IELTS Practice
IELTS Speaking
IELTS Speaking is a live one-to-one conversation with a certified examiner - face to face at the test centre, or by video call with an examiner from a private room at the centre where that is offered. That did not change with the 2026 move to computer delivery. Three parts in 11 to 14 minutes: familiar-topic questions, a two-minute long turn from a task card, and an abstract discussion of the same theme.
Part 1: Questions on familiar topics
Part 2: Cue card
Part 3: Two-way discussion
More about Speaking in IELTS
Part 1 is short questions about you - home, work, study, hobbies - answered in two or three sentences rather than one word. Part 2 gives you a task card, one minute with paper and pencil, and up to two minutes to speak uninterrupted. Part 3 takes the Part 2 theme abstract: causes, comparisons, consequences, opinions about society rather than about you. The examiner will push back, and being able to defend or qualify a view is exactly what is being measured.
How the IELTS test is structured
Listening, Reading and Writing are taken back to back with no breaks, about 2 hours 45 minutes in total. Speaking is 11 to 14 minutes with an examiner and may be scheduled on the same day or up to a week either side. From mid-2026 the whole test is delivered on computer, but the format itself is unchanged.
What changed in IELTS in 2026
- IELTS is moving to computer delivery worldwide. The IELTS Partners - British Council, IDP Education and Cambridge University Press & Assessment - confirmed in March 2026 that IELTS will no longer be offered as a paper-based test from mid-2026, with 27 June 2026 the final paper-based test date in most markets. Exact timings vary by country.
- The test itself did not change. The four skills, the question types, the timings and the 0-9 band scale are all the same, and universities and immigration authorities interpret results exactly as before.
- In selected markets there is a hybrid option, IELTS on Computer with Writing on Paper: you take Listening and Reading on screen and handwrite the Writing answers. It is not available for the UKVI route.
- Speaking stays a live conversation with a certified examiner. You still take it at a test centre, either face to face or by video call from a private room there, and it is not being automated.
- One Skill Retake, which only exists for computer-delivered IELTS, therefore becomes available to effectively everyone: retake a single skill within 60 days of the original test and you receive a second Test Report Form, so you choose which one to send.
- The practical differences are the ones the computer format always had: Listening gives 2 minutes to check answers instead of 10 transfer minutes, Reading has no transfer time at all, Writing is typed with a word counter, and results usually arrive within one to five days instead of thirteen.
Listening
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Your score
Each skill gets a band from 0 to 9 in half-band steps, and the overall band is the average of the four rounded to the nearest half band. Computer-delivered results usually arrive within one to five days, and One Skill Retake lets you resit a single skill within 60 days.
Where to focus your IELTS practice
drill → score → repeat, one focus area per study blockIELTS practice - frequently asked questions
The delivery, not the test. In March 2026 the IELTS Partners - British Council, IDP Education and Cambridge University Press & Assessment - confirmed that from mid-2026 IELTS is no longer offered as a paper-based test and is delivered on computer worldwide, with 27 June 2026 the last paper-based test date in most markets and exact timings varying by country. The four skills, the question types, the timings and the 0-9 band scale are unchanged, and results are interpreted by institutions exactly as before.