The three parts of the Speaking test
The test lasts 11 to 14 minutes, face to face with an examiner, and is recorded.
- Part 1 (4 to 5 minutes): short questions about you: your studies, work, home, hobbies and daily routine.
- Part 2 (3 to 4 minutes): you get a cue card with a topic and prompts, have 1 minute to prepare and then speak for up to 2 minutes. The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions.
- Part 3 (4 to 5 minutes): a discussion of broader, more abstract questions linked to the Part 2 topic.
You are marked on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.
Fluency or accuracy?
Many students stop mid-sentence to fix a small grammar slip, or speak very slowly to avoid any error. Both hurt fluency. Examiners are listening for speech that flows, with ideas that connect, and a few minor errors are normal even at band 7.
On the other hand, very fast speech full of fillers like "basically" and "actually" does not help either. Aim for a steady pace, complete thoughts and natural pauses where a native speaker would pause, between ideas, not in the middle of a phrase. Use linking phrases you would really say, such as "the main reason is" or "on the other hand", rather than written ones like "furthermore".
Pronunciation for Delhi speakers
Most people in Delhi grow up with Hindi, often alongside Punjabi, Urdu or Haryanvi, and with plenty of Hinglish in daily life. These are rich languages, and an Indian accent is absolutely fine in IELTS: examiners mark clarity, not accent. A few sound patterns are worth practising because they sometimes affect how easily you are understood:
- v and w. Hindi has one sound in this area, so "vine" and "wine", or "vest" and "west", can sound the same. Practise the difference: top teeth on lower lip for v, rounded lips for w.
- th. Words like "think" and "this" are often said with a t or d sound. It rarely blocks understanding, but practising the tongue-between-teeth sound helps.
- Word stress. English changes stress between related words: PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy, photoGRAPHic. Stressing every syllable evenly can make you harder to follow.
- Sentence rhythm. English stresses key words and shortens small ones like "to", "of" and "a". Saying every word at the same strength sounds flat and slows you down.
- z and j. Some speakers say "zero" as "jero". Listen carefully to the difference.
- Consonant clusters. Some speakers add a small vowel before words like "school" or "station". Practise starting directly on the s.
Recording yourself and comparing with a model sentence is the fastest way to hear these.
IELTS Speaking practice without a partner
Plenty of students doing IELTS Speaking practice in Delhi prepare alone, between college, work and family. That is fine if you practise actively:
- Answer out loud, never in your head. Silent rehearsal does not build fluency.
- Use the real timer. Our Part 2 cue cards give you exactly 1 minute to prepare and a 2-minute speaking timer, so you learn what two minutes really feels like.
- Read your transcript. After each answer, our AI feedback shows what you actually said, including repeated words and unfinished sentences.
- Use local topics. Cue cards often ask about a place, an event or a journey. Practise describing a trip on the Delhi Metro, a busy market before Diwali, a winter morning in fog or a favourite street food spot. Personal detail makes answers natural.
- Repeat with improvements. Answer the same cue card twice and compare the transcripts.
Our 186 prompts cover all three parts, so you will meet a wide range of topics before test day.
Teacher sessions for the human element
AI feedback cannot fully recreate the pressure of a real person in front of you. Book a Teacher gives you about 20 minutes one-to-one online with an IELTS teacher, from ₹299. Many students use a session as a full Speaking mock, then ask for two or three specific points to work on. One early and one close to the test is a good pattern.
On the day
Speaking is sometimes scheduled on a different day from the other modules. Leave plenty of time for Delhi traffic or metro delays, and arrive calm. Carry the ID you used when booking, and check your test provider's official guidance on what to bring. Treat the examiner as someone interested in your answers, not as a judge.
Create a free account and try the Speaking section of the free sample mock today.