You’ve been preparing for the IELTS Academic exam for months, you’ve spent so many sleepless nights, you’ve done so many practice tests, you’ve written so many essays, you’ve even done the mock test, and then there is the day of the exam. You get to the venue on time, walk into the hall, check-in, and you feel nervous. Moreover, some candidates start thinking they don’t know anything and are worse than others. What happens next? You lose your confidence, start making mistakes, or even worse – you lose your tongue.
If you don’t want this nightmare to come true, follow our advice on exam day, and you will not only overcome your fear but score higher in IELTS Speaking.
Make sure you understand the question/topic/keywords on the prompt card
If you did not catch the question because the examiner was speaking too fast or you were too nervous, ask the examiner to repeat it for you.
Make sure you understand the keywords on the prompt and know what or who you have to talk about.
Use 1 minute to take notes and plan your response
Think about 2-3 ideas for each prompt and make sure you write them down. Don’t write in full sentences. Use keywords, shortenings, phrases, abbreviations, symbols, etc.
It’s a good idea to visualize what or who you are going to talk about in Part 2: your friend, your family member, a famous person, etc. Try to remember that event or the object you are talking about.
Apart from the ideas, you also have to think about what grammar to use. Some grammar structures are appropriate for describing the present, some for the past, some for the future, etc.
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Stay on topic and give relevant answers
The normal length for Part 1, for example, should be 3-4 sentences. This means that you just have to answer the question. You can use the following order:
- Opening
- Answer
- Reason or Example
- Closing
For example, the examiner asks you ‘Do you have many friends?’
| Opening | To be honest, family comes first. |
| Answer | However, I have more than 10 friends and I am not sure if I should say this is many! |
| Reason or example | I had more than 30 friends in my school days. As time went by, the number reduced. |
| Closing | If I count my Facebook friends as real friends, the number is quite big! |
The key to this is organization. You should deliver some ideas and develop them. It is much easier to stay on topic in Part 2, because there you have a cue card with prompts, and they provide a structure for your response.
Avoid giving very short answers
This means you have to avoid saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The assessment starts straight away from Speaking Part 1, so your full answers count.
For example, if the question is “Do you watch cookery programs on TV?”, saying ‘no’ is not enough, because you won’t demonstrate the range of vocabulary you have and whether you can use various grammar structures or not. Answering with one word is likely to reduce your score.
It is a good idea to answer those questions by explaining why or why not. Make it your habit during your IELTS preparation, and you will easily tackle yes/no questions. And remember to structure your response.
READ ABOUT: What will the examiner be listening for at the IELTS Speaking test?
Do not “parrot” the examiner
“Parroting” is repeating the exact words from the question. You have to demonstrate you are fluent, but parroting does not sound natural. For example:
Examiner: What’s your favourite book?
Candidate: Well, my favourite book is…
Instead of this, you could use “My number one is …”, “I believe it’s…”, etc. this means you have to paraphrase the question.
Talk about the prompts in the same order as they are on the cue card
If you don’t want to miss anything, follow the order of the prompts you have on the cue card.
Use fluency markers and linkers
They will help the examiner follow your thoughts without effort while you are speaking. It is called coherence. In order to make your answer more coherent, you should use different discourse markers and linking words. They are usually simple and less formal and help you sound more natural. Here is a list of over 80 linking words for IELTS Speaking with examples.
Use the language to buy you thinking time
Sometimes, you might get an unexpected question. Don’t worry and use your language to buy you thinking time. Answering unexpected questions in the IELTS Speaking test is easy if you know how to do it. Most topics at the exam are general in nature; they are everyday familiar topics that everyone has some experience with and should be able to give an opinion on.
Extend your answer
It is always a good idea to answer more than you were asked, i.e. to extend your answer. You can do this by:
- giving reasons
- giving examples
- comparing past and present
- talking hypothetically
If you have answered and you realise the time is left, give more details. This strategy will help you.
For example, if the question is “Do you like listening to music?”, you could say:
“Oh yes, I enjoy it because it makes me feel like…/ it makes me forget about everyday problems”
“Yes, I really love rock music. I always listen to Radio Rocks when I am driving my car or working, for example.”
“No, but when I was in my teens I used to listen to music a lot. I even played in a school band. I was a bass guitarist. Now I don’t have much time for that.”
“Well, I do, but I don’t have much time for that. If I had more time, I would listen to music more, and, probably, would go to gigs or concerts. I love the atmosphere.”
Make sure you explore the topic
In Part 3, make sure your answers are related to other people, not you or your personal experience. Here it is a good idea to look at different aspects, thus exploring the topic. You can do this by:
- analyzing various perspectives
- talking about advantages and disadvantages
- contrasting various age groups/ regions/ spans of time
For example, let’s answer the following question “What is the effect of everyone having their own cars?”. You could say:
“Well, it has both positive and negative effects. In the case of positive effects, they are as follows…. In the case of negative effects,….”
“ In the short term, …. However, in the long term,…”
“It depends. In the case of …., but in the case of…”
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