Top Tips to Improve Your IELTS Speaking Score (Part 1)
…don’t sound like a robot!
The IELTS Speaking test is a one-to-one discussion with an examiner, lasting between 11 and 14 minutes. It has three parts, with each testing a different speaking skill. Here is one simple way to improve the score you get:
Be natural, DON’T rehearse answers.
Here’s an example of how not to do it:
| Examiner: | Can you tell me your full name, please? |
| Candidate: | Certainly! My full name is Mariana Georgina Gama. Mariana is my first name, Georgina is my middle name, and Gama is my surname. My friends call me Maria so you may call me Maria too. |
The IELTS Speaking is testing your ability to use English in real-life and many test takers say the interview is similar to a conversation with a friend. So, you should speak in a natural way. Don’t memorise answers and reproduce them – the examiner can tell and mark you down. You don’t want to sound like a robot!
Let’s consider the example given above – the candidate’s rather long answer to a very simple question makes them sound artificial. If you don’t speak like that in everyday conversations, why would you do things differently in a test?
Good example
| Examiner: | Can you tell me your full name, please? |
| Candidate: | Sure! It’s Mariana Georgina Gama. |
A note of caution: although the format of the speaking interview lets you interact freely with the examiner, avoid using informal language (e.g. wanna; gonna; cheers, mate; etc.) or sounding too causal.
So to recap, the best way to improve your IELTS Speaking score is to relax and not to reproduce memorised answers. Just be yourself!
GLOSSARY
| one-to-one | ||
| Form | : | adjective |
| Meaning | : | describes something that involves only two people |
| Example | : | I have a one-to-one meeting with my manager every month. |
| note of caution | ||
| Form | : | phrase |
| Meaning | : | a piece of advice or warning |
| Example | : | The old man sounded a note of caution, warning them not to play near the train tracks. |
| interact | ||
| Form | : | verb |
| Meaning | : | to communicate or be directly involved with someone/something |
| Example | : | Our new CEO is amazing – he finds time to interact with everyone in the office. |
| recap | ||
| Form | : | verb |
| Meaning | : | to repeat what has been said in a brief manner |
| Example | : | I’m so sorry for being late! Can you please recap on what you’ve discussed so far? |