What this session is
One conversation in three parts, timed like the IELTS Speaking test and assessed live by your assessor, Nathaniel Jay Adams. Because the format and the clock are the same every time, your baseline can be compared with a re-test later.
Mode
Online
Google Meet, camera on. Recording is optional and only with your consent.
Form
A or B
Two parallel forms of equal difficulty. You sit one; the other is kept for your re-test.
Result
Four bands
Plus an overall band and a written plan for what to work on next.
The session, minute by minute
Choose a stage to see what happens in it. Use the arrow keys to move between stages.
Set-up · 2 min
Greeting, identity check, the recording question and a microphone and camera test. The set-up is not assessed: it exists so that your first assessed answer is not your most nervous one.
Part 1 · 4–5 min
Five questions on one familiar topic, asked in order. Answer in two or three sentences: enough to show natural speech, never a memorised paragraph.
Part 2 · 3–4 min
A task card, one minute of preparation with written notes, then an uninterrupted long turn of one to two minutes, closed by two short follow-up questions.
Part 3 · 5–6 min
A two-way discussion of broader questions linked to your Part 2 theme: opinion, comparison, speculation. No factual knowledge is assessed.
Wrap-up · 1–2 min
Any recording is stopped and next steps are confirmed. Your four criterion bands are finalised after the session ends, never while you are still speaking.
About 15–20 minutes in total.
What your assessor listens for
Four criteria, equally weighted. Choose one to open it.
Fluency and Coherence
Rate and pausing · cohesion
Can you keep speaking at a comfortable rate, and do your ideas connect? Your assessor listens for pausing that reflects thinking rather than searching for words, and for linking language such as “because”, “although”, “what I mean is”, “the other thing is”.
Lexical Resource
Range · collocation
How wide and how natural is your vocabulary? Precise words and natural pairings matter more than rare words: “heavy traffic”, not “strong traffic”. Paraphrasing well when a word escapes you also counts here.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complexity · control
Do you use a range of tenses and sentence structures, and control them? Occasional slips are normal. What holds a band down is frequent error in basic structures.
Pronunciation
Intelligibility · stress
Can you be understood without effort from the listener? Individual sounds, word stress and sentence rhythm all count. Accent is never marked down; being understood is what is assessed.
These four criteria are the ones in the public IELTS Speaking band descriptors.
How your overall band is worked out
Each criterion receives a whole band, and the four count equally. Your assessor averages them and rounds the result down to the nearest half band, so 5.25 becomes 5.0 and 5.75 becomes 5.5. IELTS publishes the equal weighting but not how this average is rounded, so we round down: your baseline never shows a higher band than your answers support.
Example: FC 6 · LR 6 · GRA 5 · PR 6 → 23 ÷ 4 = 5.75 → overall 5.5. All four criterion bands are reported alongside the overall band; that detail is where the coaching starts.
Try the arithmetic
Move each criterion and watch the overall band change.
A demonstration of the arithmetic only. Your real bands come from the live session.
The lower half of the scale (bands 1–5)
Most people start their preparation somewhere on this part of the scale. It is a starting point, not a ceiling.
- 5Modest user. Partial command; copes with overall meaning in most situations, though likely to make many mistakes.
- 4Limited user. Basic competence limited to familiar situations; frequent problems in understanding and expression.
- 3Extremely limited user. Conveys and understands only general meaning in very familiar situations; frequent breakdowns in communication.
- 2Intermittent user. Great difficulty understanding spoken and written English.
- 1Non-user. No ability to use the language beyond a few isolated words.
Summary of the band scale published at ielts.org (“IELTS scoring in detail”). The scale is owned by the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Half bands sit between these levels.
For orientation: around band 7 speech is fluent and flexible; around band 6 it copes with most topics with some imprecision; around band 5 it manages familiar topics with noticeable hesitation.
Before you start: your set-up
Tick each item as you prepare it. Your ticks stay on this device only.
0 of 6 ready
If your connection drops, the clock is paused and the session resumes from the last complete question.
Recording and privacy
Optional
Recording is optional and only with your consent; without it the session runs on live notes. Sessions with learners under 18 are never recorded.
Asked twice
You choose when you book, and you are asked again on camera before anything is recorded. You can say no at either point.
What and why
If you agree, only the assessed part is recorded, so each band can be checked against the descriptors and turned into specific feedback.
Kept 30 days
A recording is deleted within 30 days of your session. Your booking and bands are kept for 24 months for accounting.
Under 18
A parent or guardian books the session and gives consent, and is asked to confirm it on camera at the start.
No AI
Nothing about this session is sent to an AI service, and no audio passes through this website.
Google and SePay
Your session is added to our Google Calendar with a Meet link (Google stores this outside Vietnam), and SePay tells us when your transfer arrives. The calendar event shows only your booking code, email and time.
Mistakes that cost bands
Open a card to see the fix.
After your baseline
I
Your four bands
Each criterion band, with what already works and where the ceiling sits.
II
Your target
A realistic target band and the date you need it by: university, visa or a personal goal.
III
Your plan
What to work on first, built around your weakest criterion, and a re-test on the parallel form when you are ready.
Because Forms A and B are matched for difficulty, the difference between your baseline and a re-test reflects your progress rather than a different test.
Book your Live Speaking Baseline
- A live session on Google Meet with your assessor
- Four criterion bands and an overall band
- A written plan built on your weakest criterion
Want a cheaper first step? Try an AI practice mock →
Practice assessment by Jurassic English, not an official IELTS score. Independent; not endorsed by IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge University Press & Assessment.