IELTS-Blog

The second part of IELTS speaking is the Speech. The examiner gives you a card with a topic and 3-4 questions on it. Then you have 1 minute to prepare a little speech in your head, if you want you may write the main points on paper. After one minute ends, you should start talking and keep going for 1-2 minutes.

Here is an example of such card from IELTS official site:

Describe a teacher who has greatly influenced you in your education.
You should say:

As you can see, your main task here is to DESCRIBE things. So try to do that as well as you can.
It is very important that you say something about EVERY question that is on the card.
The best thing is to say 2-3 sentences about every bullet. This way your speech will take at least one minute - the minimal time you have to speak.

A good way to practice (requires 2 people) is to give someone a copy of your card and to start speaking. Ask him/her to put V on bullets you’ve talked about. Then look how many bullets you’ve missed in your speech. If you study alone, you can record yourself and then listen and check for missing bullets.

Practicing with a clock is a very good idea. You need to get a feeling of “how long is 2 minutes”. When you will speak in front of real examiner, it is best that you don’t look at your watch and if you have practiced enough - you won’t have to.

And at last, for you to get a complete picture of Speaking part 2 - here is a sample question, a recording and a transcript (all thanks to official IELTS site). Enjoy!

I’ve neglected the Speaking tips for a long time, so this post is about how to do well in IELTS Speaking. It doesn’t matter what kind of IELTS you are taking, General or Academic - Speaking part is the same in both.

As you know, there are 3 parts in the Speaking sub-test : Interview, Speech and Discussion, read the details about it here in one of my previous posts.

Now to the Interview: you can and should be prepared to questions they will ask you.
The questions are predictable, look at this great list I found in one of IELTS forums - click here.

If you speak well, just go over it and prepare an answer in you head for every question. If you have someone to practice with - do it, if you don’t - I suggest that you record yourself. You can do that using your PC or voice recorder or even one of those MP3 players that can tape you as well.

To get the feeling of real IELTS Speaking test you can listen to sample of test here, look at the questions here and the transcript of the tape is here.

Best advice to those who speak not so well:

1) Write your answers on a piece of paper.

2) Memorize them.

3) Speak to yourself - ask questions and answer with whatever you wrote. It will improve your pronunciation and make you more confident. This is how you overcome the initial shock of speaking English.

4) Practice a lot with you wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend, at first you may look at your paper
and then don’t - test your memory.

I prepared my students this way and it helped them a lot.

One more important thing - in Speaking you can not receive half band, like 5.5 or 6.5.
Your score will be full band, like 5 or 6.

I will continue with more Reading tips in my next post.