Part 3 – Discussion

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IELTS Speaking

Part 3 – Discussion

In Part 3, the examiner and the test takers discuss issues related to the topic in Part 2 in a more general and abstract way and, where appropriate, in greater depth.

The key facts about IELTS Speaking Part 3:

1) It is a two-way discussion with the examiner lasting for 4-5 minutes.

2) You will be asked more questions about your Part 2 topic.

3) It gives you the opportunity to show a greater range of speaking skills.

4) The examiner’s questions will encourage you to express your thoughts, feelings and opinions.

5) You will only be assessed on your English language skills, not on the content of what you actually say.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 Questions

The questions in IELTS Speaking Part 3 will be more abstract than in Part 1, that is, they’ll be about ideas and concepts rather than about you. For example,

Friends

Part 1: What kind of things do you like to do with your friends?

Part 3: Why do you think children can make friends more easily than adults?

Money

Part 1: Would you like to be rich someday?

Part 3: It is said that happiness cannot be bought with money. Do you agree?

Travel

Part 1: What is your favourite type of holiday?

Part 3: Do you think travelling to another country can change the way people think?

Level of difficulty

Expect some of the questions to be challenging. The purpose of this final part of the Speaking test is to push you to the limit of your ability. The examiner needs to do this in order to accurately assess the full extent of your English language skills.

You won’t be expected to give a long talk in answer to each question, but your answers will need to be longer than in Part 1. You can develop them with explanations and examples.

Key mistakes that lead to a low score in IELTS Speaking Part 3

Their answers are too short.

They get stressed over difficult questions.

They don’t listen carefully to the question.

They don’t fully understand the question.

Their answers are too short

Know that you need to give extended answers. Don’t try to rush through this last part of the test because it’s challenging and you’re dying to get to the end. If you give short answers, the examiner will just keep asking you more questions until the time is up. It’s far better to answer each one properly and not have to answer so many of them.

They get stressed over difficult questions

Accept that you’ll be getting difficult questions and deal with them appropriately. I’ll be showing you how very soon.

They don’t listen carefully to the question

It’s so easy to just hear one or two key words in the question and think you know what’s being asked. Very often you’ll be wrong. In an exam, that’s a serious mistake to make because you probably won’t answer the question appropriately, so listen carefully before answering.

They don’t fully understand the question

If there’s just one key word in the question that you don’t understand, you aren’t going to be able to answer the question properly.

What most candidates don’t know is that you’re allowed to ask one or two questions during IELTS Speaking Part 3 if you really need to.

There are just three things you can ask:

Can you repeat the question please? (when you want to hear the question again)

Can you explain what you mean? (when you want the examiner to rephrase the question)

Can you explain what the word ___ means please? (when you want the examiner to explain a specific word)

These are the only questions you’re allowed to ask and only do so if absolutely necessary. Ask no more than two questions in total.

Asking the examiner, a couple of questions won’t affect your score but do keep it to two and don’t ask them anything else.

Common Types of Questions for IELTS Speaking Part 3

1) Opinion

2) Hypothetical

3) Compare and Contrast

4) Change

5) Future

6) Benefits

1) Opinion

Being asked to give your opinion is one of the most straightforward question forms.

Read this question and answer. The words that I’ve underlined show that Mustafa is giving his opinion rather than stating facts?

Question: Do you think people in your country are less healthy than they used to be?

Answer: Personally, I think that the health of many people is worse than it used to be. This is mainly due to obesity caused by an unhealthy diet. Being overweight can cause diabetes, heart problems and many other serious health issues. A high percentage of the population don’t take regular exercise which is another factor that contributes to poor health.

There have, of course, been major improvements in health care in recent years. This means that more illnesses and diseases can now be cured which has had a positive effect on health in general. However, in my opinion, many people in my country are less healthy these days because of unhealthy lifestyles.

here are many phrases you could use to give your opinion, such as:

In my experience…
As far as I’m concerned…
Speaking for myself…
I’d say that…
I believe that…
In my view…
If you ask me…
I feel sure that…

2) Hypothetical questions

These are about ‘unreal’ or imaginary situations. For example:

Question: If tourists stopped visiting your area, what effect would it have on the economy?

To answer a hypothetical question, you’ll need to use the conditional. The clue is that little word ‘if’.

Answer: If tourists stopped visiting the beautiful beaches where I live, it would have a terrible impact on our local economy. Tourism is our most important industry and many people run hotels and guest houses or work in popular restaurants and cafés. Lots of shops sell beachwear and souvenirs so these would soon go out of business. Also, there would not be enough other jobs in the area for all the people involved in tourism to find work.

So, I have to say that it would have a disastrous effect on the economy in my area if tourists no longer came here on holiday.

3) Compare and Contrast

The third type of question common in IELTS Speaking Part 3 is ‘compare and contrast’. For example:

Question: What are the advantages of living in a city compared to living in the countryside?

Answer: One of the best things about living in a city is the wide range of leisure activities, from sports to theatres and museums, unlike rural areas where there are few facilities like this. City shops sell everything you could want whereas there is a limited choice in country markets and many goods are unavailable.

It’s also easier to find work and accommodation in cities and the public transport system is better so you can get around without any problems. In contrast, people living in the countryside often have to walk everywhere or get a bicycle as there are few buses and no taxis. The roads are also bad.

There are many other words and phrases that are appropriate to use for answering this type of question. Here are a few of them:

Compare

in the same way…
Similarly, ….
Likewise, …
Comparatively….
compared with….

Contrast

Conversely….
Nevertheless….
Otherwise….
on the other hand ,…

4) Change

Questions about change ask you to talk about the past and the present.

For example:

Question: How has education changed since your parents were children?

Answer: The biggest difference is that education is now compulsory for all children up to the age of eleven and many stay on into senior school. My father only went to school for a few years as he had to work in the fields and look after the cattle full-time from the age of eight. My mother didn’t go to school at all as she was needed at home to help cook, clean and mind her younger brothers and sisters. Education wasn’t considered important for girls back then.

What is taught in schools hasn’t changed much but in towns and cities the children use computers and can learn all about the world via the internet. In small villages, like the one I come from, there are still very few teaching resources and certainly no computers. So some changes in education depend on where you live.

5) The Future

You may also get a question asking you to speculate about the future. For example,

Question: Do you think that everyone in the world will have access to clean water in the future?

Such questions are obviously designed to tests your ability to use future structures. This is another type of question asking for an opinion but this time you will need to answer using the future tense.

Answer: That’s a really difficult question to answer because I believe that we will have the technology to provide clean water for everyone, wherever they live, but there are other factors to consider that are less easy to predict.

Cost is the biggest issue as it is mostly poor communities who lack clean water so it will be necessary for wealthier communities and nations to fund boreholes and other means of providing decontaminated drinking water.

Warfare is another huge problem in many areas. It destroys resources and livelihoods and keeps people poor and unable to improve basic facilities such as access to fresh water. Sadly, I think this will always be an issue in one place or another.

6) Benefits

Our sixth and final type of question common in IELTS Speaking Part 3 asks about benefits. It could be the benefits of a particular situation or the benefits of one thing over another. For example,

Question: What do you think are the benefits of hobbies?

Answer: I believe that there are many great benefits to be gained from having a hobby. First, taking up a leisure activity is an excellent way of making new friends, especially when you move to a new area, as you meet like-minded people who share your interest.

Second, having an interesting pastime is good for mental health as it can help to relieve stress and often improves work-life balance.

Finally, many leisure pursuits bring new challenges and the chance to learn new skills, which are both added benefits.

There are many other words that you could use to answer this type of question. Here are a few common ones:

Then… next… furthermore… in addition, … also… likewise, … last…

Using Examples

Where appropriate, give examples in your answers. It can be an easy way to develop IELTS Speaking Part 3 answers. You can do this for many different types of question.

Giving an illustration can also be a simple way of introducing a different tense into your answer, as it could be something that happened in the past, is a current situation, or something that will happen in the future, although you won’t have time to go into much detail.

Now you can easily download some IELTS speaking part 3 sample questions plus sample answers.

Download IELTS SPEAKING part 3