IELTS Life Skills A1 sample test 4
Answer questions about yourself, ask your partner about their day, listen to two people talking about meals, and talk about the food you eat.
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?
- Are you married?
- What languages do you speak?
- What is the weather like today?
See example answers
- What's your name?
- My name is Amina Yusuf.
- Can you spell your first name for me?
- Yes. A-M-I-N-A.
- Where do you come from?
- I come from Somalia.
- Are you married?
- Yes, I am. My husband's name is Omar.
- What languages do you speak?
- I speak Somali and a little English.
- What is the weather like today?
- It is cold and it is raining.
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 day.
See example questions you could ask
- What time do you get up?
- What do you do in the morning?
- Where do you have lunch?
- What do you do in the evening?
- What time do you go to bed?
Now your partner asks you
Your partner asks you about your best friend. Press a button to hear a question, then answer it out loud.
- What is your friend's name?
- Where does your friend live?
- How often do you see your friend?
- What do you do together?
See example answers
- What is your friend's name?
- Her name is Leila.
- Where does your friend live?
- She lives in my street, at number ten.
- How often do you see your friend?
- I see her every day, because our children go to the same school.
- What do you do together?
- We drink tea and talk, and sometimes we go to the park.
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 a meal.
Listen to both recordings. Which meal do they talk about? Breakfast, lunch or dinner?
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 the food you eat every day.
If you stop talking, the examiner may ask
- What do you eat in the morning?
- Who cooks in your home?
- Do you like eating in restaurants? Why? Why not?
- What food from your country do you like?
See an example conversation
- YouWhat do you eat in the morning?
- PartnerI have bread and cheese, and I drink coffee. And you?
- YouI only have fruit. I am not hungry in the morning.
- PartnerWho cooks in your home?
- YouMy husband cooks. He makes very good rice.
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.