IELTS Life Skills A1 practice test 2
Answer questions about yourself, ask your partner about their job or studies, listen to two people talking about free time, and talk about your free time.
How to use this test. The real test is taken with an examiner and one other candidate, and it lasts up to 18 minutes. Practise with a friend if you can. If you are alone, speak your answers out loud and use the buttons to hear the examiner and your partner. The listening task is marked for you. The speaking tasks are not marked, so compare yourself with the example answers.
The examiner asks you questions
4 to 5 minutesThe examiner asks you and your partner some questions in turn. Press a button to hear a question, then answer it out loud.
- What's your name?
- Where do you come from?
- How long have you lived here?
- Who do you live with?
- What do you do in the morning?
- Do you like sport?
See example answers
- What's your name?
- I'm Marco Silva.
- Where do you come from?
- I'm from Brazil.
- How long have you lived here?
- I have lived here for two years.
- Who do you live with?
- I live with my wife and our son.
- What do you do in the morning?
- I get up at six, I have breakfast and I go to work.
- Do you like sport?
- Yes, I do. I play football on Sundays.
Ask your partner questions
5 minutesThe examiner gives you a topic. You have a minute and a half to think of questions, and you can write them down. Then you ask your partner your questions for up to two minutes. After that, your partner asks you about a different topic.
The examiner says
Ask your partner about his or her job or studies.
See example questions you could ask
- What is your job?
- Where do you work?
- What time do you start work?
- Do you like your job?
- How do you travel to work?
Now your partner asks you
Your partner asks you about your favourite food. Press a button to hear a question, then answer it out loud.
- What is your favourite food?
- Who cooks it for you?
- When do you eat it?
- Can you buy it here?
See example answers
- What is your favourite food?
- My favourite food is rice with chicken.
- Who cooks it for you?
- My mother cooks it very well, but I can cook it too.
- When do you eat it?
- We usually eat it on Friday evening.
- Can you buy it here?
- Yes, I can. I buy the rice in a small shop near the station.
Listen to two recordings
4 minutesYou hear two short recordings. First you answer one question about each, choosing from three options. Then you hear both again and answer two questions about one of them. Here you answer the questions on both.
You hear two people talking about their free time.
Listen to both recordings. Where do they go? To a swimming pool, to a library or to a park?
Talk with your partner
3 to 4 minutesYou and your partner talk together. Ask your partner questions and answer theirs. The examiner only helps if the conversation stops.
The examiner says
Talk to each other about what you like to do in your free time.
If you stop talking, the examiner may ask
- What do you do in the evening?
- Do you like watching television? What do you watch?
- Who do you spend your free time with?
- What do people in your country do in their free time?
See an example conversation
- YouWhat do you do in your free time?
- PartnerI like walking in the park. I go with my friend. What about you?
- YouI like music. I listen to music every evening.
- PartnerDo you play an instrument?
- YouNo, I don't, but I want to learn the guitar.
Check yourself
You get a pass or a fail, not a band. Ask yourself whether you did these things:
- I answered every question in a full sentence.
- I asked my partner questions, and did not only answer.
- I understood what each recording was about, and the details.
- I asked for the question again when I did not understand.