The first part of the IELTS test is the introduction part which is discussed at Sample Questions in IELTS Exam

The second part of the IELTS test is the presentation.

Speaking practice for IELTS Presentation

For this section of the IELTS test, your examiner will give you a topic, and you will then have one minute to prepare for the presentation.  You can make notes for your presentation.  Then you will have to talk about the topic for between 1-2 minutes.  The examiner won’t ask you any questions while you are presenting, but may ask one or two about your presentation after.

How to prepare for the IELTS Presentation?

After you get your topic, write down key vocabulary that you think will be important to talk about for your presentation.   DO NOT write full sentences down and try and write the entire speech.  You won’t have enough time to do this.  After you write down some important vocabulary, try and make a brief outline for your presentation, with a few simple questions and points you will want to make.  Do this as concisely as possible as you only have one minute for preparation.  If you have any remaining time after this, add anything else you think might be helpful for your IELTS presentation.

These topics are very general so you should be able to talk for much more than 2 minutes if you wanted to.

An example preparation for the IELTS presentation

Here is an example of a topic you might receive.

Topic:  Career

Here might be how you would want to prepare on your paper:

Job, Occupation, Salary, raise, rewarding, vacation, challenging, education

Outline:

What?

Why Choose?

Where School?

How Long?

Future?

IELTS Presentation:

After your minute is up, you will be required to present.  You can look at the information your wrote down on your paper while presenting.   It is good to use some of the phrases and vocabulary that you thought of if you can, but don’t worry so much.  Try and answer the brief questions you made on your outline, and think of any other questions that should be answered about your topic.  Always be trying to answer questions with who, what , why , where, when or the 5 W’s and you should easily be able to talk about this general topic in detail for 2 minutes.

Tips for the IELTS Presentation

If you get stuck at anytime try and answer briefly and move on.  Don’t get stuck on one detail and ruin your entire presentation.  Also, if you get stuck on a detail about your topic, remember that you are being scored on how you speak, and not on the accuracy of the content.  So if you are talking about a topic, or are trying to express your opinion, it is important to try and speak well and “sound good” rather than having really good arguments.

If your presenter asks you a few questions at the end of your presentation, don’t worry too much about these and you can give short simple answers.  If you struggle on this part don’t worry, as it won’t really affect your IELTS score.

In the IELTS Exam, the first part is the introduction.  In this section, the examiner will greet you, and ask you a few simple questions about you and your life.  They may also ask you a few follow up questions and get you to describe a few details as they come up in conversation.  Even if your spoken English level isn’t really high, you should do well on this part of the IELTS exam if you practice answering questions about yourself.

You cannot know exactly what the IELTS examiner will ask, but you can practice answering general topics.  You can use these answers on the IELTS exam.

Here are some practice topics for the introduction part of the IELTS exam:

• Job
• Family
• Education
• Hobbies
• Hometown
• Lifestyle
• Spare time activities

Sample Questions in IELTS Exam - Introduction

You should prepare possible questions and answers for each of these topics. Here are some sample questions for the IELTS Exam that you should know for your introduction.  Let’s choose one of the topics to show how you might prepare some sample questions.

Let’s choose “family” as a topic.  If you want to describe your family or talk about them, you should think of all the words you might need to describe them.  Start by brainstorming a list of words relating to family.  It is important to develop a good list of vocabulary because your IELTS exam score is related to you giving clear quick answers, and showing your ability to communicate topics using a variety of vocabulary and phrases.

brainstorm some words relating to family:

• father
• step-mother
• cousin
• uncle
• immediate family
• extended family

You will also want to be able to describe people in your family so you should have vocabulary prepared for that.

• retired
• outgoing
• stressed
• single
• engaged
• married
• jobs

Think of some practice questions that an examiner may ask you relating to these. Think of as many questions as you can and make answers to them.

• Is your dad retired?
• What kind of family do you have?
• What do people in your family do?
• Tell me about your brother
• Has your family always lived in the same place?

It is also a good idea to prepare a sample paragraph describing your family.  Don’t memorize this!  Practice using the vocabulary about your topic in full sentences.  Also, if you can, get a partner to ask you questions about your family.  Repeat this process for all topics relating to your introduction, and you should be ready for the first part of the IELTS exam.

IELTS students can practice their listening with our ESL podcasts. These are mp3 files you can download and put on any mp3 player like an ipod, or you can listen to on your computer. These podcasts are also completely free. The reason why these are great listening practice for IELTS students is that they are based on real conversations from native speakers. In each podcast, vocabulary and phrases for daily conversation are discussed in a fun and clear way.

Along with each podcast you can find written material with the key vocabulary and explanations. Practicing for the IELTS exam can be difficult if you don’t have access to any listening material from native speakers. Watching movies or TV in English can be helpful, but often learners of English don’t understand a lot of the slang, and the speed is too fast. Also, the vocabulary and phrases aren’t explained.

The podcasts offered on this website are aimed for students that really want to learn phrases and vocabulary actually spoken by English speakers. They are fun and should help any learner of English improve their spoken and listening abilities. If you practice listening everyday, your ability to communicate in English should greatly improve. All of the lessons and podcasts can be easily found from Lessons . We recommend that you start with podcast 1 and then go through them in order. You can choose any lesson but it should be easier to start with podcast 1 since we use some of our old vocabulary in later lessons. We try and explain most terms again and again so you don’t forget though so feel free to try any lesson you like!

Let us know what you think, and if you have any suggestions in helping you improve your listening skills for the IELTS examination.  If you are unsure on what a podcast is and how you can use it, look at the explanation below.

What is the difference between a podcast and an mp3?
People are often confused about the difference between a podcast and an mp3.  A podcast is an mp3 that you can download.  However what makes the mp3 an actual “podcast” is if the mp3 file has an rss feed,  so you can download it automatically.  Ok, I realize this is a bit confusing still, but what you should know now is that a podcast is an mp3 file that can be automatically downloaded.  How the mp3 can be automatically downloaded will be explained next.

How can I automatically download the mp3 podcast?

This can be done through the RSS feed of the podcast.  Without getting too technical, an rss feed is really just a list of files that can be automatically downloaded.  The feed has a website address just like any website, usually with an ending of .rss or .xml.  Now, to get the podcast to be automatically downloaded, you can put this “feed address” into any feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader. This feed reader is a free program or tool that can easily be found for free from search engines.  A very popular one for podcasts is Itunes, as it also has a list of podcasts to search from.  In other feed readers, all you need to do is copy the location of the rss feed, and then paste it into the feed reader.  You will subscribe to them and when new podcasts become available they can be automatically downloaded to your mp3 player or computer.  It really sounds more confusing than it really is.  Hopefully you will now be able to download the ESL podcasts and start practicing your listening for the IELTS examination!