Hi everyone,
For those who have recently(September) taken the IELTS exam, could you please share the Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 questions you were asked?
It would be really helpful for those of us who are preparing for the upcoming exam. Any details about the topics or questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

I have a question for people that gotten 7 or an 8 for their IELTS speaking. As i have received some mixed answers here and there from friends and tutors, would like to have a better understanding from a wider range.

In speaking, does speaking with emotion get graded?. I have friends that gotten 7s' or 8s' said when describing something or reminiscing questions, adding abit of emotion gives a slightly better grade? They mentioned that flat tones are unadvisable because it sounds very rehearsed or 'boring'. My tutor/teacher on the other hand said that it depends on the context of the question. It would feel really weird putting emotions into a test like format making it seem like a 'chat' with a friend.

I am taking IELTS after a decade and would like to see how it works now. Previously gotten a 7 without preparation. I am now aiming to get an 8 (hopefully) with some preparations. Speaking is my least worried part, but it would be best to be prepared (may need OSR for writing.....).

I was so scared about the writing section because I needed a band score of at least 7 to get into my course. AI was marking my essays at 5.5 to 6, so I was scared as hell that I wasn't going to get my desired score and would have to change my dream country. But I did it! I'm so happy!

the listening was a blow back but 7 overall is all i need

studied mostly form the included ielsts flex course and found there AI to be very good at marking (but the speaking was a little weird ). Still it helped .

First and last try . Never doing it again.

Hello anyone from paper based results withheld that suppose to declare on 29 august got further investigation email on results day?

Studied for like 2 days for this. The 8.5s are decent (although I wanted a 9) but the 7 in writing really bummed me out although all the uni requirements are met but still

I learned english mainly from social media, songs, random books and tv shows, I literally have ZERO distinction between a word British or American and someone told me today that they penalize for mixing both even in listening and reading answers, I looked it up and there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer, I need to know how much they care in general, and is it only exclusive to writing? or does it apply to listening and reading too?? Do they consider the first answer the standard spelling or the most answers? If this is true I genuinely imagine losing like 4-5 questions in each section solely for this, I have never paid any attention to whether what I was doing is British or American, my test is in 25 days so maybe I have enough times to fix that? But even then I really have no idea where to start, any advice would be very helpful, I’ve never lost marks over this in my british council mock tests tho.

It was my first time and I prepared only for 4 days.

I was really surprised about the speaking part!
I thought I did better than that, I think if I do EOR i will at least get 7.

Any questions hit me up.

Hiya, I’m back - the unprepared panicky testee from a few days ago :) soooo this went much better than I had ever hoped, but PLEASE don’t do what I did and go in with only a few days’ preparation, because it was a terrible idea and I could have saved myself so much fear and worry just being more prepared.

I thought I would make a post anyway with everything I remember from the exam, in case someone googling past exam questions comes across this or in case anyone has any questions.

Listening:

Part 1 was a phone call between a festival volunteer and the organiser. You had to fill in missing words from the conversation into paraphrased sentences, fairly simple words like “pass”, “bus”, “hat”, the most complicated might’ve been “emergency contact”. There was another exercise in this part but I don’t remember, sorry.

Part 2 was about an Australian island resort (okay the location wasn’t officially mentioned but the speaker had a noticeable Aussie accent). They described their selection of guided tours, especially a quad tour, around the island and you had to answer a few single choice questions about them. Then there was the typical floor plan question, where they describe were certain locations are and you have to match them to letters on a floor plan. I felt they were speaking very quickly for this part and had trouble following along on the floor plan, but that might just be bad spacial thinking (stuff like “the second left” when you don’t immediately know what direction you’d be coming from)

Part 3 was a convo between an economics student and their professor about supermarket strategies. A few more sentences where you had to fill in missing words, but more complicated this time, and then matching certain advantages (from a list) to certain supermarkets based on their conversation. There was some oddly specific vocabulary here, eg “rapid turnover” vs “fast distribution” of products but it was mostly guessable from context if you understood the rest of their conversation.

Reading:

I don’t remember the exact types of exercises we had to do, but I remember thinking the texts we got to read were very interesting. Part 1 was about Fishbourne Roman Palace in West Sussex, with portions about its archaeological discovery and portions about its ancient history, who might’ve lived in it etc.

Part 2 was an article about a circus arts degree programme at a kiwi university, you had to match paraphrased quotes to the people who said them and also decide in which paragraph a particular topic came up.

Part 3 was Steven Mithen’s take on his book The Language Puzzle about the origin of language; we had to do the classic true/false/not given type of thing as well as single choice. I felt it was a bit of an unfair advantage here to know a bit about the basics of linguistics and/or the general stance of Darwin and of Rousseau as they both came up a lot.

Overall, the highlight function helped me A LOT. I highlighted the most important words in every sentence and it made it way easier and faster to go back to a specific spot when answering questions.

Writing:

Oh god I don’t even know. I accidentally wrote wayyyyy too much for both parts (300 for part 1, 600 for part 2) and have no idea if I was penalised for that or if I just left out bits of info they were expecting. Expected like 6.0 here so I’m very relieved.

Part 1 was a table of Aussie people’s % annual spending listed by type of expense, 1986 vs 2009. I wrote one paragraph paraphrasing the question (what the table shows), one paragraph on general trends (no numbers), one paragraph on stats that had changed significantly and one paragraph on stats that had stayed the same.

Part 2 was about agreeing vs disagreeing with a statement: “Museums used to be places where you could learn knowledge about culture and history, but now this knowledge is freely accessible on the Internet. Therefore, there is no longer any use for museums” or something like that. I wrote an intro (question paraphrase and current real world context + my opinion), one paragraph on how the internet might replace the museum, one paragraph on aspects it could never replace, outro with a quick summary of all points and my opinion stated more clearly.

Speaking:

Fairly straightforward, I think the examiner seemed nice and encouraging although I spoke to a few other candidates after who said they found him intimidating haha. He grinned sometimes, ever so slightly, when I said something he seemed to have an opinion on or mentioned a book he knew.

Here’s some of the questions I remember:

“What do you do for work, or are you a student? What do you like about what you are studying? Are there parts that were difficult at first? Does anyone help you?”

“Do people in your country sometimes give each other flowers? Why? Do you know anyone who likes flowers? Are there flowers near your home? Do you often take photos of flowers?”

“What is the kitchen appliance you use most often? What for?”

(Cue card) “Talk about a time when you saw a child behaving badly in public. Where was this? What was the child doing? How did other people react? How did it make you feel?” (I completely blanked and couldn’t think of a single instance of a child misbehaving. Eventually just made up a story about a boy bathing in a public water feature and splashing people because it’s the first example of “bad behaviour” I could think of. He didn’t ask any follow up questions or call me out on it.)

“Did you sometimes behave badly as a child? Do you think parents and the culture they grow up in change the behaviour of a child? What do you think matters more, peers or parents? Do you think it works to lead by example?”

“Is it hard to know what is right or wrong? Would you agree that people only ever change when it benefits them? Do you agree with the idea that everyone has a good side and a bad side? Do people with bad morals sometimes succeed in life?”

Preparation:

I know I said I only prepped for a few days, BAD DECISION, and this is mostly true. I worked through a few online practise tests and focused mostly on writing. I also sent ChatGPT a few sample responses I had written, for both part 1 and part 2, and he consistently rated me around 7-7.5 for missing info. It helped me a lot to have a solid plan in advance as far as paragraph structure goes.

HOWEVER there are a few parts of my general lifestyle that came in quite handy and probably helped me more than the 4 measly days of prep:

I’m an avid reader (not absolutely wild but like 35 books a year), and imo just getting used to reading a lot helps not just with reading comprehension but also vocabulary and spelling. Absolutely read more books if you’re concerned about reading or speaking/writing (vocab). If reading in English doesn’t come naturally to you, choose books you already know the plot of, eg classics or ones you’ve already read in your native language.

During covid I fell into a terrible rut of watching unhealthy amounts of British daytime television (at least anything I could find on YouTube). I binged all the crappy reality shows like airline uk, can’t pay we’ll take it away, homes under the hammer, escape to the country, snog/marry/avoid… truly it was not the pinnacle of television but I actually think this helped me a lot when it comes to listening and speaking, as you get used to a lot of different accents and to idiomatic expressions you might not otherwise be familiar with.

Anyway sorry for the long post, let me know if you have any questions :)

And thank you SO much for all the support I got over the last few days, both in this sub and over on [r/EnglishLearning](r/EnglishLearning). You’re the best and I couldn’t have done it without you.

Hey everyone, I am planning to give an exam.I don't know the any Grammar rules really, I need minimum 6.5 score so How much time it will take from me to score 6.5, my listing and Reading is good but I know I am very week at speaking (intermediate level) and writing, idk i have a vocabulary issue or what

If anyone tells me How and where to study for it and if there's someone to practice with me , i would really appreciate.

so I took my ielts test yesterday and got my results today. 7.5, but im not sure if its average or a good result.

Hi everyone! I’m preparing for IELTS General Training and looking to buy some good mock tests. There are so many websites out there that I’m really confused about which one to choose.

I’m a student on a limited budget, so I can only afford one membership. Could you guys recommend a reliable website with mock tests that are close to the actual IELTS exam?

I’d really appreciate recommendations based on your personal experience. Thanks!

i was looking into a video about how to get 9 score in writing band 1, and the guy in the video said that it's better to do task 2 before 1 because this will force you to simplify Task 1, which is what the IELTS examiners eventually want

do you do that? and did it get you a good score on the writing part?

I have written 19th instead of nineteenth. Wondering if that is correct.

this might not be a good result tho as my reading was bad i got distracted in listening and fumbled in speaking and my writing was always mid, but i didn't even expected this my expectations were stuck on 6.5 and i thought i was cooked and was very very nervous from yesterday but thanks to god, he saved me😭

I received my results today. I made some silly mistakes in speaking, and I should have gotten a 7 overall.

I am from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I am non-native here. I am about to sit for my IELTS exam. Suggest me some venue that will be best for the exam. Also between British Council or IDP which should I choose. Please give some suggestions.

Thanks.

I took the ielts with zero prep and I'm pretty disappointed with my results, especially in the writing section. I need a minimum of 7.0 in each for my requirements.

My main issue was writing way too slowly. I spent 35–40 minutes on task 1, which left me panicked for task 2. Then I got completely stumped trying to brainstorm ideas on the spot and just started rushing out anything I could think of. I barely hit 200 words for task 2.

I plan to retake the exam in a week or two. Any tips on how I can improve would be highly appreciated!!

Just though I'd share this after teaching it today.

Questions in IELTS Speaking part 1 will need a short answer of about 20 seconds on average (there is no 100% correct answer).

So you don't want a really short answer, like "yes", you don't want to try to speak for over a minute, but you do want to give answers that show off the language level you have.

It's possible to learn techniques to help build answers.

Example question:

Do you enjoy cooking at home?

One way you could answer is using PPF - Present, Past, Future.

Example answer:

(present) Yes I absolutely love it these days, ever since I got married. I think it's because it's something my wife and I can now do together and we have fun trying new recipes. (past) I hated it when I was single, though! I found it so boring and monotonous. (future) But, as I say I love it now, so much so that I'm going to take a cookery course later this year to learn some new skills.

This is now a really good length answer, and you've also shown the examiner that you have command of a range of tenses to speak about different time periods with accuracy.

NOTE this is not the only way to do Speaking Part 1. It's one way. Some people do it or teach it differently (including me, as I have a few other techniques too)

In the Listening section, would my answer still be marked correct if I used the singular instead of the plural and left out the “s”?😭

I need 6.5 for all components, which one is better? Retake or EOR? But some universities do no accept retake.

I took the exam yesterday and thought I was doomed after my speaking test. But....I ended up getting an 8 in speaking! :) I also did really good in the other modules as well for which I am extremely grateful, and thought I should leave some tips which could help others (long post alert):

Listening
The most important part for this module is to NOT LOSE FOCUS, and I CAN'T STRESS how important this is. People who miss out on their desired score in listening isn't because they are weak in English, it's simply because they get distracted and then start panicking when they miss an answer. If you miss an answer, just move on to the next one, and come back to it after the whole part is done. NEVER LEAVE ANY QUESTION EMPTY.

Reading
Honestly for this, you need to be good at skimming and scanning. Since there are different types of questions in this module, the same approach may not work for every question type. What I WOULD NOT recommend doing is to read the whole passage at first and then start reading the questions. This is really time consuming as there's a high chance you will need to read the paragraphs again to find the answers.

Writing
Task1
Watching videos of E2 IELTS, IELTS Advantage, IELTS Liz, and Fastrack IELTS helped me understand how to do good in this, especially the first two channels. I practised a few Cambridge questions as well, but I would definitely recommend reading as many model answers as you can for Task1. A well-written overview, and grouping data together are extremely crucial for this task.

Task2
I basically used gemini and chatgpt for this. I would ask gemini to give me a prompt, and then I would paste the answers in both the LLMs (make sure to time yourself and check for errors). I would tell them to give me a score, point out my mistakes, and write an 8.5+ band essay. I've seen many people saying the scoring of AI is not very reliable, but I somewhat beg to differ. These two have consistently given me 7-7.5, and that's what I actually ended up getting. On the other hand, Claude's score felt a bit too harsh, and that's why I stopped using it for writing after the very first time :P

Speaking
This was the one I was most scared of. I got a 6.5 in my very first mock, and the highest I was able to achieve was a 7.5. For speaking, what you need to do is basically keep on speaking. Yes, sounds obvious, but that's what you actually need to do. I used a website for around 2 weeks almost every night for 1-3 hours to have small talks with random people. However, in order to be prepared for the cue card, you should practise using the Cambridge questions since talking for a random topic for 2 minutes is wayyyyy different than having small talks. I also used chatgpt for this to simulate the main test, and it used to give me a 7-7.5 consistently.

Additionally, I must say that watching band 8-9 speaking mocks, and other speaking related videos of the IELTS Advantage channel helped me A LOT. They made me realize that I didn't need a lot of complex vocabulary and idioms to get a high score; what I needed were simple, natural words with a variety of sentence structures (if possible), coherence, and adding relevant details and examples when needed. Just so everyone knows, I am not getting paid by them or anything to say this btw. Speak naturally in the main exam, don't be silent, and please stay calm and confident when speaking.

Finally, for practice materials, follow the Cambridge books 15-21, and make use of the materials that BC or IDP provide you after registration (I got the IELTS Ready Premium Package about 2 days before my exam, and it really helped boost my confidence). The listening was very similar to the Cambridge books, maybe a tad bit faster. Please DO NOT practise using unofficial resources, they may either be much harder or too simple to give you an accurate idea of how your preparation is. During speaking, my part 1 went great; I made up a lotta nonsense and may not have followed the points mentioned to develop my speech in part 2, and the examiner kept interrupting me in part 3, so my confidence kept getting crushed and I thought I fumbled my speaking. Nevertheless, everything turned out to be greater than what I had imagined, Alhamdulillah!

I genuinely thought I had messed up my IELTS, especially Writing and Speaking. I was getting around 6–6.5 in Writing on AI mock evaluations and had never received a 7.5 from any AI platform.
In the actual exam, I even had an answer-sheet mix-up during Writing, which completely panicked me. Task 1 was also a map, and I thought my Writing was barely 6.5. I also felt I spoke too fast in Speaking.
My biggest takeaway: don’t overthink your performance after the exam, and don’t rely completely on AI/mock scores. You never know what you’ll actually get. Trust your preparation and do your best!