21 Ways to have a great IELTS Speaking Exam

Many students feel overwhelmed when they have to take the IELTS exam, whether for immigration or studying abroad. The exam is divided into 4 parts: Writing, listening, reading and speaking.

Can you guess which section stresses students out the most? The speaking section, of course. This is a face to face interview with an IELTS examiner to assess your speaking skills.

We have compiled some of our best advice to help students prepare for this intimidating exam.

Before the Exam

Success Mindset

1. You will be more successful if your objective is speaking in general 'not just IELTS speaking'. Learning a language is a gradual process towards excellence.

Accept your progress

2. If you think you speak horribly. Stop. Understand you are learning, completely accept the fact that mistakes are fine when you are a student, write them down and start improving on them.

“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior” - Henry C. Link

Training

3. Listening to IELTS practise exams is OK but rather boring!

So listen to something you LOVE, just type in your hobby followed by podcast into Google e.g. Premier League Podcast, Food podcast, Sleeping podcast.

Listen to this constantly, copy the native speaker, their intonation, pronunciation, the exact structure, you will soon improve.

Talk to yourself in English.

4. Translate your daily life into English, it might seem strange but when you think in your new language, you will remember new words easily and be able to use them in context more often.

No Surprises

5. Watch other students doing IELTS speaking tests on Youtube to become familiar with the exam.

6. Also read the cue cards carefully for part 2 of the exam, remember to read them well – misunderstanding these will cost you points.

Concentrate on Accuracy OR Fluency

7. Remember that speaking comprises two components: accuracy and fluency, choose one and practise that area.

Practise with Non-Native Speakers

8. YES YOU CAN practise your speaking with non-native speakers, in this situation you should practise fluency.

Scoring High

New language

9. If you learn a new collocation / phrasal verb – associate it to someone you personally know, this makes it easier to remember.

Idioms

10. Try to learn new idioms when learning to speak ENglish, this will make you sound more like a native speaker.

Here are some fun idioms to use in your speaking

Don’t throw in the towel! - Research these terms yourself to be able to remember them better.

• Let the cat out of the bag
• Beat around the bush
• Spill the beans
• A bad egg
• Down to earth
• Eager beaver
• Ball in your court
• Party pooper
• Get a head start
• Jump the gun

Use Anecdotes

11. If possible use anecdotes in your exam. Set the scene, where and who you were with, what happened and why it's significant to your topic.Being more descriptive will give you an opportunity to show off your language skills.

Provide Examples

12. When giving examples try to avoid hypothetical situations - these require you to invent, translate then communicate. Using your long term memory you just translate and communicate.

The Quickest Way I Know to Improve

Memorize this to get out of tough situation:

13. I'm not quite sure if that is what you are thinking about but I think....

Learn to paraphrase

14. If the word has just disappeared from your mind just describe it: Example: Keyboard = the object used for typing on computers.

This helps you keep speaking without having to worry about finding the correct word.

Fast improvement

15. Learning word combinations / collocations, for example: bare in mind, take into account, etc. This makes you sound more like a native speaker, it reduces the chances of error, and isn't difficult.

Easy Improvements

16. Know yourself, your history, your job, your culture, your favourite food and research it, practise your unique vocabulary.

On the Exam Day

17. Warm up a few hours before by speaking with someone, anyone!

Don't go into the exam not having spoken English for the day.

During the Exam

Nervous?

18. Start slow and simple and your fluency will come.

Procedure / Plan

19. For Task Two use the points on the cue card as your structure and work through them.

20. Although it's a semi-formal situation, remember it is spontaneous. Consider it as a job interview. Try to show some of your personality. The examiner is not trying to trick you in any way.

21. Remember this is your day to show the examiner how well you can speak English, so GO FOR IT!

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

BONUS:

Here is a detailed phrase sheet for the IELTS Speaking.

These are set phrases and are a rough guide, they will be good when starting your preparation for the IELTS. Learn to use them in context, adapt them, master them, they will help but only if used correctly.

Part 1: Introduction and Interview

Generalising

If the examiner asks you your opinion about your home / studies / job / country you can add these 'generalising' phrases to show a different aspect of your language ability.

• To some extent the weather is poor but I do love the city centre, especially the…
• On the whole I do enjoy living in Manchester..
• By and large Manchester United was a wonderful club.

More than likely the examiner will ask you some questions regarding your opinion or yourself, in this situation you could 'enrich a normal answer' with something a little more impressive.

• I’m pretty sure that…
• In my case…
• I personally believe/ think / feel…
• It’s my opinion that…

Restating

If you see a funny expression on the examiners face, and you feel they aren't following you, first slow down then use one of these:

• What I meant was…
• To put it in other words…
• Let me explain it to you…
• What I’m saying is…
• Let me put it another way…

Correcting mistakes

If you make a mistake, and you know you did, you can either ignore it or acknowledge it with a perfect sentence:

• Sorry, what I would have liked to say was...
• Let me rephrase what I just said…
• Don’t misunderstand me, what I wanted to say was…

Off topic?

If you do find yourself off topic, which is possible due to exam nerves, here are some phrases to get back on track:

• Where was I?
• Anyway,…
• In any case,…
• To get back to what I was saying,…

Giving examples

• Take McKinsey for example...
• To illustrate this…
• A case in point is...
• To show you what I mean…

Part 3: Two-Way Discussion

In Part 3 of the IELTS interview, which lasts between 4-5 minutes, you will participate in a discussion with the examiner based on the topic in Part 2.

Similarity Sentences

If something is similar use these (be careful some require practise to be used correctly):

• In the same way,

In the same way as Manchester industrialised so did Liverpool.

• just as,

Just as United used to win trophies, so did Inter Milan.

• Similarly,

Similarly, we also studied via the internet.

Expand / Develop points

If you want to further develop reasons or explanations use these:

• what is more,
• besides, in any case,...
• as well as that,
• furthermore (formal),
• moreover (very formal),
• in addition,

To explain a logical consequence

Within this part you may want to explain a logical consequence in a formal manner:

• therefore,
• Consequently (quite formal)

• as a result

Final last words

The examiner will very likely be from an Anglo Saxon country, in these countries manners are paramount, sometimes it is even excessive. So start with a big warm smile and remember to say please and thank you at all the appropriate times.