Best IELTS Speaking Test Tips.

depositphotos_12630060-Two-businessmen-standing-and-talking-with-speech-bubbles-on-white-backgroundMany of my general Best IELTS Test tips are relevant to the IELTS Speaking Test; particularly those about controlling your stress and nervousness levels.

For more thorough and more detailed speaking test tips, I recommend you download my free reportSpeaking Test Tips from an IELTS Tutor’. In this post I will give you some basic sensible tips for the IELTS Speaking Test.

  • Your Speaking Test may be on the same day as the other tests, it may be on a different day. In either case, you should make sure you arrive in plenty of time.
  • I usually recommend that my students arrive in plenty of time, get their ID checked by administrative staff, make sure they know where their interview room is and how to get there and then to try and relax!  Take a book or magazine with you to read; in English would be ideal as long as you promise not to get stressed by any vocabulary you don’t understand!
  • OK, once you’re called for your interview, try not to be nervous (even though you will be!); just remember that the Examiner wants you to speak English to the best of your ability and so do you.  You’re both working towards the same goal so just be yourself and ‘show the Examiner what you’ve got’!
  • Remind yourself of the criteria the Examiner is looking for and see my free report for more detail on what the criteria actually means.
  • If you don’t understand what the Examiner has said to you, ask him to repeat the question.  This is a positive thing; don’t you also sometimes ask for clarification in your own language? You are assessed on your speaking ability; if you understand the question, the better you will be able to answer it.
  • There are no ‘right’ answers; you are assessed on ‘how’ you answer the question.
  • My free report has more detailed tips on the three different parts of the Speaking Test.  For now I will just say that in Part 1, you should give detailed (but not excessively long, irrelevant) responses; don’t just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
  • In part 2, use your planning time to think about your answer.  Remember you have to speak for 1-2 minutes on your topic. Although in my opinion, it is preferable to aim for 2 minutes, if you spoke for say 1 minute 37 seconds and your talk was coherent, with vocabulary and grammar to the best of your ability, you wouldn’t be penalized.
  • In part 3, don’t worry if the questions seem ‘difficult’.  This section is designed to find what English language teachers call your ‘linguistic ceiling’, in other words, the questions push you linguistically as far as they can.
  • Once the Speaking Test is over, don’t ask the Examiner ‘how was it?’  He / She won’t be able to tell you.  The best thing you can do now is jot down some notes on what parts you think you did well / badly so that if you do need to sit the test again, you know what to work on.  Put your notes away in a safe place and try and forget about the test until you get your results two weeks later.

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Here’s to the best IELTS score possible!

7 thoughts on “Best IELTS Speaking Test Tips.

  1. hello..i m dharmesh ..i have big problem ..i cant able to get the 6 band in the speaking..how can i improve my spealing test
    i have got only 5.5

  2. Hi Dharmesh,

    First of all, read through all the posts on speaking here and make sure you’ve downloaded my free report. I think you could benefit from doing a practice IELTS Speaking Test with me on skype to get more tailored advice. I charge $22 AUD; the session lasts about 45 minutes (a practice test and detailed feedback and tips). If this interests you, contact me directly via the contact page.

  3. Hi.
    I got to know about this website on the Youtube. Recently I took a test and I got result. My speaking was 6 but I need over 7.0. I think that there’s quite big gap between band 6 and band 7. I wonder how can I evaluate my speaking with score band 6.
    Moreover I read former your message. I also would lik to get some help. I’m going to take an exam next month. Now I’m studying in Ireland. Before and after I ask to help to my teacher but he doesn’t seem to help me. I’m desperate. Can you help me?

  4. Hi Juyoung,

    Contact me directly via the contact page so we can try to organise something. Make sure you also tell me what your listening, reading and writing results were.

    Do you need to improve your English in general or is it just a question of addressing your speaking?

  5. Hi Alanna,

    I got IELTS band 7.0 last week, but speaking was the least band: 6 (writing 6.5, reading 7.5 and listening 8).

    I want to get a minimum of 7 in the four competences to apply for Australia visa. Do you have any online interactive courses to increase my band in speaking?

    Regards,

  6. Hi Mohammed,

    Contact me directly via the contact page so we can try to organise something.

    Alanna

  7. Hi,

    Contact me directly via the contact page and we’ll try to organise something.

    Alanna

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