IELTS Speaking Part 3: Comparing Your Country With Other Countries

Families, transport, schools, working hours: the examiner has just heard your Part 2 talk and now wants to know whether what you described is typical of your country, and how it differs elsewhere. The question sounds as if it needs knowledge you do not have. It does not.

Part 3 is a discussion, not a general knowledge quiz. It lasts four to five minutes, follows the Part 2 topic into more abstract territory, and gives you no preparation time. What is assessed is how you compare, explain and qualify your ideas, so candidates who accept that stop hunting for facts and start answering.

This guide gives you a four-move structure for country comparison questions, the generalisation language that keeps a comparison honest, three worked IELTS Speaking Part 3 sample answers with the moves marked, and a short drill. All examples are original practice material, not official or recalled exam questions, and no answer has been given a band.

Why comparison questions are so common in Part 3

Part 3 begins where your long turn ends. The examiner takes the topic you have just spoken about and pushes it towards the general: habits, attitudes, systems, and how your country compares with other places. The official format gives this stage four to five minutes and calls it a discussion rather than a fixed list of questions.

Speaking is assessed on four criteria: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. None of them asks whether your description of another country was factually correct. An answer built on I have not lived there, but from what I have read can therefore score well, while a confident list of national traits scores badly.

At band 7, the lexical resource descriptor rewards resource that is flexibly used to discuss a variety of topics, along with effective use of paraphrase as required. A country comparison invites all of this: you restate the question, avoid a vague word like different, and explain a mechanism.

What strong IELTS Speaking Part 3 sample answers do differently

A weak answer stops at the first move. In my country, people are quite friendly and we like to help each other answers the question but never compares, which is what was asked. A strong answer treats the comparison as a small argument: what happens here, what happens elsewhere, why the two differ, and what follows from that.

The difference is structural rather than lexical. You do not need fancier words; you need one more sentence in each direction.

Move	What it does	Useful frame
Here	states what you actually observe	In my city, people tend to eat late.
Elsewhere	says what you know or have heard, and attributes it	A colleague from Canada once told me.
Why	offers one plausible mechanism	I think that comes down to working hours.
So what	says what follows, or whether it matters	The result is that weekends matter more.

The four moves in practice

Four moves at one or two sentences each fill forty-five to sixty seconds.

1. Here. Describe what you see, not the abstract idea of your country. Most people I know take the metro to work is evidence; we are a nation of commuters is a slogan.
2. Elsewhere. Say what you know, and say where it came from. Opening with A friend in Germany told me that marks the limit of your knowledge.
3. Why. Give one plausible cause, not five. Density, working hours, climate, school schedules, cost or regulation: any single mechanism that would produce the difference is enough. I think it comes down to how spread out the city is is a complete move.
4. So what. Say what follows: a consequence, a trade-off, or a reason the difference matters. Most candidates skip this move, and it is what makes an answer sound finished.

Generalisation that stays honest without sounding vague

Every comparison generalises, so the skill lies in choosing how wide the claim is. Four habits keep it accurate.

• Narrow the group: most people I know, among my colleagues.
• Mark the habit rather than the character: people tend to, it is fairly common to.
• Mark the source: in my experience, as far as I can tell.
• Mark the limit: I cannot speak for the whole country.

Everyone in my country does this is a claim you cannot support, and the examiner knows it. Most people I know do this is a claim you have earned, and it still answers the question directly.

Hedging is not a retreat from the answer. At band 7, fluency and coherence rewards flexible use of spoken discourse markers, connectives and cohesive features, and phrases such as on the whole are exactly that. They also buy you half a second to decide what comes next.

The two traps: national character and invented figures

The first trap is describing character instead of conditions. People there are cold is a claim about millions of strangers; people there tend to keep conversations short with strangers, in my experience is a claim about behaviour you can actually notice. Character claims also invite disagreement.

The second trap is invented precision. A percentage sounds impressive for a second and then raises a question you cannot answer: where did it come from? You are not scored on statistics, and a made-up figure damages the accuracy the criteria do measure.

Trap	Sounds like	Replace it with
Character claim	People there are reserved.	People there tend to keep to themselves in public, in my experience.
Fake precision	About eighty per cent of students do this.	Most students I studied with did this.

Three worked answers with the moves marked

Family meals. Here. In my city, families tend to eat dinner together at the weekend, but on weekdays the meal is later and more scattered because parents get home late. Elsewhere. A colleague from Denmark once told me that in her family dinner was at six almost every day. Why. I think that comes down to commuting: when the working day ends at seven, the family meal moves with it. So what. The result is that the weekend meal here carries more weight.

Public transport. Here. Most people I know take the metro for anything longer than a couple of stops, because it is cheap and the traffic is unpredictable. Elsewhere. From what I have seen in smaller towns and in several other countries, people drive far more, even for short trips. Why. That is probably a question of density: a metro only works where enough people travel along the same line. So what. So owning a car here feels more like a luxury than a default.

How people learn. Here. In my experience, students here expect to be taught the material and then tested on it, so a lot of studying means working through practice papers. Elsewhere. From what I have seen of courses abroad, there is more emphasis on discussion and on students producing their own questions. Why. The likely reason is assessment: schools prepare people for the exam that decides the next step. So what. That makes the habit rational rather than apathy.

When you do not know the other country

Sometimes the follow-up names a place you have never been. You still have three honest frames. Limit the scope: I can only speak for the place I grew up in. Attribute the information: I have never lived there, so this is second-hand. Or shift to the mechanism: I would not want to generalise about the whole country, but the same pressure probably applies there.

Naming the limit once is a coherence move, not an apology. It tells the examiner that you know a fact from an impression, and then you continue with the comparison.

A six-prompt drill at forty-five seconds each

Set a timer, answer each prompt out loud, and record yourself. The aim is finishing all four moves before the timer ends.

1. Do people in your country cook at home more than people elsewhere?
2. How do working hours in your country compare with other countries?
3. Is public transport used differently in cities and in the countryside?
4. Do young people in your country move away from home earlier or later than elsewhere?
5. How do schools in your country differ from schools you have heard about abroad?
6. Do people in your country talk to strangers more than in other places?

Listen back once and check three things: one generalisation marker, one attributed source, and no number you could not defend.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need facts about other countries in Part 3?

No. The four criteria are language criteria, and none checks whether your description of another country is accurate. What the examiner can assess is whether you answer, support the claim, and mark how far it goes. I have never lived there, but from what I have read is stronger than an invented statistic.

How do I avoid stereotypes in a country comparison answer?

Move from character to conditions. They are very disciplined is a claim about people; schools there tend to start early and the day is long is a claim about a system. Then add a limit, such as at least among the families I know. If you catch yourself mid-sentence, repair it out loud: I should not generalise, but most of the people I have met do this.