4 tips on preparing for the IELTS Speaking test

Hello, everybody.

Welcome to my fourth video

in my miniseries of IELTS Test Tips

that I’ve created alongside We Love IELTS,

Cambridge’s platform for those preparing for the IELTS test.

And today I’m giving you my four best tips

to achieve success in the IELTS speaking test.

As ever, before we start,

if you’re new to the channel,

please don’t forget to subscribe,

that way you’ll never miss out on any of our great videos.

Okay, so, let’s begin

by recapping on what the speaking paper consists of.

The speaking test is the same

for both the academic and general training test,

and there are three parts.

In part one,

you answer a range of questions on familiar topics.

In part two,

you are asked to speak on a topic for two minutes.

And in part three,

you and the examiner discuss issues around the topic

of part two.

So, that’s the structure of the test,

now let’s get on to my tips.

My first tip is to record yourself doing task two.

Recording yourself doing task two

of the speaking test will help with your time management.

In this part of the test,

you are given a topic card with prompts.

You are then given one minute of preparation time,

during which you can make notes before speaking

for two minutes on the topic.

The biggest issue I see in this part of the test is

that students are often unprepared to talk

for two minutes.

They often don’t speak for long enough,

or they don’t get all of their points said in time.

So, consistently recording yourself will allow you

to keep an eye on the time

and to start to develop a natural feeling for

how long two minutes is.

Additionally, recording yourself also means

that you can listen back to see

if you covered all of the points sufficiently,

as well as looking at any language

or pronunciation areas that you need to work on.

Onto tip number two, develop your fluency.

The ability to speak fluently

and without much hesitation are factors

that are really important in doing well

in the IELTS speaking test.

There are various ways in which you can do this,

for example learning fillers such as well, you know,

or let’s see.

However, my favourite thing

to do with my students is an activity called repeat,

repeat, repeat.

Let me explain it to you in a few steps.

You choose any topic,

and then prepare some main points to talk about.

You then have to talk

about it for 90 seconds without changing the topic

or pausing for more than a few seconds.

You then must repeat all

of the main points you said previously,

but in 75 seconds.

Finally, you then have to repeat all

of the main points you said previously

but in 60 seconds.

Again, to check you’ve completed the task successfully,

record yourself speaking and then listen back to it.

Doing this will help reduce the quantity of time

that you need to say something,

as well as increase the quality of what you’re saying,

as your language improves after each step.

My third tip is to learn variations of important phrases.

During the speaking test,

it’s very likely that you’re going to use

common words or phrases such as because, great,

for example, and I think.

To impress the examiner with your range of language,

I’d recommend learning at least two variations

of each word or phrase.

This means you won’t repeat yourself too much.

If you’re unsure where to look for alternatives,

the Cambridge Dictionary would be a good starting point.

And finally, my fourth tip is to extend your answers.

The examiner can only mark you on what you say.

One-word or very

short answers won’t show off your speaking skill,

so you need to say as much as possible.

One of the most basic ways

of extending your answers is using the words because,

due to or as.

However, I wouldn’t recommend

this as the only way of extending your answers,

as this can become repetitive.

Other ways you can extend your answers include giving

a personal example,

giving an example from your knowledge,

making a prediction,

making a contrast between different countries,

and making a contrast with past and present situations.

And of course don’t forget

that these should be relevant to the task in order to achieve

a high band score.

Make sure that you implement these any time

you’re practising for the speaking test,

so that it’s automatic when you do the real test.

Okay, let’s recap.

So, there we go.

I really hope

that these tips help you for when preparing

for the IELTS speaking test.

Don’t forget, for more test tips and resources,

check on the We Love IELTS website.

The link is below the video.

And especially, don’t forget to check out the series

of We Love IELTS podcasts,

which focus on helping you improve your performance

in the speaking test.

As mentioned before,

don’t forget to subscribe to this channel,

if you haven’t already.

And I’d also love to hear your suggestions.

So, if you have any different tips

or ideas on how to prepare for the speaking test,

please comment below.

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.