IELTS Life Skills A1 practice test 3
Answer questions about yourself, ask your partner about their weekend, listen to two people talking about travelling to work, and talk about travel in your town.
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?
- Can you spell your first name for me?
- Where do you come from?
- Do you have any children?
- What do you like about your town?
- What do you do on Saturdays?
See example answers
- What's your name?
- My name is Li Wei.
- Can you spell your first name for me?
- Yes. L-I.
- Where do you come from?
- I come from China.
- Do you have any children?
- Yes, I have one daughter. She is five.
- What do you like about your town?
- I like the shops, and the people are friendly.
- What do you do on Saturdays?
- I go shopping and I clean my flat.
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 weekend.
See example questions you could ask
- What do you do on Saturday?
- Do you work at the weekend?
- Who do you see at the weekend?
- What time do you get up on Sunday?
- Where do you like to go?
Now your partner asks you
Your partner asks you about your town. Press a button to hear a question, then answer it out loud.
- Is your town big or small?
- What is there to do in your town?
- Do you like living there?
- How do people travel in your town?
See example answers
- Is your town big or small?
- It is quite small. About twenty thousand people live there.
- What is there to do in your town?
- There is a cinema, a swimming pool and a big park.
- Do you like living there?
- Yes, I do. It is quiet and my friends live near me.
- How do people travel in your town?
- Most people go by bus or by car.
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 travelling to work.
Listen to both recordings. How do they travel? By bus, by bicycle or by train?
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 how you travel in your town.
If you stop talking, the examiner may ask
- How do you go to the shops?
- Do you like travelling by bus? Why? Why not?
- Is it easy to travel in your town?
- How do people travel in your country?
See an example conversation
- YouHow do you travel in your town?
- PartnerI usually walk, because everything is near. And you?
- YouI take the bus. It is slow, but it is cheap.
- PartnerDo you have a car?
- YouNo, I don't. I don't like driving.
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.