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IELTS Speaking — Practice Test 18

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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.

Giving gifts
Do you enjoy choosing gifts for people, or do you find it a bit stressful?
When was the last time you gave someone a present? What was it?
Why do you think some people are so much better at picking gifts than others?
Did gift-giving in your family work differently when you were a child?
Do you think people will still give physical presents in twenty years, or will it all be digital?
Celebrating with friends
When your group of friends celebrates something, what does that usually look like?
Do you prefer big parties or small get-togethers with a few close people?
Why do you think birthdays matter so much to some people and so little to others?
Are celebrations with your friends different now from when you were a student?
Do you think the way your generation celebrates will change as you get older?

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 gift that took you a long time to choose.

You should say:

  • who the gift was for
  • what you finally chose
  • why choosing it took so long
  • how the person reacted when you gave it

and explain whether, looking back, all that time and effort was worth it.

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

Examiner follow-up
Would you put that much effort into a gift again?
Does that person know how long you spent on it?
Are you usually that careful, or was this a one-off?

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.

What do you think a gift actually communicates, beyond the object itself?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Can a cheap gift say more than an expensive one?
  • What does a thoughtless gift communicate?
Where is the line between giving out of generosity and giving out of obligation?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Can the receiver usually tell the difference?
  • Is obligated giving still worth something?
Some people now prefer giving experiences — a dinner, a trip — rather than objects. Why might that be?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Is one genuinely better than the other?
  • Would that work for every generation in your country?
In many cultures, wedding and festival gifts have become so expensive that families borrow money to keep up. Why does that pressure exist?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Who could realistically break that cycle?
  • Has anything like this changed in your lifetime?
Is it acceptable to tell people exactly what you want as a gift, or does that defeat the purpose?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Why do wish lists make some people uncomfortable?
  • Does it depend on the relationship?
Companies often give gifts to clients and business partners. Is that generosity, marketing, or something closer to bribery?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Where would you draw the line?
  • Should there be rules about it?
Do you think social media has changed why people give — now that a gift can be photographed and posted?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Does an audience make giving less sincere?
  • Or does visibility encourage more generosity overall?
Some argue there is no truly selfless gift, because the giver always gets something back — gratitude, status, a warm feeling. Do you agree?
Examiner follow-ups
  • Does the giver's motive actually matter to the person receiving?
  • Can you think of a counter-example?
Can generosity be taught, or is it a trait people are simply born with?
Examiner follow-ups
  • How would a school or family actually teach it?
  • Does forcing children to share build generosity or resentment?
If you look at how a society handles gifts — weddings, festivals, tips, donations — what does that reveal about its values?
Examiner follow-ups
  • What would an outsider conclude about your country?
  • Are those customs changing faster than the values behind them?

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

  • The Part 2 story has a shape — the search, the dead ends, the decision, the reaction — rather than a list of gift ideas that were rejected.
  • Keeps going past the obvious first sentence in Part 3: after "a gift shows you were thinking of them", a Band 8+ candidate unpacks what kind of thinking it shows.
  • Handles the philosophical questions (selfless giving, taught generosity) without freezing — thinking aloud coherently beats a polished non-answer.
  • Connectives are conversational ("the thing is", "to be honest", "having said that") rather than essay machinery ("moreover", "in conclusion").
  • Answers the question actually asked: the corporate-gift question is about motives and lines, not a description of what companies give.

Lexical Resource

  • Precise topic vocabulary: thoughtful, token of appreciation, splash out, sentimental value, reciprocate, keeping up appearances, strings attached.
  • Collocations sound native: "put a lot of thought into it", "it's the thought that counts", "return the favour" — deployed naturally, not recited.
  • Distinguishes register: 'present' for a birthday, 'donation' for charity, 'incentive' or 'kickback' when the corporate question turns pointed.
  • Paraphrases around gaps — if 'obligation' won't come, "the feeling that you have no real choice but to give" holds the floor.
  • Idioms used sparingly and correctly: one well-placed "cost an arm and a leg" outscores a string of forced ones.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

  • Past narrative tenses carry Part 2: "I'd been looking for weeks before I finally stumbled on…" — past perfect continuous doing real work.
  • Reported speech for the reaction: "She kept asking how I'd remembered", "He said it was the first time anyone had…".
  • Comparatives and preference structures in Part 3: "I'd much rather receive…", "far more meaningful than…".
  • Concession before position on the debate questions: "Even if the giver does get something back, that doesn't cancel out…".
  • Conditionals for the social-pressure question: "If one family scaled down their wedding gifts, they'd risk…".

Pronunciation

  • Clear throughout — enthusiasm about the story never tips into rushed, swallowed syllables.
  • Stress lands on the contrast the topic keeps offering: "It's not the PRICE that matters — it's the THOUGHT."
  • Multi-syllable topic words stressed correctly: generosity, obligation, reciprocate, sentimental, anonymous.
  • The narrative in Part 2 has lively, varied intonation; the analysis in Part 3 settles into a more measured tone — and the shift sounds natural.
  • Weak forms flow in stock phrases ("a token of appreciation", "out of a sense of duty") instead of every word carrying equal weight.

How to develop a Band 9 answer for this test

Part 1. Answer directly, then add one detail that makes it yours. For "When was the last time you gave someone a present?", a Band 9 answer is concrete and lightly self-aware: "Two weeks ago — a secondhand copy of a novel my flatmate had been hunting for. I found it at a street stall for almost nothing, and she was happier with that than with anything I've ever actually spent money on." Two to four sentences; resist the urge to explain the philosophy of giving in Part 1 — that belongs in Part 3.
Part 2 — two-minute planning framework.
  1. Opening / context — who the gift was for and the occasion, plus one line on the relationship, since that's what made the choice matter.
  2. The problem — why this person was hard to buy for: they have everything, they claim to want nothing, the last gift missed badly. This is the engine of the story.
  3. The search — take the listener through the dead ends: the shops, the abandoned ideas, the advice you asked for. This is where 'took a long time' gets proven, not just claimed.
  4. The decision — the moment you knew: what you finally chose and the exact thing that tipped you, ideally a remembered detail ("she'd mentioned it once, months earlier, in passing").
  5. The reaction — what they said and did when they opened it; a line of reported speech lifts the whole story.
  6. The verdict — answer the card's final question honestly: whether the weeks of effort were worth it, and what the experience taught you about giving — or about them.
Part 3 — Answer → Explain → Example → Alternative View → Evaluation

“Where is the line between giving out of generosity and giving out of obligation?”

  1. Answer: commit to a criterion — the line sits at whether the giver would still give if nobody expected it and nobody would notice its absence.
  2. Explain: unpack the mechanism — generosity starts from the receiver's needs; obligation starts from the giver's fear of judgement, so the same envelope of cash can be either, depending on what's driving the hand.
  3. Example: make it concrete — the colleague who quietly covers a struggling friend's course fees versus the guest list at a wedding where every family gives precisely what they received last time, recorded in a notebook.
  4. Alternative view: concede genuinely — obligation isn't worthless; ritualised giving holds communities together, and many warm traditions began as duties people grew into loving.
  5. Evaluate: land the judgement — obligation can maintain relationships, but only generosity deepens them; a society needs both, and trouble starts when people can no longer tell which one they're practising.

Common mistakes for this specific test

⚠️ Choosing a gift with no story

"I bought my mother a saree, it took long because there were many shops" gives the examiner nothing. The card rewards a search with obstacles — rejected ideas, a clue remembered, a near miss. No struggle, no story, no fluency display.

⚠️ Skipping the reaction bullet

Candidates spend two minutes on the search and run out of time before the person even opens the gift. The reaction is where the emotional payoff and the reported speech live — budget for it.

⚠️ Answering 'was it worth it?' with just 'yes'

The explain-part asks for a looking-back judgement. One unsupported syllable wastes the easiest reflection marks on the card. Worth it why — what did the effort buy that money couldn't?

⚠️ Turning Part 3 into a list of gift ideas

"You can give watches, perfumes, chocolates…" answers no question this test asks. Part 3 is about motives, pressure and values — categories of thinking, not categories of merchandise.

⚠️ Moralising instead of analysing

The corporate-gift and social-media questions tempt candidates into sermons: "people have become so fake nowadays". A Band 8–9 answer explains why the behaviour exists before judging it.

⚠️ Missing the difference between 'gift' and 'prize'

A gift is given from one person to another; a prize is won; a reward is earned; a donation goes to a cause. Blurring these — 'the company gifted me a bonus' — costs precision the topic makes very visible.

⚠️ Claiming your culture has no gift-giving pressure

Denying the premise to dodge the hard question leaves nothing to say for two minutes. Even if your family opted out, you know the pressure exists — describe it and then explain how anyone escapes it.

⚠️ Using 'gift' as the only noun for ten minutes

The word will appear in nearly every question. Vary it: present, token, gesture, souvenir, treat, contribution — and vary the verbs too: give, hand over, surprise someone with, treat someone to.

⚠️ Hedging every answer on the selfless-gift question

"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't, it depends on the person" is a Band 6 shrug. Take a side — or name exactly what it depends on and argue that. The question is designed to see if you can hold a position.

⚠️ Inventing statistics about wedding spending

"Studies show 80% of families take loans for weddings" invites a follow-up you can't survive. "It's common enough that everyone I know has seen it happen" is honest, specific and safe.

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