Is IELTS easier in different countries?
This is a controversial topic so please put your comments/thoughts below. There is always a lot of talk about IELTS and whether you will get higher marks if you do your exam in your country or in an English-speaking country. Just to make this clear, this is not the case with IELTS writing. Your writing is probably not marked in the country where you do the exam and it is scanned and sent to examiners in other countries so it makes...
What should you avoid doing in the IELTS speaking test?
An IELTS speaking examiner explains. There are a few things that you need to avoid in the IELTS speaking test. Understand that it isn’t a 2-way conversation. The examiner has a script to follow. They can’t deviate from this script until Part 3 so don’t ask them any questions. The exam is strictly timed so control your speakingso you don’t go off on a monologue. The examiner has a number of questions they have to get through and they will stop you...
An IELTS examiner’s story.
The examiners that work for us have hundreds of stories about examining. Here is one though that they see a lot. So, I had a guy come today for an IELTS speaking test. His English was excellent (Band 8.0) and he dealt with the questions I had from him expertly. Now, I had seen him twice. This was the second time I’d seen him in 3 months. He said he had got Band 6 in the writing (Academic) and was there...
I think I’ve messed up Part 2 in the IELTS speaking exam!!
The speaking exam gets more difficult so Part 3 is harder than Part 2. It may affect your score but it also may not. Candidates that struggle to speak for 2 minutes when talking about themselves (The easiest thing to do in a foreign language) tend to struggle when it comes to talking about more abstract things in Part 3. However, you are marked over the whole test. If you think that Part 3 went well then you may be fine. You...
An interview with an IELTS speaking examiner
This is an interview with one of the IELTS speaking examiners that works with us. If you would like to do a full IELTS speaking test with an examiner and receive a detailed report on your speaking and what you need to do to get higher marks, then you can purchase one here. Have a look at the example in the link too; just scroll down. A while ago, we asked the members in our private Facebook group (Feel free to...
What are the key things you need to know about the IELTS speaking test?
Here are some comments from the IELTS speaking examiners here at upmyielts.com. A few things you need to know about the test. Make sure you know what you have to do in the exam. It is really awkward when people come in without knowing anything about the exam. You ask them about their job and they just talk and talk and talk. The exam is not a chance for you to just speak. You are being tested by the examiner and...
IELTS speaking and feeling nervous. What can you do?
This is a question that we received in our Private Facebook group; feel free to join I would like to ask if during my IELTS speaking exam part 1 I feel nervous, can I just close my eyes or look in another direction or just cover my eyes with a handkerchief? So, you’re in the street and a tourist comes up and asks you where something is. In response, you look in another direction and put a handkerchief over your eyes……Imagine the...
Is it necessary to use fancy vocabulary in the IELTS speaking?
This is a question that came to us from a member of our Private Facebook Group (Feel free to join). You can ask questions about the IELTS exam and get answers from IELTS examiners, the only people that know what you need to do in the exam. No. What gets you into the high scores is being able to discuss a range of topics relatively fluently and having a sufficient range of vocabulary that allows you to present your ideas in...