IELTS Life Skills A1 sample test 5
Answer questions about yourself, ask your partner about their English class, listen to two people talking about where they are going, and talk about your health.
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?
- How do you spell your family name?
- Where do you live?
- Do you work?
- How many children do you have?
- What do you do on Sundays?
See example answers
- What's your name?
- My name is Bilal Ahmed.
- How do you spell your family name?
- A-H-M-E-D.
- Where do you live?
- I live in Bradford, in a small house.
- Do you work?
- Yes, I do. I work in a shop.
- How many children do you have?
- I have two children, a boy and a girl.
- What do you do on Sundays?
- I visit my brother and we eat lunch together.
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 English class.
See example questions you could ask
- Where is your English class?
- What day is your class?
- What is your teacher's name?
- How many students are there?
- Do you like your class?
Now your partner asks you
Your partner asks you about your neighbours. Press a button to hear a question, then answer it out loud.
- Who lives next to you?
- Are your neighbours friendly?
- Do they have children?
- Do you talk to them?
See example answers
- Who lives next to you?
- An old man lives next to me.
- Are your neighbours friendly?
- Yes, they are very friendly.
- Do they have children?
- The family upstairs has a baby.
- Do you talk to them?
- Yes, I talk to them every morning.
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 where they are going today.
Listen to both recordings. Where are they going? To a doctor, to a bank or to a post office?
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 your health and how you stay well.
If you stop talking, the examiner may ask
- Do you walk every day?
- What do you do when you are ill?
- Do you like sport? Why? Why not?
- What healthy food do you like?
See an example conversation
- YouDo you walk every day?
- PartnerYes, I walk to work. It takes twenty minutes. And you?
- YouNo, I go by bus. But I walk in the park on Saturday.
- PartnerWhat do you do when you are ill?
- YouI stay at home and I drink a lot of water.
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.