The three parts
The Speaking test takes 11 to 14 minutes, face to face with an examiner.
- Part 1 (4 to 5 minutes): familiar questions about your home, studies, work, hobbies and daily life.
- Part 2 (3 to 4 minutes): a cue card with a topic. You get one minute to prepare and then speak for up to two minutes.
- Part 3 (4 to 5 minutes): a discussion of 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 first, then accuracy
Many students try so hard to avoid mistakes that they speak in short, careful sentences with long pauses. That lowers fluency without much gain in accuracy. Aim to keep talking smoothly, extend your answers with a reason or example, and correct yourself naturally if you slip.
At the same time, fluency is not speed. Speaking very fast, especially when nervous, makes pronunciation harder to follow. A steady, relaxed pace is better.
Pronunciation notes for Marathi speakers
Examiners do not expect a British or American accent. They expect you to be easy to understand. Marathi speakers typically have clear vowels and good rhythm in their own language; the points below are simply the ones that often need work in English.
- V and W: Marathi has one sound in between, so "vest" and "west" or "very" and "worry" can merge. Practise rounding the lips for W and touching the top teeth to the lower lip for V.
- F and PH: some speakers say "phood" for "food". Let air pass between the teeth and lip.
- Short vowels: "bad" and "bed", "cot" and "caught" can sound the same. Minimal-pair practice helps.
- Word stress: English stresses one syllable strongly, as in photograph, photographer, photographic. Getting stress wrong affects understanding more than individual sounds.
- Flat intonation: let your voice rise and fall to show interest, contrast and the end of an idea.
- TH: "think" and "this" often become "tink" and "dis". Put the tongue lightly between the teeth.
Pick one point a week. Trying to fix everything at once usually makes speech stiff.
Practising in Nashik without a partner
You do not need a speaking partner to improve. Some ideas that fit a Nashik day:
- Record a Part 2 answer on your phone during a quiet moment, at home before college or on a break at work, and listen back once.
- Describe your route aloud as you walk, for example along the Godavari ghats or Gangapur Road, as if explaining it to a visitor.
- Prepare to talk about local topics you may be asked about: festivals, food, a place you would recommend, how your town has changed. Nashik offers easy material, from grape harvests and vineyards to Panchavati and Trimbakeshwar.
- If friends are also preparing, ask each other Part 3 questions over a phone call in English only.
Speaking Marathi or Hindi most of the day is completely normal. Just make sure some part of each day is in English, even fifteen minutes.
The cue-card timer and AI feedback
IELTS Learning has 186 prompts for Parts 1, 2 and 3. The Part 2 cue cards use a real 1-minute preparation timer and 2-minute speaking timer, so you learn exactly how much you can say in that time. After you answer, you get AI feedback on your transcript, which shows fillers, repeated words, grammar slips and how fully you developed the answer.
Reading your own transcript is often eye-opening: many students discover they say "basically" or "actually" every few seconds.
A good routine is to answer a cue card, read the feedback, then answer the same card again the next day without notes. The second attempt is almost always more organised, and the habit of planning in one minute transfers to new topics. Do the same with Part 3: take one question, give a short answer, then push yourself to add a comparison, a cause or a prediction.
Practise with a teacher
For a real conversation, Book a Teacher gives you about 20 minutes 1-to-1 online from ₹299. A teacher can run a full mock Speaking test, push you in Part 3 the way an examiner might, and tell you which pronunciation points matter most for you.
Getting started
Try a free sample mock from the practice tests, which includes Speaking. Add Daily Vocabulary for new topic words, and register for Full Access (₹999 for 2 months) when you want every prompt.