IELTS Examiner insight into the IELTS Speaking Test

This post comes from a question a member of our private Facebook group had.   In the group, you can talk to IELTS examiners and they can answer any questions you have.  It’s free, informative and helps a lot of people.

So, the question was “What do I need to know about the IELTS speaking exam?  Are there any tips?”

Get a cup of tea and read through this IELTS speaking examiner advice. It will give you a good idea of the IELTS speaking test and what you need to do.

It isn’t that difficult if you approach it in the right way. Imagine you are in a cafe with someone you have just met and they ask you lots of questions. That is basically it. Now, to get an accurate reading of your score, here are some ideas to help you,

Part 1

This is the easiest part. Keep your questions short and sweet. So, if the examiner asks you

“Is the place where you live a good place for families?”

You can say

“Yes, I suppose it is. There are some parks in the area so young people and young families have places to go. There are also benches in the street and in the evening there are a lot of old people there chatting and laughing. There is something for everyone”

Don’t overthink your answers.

Part 2

Now, this is the slightly harder part. What often happens in the exam is that the candidate (i.e. you) race through the first 1 or 2 bullet points. So if your speaking card is this one,

I often see people race through the first 1 or 2 and this means it is much harder to speak for the full 2 minutes. So, let’s imagine I am going to talk about my laptop; that is an easy one. I would say something like

Bullet point 1 “So, I’m going to talk about my laptop. I got it from a local computer shop near my house but it took me a long time to find one I liked. I’d spent probably the best part of 2 months looking for one that liked. I searched on Amazon, in the big electronic shops, and asked friends about where they had bought theirs, but I just couldn’t find anything I was 100% sure was right for me. Anyway, one day I was walking past a small computer shop near where I live and there it was in the window. I had all the specs I needed, actually better than I needed, and was pretty cheap etc etc”

So, you can see that I am now well on my way to speaking for 2 minutes. Build a story around the bullet points so you can speak until the examiner stops you. You don’t need to cover all the bullet points either.

Part 3

Now part 3 depends on your performance in part 2. If you struggled, then it will be very hard to get band 7 as the examiner will choose the slightly easier questions (They can change if you perform well though).

In these questions, don’t talk about yourself. Talking about yourself is easier. You need to talk about things more generally, and support what you say with examples (not about yourself). So, let’s say your first question is

“Many people collect important things. Why do you think they do this?”

I would say

“Collecting things is kind of a universal hobby isn’t it? I mean, children collect football stickers and pokemon cards and, for some people, this just continues into adulthood. I know that in my country, there is a very popular programme called The Antiques Roadshow and it is for people who collect antiques. With antiques, some people love having a connection with the past but for others it’s their livelihood. Important things like antiques can be very very valuable”

And continue like this.

IELTS speaking isn’t trying to trick you. It is testing to see if you have the language to talk about a range of things, and that you can justify your opinions. It’s the same in IELTS writing.

– Don’t overthink it.
– Relax and just have a chat with the examiner (This is what native speakers do when they do the exam)
– Don’t use langugae you can’t control
– Avoid idioms (They are very specific in their use)

Prepare properly. You can’t prepare for a speaking exam by yourself. It is arrogant to think you can. I tried with my Japanese and Spanish exams and I messed them both up because I thought I was better than I was and would be fine; I wasn’t. This goes for writing too.

If you want to do an online IELTS speaking test with an IELTs speaking examiner, you can order one here.  It is the only place in the world where you can have IELTS examiners working for you.  Our writing examiners live here.

You can contact us anytime too.