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Speaking tips

How to prepare for the IELTS Speaking test, tips and techniques that helped test takers improve and raise their score

IELTS Examiner Secrets and Tips

The best way to learn how your Speaking test is marked, and what your Examiner needs to hear to give you a high score, is by asking them. But how can you do that? You can’t get direct access to IELTS examiners, because they don’t do private tutoring – their work contract prohibits that.

Here is the answer you were searching for!

The videos you are about to watch are just as good as a private consultation with an examiner. Except they are better, because you get to see not one, but TWO experienced IELTS examiners sharing some information you won’t get ANYWHERE except from a REAL IELTS examiner.

Who are the Examiners?

You already know Adam, who was examining IELTS test takers for 10 years until very recently. Today we have Patrick joining Adam and doing an interview to share with you things you NEED to know, that NO ONE will tell you. Patrick is an active IELTS examiner, which is why you can’t see his face. We don’t want him to get in trouble for helping you! He is examining in 3 countries and teaching IELTS in 7 countries.

So forget about other YouTube videos for 20 minutes. If anything is worth your time, it’s the ‘IELTS Examiner Secrets’ series! There are four videos in total in the series, and you are getting access to all of them today.

Watch IELTS Examiner Secrets and Tips – Part 1

 
Watch IELTS Examiner Secrets and Tips – Part 2

 
Watch IELTS Examiner Secrets and Tips – Part 3

 
Watch IELTS Examiner Secrets and Tips – Part 4

 
What’s in the videos?

  • Some myth-busting: is IELTS really easier in some countries compared to others?
  • Examiners are human and first impression counts – Patrick suggests a great way to connect with your examiner.
  • How can examiners catch you using memorised language?
  • How IELTS Examiners mark Speaking Part 2 (and things to avoid in your speech, to score higher)
  • Why Speaking Part 3 is SO important to your score, and how ace it.
  • How long your responses should be
  • Why you should watch the examiner’s body language during the test
  • How short answers are harming your score
  • Can you make things up in the Speaking test?
  • Can you get the exact same question in Part 3 as another test taker?
  • Why some Speaking tests are getting remarked by another examiner
  • What IELTS examiners wish that candidates knew BEFORE the exam

IELTS grammar: how to use quantifiers in IELTS for optimal results

You probably know some quantifiers, even if the word ‘quantifiers’ doesn’t mean much to you.

Quantifiers are words that go before nouns and show the quantity. But quantifiers are NOT numbers – they are used INSTEAD of numbers.

Here are a few examples of quantifiers:

All – all students, all water
A lot of – a lot of men, a lot of research
Plenty of – plenty of resources, plenty of information
Some – some apples, some coffee

Quantifiers can be countable, uncountable or both – it means some of them can only be used with either countable or uncountable nouns, and others can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. They can also be formal or informal. You should know that, to choose the right one!

Quantifiers need to be memorised. Yep, there’s no way around it. But hey, your time investment in remembering them will produce a better IELTS score!

In today’s lesson video Adam, the ex-IELTS examiner with 10 years of experience that we partnered with, tells you everything you should know about quantifiers and gives you plenty of examples.

Click here to start the lesson and do a quick quiz

In the lesson click “Watch” to watch the lesson and then click “Think” to answer 5 questions on it.

If you make a mistake, the lesson will take you to the correct answer in the video. Video hints work on desktop computers, on mobile devices you will just see the correct/incorrect answers.

IELTS Grammar Lesson 3

Quantifiers are important for reading and listening – quantifiers and their synonyms can be found in the Reading texts and also in the Listening recordings or questions.

In the IELTS Speaking and Writing using them earns you extra points for Lexical Resource. Go here to check YOUR own Speaking score.

The IELTS Writing Task 1 Academic is where they really help you get a higher score. They are also useful for Writing Task 2 because inevitably you will need to talk about the majority of people, or how much something affects a particular group, etc. A range of synonyms-quantifiers will drive your score up.

We often include the entire list of words from the video here, on the blog, but for this lesson we won’t. Why? Because your vocabulary will benefit from watching the entire video, pausing it and writing the quantifiers down. When you write words down, it helps you remember them, and you need to memorise the quantifiers – so this exercise will help you.

Enjoy the lesson, and by the time you’ve finished watching it, you should have a list of quantifiers. To make this list even more useful, add a note next to each quantifier whether it is countable or uncountable, formal or informal.