.

A. Well, my best friend in my school days was John and in fact, he is still my
best buddy. He was a compassionate, talented and honest individual. We had
our ups and downs in our school days but he had always been there for me. He
is now an architect and works for a large company in our city. He is married to
Maria, a girl from our college, and they are happily married. I value his
friendship and so does he.

Q. How friendly are you with your neighbours? [Why/Why not?]

A. Except for a particular neighbour, I have a good relationship with almost all
our next-door-neighbours. We live in our area as if we are close relatives. There
are times when I have found them besides me when I most needed them. On
every occasion, they invite my family and so do we. Despite our cultural,
religious and other differences, we are all good friends and I am lucky to be in
such a great neighbourhood.

Q. Which is more important to you, friends or family? [Why?]

A. This is a tough question to answer! I value my family over my friends.

However, this does not mean that my friends do not have a special place in my
heart. Family comes first and they are the individuals I feel most connected
with. Everyone has a responsibility to look after his family and support them
unconditionally. This is true for friends as well but the responsibility and bond
between family members are acuter, I believe. Some of our friends are quite
important while some are not. This is not the case for the family members as all
of them are supremely important, at least I believe so.

Part 2 - Cue Card

[The topic for your talk will be written on a card which the examiner will hand
you. Read it carefully and then make some brief notes.]

Describe a writer you would like to meet.

Please say:

who the writer is

what you know about this writer already

what you would like to find out about him/her

and explain why you would like to meet this writer.

Sample Answer 1:

Joanna Rowling, who is more popularly known as J.K. Rowling is the writer I
would love to meet and spend some time with. She is a British Novelist and the
creator of the world famous Harry Potter Series.

She was born on 31st July 1965 in Yale, England. Besides writing, she is also a
screenwriter, film producer and researcher. She was employed as a researcher
for Amnesty International when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter
while on a delay for the train in 1990. Her fantasy series books Harry Potter
gained worldwide attention and sold over four hundred million copies. She also
worked as a producer of the movie series Hary Potter. Besides writing for
children, she also wrote 4 books for adult readers. Time magazine named her
as a runner-up for the Person of the year in 2007 and she is now the 197the
richest person in the UK whose fortune worth around 600 million Pound.
Currently, she is the mother of 3 children and married to Neil Murray.

What would I like to find out about her? Interesting question! But honestly
speaking, I would like to know about her daily life and interests -what she
does, how she speaks with her fans, whether she cooks or not, what she does
with her children and husband, what type of dresses she wear, what type of
house she lives in and so on and on. I would also like to discuss her writing
career, what's her plan on writing more fantasy books for children and what
motivates her to write. Finally, I would like to know the types of books she likes
to read and what special qualities an aspiring writer should have.

She is my childhood hero and I have always wanted to meet her. Her books are
quite special to me and helped me develop imagination. Sometimes her books
inspired me to a great extent. I would like to know about the creator of Harry
Potter and learn about her more. The way she had influenced millions of
children all around the world is quite unmatched. I would like to spend some
time with her and know more about his living legend.

Part 3 - Two-way Discussion:

Discussion topics:

Reading and children:

Q. What kinds of books are most popular with children in your country? Why
do you think this is so?

A. Well, from my experience and observation I can say that comics, detective
books, rhyme collections, fairy tales, and fictions are more popular among
children in my country. Young children prefer comics and books that have great
illustration while teenagers like detective books and fiction. Among girls, fairy
tales are more accepted. In my childhood, I had been a great fan of detective
and mystery books.

Q. Why do you think some children do not read books very often?

A. Reading books is a habit and once a child feels the unbound pleasure a book
can offer, he becomes a book lover. However, there are some who do not
develop the reading habit either because he was too busy with other activities
to dive his nose on a good book or because his parents did not inspire him to
try reading books outside of academic syllabus. Young children mimic their
parents and if neither of the parents is a good reader, it is less likely that a child
would start reading all by himself.

Q. How do you think children can be encouraged to read more?

A. As I have already said, parents need to be readers and motivate children to
read books. They should read books to their children every night and let the
young mind search for a world hidden in books. They should also be very
prudent while selecting books for the offspring and can take help from the
Internet as many websites list down the suitable books based on a child's age.
Teachers, on the other hand, can play a great role in school and can motivate
young minds to read more books by arranging reading sessions.

Reading for different purposes:

Q. Are there any occasions when reading at speed is a useful skill to have?
What are they?

A. Well, As far as I can recall, being able to read at a fast speed is quite helpful
for everyone, especially for students. Many exams, including IELTS, require a
student to skim through the passages and get the gist as quickly as possible to
answer the questions. Slow reading would deter a candidate to effectively end
the exam in time and score well. Besides, some reading competitions arranged
in schools demand a student to read very quickly and meticulously. Finally, to
finish some assignments given in the college, a student has to read many books
and chapters. Those who do not have the speed-reading skill, find it very
challenging to complete those assignments.

Q. Are there any jobs where people need to read a lot? What are they?

A. Well, I can say that researchers, journalists, teachers, bloggers, business

analysts, writers and editors need to read a lot. I am pretty sure there must be
many other professions where people are required to read a lot. From my
experience, I can say that reading is a must for a researcher and so is it for a
journalist. Bloggers have to read a lot to generate ideas and get to know the
competitors and this is true for a business analyst and editors as well. Writers,
always prefer to read and they are natural readers.

Q. Do you think that reading novels is more interesting than reading factual
books? Why is that?

This is really a tough question to answer and I am sure the answer will vary
from person to person. Personally, I was a die-hard fan of novels in my whole
life and found factual books less interesting. But this has changed very recently.
These days I prefer factual books more than a novel. I believe this choice has
something to do with the reader's taste, experience and age.

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