IELTS Speaking Part 3: Making friends, meeting people
7 Part 3 discussion questions on making friends, meeting people, with developed sample answers of the kind Part 3 expects.
What do you think of making friends online?
I think it works remarkably well for one specific thing, which is finding people who share a particular interest. In everyday life you are limited to whoever happens to be in your class or your office, whereas online you can find the handful of people anywhere who care about the same obscure thing you do. For anyone whose interests are unusual, that is genuinely life-changing, and plenty of long friendships have started that way. Where I am more cautious is that the bond tends to stay thinner until it moves offline. A lot of what makes people close comes from doing things together and seeing each other on ordinary days, not just good ones, and a chat window filters most of that out. It also makes it far easier to present a curated version of yourself, so you can know someone for a year and still be surprised when you finally meet.
Do we benefit from having friends with different personalities?
Definitely, I think variety within a friend group makes life immeasurably more interesting. A friend whose personality diverges sharply from yours can challenge the way you think, expose you to perspectives or interests you'd never have stumbled upon alone, and offset your own weaknesses. If I'm naturally cautious, for instance, an adventurous friend nudges me towards things I'd otherwise steer clear of, and vice versa. Surrounding yourself solely with people just like you risks reinforcing the same habits and blind spots rather than broadening them. Of course, some common ground still matters for a friendship to get off the ground in the first place, but a touch of contrast usually enriches the relationship rather than complicating it. The value shows up most at the points where you would otherwise be stuck, since a friend who thinks the way you do will usually arrive at the same dead end you did.
Would you only make friends with people who are similar to you?
No, I don't think I'd confine myself that way, even though it's naturally easier to click with someone who shares your outlook. Some of the friendships I treasure most are with people who think quite differently from me, precisely because those conversations tend to be the most stimulating. That said, there usually needs to be some overlap, shared values or a similar sense of humour, say, otherwise it's hard to build any genuine closeness. So while similarity might smooth the first meeting, I don't think it should be a strict prerequisite. Some of the best friendships arise from people who complement each other rather than mirror each other exactly. The overlap that matters is usually about values rather than opinions, though, because you can disagree with someone for years and still trust them completely, whereas you cannot really be close to somebody whose basic decency you doubt.
Is it important to have the same interests and hobbies when making friends?
I don't think it's essential, but it certainly helps, especially in the early stages of a friendship. Shared hobbies give you a ready-made, natural reason to spend time together, whether that's playing sport, dissecting a TV show or attending the same events. Without some common ground, it can be harder to find things to talk about or activities to share regularly. That said, plenty of solid friendships form around shared values or a similar sense of humour rather than identical hobbies. I have close friends whose interests bear almost no resemblance to mine, but we get along simply because we enjoy each other's company. So it's a useful starting point, but far from the only glue that keeps a friendship going. Interests also change, which is the practical weakness of building a friendship on them, since the ones that last tend to survive at least one person losing interest in whatever brought the two of them together.
How and where do people in your country make friends these days?
The main source is still simply being in the same room as the same people every day, which in practice means university and the workplace. Friendship needs repetition more than anything else, and those are the two settings that supply it automatically, without anyone having to make an effort. That is also why making friends gets noticeably harder after people leave education, since nothing else in adult life puts you in front of the same group five days a week. The second route, and the one that has grown fastest, is meeting through a shared interest, whether that is a gym, a hobby class or an online community. Younger people in particular now meet through mutual friends online or in interest-based groups and only later meet in person. The balance tips further towards the digital side the younger the person is. What has not changed is the underlying requirement, which is still seeing the same people repeatedly over a long stretch of time.
In what situations would people be willing to get to know new people?
People open up most when everyone around them is equally new, so starting a job, moving to a new city or joining a course are the classic situations. What makes those work is that approaching someone carries no social cost, because they are in exactly the same position and are just as relieved to be spoken to. Travelling has a similar effect, since being outside your normal routine temporarily suspends the usual reserve about talking to strangers. The other situation is where there is a built-in reason to talk, which removes the hardest part of meeting anyone. At a hobby club or a community event, the activity itself supplies the first ten minutes of conversation, so nobody has to manufacture an opening. That is really the difference between the situations where people are willing and the ones where they are not. It comes down to whether the context supplies a reason to talk, or the individual has to invent one from nothing.
Is it easy to find real friends on a social networking website?
It's possible, but I wouldn't call it easy, mainly because online interactions lack a lot of the cues you'd normally lean on to judge whether someone's genuine. It's simple enough to rack up followers or online contacts, but turning that into a real, trusted friendship usually demands far more effort and consistency than a casual exchange of messages. A lot of online connections stay fairly surface-level, built around the occasional like or comment rather than any real depth. That said, it does happen, particularly within smaller, interest-based communities where people interact regularly over a long stretch and gradually build genuine trust. So while social media can serve as a starting point, I think real friendship still hinges on the kind of sustained effort that goes beyond the platform itself. Time is the ingredient that cannot be shortcut, online or off, and a platform built to reward quick reactions is not really designed to supply it.
Reading a model answer is not the same as saying one. The sample above shows what a strong Part 3 answer sounds like. What it cannot tell you is how yours sounds — whether you hesitate, repeat the question back, or run out of things to say at forty seconds.
You can record an answer to this exact question and get it marked on fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and pronunciation — the same four criteria the examiner uses.
Common questions
How is Part 3 different from Part 1?
Part 1 is about you; Part 3 is about people in general. The questions move to society, causes and consequences, and the answers are expected to be longer and more developed — an opinion plus a reason plus an example, rather than two sentences.
What if I have no opinion on the question?
You are not marked on the opinion, so pick one and support it. Saying you have never thought about it and stopping there leaves the examiner nothing to assess.
How long does Part 3 last?
Four to five minutes. The topics develop out of your Part 2 card, so the discussion is usually connected to what you just described.
Model answers written and reviewed by The English All-in-One IELTS team. They are teaching models showing what each band looks like, not real candidate scripts.