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Get Band 9 After Using These Speaking Tips
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Imagine walking into your IEL speaking
test. You feel confident and prepared.
You know that no matter what happens,
you're going to get the score that you
need. Now, picture walking out of the
exam knowing that you got the score that
you deserve. This might sound
impossible, but it's not. I know this
because I've helped thousands of
students who were in the exact same
position that you are in right now,
struggling just like you, and they got a
band seven, eight, or even nine. And in
this video, I'm going to take you on a
journey. I'll tell you exactly what band
five and band six students do
differently from band seven, 8, and nine
students. These things that band seven,
8, and 9 students do differently are
actually very easy and simple to learn.
You'll also discover the hidden traps
and common mistakes that trip many
students up. And you'll also learn the
key techniques that could skyrocket your
score. So, if you're ready to go from
fear and stress to confidence, keep
watching this video. you'll know exactly
what to do on test day and have total
confidence. So, the IEL speaking test is
divided into three parts. So, we're
going to compare what band five and six
students do to band seven, 8, and nine
students. And we'll look at part one,
part two, and part three. So, let's
start off with part one of the speaking
test. This is your opportunity to create
a great first impression with the
examiner. And also, I think more
importantly, it allows you to relax into
the test. If you relax into the test in
part one, you're going to sound much
more fluent throughout the entire test.
So, it's very, very important that you
get part one right. So, there are three
things that band five and six students
do differently to band seven, 8, and
nine students. I'd like you to look at
this clip of two students. They're
answering the same question in part one,
and I want you to think about which one
might be at a band five or six level,
and which one might be at a band 7, 8,
or nine level. But importantly, think
about why. Why are they at that level?
It's not that they sound more
impressive. It's not that they have a
better accent. It's not that they're
using fancier words. What are the things
that you could copy today? And what are
the things that you could stop doing?
These things will really improve your score.
score.
>> I'm from the Philippines. In Cebu, to be
specific. Um, Cebu is the queen city of
the south, by the way. Uh, we were
colonized by the Spaniards for so long,
like for 333 years. So, I grew up in
Dubai and I was born and raised here and
I love it here only because of the shopping.
shopping.
>> So, here the first student is doing
something that examiners are trained to
spot. This problem creates the worst
first impression. It could even get you
a band zero and it's memorized
answers. So, why is this such a big
problem? Well, first of all, the IELTS
test is not a memorization test. It is
testing your ability to communicate
clearly in English. It's not testing if
you can memorize a list of words and
sentences and then just repeat them to
the examiner. It's also considered
cheating. Think about it this way. If
you really knew how to speak English,
would you need to memorize answers? No.
That's why you'll never hear a band
seven, eight or nine student giving a
memorized answer. they don't need to.
And it also lowers your score in two
very very important ways. Listen to this
next clip and think about how
memorization might have led to a low score.
score.
>> I'm from Mumbai. It's a city in India.
India it's known India is known for its
uh culture and vibrant nature. Um also
for their movie industry um it's located
in Mumbai where I'm from. Um it's called
Bollywood. Um it's also known for its
food. Uh we have really delicious food
which is known worldwide and uh people
call it their favorite food as I've heard.
heard.
>> So did you notice the first problem? I
want you to think back to when you were
a child in school. Think back to the
lessons where the teacher got you and
the other students to read aloud from
the book. How did you feel? How do you
think that you sounded? Do you think
that you sounded fluent or not so
fluent? Compare that to how you speak
normally every day to a friend or a
loved one. This is exactly how you sound
when you memorize an answer. You sound
like a robot. But don't worry, there's
an easy way to fix that and I'll tell
you about it in a second. So, did you
spot any other issues? Let me explain
here what the other issue was. So, I
want you to imagine that this is the
destination and here we have student A
and here we have student B. So the
examiner asks, "Tell me about your
hometown." Student A talks about the
history of their hometown, the culture
of their hometown, famous things, the
food, the weather, the night life, and
on and on. Student B just simply answers
the question. And this is what band five
and six students do all the time. They
go off topic in many different
directions. And this is why many of you
complain about examiners constantly
interrupting you. They stop you mids
sentence. A lot of students complain
about this and say that the examiner was
rude or unprofessional. That's actually
not the case. In part one, they have to
ask you a range of different questions.
And if you give these very, very long
memorized answers that go off in many
different directions, they're going to
stop you in the middle of the sentence
because they need to continue with
asking you those questions and you're
going to feel like, oh, the examiner
thinks I'm doing really badly and you're
going to get more stressed and you're
going to sound even more robotic and
your score is going to be terrible. So,
there was nothing wrong with your
English. It was your preparation. It was
your strategy. So now you might be
thinking, well, how long should part one
answers actually be? You're saying don't
give very long answers. Should I give
very short answers then? No, that's not
good either. And I know how frustrating
that advice can be. Like don't give
short answers. Don't give long answers.
But you shouldn't be thinking about
length at all. You shouldn't be thinking
of how long have I been speaking. You
shouldn't be thinking of how many words
or how many sentences. That's going to
ruin your fluency. There's a simple
strategy that you can use by copying
what these band 7 8 and 9 students do.
They do something completely different.
And I discovered this when I was
teaching in Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam.
What I used to do was maybe 10 or 15
minutes before class started, I would go
in early and I would speak to the
students about things that happened at
the weekend or sports or the weather,
just normal everyday small talk chitchat
questions. And during those 10 or 15
minutes before the class started, a lot
of students when they were talking
normally would give band eight or nine
answers. Then I would play a little
trick on them. Once class started
officially, I did something interesting.
I would get one of the best students,
the students that I was just talking to
10 minutes before, giving these amazing
band NL level answers, and I would do a
mock one-on-one speaking test with them.
So they would go from a band nine level
answer when I said what did you do at
the weekend 10 minutes before to giving
an answer that sounded something like
this. At the weekend I went to VTA. I
like seafood. They have nice seafood. It
was nice by the sea. I like the sea. So
from a fluent band nine answer to band
five or band six in minutes. And I
recognized this and I instantly improved
the speaking scores of the entire class
by asking one question. Why don't you
speak the same way as you did 10 minutes
ago? See, in the 10 minutes before
class, they were talking to me like a
human being, not as an examiner or a
teacher. It was like having a normal
conversation with a friend. And not only
were they much more fluent, but they
answered the question directly without
going off topic. and they weren't
thinking about how many words or what
length or how many sentences. And I call
this problem test mode. Students go from
sounding very very fluent to sounding
like a robot as soon as the test starts
even in practice sessions. So how can
you avoid this mistake and overcome this
problem that many many students have?
There's one simple strategy that band n
students use. I want you to watch these
clips and try and figure out what the
strategy is. Do you ever buy clothes
online? all the time. I I It's very rare
that I purchase something in store. I
mean, for the last maybe five years, I
buy everything online.
>> What do you like to listen to?
>> I love to listen to music and podcasts,
especially relating to criminology and
true crime stories. I really enjoy that.
>> Is it popular to give flowers in your
country? Yes, but I think we have to
avoid white flowers because they use
white flowers at funerals. I'm not sure
if I'm getting this right, but I think
there are certain colors that we need to avoid.
avoid.
>> So, did you spot it? They simply answer
the question directly and then they add
a little bit more detail. This detail
could be an explanation, it could be an
example, or it could be something like a
personal story. And if that's confusing
or overwhelming, just answer the
question like you would if you were in a
coffee shop with a friend. Remember,
they are testing your ability to speak
naturally in English. They're not
testing if you can memorize a bunch of
answers and impress the examiner with
fancy structures and idioms and things
like that. And that would be the final
lesson. Just continue to talk like this
and you will do absolutely amazing on
your IEL speaking test. So now let's
move on to part two of the speaking
test. But before we do, I have a little
gift for you. A lot of students ask me
if I can give them real practice
questions. So, what I've done is I've
put together this PDF that has more than
500 real practice questions. It's
essential that you use real practice
questions because if you use ones that
are too easy or too difficult, it will
really mess up your preparation. So, all
you have to do if you want this free
gift is just go below into the
description, click on the link, and you
can download it instantly for free. then
use all this information that I'm
teaching you in the video to practice at
home. So, part two of the speaking test
is often the most feared part for many
students because it requires you to do
something that a lot of students feel
uncomfortable doing or they've just
never done it before. That's because in
part two, you'll be given a Q card that
looks like this and they'll ask you to
speak about that topic for up to 2
minutes. And this can be quite scary for
many students because it's difficult to
speak about anything for 2 minutes.
especially in a foreign language when
you're under stress and you have a scary
examiner like me looking at you. But
what if I told you it wasn't part two
that is scary? It's the strategy that
students use most often that leads to
low scores. And what's really
interesting is this. When students stop
doing these things that most band five
and six students do and they switch to
our strategy that our band seven, eight,
and nine students use, something
happens. Not only do their scores
improve, but part two becomes something
that they look forward to. It's their
chance to shine to show the examiner how
great they are without any worry,
without any stress, with complete
confidence. First, listen to the student
and see if you can spot any problems.
>> So, I'll describe the house of my
grandma. So, who lives there? My grandma
lives there and uh my grandpa used to
live there. Where the property is, it's
in the mountain in Beirut in Lebanon.
what it looks like. It looks like a
castle for me. It's not a castle, but
for me it's like a castle. We We have a
lot of memories there. That's why I
decided to talk about this house. If you
like it, definitely I do. I like this
house as I mentioned because it reminds
me of my childhood and the best days we
spend there and we're still spending
when we go to see her. Uh we have a lot
of memories. We had good food. She used
to cook a lot for us. The house is
simply like um I feel like home. I just
love it.
>> So, did you spot what the problem was?
What most students do is they look at
the main topic here at the top. And then
they look at bullet point number one,
talk about that. Then bullet point
number two, talk about that. Then bullet
point number three, talk about that. And
then the final point, and they talk
about that. But why is that a problem?
Well, first of all, there might be one
or more of these bullet points that you
just don't have much to say about. That
makes it extremely difficult to speak
fluently for up to 2 minutes. And then
once you get to the end, after 20 or 30
seconds for the average student, you run
out of things to say and you start to
panic and you're like, "Oh, I've only
been speaking for 30 seconds. I'm going
to fail my test. Oh, I'm never going to
be able to move to Canada. How am I
going to tell my mom and dad?" and
everything gets worse and worse and you
get more and more stressed and you fail
the test. Not because your English was
bad, but because you're using the
strategy that most students use and
examiners experience this all the time.
In part one, you will be listening to a
student and they're like at a band seven
or eight level and then they get to part
two and they completely fall apart. That
is actually heartbreaking for an
examiner. The vast majority of examiners
are nice people who want you to do well,
but they see you using this strategy and
they're forced to give you a lower score
because you sound so bad. So, what a
band seven, eight, or nine students do
differently? I want you to listen to
this student who got a band nine and
look at the Q card and think about what
they're doing. What are they doing
differently? My mom who usually prepares
the meals at home, she uh was away for
vacation. So I was in charge of uh
cooking the food at home. I learned to
prepare this meal which was pasta
arabia. It's very simple to some people
but from um perspective where I've never
really cooked anything at home. It was
like a big step for me. I learned this
uh recipe online. like I just skimmed
through a random website and um I
started following the recipe and I
actually had a bit of help from my
cousin. Um I the reason why I chose this um
um
food to prepare um was because my dad
really enjoys uh pasta. We wouldn't eat
any other type of pasta except that for
some reason it doesn't have any like uh
meat. It's just literally pasta and
sauce. And it was pretty quick. Like
when I started uh preparing it, uh it
didn't take me that long, which I liked
because I hate spending hours in the
kitchen just waiting to cook uh me to
eat something. I think that takes the
fun out of cooking because I just want
it quick. The part that I liked about uh
the meal that I prepared was uh that it
was quick but also at the same time it
was uh it was very delicious. Like I
added um organic uh tomato. I used not
like the canned um uh sauce. I made it
from scratch. So that's what I enjoyed
about it.
>> So did you spot it? They don't stick to
the bullet points. They don't really
think about the bullet points at all.
Instead, what they do is they focus on
the main topic at the top. So, they're
always talking about the main topic, but
they're not necessarily using the bullet
points. What they do instead is they
have the freedom to talk about other
things. In other words, add their own
bullet points. So, within that main
topic at the top, they're adding things
that they feel more comfortable talking
about while still talking about the main
topic. For example, if you got this Q
card, you might feel very comfortable
talking about these two bullet points,
but this third bullet point is going to
only take a few seconds, so it's not
very useful. And then this fourth bullet
point is something you don't really know
anything about, and you don't feel
comfortable talking about that. But you
might find it easy to talk about other
things related to the main topic, such
as a description of the main topic, a
story or how you feel about it or
something about the past or something
you hope to do in the future related to
that main topic. Literally any other
point you feel comfortable talking
about. Now, should you use all of those
ideas? No. Just the ones that help you
speak fluently for up to 2 minutes.
That's our goal. That's what's being
tested. So you should only follow a
strategy that makes that easy to do. So
now let's move on to in my opinion the
most difficult part of the speaking test
part three. Why do I think it's so
difficult? So I want you to listen to
these students and think about not so
much the answers first. Think about the
questions. Focus on the questions being
asked and think about how you might
respond to those questions. Would you be
able to think for a second and give a
very good answer? What factors determine
how quickly someone can learn a new skill?
>> Um,
>> do you think that high school children
should learn to cook at home or at school?
school?
>> I never heard anyone cooking at school.
>> How strong a tradition is it today in
your country to go to the theater?
>> So, as you heard, part three questions
are a lot more challenging than typical
part one questions. But like everything
with the IELTS test, the problem is not
the questions. The problem is not the
test. The problem is the strategy and
the preparation that students use to
answer them. So let's start off with
things that you should not do. Mistake
number one is no response. The most
important thing you should avoid is just
not saying anything. If you say to the
examiner, "I don't know," or just
nothing comes out of your mouth, or I've
literally had people burst out laughing
in my face when I've asked some of these
questions. What you are telling the
examiner by not answering is my English
is not good enough to answer this
question. That's not a good message to
send to the examiner in an English
speaking test. But what happens if you
really have no idea? Some of these
questions are very very difficult. Even
I struggle to answer some of them. We'll
give you a strategy for how to tackle
any question no matter what topic it is
even if you know nothing about it in a
second. But let's look at mistake number
two, short answers. Second thing that
you should never do is give a short
answer. And short answers in part three
of the test normally have nothing to do
with your English level or your speaking
skills. 15 minutes talking in a foreign
language is a very stressful situation
for anybody, especially with someone
scary and horrible looking at you like
me as an examiner judging you. It's it's
a completely exhausting process. So
short answers are often more related to
fatigue, to tiredness than to English
ability. So what they do is and
something you should never do is they
surrender. They give up. And what you're
really saying to the examiner if you
just like I don't want to answer these
questions is give a short answer again.
You are saying to the examiner, I don't
have enough English to answer this
question. Again, you should never do
that in an English test. But don't
worry, I have a solution like every part
of the IELTS test. But before that, I
have some really, really good news for
you. This is something that many
students don't know or understand. I
think it's a bit of a secret. I don't
know whether I should actually be
telling you this or not, but in part
three, the examiner has a range of
different questions that they could ask
you. They have some easier questions for
the lower level students and then they
have really, really difficult questions
for those band seven, eight, and nine
students. If you get a really difficult
question, this is a good thing. It's an
exceptionally good sign. That means the
examiner thinks that you are maybe at a
band seven, eight, or nine, and they're
asking you more and more difficult
questions to really stretch your English
ability and separate out the band sevens
from the band eights from the band
nines. So now you know if you get a
difficult question, that's a good thing
and you're going to be happy about it.
How do you tackle those difficult
questions? Well, first and foremost,
always attempt an answer. But again,
what if you have no idea? Well, you
could do something like this.
>> I'm not too familiar with the topic of
AI and its relation with education.
However, in my knowledge, I do know that
AI is developing more and more and it
might be able to replace some uh
teachers jobs or tasks but it will not
replace the trait of empathy.
>> So remember it is not a knowledge test.
It is not an IQ test. It is not a test
of how much you know about a certain
topic. It is a speaking test. So again,
if you say nothing, what you're telling
the examiner is I don't deserve a high
score. But if you attempt an answer,
even if in a very very limited way and
you tell the examiner how you don't know
much about that topic, the examiner then
thinks, okay, they might not know much
about that topic. Let's change topics.
Let's ask them something slightly
different and see how they get on. So
you don't really have much to fear. It's
far more likely in part three you'll get
some kind of topic you know something
about. So how do you shine? How do you
show the examiner that you deserve a
band seven, eight or nine? Watch this
clip and think about what the student
does in terms of how they structure
their answer. They do four things. Think
about the four things that they do. What
skills does a person need to be a great chef?
chef?
>> Interesting. I think I mean from what
I've heard I've never worked as a chef
or worked in a kitchen before but I
think it takes a lot of trial and error.
So for that reason I would imagine that
the person would have to be very patient
and with that patience you need to have
an inherent uh passion for the food that
you're making. I think chefs usually
specialize in in one or more cuisines.
Um, so just having an understanding of
the background of the spices, where it
comes from, of the meat where it comes
from. If you're not passionate about
that, it can probably tire you out to be
that invested in learning. So patience,
passion, and a good environment like
access to good teachers, access to good
books, access to good produce would
probably help you hone your craft a lot
more. So number one, they directly
answered the question right away. Then
they explained why they think that or
why other people think that. Then they
backed it up with examples or you could
also include a personal story if it's
applicable. And then they developed it
even more by showing another point or
showing the other side of the argument.
If you follow that fourpoint structure
and you practice it using
this PDF, then you will do very very
well on test day. But if you want even
more help and you want our help
one-on-one and you want us to hold your
hand and take you through exactly what
to do on test day by giving you all the
structures, all the strategies and
one-on-one feedback and to do a mock
test with either me or one of the other
ex-examiners on the team, we have our
VIP course. What I'll do is I'll put a
10% discount code into the description
below. Just click on that link. The 10%
off is automatically applied and you can
go and join the VIP course that covers
not just speaking but writing, reading,
and listening. Everything that you need.
We often have no places available
because of the demand for our services
and the amount of feedback and
one-on-one attention you'll get. So, not
guaranteed that there will be places,
but if there is one, you can go and use
that 10% off. So now you know the
strategies band seven, eight, and nine
students use. But that's just part of
the way there. You still have a few
other things to do. Remember, vocabulary
is a huge part of the speaking test. The
better you use vocabulary, the higher
your score will be. Here are two
different vocabulary lessons that will
help you improve your vocabulary speaking
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