Skip to content

July 2009

IELTS Speaking questions from Singapore and UAE

Here are some speaking questions for you to practice on – many thanks to T from Singapore and H from UAE for sending them.

Speaking test in Singapore

Interview
– Where are you from?
– Has your town changed? How?
– Are you interested in the news?
– What kind of news?
– From what sources you get your news?
– Are elders interested in news more than young people? Why / Why not?

Cue card
Discuss the best stage of your life, you should say:
– what was your age ?
– why was it the best stage?

– What is the legal age of voting and marriage in your country?
– Is it the right age or you wold like to make some changes?
– Do you think there will be any changes in legal age? Why or why not?

Speaking test in UAE

Interview
– What is your name?
– What are your hobbies?
– Did you learn to paint in primary school?
– What do you think about people who buy expensive paint?
– Do you like buying paint?
– What do you think about swimming as a leisure activity for children?

Cue card
Talk about an aquatic center you enjoy to go to, say
– Where is it?
– When do you go there?
– Why do you like it?
– Who do you go with?

Discussion
– What are the water resources in your country?
– Why we should take care of the water resources?
– Discuss pollution and water resources.

2 assumptions you shouldn’t make about your IELTS exam

This post is basically a common mistake alert. As you know I’m receiving many emails from IELTS test takers and they tell me about their exams, what went right, what went wrong, and we analyze the situation and what should have been done differently.

And here is a point regarding the latest exam. As you know it was identical in many countries and apparently many people had the same problems, because they weren’t mentally prepared.

Assumption # 1

People assumed that Task 1 in the Academic IELTS will be a chart or a graph – and when they were given a diagram, it came as a complete shock. As a result, it took them longer to get their heads around the task and they spent over 30 minutes only thinking what they are going to write in their reports. Then it’s a chain accident – if the first task takes you longer, you don’t have enough time for your essay and you are stressed, so the performance goes down the drain.

This could have been easily solved by practicing beforehand. Guys, when you practice – don’t choose just graphs, prepare for diagrams as well, it’s important to be prepared for whatever they throw at you and not things you think are likely to appear. If you’re under time pressure and have only a week to study – that’s fine, do just one or two diagrams, but at least try yourself at it.

Assumption # 2

I don’t know why, but people assume that IELTS questions never repeat – when this blog is a proof to the fact that they do, and quite often. I’ve got an email from a student that said: “You know what is really ironic? I saw my speaking question the night before my exam on IELTS-Blog, but thought I will never get the same question and didn’t practice it.”

Do yourself a favor – go through the list of recent exams and familiarize yourself with the latest questions. The best chances to get the same questions as before are, of course, in the Speaking test, however in the Writing test we too have seen that the questions were repeated over time.

And above everything else – good luck with your preparation and I wish you an easy exam!