IELTS Speaking Band 9 Answers & Explanation

Hello! Welcome to English Like a Native.  I’m Anna. Today we’re going to watch  

an example of an IELTS band 9 speaking  exam. This is part of my IELTS series,  

so do make sure to check out my other  videos on IELTS - IELTS Speaking Test  

Tips and Tricks and IELTS speaking test  - mock exam if you haven’t already!

After you watch the test, I’ll show you,  

according to the official IELTS test criteria,  why this performance would get a band 9.

Good afternoon. My name is Anna. I’m your  examiner today. And what’s your name?

My name’s Barbara but you can call me Barbie.

May I see your ID, please Barbie? 

Of course. Here you are.

Thank you.

Do you work or are you a student?

I work. I’m an administrative assistant in a  mid-sized law firm. It’s not my dream job but  

it pays the bills and gives me enough  free time to do some of my hobbies. 

What’s special about where you live?  

Well, let me see… I live in the historic centre of  

my city. It’s special because there  are a lot of unique buildings there,  

dating back to the early fifteenth century. It’s  rich in culture and history. For this reason,  

it’s quite touristy but as a local, I  know where to go not to get ripped off.

How did you celebrate your last birthday? 

Oh! My last birthday was quite the let down.  It didn’t go as planned at all. I’d planned  

to have a barbecue. My birthday is in July  so that’s usually a safe bet but in the end,  

it rained all day so we had  to move everything inside.  

We didn’t have enough seats for everyone  so we had garden furniture in the living  

room and everyone was a bit cramped. At the  end of the day, what’s important is spending  

time with friends and family and so I had a nice  time. It’s not what I would have wanted though.

What kinds of presents do you like receiving? 

I’m usually a bit strange about receiving  presents because I mostly buy what I want,  

so I’m a hard person to find a good present for.  

The kinds of presents I most like getting are  ones where you don’t have to spend any money,  

just simple things like a picnic or  time spent doing something together. 

What problems are associated with  children’s birthday parties?  

I’m not really sure about children’s parties, as  I don’t have any myself but if I had to guess,  

I’d say that one of the worst things  is noise. Children tend to be noisy and  

a lot of children together, especially  if they’re eating sugary foods as well,  

will probably mean a lot of noise. The  cost is another factor that can make kid’s  

gatherings problematic. By the time you  account for the cake, the entertainment,  

the party bags and the birthday clothes,  the costs could be astronomical. 

Do you think celebrating  birthdays has become too much? 

The short answer is yes. I do. I think I  would rather prefer something small and  

intimate with friends than a big party,  helium balloons and lots of decorations  

in a hired venue. These kinds of celebrations  can take on a life of their own. Especially,  

being influenced by TV or social media, young  people today want the whole world for one  

birthday. It’s over the top and prohibitively  expensive. It’s just not my cup of tea at all.

What are the pros and cons of having  a small birthday celebration? 

Hmm! Personally I like smaller parties so  I can see lots of advantages. These are,  

but not limited to, being able to really spend  time with the people you invite, it’s less  

expensive so you can have nicer quality things -  cakes, party foods and so on, for the people you  

invite. It’s also easier to organise, you invite  less people, as I said, so you don’t have to keep  

track of so many invites and RSVPs. It’s easier  to know who’s coming and what you can expect.

If you have a big party, the disadvantage  is that you feel being pulled from different  

people so you don’t get to spend  the quality time with anyone. It  

also costs a lot more money or you have to  sacrifice the quality of what you decide to  

have and it’s hard to organise. It’s also  just not as enjoyable, for me personally,  

as I find it a bit impersonal to have  large groups of people all together. 

In part two I’ll give you a topic to speak about. 

You should prepare to speak about this topic  for one to two minutes.  Before you talk,  

you have one minute to think about what  you are going to say. Here is a pen and  

a piece of paper. You may make some  notes if you wish. Do you understand?

Here’s your topic…

Talk about a person who had a  positive effect on your life. 

Ok, don’t worry if I stop you, it’s only  because the time is up. Please start now. 

Hmm.. Someone who had a good influence  on me, well, I would have to say that  

was my grandma. My grandma and I were  very close as I was one of only three  

grandchildren so she had a lot of time  for me. Unfortunately, she passed away,  

um, about three years ago so, yeah,  it’s been hard. But, when she was alive,  

she definitely had a really profound impact on my  life. Not only was she kind and generous but she  

also made sure I had what I needed when I went to  her house - whether that be a blanket or a snack.  

She always asked me about my life. I felt like she  really cared for me because she made the time to  

remember things and asked me about what I told her  about and asked me about them the next time. Most  

adults didn’t do that but she was different.  Hmm.. the way that she was… I remember she  

always ate these hard-boiled sweets and so now  whenever I see them I always think of her and…  

the way that she has, like, encouraged me to be  a better person is that I do those things that I  

noticed that she did, you know. Like, I try my  hardest to listen to people and really hear what  

they’re saying and then remember the details and  ask them about that again when I see them next.

Thank you. Can I have the booklet and  the pencil and paper back, please?

Do you think everyone should  have these qualities? 

Yeah, well I copied her, so I do think these  are nice characteristics to have. I always say,  

to be kind costs nothing! You know. This  is one thing I noticed that made me feel  

special but not everyone has to be this  way. Other people can choose their own  

way to make someone feel special. So no, I  don’t think everyone has to be like this.

Let’s continue to talk about influence. 

What are some ways a person can influence others?

I’ve never really thought about  that before. I believe, that, well,  

first of all, when we talk about influencing  others, what immediately springs to mind is  

social media. There are a lot of influencers  out there, on Instagram, Tik Tok or wherever  

that just try to make people buy things, so  that’s one form of influence we can have. But,  

thinking about it more, secondly I’d like to add  that parents are huge influences on children.  

Everything from teaching them manners to exploring  the world together, right down to what they eat,  

um, especially for young children, parents have  the biggest impact and they can create this by  

leading by example. Parents show children how to  act in the way they behave and eh, by, by talking  

to them about why they should or shouldn’t  do certain things. One final way people can  

be influenced by others is because something is  perceived to be cool. I’m talking about teenagers  

and peer pressure now. It’s incredibly difficult  for a teenager to say no to something or someone  

when the rest of their group is doing so, so  they can often fall into traps and get into  

trouble because of it. There are various ways to  influence others. Some positive and some negative.

What kinds of people are generally influential?

Well, we usually talk about people with  leadership skills being influential. I’m  

not quite sure what that means but how I  understand it is when people are confident,  

self-assured and able to get things done, they  can assert influence over people and these  

are what most people would consider positive  traits in a leader. If I would hazard a guess,  

I’d say that these things can be taught but they  are often inherited from family members too. So,  

the people who have predecessors in positions  of power often go on to hold them themselves.  

We hear a lot on social media at the moment  about nepobabies - I dunno if you’ve heard  

about that - what it means is the children of  nepotism or people who are famous or powerful  

just because their parents or grandparents  already are. This is definitely one way in  

which we can get power or be influential and,  as I said, the other way is to lead by example. 

How has influencing people changed over the years?

Hmm that’s a tricky question  because it’s not really my field.  

I’m not an anthropologist. However, I would  imagine that technology has played a big part in  

affecting what people do and change. For example,  in the 1950’s, with the onset of the television  

era, as we see in Mad Men, advertising on TV did  a lot to change how people lived their lives and  

indeed what they wanted from their life. Since  then TV advertisements have been persuading the  

public at large and I don’t think that’s going to  stop. It’s just that now the ads are on streaming  

services and the like. As I mentioned before,  influencers on social media also play a role in  

the change that has happened over the last few  years. I think that we’ve seen an enormous rise  

in consumerism with disposable items being more  and more used to the point where it’s dangerous  

for our planet and our psychology, as well as  our wallets! But I hope that in the future,  

it’s going to change to be a bit more sustainable  for our bank accounts and the Earth. We used to  

have different technology but the same thinking  behind it prevails, for the moment anyways.

Is it possible to be too influential?

Well, yeah, I’ve noticed are some celebrities,  or really their fandoms that are too influential,  

like when one celebrity, like Hailey Beiber’s  fans started harassing another, Selena Gomez,  

just because their fans deems them to be rivals  even though they’ve both stated they’re not and  

Justin and Selena are ancient history. I think  if a fandom starts bullying another celebrity,  

which at the end of the day, is a  human being, then that’s excessive  

too. So that’s why I’d say there’s such  a thing as being too influential, yeah.

Thank you, that is the end of the test.

Well, what did you think? She’s good, isn’t  she? But what makes this a band nine? Remember,  

that you’re graded on the test overall  and the speaking examiner refers to the  

band descriptors to make a decision  about the score for each section. 

This is a perfect example, so Barbara  has scored nine for Fluency and cohesion,  

nine for lexical resource -  that basically means vocabulary,  

nine for grammatical range and accuracy and  nine for pronunciation. You could also score  

an eight in one of these categories and still  get an overall nine for the speaking paper.

Let’s take a closer look at ‘fluency and  cohesion’. Barbara is fluent throughout.  

She repeats some phrases and words but  not because she’s limited by her language  

ability. For example, there are only so many  ways to say ‘influence’ or ‘influential’  

but look at all the synonyms and different  forms Barbara uses - ‘influencing others’,  

‘a form of influence’ - influence here is a  noun, ‘huge influences on’, ‘biggest impact’,  

‘be influenced by’, ‘being influential’, ‘assert  influence’ - here she’s showing she knows other  

verbs that collocate with the word influence,  ‘be influential’, ‘affecting what people do’,  

‘persuading’, ‘influences’ and ‘too  influential’. There is a little bit  

of repetition but the descriptor says ‘with  only rare repetition or self-correction’.  

Barbara uses this and that and other  pronouns to avoid excessive repetition. 

She makes some ums and ahs but these  are natural when we speak and she’s not  

penalised for them. The descriptor says  ‘any hesitation is content related’. 

She speaks appropriately - this means she answers  the question. She shows the examiner she has  

answered the question by using a strategy called  ‘summing up’. She says her main point or points  

again at the end of the answer and makes sure to  relate it back to the question asked. For example,  

she says ‘There are various ways to influence  others. Some positive and some negative’ at  

the end of one of the questions in part 3.  The descriptor says ‘speaks coherently’.

She also uses phrases such as  ‘first of all’, ‘for example’,  

‘as I mentioned before’, ‘so that’s  why’ and various other linkers and  

phrases to structure her answer. These are the  cohesive features referred to in the criteria.

She also gives examples or anecdotes to  illustrate her points so the examiner  

considers that she ‘developed topics fully  and appropriately’, as the descriptor says. 

Now let’s look at ‘lexical resource and accuracy’  (III). Barbara uses a wide range of vocabulary,  

some more day-to-day and some less frequently  used words and phrases, like, ‘get ripped off’,  

‘a bit cramped’, ‘keep track’, and ‘hard-boiled  sweets’. She has a lot of vocabulary to talk  

about the different topics in the exam so she can  answer the questions fully. In the descriptor,  

it says ‘uses vocabulary with full flexibility  and precision in all topics’. She sounds natural  

and doesn’t struggle to find new words.  Another part of the descriptor is ‘uses  

idiomatic language naturally and accurately’  - we see this with ‘it pays the bills’,  

‘can take on a life of their own’, and ‘not my  cup of tea at all’. She only uses one idiom and  

that’s perfectly fine. One or two over the whole  exam will get you a good score, if you use them in  

the correct way. Her language is natural, on the  whole and she uses ‘you know’ ‘well’ and ‘like’  

naturally. Even these small phrases get her points  for idiomatic language because that’s how we talk!

Alright, moving on to ‘grammatical range  and accuracy’. Barbara definitely uses a  

full range of structures - from present simple  ‘I work’ to mixed conditional ‘it’s not what I  

would have wanted’ to ‘used to’ - ‘we used to  have different technology’. She adds this to  

the end of the question about how influence  has changed over the years. This is a great  

strategy you can use too. Find opportunities to  use something more than present and past simple.

She uses other structures like cleft sentences  - ‘what immediately springs to mind is social  

media’, and negative inversion - ‘not only  was she kind and generous but she also made  

sure I had what I needed’ to add interest to  her speech and show the examiner examples of  

different structures to get a band score nine.  A lot of what she says is not that complex,  

but when it’s put all together, it sounds like a  native speaker. Not everything is perfect. There  

are some inaccuracies - ‘I would rather prefer’,  ‘spend the quality time’. These are considered  

slips, something that happens naturally when  we’re talking because we change our mind about  

what we’re saying as we’re speaking. They’re  not errors because she never repeats them,  

so even though her grammar was not  absolutely perfect, she still scored  

a nine. The descriptor says ‘consistently  accurate structures, apart from ‘slips’. 

Lastly, let’s look at ‘pronunciation’. The most  important thing here is that we can understand  

everything she says with little effort. The  descriptor says ‘is effortless to understand’  

and she certainly is. She also uses features of  ‘connected speech’, like ‘I dunno’ for I don’t  

know. This hits the descriptor ‘uses a full range  of pronunciation features’. Her intonation also  

gets her points here. She never sounds bored or  robotic. She is also flexible, for example, when  

she says ‘the point’ and ‘the Earth’, the ‘the’  sounds different because of the word that follows.  

Her pronunciation is natural. The descriptor says  ‘sustains flexible use of features throughout’.

So that’s an IELTS band nine example. Have  you learned any new words or phrases from  

watching our star student? Let me know in the  comments! Until next time, take care and goodbye!