Entering the test room

When the time comes for your speaking test you will enter a room with a table and two chairs and usually sit opposite the examiner. In theory, your test does not begin until after the examiner has checked your identification (passport). In reality though, as soon as you enter the door the examiner is forming an opinion about you!

You may feel nervous. It’s pointless to tell the examiner you feel nervous as they hear this often. The best thing is to try to hide the nervousness. Try to show confidence and calmness. Try to show the examiner that you are confident to speak English. It can be helpful to smile at the examiner to establish warmth between you. Overall, you don’t really need to worry about doing anything because the examiner is experiences and will guide you through the process of the exam.

Before your test starts the examiner needs to record some details such as the date and time. You should stay silent during this. However, you can use this as an opportunity to get accustomed to the examiner’s accent and pronunciation. Essentially, you can be tuning your listening to make it easier to catch the questions when the examiner starts asking them.

The examiner also needs to check your identification and will ask you a few questions such as: What is your full name? Where are you from? Can I see your identification please? The test has started at this point, but just give simple answers to these questions. This is not the time to be giving extended answers. You will frustrate the examiner if you do this!

After the examiner has finished checking your identification the examiner will say something like “Now, I would like to ask you a few questions about yourself” and the examiner will introduce a topic and start asking you questions about it.

PART ONE: QUESTIONS AND FAMILIAR TOPICS 

Part one will last about 4-5 minutes and you will answer up to 4 questions about 3 different topics. The examiner can repeat the question one time. You can ask the meaning of a word but the examiner cannot rephrase the whole question.

You must give a full response not just yes or no. Try to speak for about 2 or 4 sentences for each question. Focus on language not ideas or real opinions.

Requirement

This part of the test lasts from 4 to 5 minutes and consists of questions about you and the country you are from. In this part of the test the examiner’s book. There is a maximum of three different sets of topics and each topic has a maximum of four questions. The first topic will be about whether you work or study, the place you are living in, or the place you are from. The other two topics are usually fairly straightforward topics such as hobbies, sports, or entertainment.

Procedure

• After checking your ID the examiner will start Part One of the test.
• The examiner will say: “Now, I am going to ask you a few general questions” 
• The examiner will ask three or four questions according to different topics. The examiner will then introduce the topic by saying something like: “Now, let’s talk about where you live”
• Make sure you pay attention to the keywords the examiner uses to introduce the topic. This is because you will have three or four questions based on this topic and you want to be clear what the topic is about.
• The examiner will ask you three or four questions based on the topic, such as:

       Which room do you like the most in your home?

       In the future, what sort of home would you like to live in?

• When the examiner has finished asking you 3 or 4 questions based on the topic, the examiner will move onto the next topic, by saying something like:

• After three sets of topics [ each with three or four questions] the examiner will finish Part One and move onto Part Two of the test. Note that Part One of the test lasts 4 to 5 minutes. If you give longer answers, it is possible that you may only get two topics. This could be an advantage because there is less chance of getting an unfamiliar topic!

Strategies

Expansion

Expansion is making something bigger. In IELTS it is good to give expanded answers to questions. This shows that you understand the question, and gives you more chances to show your language ability and get a higher score. This is illustrated below:

QUESTION: Do you like riding bicycles?

BAD RESPONSE: “Yes”

BETTER RESPONSE: “Yes, because it’s fun, good for health, and doesn’t cost a lot”

GREAT RESPONSE:

Well, I like to ride bikes for a few reasons. The main reason I like to cycle is that I think it is really fun and is a good way to go sightseeing.

I’d also like to point-out that riding a bike is very good for my health because it can help me to lose weight. I would also like to add that recently I haven’t been riding my bike much, as I am quite bust at work.

Expand your answers

• Dividing your response into two or three parts:
• Explaining something from general terms to specific and maybe giving an example 
• Depends: describing different situation 
• Concession: making a main argument and then giving a concession to it. 
• Avoidance: not directly answering the question at first and then answering it.  

     Show Language

QUESTION: What colours do you like?

BAD RESPONSE: “I like green and blue.”

[This answer has no advanced vocabulary]

BETTER RESPONSE: “My favourite colours are light green and navy blue.”

[This answer is more precise and precision increases your score for vocabulary.]

EVEN BETTER RESPONSE:

Well, my favourite colour is magenta, I guess that’s because I’m really into bright and bold colours. I also like turquoise; I find that a very relaxing peaceful colour that reminds me of the ocean.

This answer uses some less common colours, and can impress the examiner with your vocabulary about colours. It also includes the idiomatic expression “I’m really into.” This means to like something.

Buy time to think

There are a few ways to buy some time to think of your answer. Note that you shouldn’t use any particular method too often! Use a range of these methods below:

Repeat the question: One way to do this is to rephrase the words of the question “Oh, so you’re asking me about my favourite colour.”

Ask the examiner to repeat the question: In Part One of the test the examiner permitted to repeat the question one time. Note that the question cannot be repeated a second time and the examiner is not supposed to rephrase the question. You could ask the question to be repeated just so that you can have time to think of how to respond to it. Essentially, while the examiner is repeating the question you are thinking of what to say. Doing this once won’t lower your score, but if you do it often it will lower it!

You can use language like: “I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that… could you please repeat the question.”

Use some memorised phrases to start your answer: If you memorise a few phrases, while you saying these phrases you can be thinking of how you will actually respond to the question. Some phrases could be:

“Well, that’s a really interesting question”

“Oh, I’m not too sure about that…. Let me think for a minute… Oh yes, it is….”

“With regards to your question, I guess I would have to say that….”

If you don’t understand the question

If you do not hear or understand the question, the examiner can repeat each question one time. If you do not understand the meaning of a word, you can ask the examiner to explain that word. However, the examiner is not able to rephrase the whole question if you are not able to understand it, except in Part Three.

If you didn’t answer the question, it doesn’t mean you have failed the exam, but you wouldn’t want to do this more than once or twice. If you can’t understand the question then tell the examiner.

The worst situation is that you stay silent and make the examiner unsure about whether you will give an answer or not. This makes you and the examiner uncomfortable. Another choice is to listen out carefully for key words in the question and then try to give some sort of response to the question. This is a bit of a gamble! Do you feel lucky?

In the next IELTS article, we’ll look at Part One types of questions.

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Happy studying.