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IELTS Speaking — Practice Test 8

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Part 1 — Introduction and interview (4–5 minutes)

Answer each question aloud in 2–4 natural sentences. Press 🔊 to hear the examiner ask it. Don't script — react.

Planning and organisation
Are you the kind of person who plans things carefully, or do you prefer to decide as you go?
How do you usually keep track of the things you need to do — is there a system?
Why do you think some people enjoy making plans and others find it a chore?
Were you more organised or less organised a few years ago than you are now?
Do you think you'll plan your time differently once your life gets busier — or quieter?
Gadgets and technology in daily life
Which gadget do you reach for most often during a normal day?
Is there anything you still prefer to do without technology, even though an app exists for it?
What makes a gadget genuinely useful to you, rather than just fun to own?
Is there a device you used a lot as a child that you never touch now?
Which of the gadgets you use today do you think will seem old-fashioned in ten years?

Part 2 — Individual long turn (3–4 minutes)

You have one minute to prepare (make notes!) and should then speak for one to two minutes. Use the timers — the discipline is the practice.

Describe a time you solved a problem in a clever or unusual way.

You should say:

  • what the problem was
  • when and where it happened
  • what you did to solve it
  • why your solution was unusual

and explain how you felt when your solution actually worked.

You will have one minute to prepare and should speak for one to two minutes.

Examiner follow-up
Would you handle the same problem differently now?
Did anyone else find out how you'd solved it?
Do you usually trust your own solutions, or do you prefer to ask for help first?

Part 3 — Two-way discussion (4–5 minutes)

These get harder as they go. Build answers with: Answer → Explain → Example → Alternative view → Evaluation. Open the follow-ups only after you've answered — that's what the examiner asks when an answer is thin.

Why do you think some people come up with unusual solutions while others always follow the standard approach?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Is that difference mostly personality, or can it be learned?
  • Does the situation itself play a part?
Do you think creativity is something schools can actually teach, or does the way schools work get in the way?
Examiner follow-ups
  • What would a lesson that genuinely builds creativity look like?
  • Can you think of a school subject where creativity already gets room to breathe?
Exams usually reward the one correct answer. What effect might that have on how young people approach problems later in life?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Is there a realistic alternative to marking answers as right or wrong?
  • Does this matter more in some careers than others?
Some problems are better solved by a group, and some by one person working alone. What decides which is which?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Can a group ever make a problem harder to solve?
  • How does this play out in workplaces you know of?
How valuable is trial and error as a way of solving problems, compared with careful planning?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Are there fields where trial and error would be irresponsible?
  • Why do you think people are often embarrassed by their failed attempts?
Is failure treated as a normal part of problem-solving in your country, or as something to hide?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Where do you think that attitude comes from?
  • Is it changing among younger people?
Companies often say they want creative employees, yet many workplaces reward people who follow procedures. How do you explain that contradiction?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Which of the two do you think organisations genuinely need more of?
  • Could both be true at the same time?
As machines get better at solving problems for us, what happens to our own problem-solving ability?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Is that loss inevitable, or does it depend on how we use the machines?
  • Can you compare it with anything that has already happened?
If a machine can produce a good solution instantly, is there still value in a human reaching a slightly worse one by themselves?
Examiner follow-ups
  • What kind of value would that be?
  • Would your answer change if the stakes were high — say, in medicine?
Some argue that constraints — limited time, limited money — actually make people more inventive rather than less. Do you agree?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Can you think of an example where scarcity produced a clever idea?
  • Is there a point where constraints stop helping and start crushing ideas?

What a Band 8–9 performance should demonstrate

Judge your recording against the four official criteria. An accent is not required — clarity is.

Fluency & Coherence

  • Tells the Part 2 problem story in a clear arc — problem, attempt, twist, result — without losing the listener in background detail.
  • Buys thinking time naturally on abstract Part 3 questions ("That's an interesting one — my first instinct is…") instead of falling silent.
  • Moves between the concrete story and abstract talk about creativity without the speech becoming halting.
  • Extends answers with reasons and consequences unprompted — the examiner shouldn't need to ask "why?" after every response.
  • Self-corrects mid-sentence ("it took two days — well, closer to three") and carries straight on.

Lexical Resource

  • Precise problem-solving vocabulary: workaround, improvise, makeshift, think laterally, resourceful, get around a problem, stopgap.
  • Natural collocations — "a quick fix", "came up with a solution", "by trial and error" — used accurately, not decoratively.
  • Can talk about creativity in the abstract: originality, conformity, constraints, out-of-the-box only if used with irony or awareness that it's a cliché.
  • Paraphrases when a technical word is missing ("the little rubber part inside the tap — I don't know its name") without stalling.
  • Distinguishes shades of meaning: clever vs cunning, unusual vs bizarre, simple vs simplistic.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

  • Past narrative tenses under control in Part 2, including past perfect for the situation before the fix ("the shop had already closed, so I…").
  • Unreal conditionals for reflection: "If I'd had the right tool, I would never have thought of it."
  • Passives where natural in Part 3: "standard answers are rewarded", "creativity is often talked about but rarely measured".
  • Comparative structures for the group-vs-individual and human-vs-machine questions: "far quicker than", "nowhere near as satisfying as".
  • Occasional slips don't obscure meaning and are often self-repaired; complex sentences don't collapse halfway.

Pronunciation

  • Clearly intelligible throughout; the story's key turning point is signalled by stress and a slight pause, not just the words.
  • Contrastive stress lands where this test needs it: "everyone else queued — I went round the back".
  • Weak forms and linking make the narrative flow ("sort_of", "out_of_ideas") rather than sounding read aloud.
  • Multi-syllable topic words — ingenuity, procedure, standardised, algorithm — stressed on the correct syllable.
  • Intonation rises and falls naturally with the story's tension; Part 3 analysis sounds measured rather than flat.

How to develop a Band 9 answer for this test

Part 1. Give a direct answer plus a reason or tiny example, in two to four sentences. For "Which gadget do you reach for most often?" a Band 9 answer is specific and honest: "My earphones, weirdly — more than my phone itself. I can't wash dishes or walk anywhere without a podcast on, and if I leave them at home the day feels strangely quiet." That beats a rehearsed hymn to smartphones because it answers what was actually asked.
Part 2 — two-minute planning framework.
  1. Set-up — one or two sentences establishing the problem and why it mattered right then ("the printer died the night before my sister's wedding invitations were due").
  2. Raise the stakes — say what the obvious solution was and why it wasn't available; this is what makes your fix 'clever' rather than routine.
  3. The idea — describe the moment the unusual solution occurred to you, including where it came from if you know ("I remembered how my grandfather used to…").
  4. The fix in action — walk through what you actually did, step by step, with one or two concrete physical details the listener can picture.
  5. The result — say plainly whether it worked, how well, and what anyone else said when they saw it.
  6. Close on the feeling — answer the explain line directly: the mix of relief and slightly smug satisfaction, and whether the fix changed how you approach problems.
Part 3 — Answer → Explain → Example → Alternative View → Evaluation

“Do you think creativity is something schools can actually teach, or does the way schools work get in the way?”

  1. Answer: commit to a position — e.g. schools can cultivate creativity, but the way most are organised actively suppresses it.
  2. Explain: give the mechanism — timetables, syllabuses and marking all reward convergence on a known answer, so divergent thinking carries a cost for both student and teacher.
  3. Example: one concrete case — a maths class where an unorthodox method gets full marks builds inventiveness; one where only the textbook method scores teaches students to hide their own ideas.
  4. Alternative view: concede genuinely — structure isn't the enemy; you can't improvise on a piano until someone has drilled you in scales, and creativity feeds on exactly that kind of grounding.
  5. Evaluate: land the judgement — so the honest answer is that schools teach the raw materials of creativity well and the disposition badly, and the fix is in assessment, not in adding a 'creativity class'.

Common mistakes for this specific test

⚠️ Choosing a problem with no clever twist

"My phone broke so I took it to a repair shop" is a problem and a solution, but nothing about it is unusual — which leaves the fourth bullet unanswerable. Pick a story where the obvious route was blocked and you found a side door.

⚠️ Explaining the problem for ninety seconds

Candidates spend most of the two minutes on background and rush the actual solution. The clever fix is the heart of this cue card; get to it by the halfway mark at the latest.

⚠️ Calling yourself a genius

"It was a very brilliant idea and everyone was amazed" grades your own story instead of telling it. Let the details do the work — if the fix was genuinely neat, the examiner will notice without being told.

⚠️ Leaning on 'think outside the box'

It's the single most predictable phrase for this topic, and by the third use it signals a memorised phrase list. Workaround, improvise, unconventional and lateral all carry more credit.

⚠️ Treating the schools question as an essay recital

"Education is very important for the development of a country…" is a written-exam opening, not spoken English. Answer the actual question — can creativity be taught? — in your first sentence.

⚠️ Only personal anecdotes in Part 3

"Once my cousin fixed a bike with tape" is Part 2 material. Part 3 asks about schools, workplaces and societies — generalise first, and use the anecdote as a quick illustration if at all.

⚠️ Vague gadget talk in Part 1

"I use my phone for many purposes, it is very convenient" says nothing. Name the app, the habit, the moment in the day — specificity is what separates Band 7 answers from Band 6 ones.

⚠️ Dodging the machines question with hype or doom

"AI will replace everything" and "AI is just a tool" are both slogans. The question asks what happens to our ability — engage with the trade-off, ideally with a comparison like calculators and mental arithmetic.

⚠️ Listing solution steps like a manual

"First I did this. Then I did that. Then I did that." — mechanical sequencing flattens the story. Vary the connectives: 'at that point', 'the trick was', 'which meant that'.

⚠️ No stance on either/or questions

"Group or individual? Both have advantages and disadvantages" followed by silence is a Band 6 pattern. Pick a side or name the deciding factor — 'it hinges on whether the problem needs one insight or many hands' — and defend it.

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