IELTS Speaking, for the General Training candidate.
There is no easier Speaking test for General Training: the same examiner, the same three parts, the same criteria, the same bands. What differs is the candidate. GT test-takers own Parts 1 and 2, which live on everyday English, and are routinely ambushed by Part 3, which does not.
Why this page exists. General Training candidates are often told the Speaking test is simpler on their track. It is not, and preparing as if it were is how a needed 7 becomes a 6.5.
General Training Speaking does not exist as a separate test.
One interview, one marksheet, one scale, whichever test you booked.
One interview
Three parts · 11 to 14 minutes
Part 1 on familiar topics, the Part 2 long turn from a cue card, the Part 3 discussion. The format does not change for General Training.
Nothing about the interview is scaled down for the GT route.
One marksheet
Four criteria, a quarter each
Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, Pronunciation. The examiner marks GT candidates against exactly these.
There is no easier descriptor set for General Training.
One scale
Band 7 means band 7
A GT Speaking 7 and an Academic Speaking 7 are the same 7, which is why every Speaking resource on this site serves both routes.
Visa thresholds are set against this one scale; there is no GT discount.
Parts 1 and 2 are played on your home turf.
The first two parts run on everyday English, the register General Training candidates use all day.
Part 1 asks about work, home, routines and preferences; Part 2 hands you a card about a person, a place, an object or an event. This is the English of your working week, and it is a genuine advantage: you have real detail to hand where a student may be inventing it. Use it. A direct answer, then a concrete detail, then a reason, extends an answer naturally without any performance. Detail beats vocabulary display in these two parts, every time.
Part 3 goes abstract, for everyone.
The discussion questions do not check which test you booked, and this is where GT preparation most often stops short.
Should governments fund public transport? How has family life changed in your country? Part 3 wants opinion, speculation and comparison at one remove from your own life, the register Academic candidates rehearse for their essays and GT candidates often never touch. Borrow the kit: hedged claims with modal verbs, hypotheticals with conditionals, trends with precise comparison. The distance between a 6.5 and a 7 is usually measured in this room.
The resources serve both routes, because there is one test.
Here is the General Training order of attack.
The Speaking guide
The three-part structure with the same answers graded at Band 6, 7 and 8+. Note how the Band 7 answers extend: detail and reason, not decoration.
Start here if you have not sat the interview before.
Topics and practice
Part 1, 2 and 3 banks with a practice generator. Do not linger on Part 1, it is already yours; drill the Part 3 sets deliberately.
Treat every Part 3 question as a small essay said aloud.
Part 2 cue cards
Thirty-six cards with Band 6 and Band 8 model long turns. Your work and life supply better material for these than any textbook.
Describe a skill you learned is a work story waiting to be told.
A second pair of ears
When the band matters for a visa, get your actual speaking heard and marked against the criteria: one to one, with a written report after every lesson.
The resources are free and they work. A person closes the last half band.