This guide provides you with the latest topics used in all three parts of the IELTS speaking test with the sample questions and model answers you can practise right from here. No similes, no elaborations to any of the IELTS used to define it. Only the topics, questions and answers.
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IELTS speaking Part 1 is about common, personal topics. The examiner will ask 4 to 6 questions in two to three areas of the topics. Use 2-4 sentences for your responses. Do not over-explain.
Q: Do you work or are you a student?
Band 6 answer: “I am a student of Business at University and in my second year of study.”
Band 7+ answer: “This semester, I will be completing a part-time internship while in my final year of a business degree at University, which would be a good way to put my studies into practice.”
Q: What do you enjoy most about your studies?
Band 7+ answer: “Most likely the research element. I like investigating an issue not knowing where the answers will take me, my thesis is on consumer behaviour in digital markets which is very interesting rather than just academically relevant.”
Q: Would you like to change your job or field of study in the future?
Band 7+ answer: “Yes, but I do think about it from time to time, but I would like to do this at some point in the future because I feel that the pattern in consumer data is a truer reflection of behaviour than what a person would report alone are.”
Q: Where are you from?
Band 7+ answer: “I live in the city of Da Nang in the centre of Vietnam, which is situated by the Sea and in my opinion, partly because of that, people live very naturally here, without any particular rush with time or daily life, compared to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.”
Q: What do you like most about living where you live?
Band 7+ answer: “I love that I live so close to the ocean; 20 minutes a walk there and I feel better! On bad days I feel like that’s where my mind goes to when I want to go for a walk, but I don’t get that feeling in some inland cities.”
Q: Has your hometown changed much in recent years?
Band 7+ answer: “Quite a bit, as the place next to the beach was primarily small local restaurants, family businesses, and over the past 10 years has changed considerably with international hotels and tourist facilities. The financial gain is genuine, however I suppose some of the charm that made the place so unique has been lost in the process.”
Q: How important is technology in your daily life?
Band 7+ answer: “Embedded in nearly every aspect of my life, something I would not have expected, but gives way to thinking more about how my professional and social lives have come to be in more and more of a digital space. I am not the most comfortable with that, but I think about it more than I used to.”
Q: Do you think people rely too much on technology?
Band 7+ answer: “Yes, in many cases. I believe the most enlightening passage is that of people who find it tough to be alone for a short time without grabbing their device in their hand; waiting for the bus, sitting in a café without a group, walking from place to place. That ability to have minimal company seems to be fading.”
Q: What technology do you think will be most important in the future?
Band 7+ answer: “I think the most powerful in the medical area is going to be AI to diagnosis disease earlier, as far as who that impacts more is concerned then it’s probably more for the people then other technologies that they are being hyped up about so much.”
Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Band 7+ answer: “I have been really interested in photography for around 4 years, particularly street photography as you are supposed to be present to see what will capture your interest and make you really want to capture it before you lose that interest.”
Q: Has the way you spend your free time changed since you were younger?
Band 7+ answer: “Quite a bit. Both reading and taking pictures have been more solo activities, which are my preference as either an adolescent or older person, since the rest of my week is spent with other people. I also think that as I got older, I became more comfortable with myself.”
In the IELTS speaking Part 2, you will be presented with a cue card and be asked to talk about a main topic, supported by a minimum of 3 and possibly four phrasing points. There will be one minute of preparation time and up to two minutes of speaking time. The examiner can ask additional questions afterwards.
Cue card: Talk about someone who really has made an impact on your life.
You should say:
Band 7+ model answer:
“The third person is one that I couldn’t speak about as that’s the one I had when I was 11th and I was in secondary school so it was English. While I attended a not-so-special school, there was something unique about her in the classroom; her name was Ms. Nguyen.
But she would make it a point that from her I got to think for myself, that I had formed my own opinions about things and not just repeated what I had read or heard, and so make me differ from others who I’d had. She would assign us with essay questions and then would not state what the correct answer should be. Then she challenged me to defend my right to it rather than what ended up taking the edge off my first bout of discomfort, but not without prompting me to learn the greatest lesson I’d learned that year.
My impression of that in my life has only been continuous. I got better and better at building arguments, and when I built an argument, I did so from the heart rather than repeating ideas that I had heard in my head, but failed to write down. It translates into so much in all professional and personal situations really.
Sometimes I wish that I would actually have been in touch with her yet I have not. I think the habits of thought that she instilled in me have been the ones most valuable when compared to all the things that I’ve learned in formal classes, etc. She’s a major figure in my life, next to the people that taught me formally.”
Word count: 220. Time target: 1 minute 45 seconds.
Cue card: Describe a person you know who is very creative.
You should say:
Band 7+ model answer:
“I would like to share with you some stories of one of my friends named Khoi. He is a graphic designer, and creates brand identity as well as visual communication, primarily.
We were both in the same design elective in college about 6 years ago and got in touch with Khoi then. From his first work, his style singled himself out as unique, making him migrate. Most of that was pretty good, but typically something that came from his imagination is something that’s worth studying, and I’m one of that many.
He now freelances his graphic design skills for a number of clients, mainly involved in the food & hospitality sector. So what really interests me about this is that as far as I can see, he is constantly asking himself early on in the process what is the brand trying to communicate emotionally in their first steps into the project without ever touching the software. There’s a feeling and there’s info and when you get the feeling right, the info will follow, he once said.
I believe what made his different from most other artists, he never made his art creative. The materials he has built are best when presented as if there had to be a correct material and that’s the one he chose. That is unusual and separates his work from technically manually proficient persons.”
Word count: 218. Time target: 1 minute 45 seconds.
Cue card: Describe a place you have visited that you found particularly memorable.
You should say:
Band 7+ model answer:
“So it is really a little town, called Hoi An, central Vietnam that I am going to tell of which I visited for the first time some three years ago.
It was in late October, when the weather was excellent, although on the last day was just before the rainy period so I was fortunate for the timing. I spent four days walking around to the old town, and learned about the incredible old buildings of centuries of trading houses and Chinese assembly halls. Secondly, I rented a bike and explored the villages around us and found out what was out there apart from the tourist hot spots.
I like this space because of its presence. There are numerous places that are historical and look like a museum, but they’re preserved without being alive. Hoi An was believed to have been occupied all the time. The merchant houses remained as shop houses as well as for their family and even as work place. Most of the streets weren’t quite as broad as not very close to the daily life on the streets but you did have to check out where the other people are working or living.
I do recall the light in the evenings in particular. That’s the paper lanterns that light up the whole old town after dark and the atmosphere all round is so different to anything I would see elsewhere. One wasn’t any less famous than he had made himself out to be and one even exceeded the reputation; it was one of those unique places that are.”
Word count: 232. Time target: 1 minute 50 seconds.
Cue card: Describe an object that is important to you.
You should say:
Band 7+ model answer:
“The object that I would like to discuss is a journal I’ve been keeping for the past five years. To me, I think it is a physical notebook, not a digital one, that is why it has been meaningful to me!
Originally bought as I was going through a pretty rough time at work and a friend said if I wrote anything down, it would help me think it through a bit more. I doubted it, but I did it and it’s something I’ve developed since.
I use it on and off and I don’t think it’s worse than if I used it every day on a schedule. I write in it every day for a few weeks. At times I will only use it for a couple of months, then forget about it. But I revisit it every time something big is rattling around my brain or if I see I don’t have my mind clearly on a decision that I need to make, I just make sure that I get back on it.
May I say, the evidence provided by it that I have of the changes in my thinking over time is important to me. The entries from the past two or three years are helpful in correcting the idea that I have the best perspective I’ve got on the matter, right now. It reveals to me trends in my responses to specific types of situations, which is really challenging to analyze in the moment. It’s become kind of an outside memory that in some ways I’ve got a clearer idea of than the inside memory.”
Word count: 230. Time target: 1 minute 50 seconds.
Cue card: Describe a time when you had to do something outside your comfort zone.
You should say:
Band 7+ model answer:
“I would like to discuss a talk that I have presented for the last two years at a professional & scientific event. It was a big break for me, and is definitely something that I reflect on on a regular basis when I’m in comparable circumstances.
Three hundred men and women attended the conference, most of them much more experienced than I could now have been. This had been a research project I had been involved in and I was really excited to be presenting results of it in front of such a large audience like that, but it was really intimidating!
A challenge was the fact that there were questions expected from the audience following the presentation. I would have been able to put the right materials together, but I would not have been able to turn the tables on anyone who may be trained in the field that asks me questions about what I have prepared.
I have made the most detailed preparation for a presentation that I ever had. I practiced for all of the questions I could think of, to the extent that I was able to do so, and spent some time clarifying things I didn’t feel comfortable answering. Overall, the day was not as hectic as it could have been. They were tough challenges that weren’t too easy or too hard, and I was able to come up with thoughtful answers to most of the questions.
What I discovered was there is a difference between being well prepared and merely wishing things would work out. But the prep did not take away the anxiety from me, it just shifted it from paralyzing to more manageable, which is what I needed.”
Word count: 240. Time target: 1 minute 55 seconds.
In the part 3 of the Ielts speaking test, you are expected to talk about general, very abstract topics, ideas and thoughts about the Part 2 topic. Answers should be between 80 to 120 words long and should include a stance given along with an explanation and example.
Q: Do you think schools prepare young people well for adult life?
Band 7+ answer: “Partially, there are significant gaps, academic skills are developed reasonably well and subject knowledge is developed well, but the school’s provision for developing skills and knowledge that will be useful in adult life is comparatively weak e.g. financial management, preparation for legal rights, or negotiation of workplace dynamics are poorly addressed. Very few people lead fully rounded out adult lives without developing these elements through experience or guidance at home, so this is very variable depending on the circumstances, I think the curriculum has lagged in doing this in relation to what an adult life calls for in a modern society”
Q: How has the way people learn changed in the last twenty years?
Band 7+ answer: “The most significant change is probably the shift from passive to active information seeking. Twenty years ago, what you learned was largely determined by what your school, university, or employer provided. Now, a motivated person can access virtually any knowledge through the Internet at any time. The constraint has shifted from information availability to information evaluation. The challenge for most people now is not finding information but identifying which information is accurate, credible, and relevant to their situation. That is a genuinely new cognitive demand that education systems have been slow to respond to.”
Q: Should education focus more on practical skills or academic knowledge?
Band 7+ answer: “The framing of the question as a binary choice is its key to being misleading. In the best education, there is some of both; but the proportion varies according to level and intent of the education. Is Literacy only truly useful in Primary education, and is Practical only really possible in Primary education. Is Academic only really useful in Tertiary education, and is Practical only really possible in Tertiary education. Well-designed education allows for a balance to shift, both ways, according to the nature of the study.”
Q: Do you think technology has made people more or less connected to each other?
Band 7+ answer: “More connected in terms of reach, and less connected in terms of depth, which are two very different things that often get conflated in this discussion. Technology has made it possible to maintain relationships across geographic distances in ways that were simply not feasible before. But many of those connections are maintained through brief, low-effort interactions rather than the kind of sustained attention that builds genuine understanding of another person. So whether technology has improved connection overall depends significantly on what you mean by the word.”
Q: What are the most significant risks that new technologies pose to society?
Band 7+ answer: “I think the concentration of power is probably the most significant long-term risk. The economic value generated by the major technology platforms is captured by an extremely small number of people and entities, while the costs, including disruption to established industries, erosion of privacy, and the spread of misinformation, are distributed broadly across society. That imbalance between who benefits and who bears the costs is not unique to technology, but the scale and speed at which technology compounds it are genuinely new. The regulatory frameworks that societies have developed to manage similar concentrations in other sectors have not kept pace.”
Q: What can individuals do to reduce their environmental impact?
Band 7+ answer: “Beyond modifying behaviour, shifting the structural conditions that enable high impact lifestyle are likely to be more impactful than any set of individual choices using all the political and consumer leverage possible to facilitate such changes. Dietary choices and reducing consumption of animal products is demonstrably having an impact at scale; transport choice with a particular focus on short distance cycling, walking, or public transport use is also having impact at scale.”
Q: Do you think governments are doing enough to address climate change?
Band 7+ answer: “In most cases, no, although there is more variation than is sometimes indicated by the general narrative, with some governments making policy commitments that have not yet led to serious action and for others there are genuine impediments to the pace of transition, or a willingness to put past industries at risk by proceeding at too fast a rate. The policy-to-emissions gap remains very wide in most major emitting countries.”
The most reliable structure for any Part 2 IELTS speaking response:
Common mistakes in IELTS speaking Part 2:
The IELTS speaking topics that appear more consistently in 2025 include: technology and social media, education and learning, environmental issues, work and career, family and relationship, travel and tourism and health and lifestyle.
These topics are represented in all three sections of the exam: in Part 1 one will be discussed through personal experience and in Part 3, through a discussion of the effect of these themes on the wider world.
In speaking Part 2 of the IELTS exam, 1 cue card to answer provided. Three to four bullet points on the cue card are intended to illustrate the topics that should be addressed; there is one main prompt. Your topic is presented for a maximum of 2 minutes.
Then one or two follow up questions are asked by the examiner, prior to Part 3. IELTS speaking topics for Part 2 explore a wide variety of people, places, objects, events and experiences, and are always linked with the discussion questions that gravitate to them in Part 3.
Yes. The IELTS speaking Part 2 cue cards are circulated in pools for re-use on different test dates, in different countries and centres.
That is to say that topics covered at earlier months could come back so practising with reported cue cards from test dates is a valid preparation.
It is not possible to know which cue card you will get on Test Day, though, so a general preparation on all the Topic of the IELTS speaking section categories is better than memorised answers.
In IELTS speaking Part 1, aim for two to four sentences (35-55 words) per sentence. Responses that are too brief (1 sentence) will not give the examiner a good target for meeting the requirements for Fluency and Coherence.
Answers may not be as ‘natural’ in Part 1 as is needed to succeed in writing them, and answers which are too long may interfere with the time available for other questions later in the test.
If you are able to answer and add one idea of growth/exemplification and then stop, then you are doing your job well.
The best way to achieve a Band 7+ in the IELTS Speaking section is through practice in all three parts, especially getting familiar with answering cue cards in Part 2 and answering questions in the discussion in Part 3. Score to prepare for the IELTS Speaking Test with Lume’s AI Scoring Feedback feature to monitor progress using actual data.
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