IELTS Speaking Mock Test: Band 7 (with feedback)

- Today, I'm gonna do something

I've not done for a long, long time.

I'm gonna share with you a mock test,

a full mock test that I did with one of my students

on the IELTS Speaking Gold course.

Her name is Kristen from China and she gets a band seven.

Stay to the end of the test

and I will give you a breakdown

of why she got that score in all the different parts,

the different skills that she did there.

I hope you like it.

Enjoy, let's get straight into it.

Hello, can you tell me your full name, please?

- My name is Shuo Yun.

- Okay, and what can I call you?

- You can call me Kristen.

This is my English name.

- Okay, Kristen.

So I've seen your ID.

Now in the first part of this test,

I'm gonna ask you some questions about yourself.

Let's talk first of all about your home.

Do you live in a house or a flat?

- I'm living in a flat with my parents,

because I'm originally from a small family

so I don't need to live a house.

- Which is your favorite room there?

- I prefer my bedroom,

because usually I will hang out with my relatives,

my parents and my friends.

So I just got some,

a few time I can stay with myself in my bedroom

so I will choose this room.

- Okay, and who do you live with?

- Live with my parents,

'cause I'm the only child in my family

and I don't have my grandparents

so now I live with my parents.

- Okay.

I'd like to move on now and talk about challenges.

What subject do you think is the most challenging at school?

- I'll go for mathematics.

I really hate mathematics list subject when I was young,

even like right now, I still don't like it.

It's very hard for me in the past.

Even like one plus one equal to two.

In the past, I need to think about it maybe five minutes

or 10 minutes when I was a kid.

- Do you like to challenge yourself?

- In the past, I would say no.

But for now, this stage of Kristen, I would say yes,

especially like practice my English.

I need to take my English to next level

and I will go for, I'll go to the UK

for studying my master's degree this year.

Then I need to face more different

and hard challenges in my life.

- Do you like to live a life that has lots of challenges?

- If I have choice

and I really can do it, in reality, my answer is no.

I would like to live more comfortable and relaxed,

but yes, instead of I need to meet

a grade of different challenges on a regular basis.

I don't like that.

- Let's move on and talk about music.

Have you learned to play a musical instrument?

- Yes, when I was young, pretty much that age,

maybe eight years old,

my parents took me to go to music,

maybe music place to learn to play piano at that moment,

yes, but I gave up, I only learned it for one year.

Then after that, I chose to learn fencing.

- And what musical instruments

do you enjoy listening to the most?

- Honestly, I don't listen too much

instruments in my daily life.

If I have to choose one, then like guitar,

'cause it sounds different compared to other instruments.

Yes.

- Do you think children should learn

to play an instrument at school?

- It really depends.

Different children's, their personal opinions

instead of I tell you you need to learn it

or you need to learn that.

If there are some groups

of students they would like to learn,

then this answer is yes.

If you don't want to learn it,

then you don't need to learn it in your school.

- Do you think music education is important for children?

- To some degree, I would say yes,

but it's not that important.

If you are a big fan of music, then it's important for you.

If you don't have any interest in this area,

then this answer is absolutely not.

- Okay.

Now I'm gonna move on

and I'm gonna give you a topic next.

I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes.

You've got one minute to prepare

and you can make some notes if you wish.

Do you understand?

- Yes, I understand.

- Great, so I think you've got your pencil and paper

and this is your topic.

Can you start talking now please?

- Yes, so I'm gonna describe a time when I were busy

so I would say this days,

this my master semester in my uni.

So I have to prepare a grade of documents

and some materials for my uni.

And I really feel I'm overwhelmed,

because this year, not only I need to finish my final

dissertation in uni,

but also I need to prepare to go to the UK

for study my master's degree.

So I need to, for example,

I need to go to visa center to finish my visa.

I need to apply for the UK's universities.

I don't know if you, if they will give me lots of offers.

So I have to maybe apply

for different units in the UK at the same time.

For example, like King's, the University of Edinburgh

or the University of Sheffield, for example.

And I was unhappy in maybe last week,

but I talked to my parents and some of my close friends.

I feel much better now.

For example, like last week,

I talk one of my Chinese professors.

I tell them these days,

I need to work on two significant things at the same time.

I don't really don't know,

I have no idea how to deal with them.

I want to finish them perfectly.

I really don't know in my last stage,

could you give me some, any ideas?

And that person helped me an awful lot.

So I think even though I feel that that was a hard time,

that was a busy time,

but I still can ask someone for help.

It makes me happier now-- - Okay, I'll stop you there.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so we've been talking here

about a time when you were busy.

I'd like to go on and ask you some questions

related to that.

Let's talk first of all

about the good and bad of being busy.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of being busy?

- So for being busy,

the advantage is you can push yourself,

maybe get out of your comfort zone

instead of maybe lying on your bed

or watching some, you know,

rubbish TV series or movies in your house.

So if you can, got a grade of things to do,

like maybe studying English

or clean your house,

like, there's things you can improve yourself

maybe physically and mentally at the same time.

- Do you think it's good for children to be busy?

- I would say definitely not.

So like, right now in society,

there are many childrens that pretty young, you know,

but they have to learn instruments

and they have to learn their subjects at school

as well so they feel overwhelmed.

But when they talk to parents, the parents always ignore it.

You know, they don't care about their kids' real feelings.

They just care about, they need to work hard,

they need to get the number one,

otherwise you are not the best one.

"I won't like you anymore."

So if I really can choose that, I hope those kids

just be themselves, to be happy, to be relaxed.

- Do you think that children learn better by playing games

or by being under competitive pressure?

- It also depends on different children's,

their personalities and their upbringings.

If you are originally from high educated families,

maybe when you play video games,

when you talk to other peoples on that game,

you can control your behavior, control your words.

You can learn from it,

because you are smart compared to other students.

But the majority of students, includes me,

I don't think I can really learn from games.

Then I think you need really,

you need to sit in front of your desk

and open your notebooks to learn.

- Let's talk a little bit about being busy at work.

What kind of pressure may people experience at work?

- Now I'm still a student,

so I don't think I have too much work experience in society.

But in my uni, I am a monitor, I'm a leader in my class.

So I have been doing this job for four years so far.

So I probably,

I can share some my real feelings with you now.

So for example,

I need to talk to different students and teachers.

In different situations, I need to communicate with them.

I need to learn what kind of words I should use

when I talk to professors.

And another way around what kind of words

and the tone I need to choose when I talk to students.

Then probably this is the pressure,

well, from work, this situation.

- Okay, how does technology help with time management?

- Maybe you can put all of your plans on your phone.

Then this way, you can see what kind of plans

you have today.

Then you can set an alarm

to help you manage your schedule for today

or for your whole life.

And you can see them very directly in front of you.

This way will tell you, okay, today, you need to finish,

like, one, two, three different things.

- Do you agree that technology distracts people?

- Yes, yes.

It's an awful lot I think,

so if you still student,

or like right now if you are an adult, you need to work,

but probably you'll worry about what kind of measures

or what kind of,

what sort of news informations happen today.

Probably you will think about it when you work,

when you do other things, but it really will disturb you.

So usually I'll turn on my, you know,

the disturb mode on my phone

to help me to avoid these things happen.

- Hmm, okay.

Thank you very much.

We'll stop here.

That's the end of the speaking test.

- Thank you so much. - Okay.

So a big thank you to Kristen for doing this mock test.

I would give her a seven,

a band seven here on her IELTS speaking.

Let me just break down why I think so.

First of all, fluency, you can see that she can speak

without any noticeable effort

and really very rarely loss of coherence.

She's able to develop the topic she's speaking

coherently most of the time

and so, you know, I would give her a seven,

possibly a 7.5 on fluency at times.

She's able to keep going over a long-term

and does it as you can see, a very confident speaker.

Confidence is not evaluated,

but fluency is good.

Vocabulary also a seven, right?

She can talk on all of the topics we discussed

using some common and less common vocabulary

with a good awareness of style a lot of the time.

She says things like, "Take my English to the next level,"

and, "Get out of your comfort zone,"

"Watching some rubbish TV series."

"Improve yourself physically and mentally at the same time."

Nice collocations, good understanding

of that style and tone.

There is a little bit of overuse of vocabulary.

She says an awful lot,

an awful lot, overwhelmed comes up a few times.

And there are some mistakes,

but not many, things like informations,

which should be uncountable.

And things like, "A great of things to do."

She forgets the word deal sometimes,

"A great of things to do,"

a great deal of things to do.

Moving on to grammar, I would also say a seven,

again, she has a a range of grammar she demonstrates,

which is key, right?

It's not that she knows it,

she demonstrates a range of grammar.

She can talk in the present,

in the future with will and going to, gonna,

conditionals as well, past tenses.

And at times, she slips into the present tense

when talking about the past.

And this will happen in part too if you're not careful.

That kind of question, like, "Describe a time when,"

and it's in the past.

And especially for Chinese speakers

who have a different tense structure

and don't have conjugations in the past,

it can be difficult to remember.

For example, she says, "For example, like last week,

I talk to one of my professors," instead of talked.

So it's something to be aware of.

But she also uses other great tenses, right?

"I have been,"

she said, "I've been doing that for four years."

She uses will for habit.

"I'll turn on the disturb mode on my phone."

And gerunds, instead of lying on the bed,

great use of the gerund.

So again, really good base

and more complex grammar with occasional mistakes

would get her a seven there.

Pronunciation, at least a seven.

I mean she is easy to understand all the way through.

At no point am I thinking, "What?"

It's clear to understand.

She uses contractions, linking sometimes.

Her intonation at times is very, very good,

very, very English.

Not always sustained over longer phrases,

but overall very good.

So I would give her a seven overall.

She did a great job.

And Kristen actually,

she talked about preparing for university.

To tell you the truth, this test was done about a year ago.

She's now at Edinburgh University in the UK,

one of the best universities in the UK

and she's studying over there.

Kristen was on the,

well, on the Gold course, IELTS Speaking Gold course.

Actually she took most of my courses.

And even though she's studying in the UK,

she still comes and joins us sometimes on the live lessons

and different activities that we do.

And I think you can see it.

She has got such a great level of confidence,

great communication skills,

and that awareness

that learning English is a lifelong skill and endeavor.

And she's doing that even though she's in the UK studying.

So I hope this is useful for you and that you've enjoyed it

and inspired you to keep going on

to become that confident speaker of English

and ace your IELTS Speaking test.

If you've liked this, do subscribe, turn on notifications,

and I will see you in the next video.

Take care, my friend.

Bye-bye.

(upbeat music)