Updated August 31, 2019
Information about the Topics for September-December,
2019
For those of you who plan to do the test in September, here is
some information about the Speaking test topics in that month.
- The possible topics will be the same as for May-August PLUS there
will be new topics that will be introduced into the test at the beginning
of September. Sometimes the new topics come a bit early so some of them
might start appearing in the test even in the last week of August.
- That is, the topics that were introduced into the test in
January 2019 will STAY IN USE until the end of September. They will
then be retired at the end of September.
- The month of September (and January and May) are the
first months of the four-month testing periods and in those months, the new
topics and the topics that are about to be retired co-exist together.
This means that there will be about 75 possible Part 2/3 topics in your test
and about 38 possible Part 1 topics during September. From the beginning of
October to the end of December, the usual situation of about 50 Part 2/3
topics and about 27 Part 1 topics will exist.
- This is a small disadvantage for those candidates who try
to prepare for as many topics and questions as possible.
- NOTE - This information is based on the
pattern of topic usage that has existed for the past few years. Before that,
there were different patterns of topic usage in the test. When it becomes
generally known what the current pattern is, don't be surprised to see a
change in the way the topics are chosen for the test! This
is because the IELTS managers want to reduce the predictability of what
topics are being used in the test. This change could occur at any time.