IELTS Speaking Test Questions & Answers

IELTS Cue Cards | Natural Disaster | Seminar/Speech | Difficult Choices

Describe a natural disaster you heard about.

You should say:

What it was and where it happened When it happened How you heard about it

and explain how people reacted when they heard about this disaster.

IELTS Topic Cue Card | Describe a Natural Disaster Well, there have been many disasters in the news, in various different countries, but one I remember hearing about just the other day was in California, where they have had a severe drought for a long time. Just recently they suffered severe storms caused by El Nino – and there was flash flooding and mudslides which caused a lot of damage to the area, even though they badly needed the torrential rains to ease the drought conditions. The drought was so bad there that the authorities estimated that they would need years of such heavy storms and drenching rains to recover from the water shortfall they have experienced in recent years. El Nino is a weather phenomenon which is caused by the Pacific Ocean becoming warmer and this then has an interaction with the atmosphere and this climatic reaction has been the reason behind many dramatic and disastrous changes in weather across the world and natural disasters such as flooding and storms. Previous storms in California caused by El Nino were responsible for people dying, roads being washed away, and entire fields of crops being completely destroyed, so storms like this have the potential for disastrous results for the area. California is frequently battered by Pacific storms causing flooding which causes a lot of damage and can be fatal in some cases. They are also still concerned about further flash floods and mudslides, specifically in the areas which were hit by the wildfires last year. In some areas, residents have been already been advised to evacuate to safer zones, and people are busy preparing for worse storms predicted to be on the way – by stockpiling sandbags and taking other measure to try and mitigate the worst of the damaging rains and winds afflicting the area.

Describe a seminar or a speech that you have attended.

You should say:

What kind of seminar/speech was it? Where was the seminar/speech held and who was the speaker? Was it helpful for you in some way?

IELTS Topic Cue Card Answer | A seminar/speech About six months ago I attended a seminar held by a company here in the university. The purpose of the seminar was to present and discuss the opportunities for postgraduate study in Australia. This was something I had been considering for a while so I decided to go, with a friend of mine, and find out more about what was on offer and what would be involved if I did finally decide to study my master’s degree in Australia. The seminar was held in an auditorium here at the university, on a Thursday evening, and lasted for around two hours in total.

The main speaker was a representative of an educational agency which deals with students who want to follow postgraduate courses in Australia. She outlined the various steps required to be approved and also some discussed some of the academic areas which were popular for foreign students and she also presented some information about long term career opportunities in Australia and the highly skilled jobs for which there was a shortage of candidates at the moment.

I found the seminar extremely interesting because it actually answered many of the questions I had at the back of mind and addressed several points I had been considering previously, so all in all it was very informative and helpful.

In fact, now I’m almost certain that Australia is where I want to pursue my postgraduate course in the future – that’ll be in two years from now, so it gives me time to organize everything.

That’s really what set me on the road to doing IELTS this year, because obviously that is one of the requirements for acceptance in almost all universities in Australia.

Follow up questions

Why do people get nervous when they speak in public?

Quite possibly because it’s something they don’t do very often, or it might even be the first time they are doing it. It’s one of those things that the more you do the better at doing it you become – but the first couple of times can be nerve-racking if you’re not used to standing up and talking in front of people.

However, if you do it regularly, it’s surprising just how quickly you can begin to feel comfortable speaking in public in front of people you don’t know. Like anything really, practice makes perfect, and you soon learn lots of little tricks and things to help you deal with any nerves, or unforeseen circumstances.

How can they improve their public speaking skills?

So, one of the easiest ways to become better at speaking in public is to practice. Now, clearly it’s not that easy to find a large group of people to speak to whenever you want to practice, but there are still a lot of things you can do to improve your performance, without needing an audience. For example, it’s important to be able to look at your audience when speaking so practicing reading your notes while speaking and moving your head from one side of the room to the other so you can make eye contact with audience members while speaking is a simple technique to practice until it becomes natural. Another tip would be to record yourself speaking – this can be very effective because most people have no idea what they really sound like when they speak. So it’s a good way to evaluate and analyse yourself in private and try and improve anything you don’t like about the way you speak. Along the same lines, you could video yourself delivering one of your speeches to get a better idea of how an audience sees you. And then, obviously you need to actually speak to groups of people as if you were delivering a real speech. Even asking a couple of friends to sit and critique your performance can help you become better, more polished, and feel more comfortable and confident when speaking in public.

IELTS Speaking Tips

Never memorize a sample answer. Use them for ideas, expressions, phrases, etc. but IELTS examiners are trained to identify memorized speech - so don't do it!

Always try to think of at least one example and some reasons before you begin speaking - it's much easier and it only takes a second or two

Talk about a time when you had to make a difficult choice.

You should say:

Why was it difficult? What and whom did it involve? What was the outcome of the choice you made?

and explain if there were any consequences?

IELTS Topic Cue Card Answer | Making a Difficult Choice

When I was growing up my parents were having problems in their relationship and for a couple of years things were not good at home; the atmosphere was terrible and they seemed to be constantly fighting with each other. My sister and I were very worried at the time that our parents would end up separating – which they did eventually. That was a really difficult time in life because so many things changed, but as often happens, there was a positive side to this also – our parents actually became happier people when they were not actually living together. They were like different people all of a sudden, happier and more carefree, but still our parents. Anyway, as things changed, one of the difficult things we had to decide was where to live. My sister and I were both old enough to have a say in this, so we had to choose between living with our mother or with our father. This was not easy, and we both spent a long time discussing it with each other and trying to decide which was the best option for everybody. We tried to take into account everybody’s feelings, practical aspects of where we would live, and also what we had planned for the future. But it was also a highly emotional time for everybody which didn’t make the decision any easier. In the end we both decided to stay with our mother because we felt that she needed our support more than our father. And one of the main factors that helped us make the final decision was the fact that I had plans to study abroad, which would have meant that our mother would’ve been all alone if we had decided to move in with our father. So we decided it wasn’t worth all the upheaval – and chose to remain with our mother. As for consequences, it meant that we didn’t see as much of our father as we had in the past, but at least when we did the atmosphere was much better and we were glad that they had stopped fighting with each other all the time. So that was a time when I had to make a difficult choice.

Follow Up Questions

[Click the question to see the answer]

Looking back, would you have made the same choice now? Why?/Why not? Who do you think has a harder time making decisions, children or adults? Why? Do you mostly have a hard time making decisions on your own?

How would you answer these IELTS Speaking questions?