What lowers your IELTS speaking mark?
Basically, the speaking test builds up to Part 3. Parts 1 and 2 are relatively easy as you can just talk about yourself. This is much easier to do in a foreign language. However, in Part 3, this is where the examiner doesn’t have to follow a rigid script and can push you to see what you can do in English. This is where you find out whether the candidate is Band 7+ as they are able to support what...
What do IELTS examiners write in the speaking exam?
If you do the IELTS speaking test, you will notice that the examiner will write down some numbers while they talk to you. But what are they writing? Firstly, it is important to not get distracted by this as they have absolutely nothing to do with you. They are not your scores!! IELTS is very strictly timed and examiners get in trouble if their timing is not correct. If a candidate has more time to talk in any part of the...
What is fluency in IELTS speaking and why is it important?
One of the IELTS speaking examiners has shared this with us. Their article is about to be shared in a newspaper in Japan. Here is part of it. In the speaking exam, Fluency and Coherence is one of the criteria and a lot of candidates struggle with the fluency part. Students that get Band 6 can speak at length so, for example, in Part 2, they speak for the whole 2 minutes. However, what they will tend to do is one...
Why am I stuck at band 6 for IELTS writing?
This is a problem for an awful lot of people. The first thing you need to do is work out why you aren’t getting higher marks in your writing. In the 4 criteria, it may be just one of them that is stopping you from getting higher marks. It may be that you aren’t developing your ideas enough with examples (Task Achievement), it may be that you are making referencing mistakes or mistakes with linking words (Coherence & Cohesion) or it...
What is stopping me getting Band 7+ in IELTS writing or speaking? Part 1
We asked one the IELTS examiners that work with us what they saw as the biggest factor that stopped many candidates getting higher scores in IELTS speaking and writing. She said, overwhelmingly, that accuracy was the biggest problem for a lot of people. Here are her comments. Articles, articles articles (a, an, the). They are really difficult for a lot of English learners, especially those that don't have them in their language but they are really important in IELTS writing. If a...
The 3 main reasons that people struggle with IELTS writing and speaking
Many people come to us at upmyielts.com asking why they can't get a higher score in IELTS writing/speaking. These are both production skills and there are many reasons as everyone's case is slightly different. We asked one of the IELTS examiners that works for us what they thought and this is what they had to say. People think that they better than they are at English. I see a lot of students who have studied English for years and years...
I got 6.5 in IELTS writing and speaking. What should I do?
This is a common question that we often get asked. They get very high scores in listening and reading but lower scores in writing and speaking. This is because you can't self-study for these. So, let's look at what you should and shouldn't do. Well, now you know what you need to work on. Firstly though, you need to know why you got those marks. To find this out, do a full writing test with us; both parts 1 and 2. Our IELTS examiners...