0:02 Imagine walking into your IEL speaking
0:04 test. You feel confident and prepared.
0:06 You know that no matter what happens,
0:07 you're going to get the score that you
0:09 need. Now, picture walking out of the
0:12 exam knowing that you got the score that
0:13 you deserve. This might sound
0:16 impossible, but it's not. I know this
0:18 because I've helped thousands of
0:20 students who were in the exact same
0:22 position that you are in right now,
0:25 struggling just like you, and they got a
0:27 band seven, eight, or even nine. And in
0:29 this video, I'm going to take you on a
0:31 journey. I'll tell you exactly what band
0:33 five and band six students do
0:35 differently from band seven, 8, and nine
0:37 students. These things that band seven,
0:40 8, and 9 students do differently are
0:42 actually very easy and simple to learn.
0:44 You'll also discover the hidden traps
0:46 and common mistakes that trip many
0:48 students up. And you'll also learn the
0:50 key techniques that could skyrocket your
0:52 score. So, if you're ready to go from
0:54 fear and stress to confidence, keep
0:56 watching this video. you'll know exactly
0:59 what to do on test day and have total
1:01 confidence. So, the IEL speaking test is
1:04 divided into three parts. So, we're
1:06 going to compare what band five and six
1:08 students do to band seven, 8, and nine
1:10 students. And we'll look at part one,
1:12 part two, and part three. So, let's
1:14 start off with part one of the speaking
1:16 test. This is your opportunity to create
1:18 a great first impression with the
1:20 examiner. And also, I think more
1:23 importantly, it allows you to relax into
1:26 the test. If you relax into the test in
1:28 part one, you're going to sound much
1:30 more fluent throughout the entire test.
1:32 So, it's very, very important that you
1:35 get part one right. So, there are three
1:38 things that band five and six students
1:40 do differently to band seven, 8, and
1:42 nine students. I'd like you to look at
1:44 this clip of two students. They're
1:46 answering the same question in part one,
1:48 and I want you to think about which one
1:50 might be at a band five or six level,
1:52 and which one might be at a band 7, 8,
1:54 or nine level. But importantly, think
1:57 about why. Why are they at that level?
1:58 It's not that they sound more
2:00 impressive. It's not that they have a
2:02 better accent. It's not that they're
2:04 using fancier words. What are the things
2:06 that you could copy today? And what are
2:08 the things that you could stop doing?
2:10 These things will really improve your score.
2:10 score.
2:13 >> I'm from the Philippines. In Cebu, to be
2:16 specific. Um, Cebu is the queen city of
2:18 the south, by the way. Uh, we were
2:21 colonized by the Spaniards for so long,
2:24 like for 333 years. So, I grew up in
2:27 Dubai and I was born and raised here and
2:29 I love it here only because of the shopping.
2:29 shopping.
2:31 >> So, here the first student is doing
2:33 something that examiners are trained to
2:36 spot. This problem creates the worst
2:37 first impression. It could even get you
2:41 a band zero and it's memorized
2:43 answers. So, why is this such a big
2:45 problem? Well, first of all, the IELTS
2:48 test is not a memorization test. It is
2:51 testing your ability to communicate
2:53 clearly in English. It's not testing if
2:55 you can memorize a list of words and
2:57 sentences and then just repeat them to
3:00 the examiner. It's also considered
3:02 cheating. Think about it this way. If
3:04 you really knew how to speak English,
3:07 would you need to memorize answers? No.
3:09 That's why you'll never hear a band
3:11 seven, eight or nine student giving a
3:13 memorized answer. they don't need to.
3:16 And it also lowers your score in two
3:19 very very important ways. Listen to this
3:20 next clip and think about how
3:23 memorization might have led to a low score.
3:24 score.
3:26 >> I'm from Mumbai. It's a city in India.
3:29 India it's known India is known for its
3:32 uh culture and vibrant nature. Um also
3:35 for their movie industry um it's located
3:38 in Mumbai where I'm from. Um it's called
3:41 Bollywood. Um it's also known for its
3:43 food. Uh we have really delicious food
3:47 which is known worldwide and uh people
3:48 call it their favorite food as I've heard.
3:49 heard.
3:51 >> So did you notice the first problem? I
3:52 want you to think back to when you were
3:54 a child in school. Think back to the
3:56 lessons where the teacher got you and
3:59 the other students to read aloud from
4:02 the book. How did you feel? How do you
4:04 think that you sounded? Do you think
4:07 that you sounded fluent or not so
4:09 fluent? Compare that to how you speak
4:12 normally every day to a friend or a
4:15 loved one. This is exactly how you sound
4:18 when you memorize an answer. You sound
4:20 like a robot. But don't worry, there's
4:22 an easy way to fix that and I'll tell
4:24 you about it in a second. So, did you
4:26 spot any other issues? Let me explain
4:29 here what the other issue was. So, I
4:30 want you to imagine that this is the
4:34 destination and here we have student A
4:37 and here we have student B. So the
4:38 examiner asks, "Tell me about your
4:41 hometown." Student A talks about the
4:44 history of their hometown, the culture
4:47 of their hometown, famous things, the
4:51 food, the weather, the night life, and
4:55 on and on. Student B just simply answers
4:57 the question. And this is what band five
4:59 and six students do all the time. They
5:01 go off topic in many different
5:03 directions. And this is why many of you
5:06 complain about examiners constantly
5:08 interrupting you. They stop you mids
5:10 sentence. A lot of students complain
5:12 about this and say that the examiner was
5:15 rude or unprofessional. That's actually
5:17 not the case. In part one, they have to
5:20 ask you a range of different questions.
5:22 And if you give these very, very long
5:25 memorized answers that go off in many
5:26 different directions, they're going to
5:28 stop you in the middle of the sentence
5:31 because they need to continue with
5:32 asking you those questions and you're
5:34 going to feel like, oh, the examiner
5:35 thinks I'm doing really badly and you're
5:37 going to get more stressed and you're
5:39 going to sound even more robotic and
5:41 your score is going to be terrible. So,
5:43 there was nothing wrong with your
5:45 English. It was your preparation. It was
5:46 your strategy. So now you might be
5:49 thinking, well, how long should part one
5:51 answers actually be? You're saying don't
5:52 give very long answers. Should I give
5:55 very short answers then? No, that's not
5:57 good either. And I know how frustrating
5:59 that advice can be. Like don't give
6:01 short answers. Don't give long answers.
6:03 But you shouldn't be thinking about
6:05 length at all. You shouldn't be thinking
6:07 of how long have I been speaking. You
6:09 shouldn't be thinking of how many words
6:11 or how many sentences. That's going to
6:13 ruin your fluency. There's a simple
6:15 strategy that you can use by copying
6:17 what these band 7 8 and 9 students do.
6:19 They do something completely different.
6:21 And I discovered this when I was
6:24 teaching in Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam.
6:26 What I used to do was maybe 10 or 15
6:28 minutes before class started, I would go
6:30 in early and I would speak to the
6:32 students about things that happened at
6:34 the weekend or sports or the weather,
6:37 just normal everyday small talk chitchat
6:40 questions. And during those 10 or 15
6:42 minutes before the class started, a lot
6:44 of students when they were talking
6:47 normally would give band eight or nine
6:49 answers. Then I would play a little
6:51 trick on them. Once class started
6:53 officially, I did something interesting.
6:55 I would get one of the best students,
6:57 the students that I was just talking to
7:00 10 minutes before, giving these amazing
7:02 band NL level answers, and I would do a
7:05 mock one-on-one speaking test with them.
7:07 So they would go from a band nine level
7:09 answer when I said what did you do at
7:11 the weekend 10 minutes before to giving
7:14 an answer that sounded something like
7:17 this. At the weekend I went to VTA. I
7:20 like seafood. They have nice seafood. It
7:22 was nice by the sea. I like the sea. So
7:26 from a fluent band nine answer to band
7:28 five or band six in minutes. And I
7:30 recognized this and I instantly improved
7:33 the speaking scores of the entire class
7:35 by asking one question. Why don't you
7:37 speak the same way as you did 10 minutes
7:39 ago? See, in the 10 minutes before
7:42 class, they were talking to me like a
7:45 human being, not as an examiner or a
7:47 teacher. It was like having a normal
7:49 conversation with a friend. And not only
7:51 were they much more fluent, but they
7:52 answered the question directly without
7:54 going off topic. and they weren't
7:56 thinking about how many words or what
7:59 length or how many sentences. And I call
8:02 this problem test mode. Students go from
8:04 sounding very very fluent to sounding
8:07 like a robot as soon as the test starts
8:09 even in practice sessions. So how can
8:12 you avoid this mistake and overcome this
8:14 problem that many many students have?
8:16 There's one simple strategy that band n
8:18 students use. I want you to watch these
8:20 clips and try and figure out what the
8:22 strategy is. Do you ever buy clothes
8:26 online? all the time. I I It's very rare
8:29 that I purchase something in store. I
8:31 mean, for the last maybe five years, I
8:32 buy everything online.
8:34 >> What do you like to listen to?
8:38 >> I love to listen to music and podcasts,
8:41 especially relating to criminology and
8:44 true crime stories. I really enjoy that.
8:46 >> Is it popular to give flowers in your
8:48 country? Yes, but I think we have to
8:52 avoid white flowers because they use
8:53 white flowers at funerals. I'm not sure
8:55 if I'm getting this right, but I think
8:57 there are certain colors that we need to avoid.
8:58 avoid.
9:01 >> So, did you spot it? They simply answer
9:03 the question directly and then they add
9:05 a little bit more detail. This detail
9:07 could be an explanation, it could be an
9:09 example, or it could be something like a
9:11 personal story. And if that's confusing
9:13 or overwhelming, just answer the
9:15 question like you would if you were in a
9:18 coffee shop with a friend. Remember,
9:20 they are testing your ability to speak
9:22 naturally in English. They're not
9:24 testing if you can memorize a bunch of
9:26 answers and impress the examiner with
9:29 fancy structures and idioms and things
9:30 like that. And that would be the final
9:33 lesson. Just continue to talk like this
9:35 and you will do absolutely amazing on
9:37 your IEL speaking test. So now let's
9:39 move on to part two of the speaking
9:41 test. But before we do, I have a little
9:43 gift for you. A lot of students ask me
9:45 if I can give them real practice
9:47 questions. So, what I've done is I've
9:49 put together this PDF that has more than
9:52 500 real practice questions. It's
9:54 essential that you use real practice
9:56 questions because if you use ones that
9:58 are too easy or too difficult, it will
9:59 really mess up your preparation. So, all
10:01 you have to do if you want this free
10:03 gift is just go below into the
10:04 description, click on the link, and you
10:07 can download it instantly for free. then
10:09 use all this information that I'm
10:11 teaching you in the video to practice at
10:13 home. So, part two of the speaking test
10:15 is often the most feared part for many
10:17 students because it requires you to do
10:19 something that a lot of students feel
10:21 uncomfortable doing or they've just
10:23 never done it before. That's because in
10:25 part two, you'll be given a Q card that
10:27 looks like this and they'll ask you to
10:29 speak about that topic for up to 2
10:32 minutes. And this can be quite scary for
10:34 many students because it's difficult to
10:36 speak about anything for 2 minutes.
10:38 especially in a foreign language when
10:41 you're under stress and you have a scary
10:43 examiner like me looking at you. But
10:45 what if I told you it wasn't part two
10:47 that is scary? It's the strategy that
10:49 students use most often that leads to
10:51 low scores. And what's really
10:53 interesting is this. When students stop
10:55 doing these things that most band five
10:58 and six students do and they switch to
11:00 our strategy that our band seven, eight,
11:01 and nine students use, something
11:03 happens. Not only do their scores
11:05 improve, but part two becomes something
11:07 that they look forward to. It's their
11:10 chance to shine to show the examiner how
11:12 great they are without any worry,
11:13 without any stress, with complete
11:15 confidence. First, listen to the student
11:18 and see if you can spot any problems.
11:20 >> So, I'll describe the house of my
11:22 grandma. So, who lives there? My grandma
11:26 lives there and uh my grandpa used to
11:28 live there. Where the property is, it's
11:31 in the mountain in Beirut in Lebanon.
11:34 what it looks like. It looks like a
11:37 castle for me. It's not a castle, but
11:39 for me it's like a castle. We We have a
11:42 lot of memories there. That's why I
11:44 decided to talk about this house. If you
11:47 like it, definitely I do. I like this
11:49 house as I mentioned because it reminds
11:54 me of my childhood and the best days we
11:56 spend there and we're still spending
12:00 when we go to see her. Uh we have a lot
12:02 of memories. We had good food. She used
12:05 to cook a lot for us. The house is
12:09 simply like um I feel like home. I just
12:09 love it.
12:11 >> So, did you spot what the problem was?
12:14 What most students do is they look at
12:16 the main topic here at the top. And then
12:18 they look at bullet point number one,
12:19 talk about that. Then bullet point
12:21 number two, talk about that. Then bullet
12:23 point number three, talk about that. And
12:24 then the final point, and they talk
12:27 about that. But why is that a problem?
12:29 Well, first of all, there might be one
12:32 or more of these bullet points that you
12:34 just don't have much to say about. That
12:36 makes it extremely difficult to speak
12:38 fluently for up to 2 minutes. And then
12:42 once you get to the end, after 20 or 30
12:44 seconds for the average student, you run
12:46 out of things to say and you start to
12:47 panic and you're like, "Oh, I've only
12:49 been speaking for 30 seconds. I'm going
12:51 to fail my test. Oh, I'm never going to
12:53 be able to move to Canada. How am I
12:55 going to tell my mom and dad?" and
12:57 everything gets worse and worse and you
12:59 get more and more stressed and you fail
13:01 the test. Not because your English was
13:03 bad, but because you're using the
13:05 strategy that most students use and
13:08 examiners experience this all the time.
13:10 In part one, you will be listening to a
13:11 student and they're like at a band seven
13:14 or eight level and then they get to part
13:16 two and they completely fall apart. That
13:18 is actually heartbreaking for an
13:20 examiner. The vast majority of examiners
13:23 are nice people who want you to do well,
13:25 but they see you using this strategy and
13:27 they're forced to give you a lower score
13:30 because you sound so bad. So, what a
13:31 band seven, eight, or nine students do
13:33 differently? I want you to listen to
13:35 this student who got a band nine and
13:38 look at the Q card and think about what
13:39 they're doing. What are they doing
13:43 differently? My mom who usually prepares
13:46 the meals at home, she uh was away for
13:49 vacation. So I was in charge of uh
13:52 cooking the food at home. I learned to
13:54 prepare this meal which was pasta
13:58 arabia. It's very simple to some people
14:03 but from um perspective where I've never
14:05 really cooked anything at home. It was
14:08 like a big step for me. I learned this
14:11 uh recipe online. like I just skimmed
14:14 through a random website and um I
14:16 started following the recipe and I
14:19 actually had a bit of help from my
14:24 cousin. Um I the reason why I chose this um
14:25 um
14:29 food to prepare um was because my dad
14:33 really enjoys uh pasta. We wouldn't eat
14:36 any other type of pasta except that for
14:39 some reason it doesn't have any like uh
14:43 meat. It's just literally pasta and
14:46 sauce. And it was pretty quick. Like
14:50 when I started uh preparing it, uh it
14:53 didn't take me that long, which I liked
14:55 because I hate spending hours in the
14:59 kitchen just waiting to cook uh me to
15:01 eat something. I think that takes the
15:03 fun out of cooking because I just want
15:06 it quick. The part that I liked about uh
15:09 the meal that I prepared was uh that it
15:12 was quick but also at the same time it
15:14 was uh it was very delicious. Like I
15:19 added um organic uh tomato. I used not
15:23 like the canned um uh sauce. I made it
15:25 from scratch. So that's what I enjoyed
15:26 about it.
15:28 >> So did you spot it? They don't stick to
15:29 the bullet points. They don't really
15:31 think about the bullet points at all.
15:33 Instead, what they do is they focus on
15:35 the main topic at the top. So, they're
15:38 always talking about the main topic, but
15:40 they're not necessarily using the bullet
15:42 points. What they do instead is they
15:44 have the freedom to talk about other
15:46 things. In other words, add their own
15:48 bullet points. So, within that main
15:50 topic at the top, they're adding things
15:52 that they feel more comfortable talking
15:55 about while still talking about the main
15:58 topic. For example, if you got this Q
16:00 card, you might feel very comfortable
16:02 talking about these two bullet points,
16:03 but this third bullet point is going to
16:05 only take a few seconds, so it's not
16:07 very useful. And then this fourth bullet
16:09 point is something you don't really know
16:11 anything about, and you don't feel
16:13 comfortable talking about that. But you
16:15 might find it easy to talk about other
16:18 things related to the main topic, such
16:20 as a description of the main topic, a
16:22 story or how you feel about it or
16:24 something about the past or something
16:26 you hope to do in the future related to
16:28 that main topic. Literally any other
16:31 point you feel comfortable talking
16:33 about. Now, should you use all of those
16:36 ideas? No. Just the ones that help you
16:38 speak fluently for up to 2 minutes.
16:40 That's our goal. That's what's being
16:42 tested. So you should only follow a
16:45 strategy that makes that easy to do. So
16:47 now let's move on to in my opinion the
16:50 most difficult part of the speaking test
16:51 part three. Why do I think it's so
16:53 difficult? So I want you to listen to
16:56 these students and think about not so
16:58 much the answers first. Think about the
17:00 questions. Focus on the questions being
17:02 asked and think about how you might
17:05 respond to those questions. Would you be
17:07 able to think for a second and give a
17:10 very good answer? What factors determine
17:12 how quickly someone can learn a new skill?
17:16 >> Um,
17:18 >> do you think that high school children
17:21 should learn to cook at home or at school?
17:22 school?
17:24 >> I never heard anyone cooking at school.
17:27 >> How strong a tradition is it today in
17:31 your country to go to the theater?
17:33 >> So, as you heard, part three questions
17:35 are a lot more challenging than typical
17:37 part one questions. But like everything
17:39 with the IELTS test, the problem is not
17:41 the questions. The problem is not the
17:43 test. The problem is the strategy and
17:45 the preparation that students use to
17:47 answer them. So let's start off with
17:50 things that you should not do. Mistake
17:53 number one is no response. The most
17:55 important thing you should avoid is just
17:57 not saying anything. If you say to the
17:59 examiner, "I don't know," or just
18:01 nothing comes out of your mouth, or I've
18:03 literally had people burst out laughing
18:05 in my face when I've asked some of these
18:06 questions. What you are telling the
18:10 examiner by not answering is my English
18:11 is not good enough to answer this
18:14 question. That's not a good message to
18:15 send to the examiner in an English
18:17 speaking test. But what happens if you
18:19 really have no idea? Some of these
18:21 questions are very very difficult. Even
18:23 I struggle to answer some of them. We'll
18:26 give you a strategy for how to tackle
18:28 any question no matter what topic it is
18:30 even if you know nothing about it in a
18:33 second. But let's look at mistake number
18:35 two, short answers. Second thing that
18:37 you should never do is give a short
18:39 answer. And short answers in part three
18:42 of the test normally have nothing to do
18:44 with your English level or your speaking
18:47 skills. 15 minutes talking in a foreign
18:50 language is a very stressful situation
18:52 for anybody, especially with someone
18:54 scary and horrible looking at you like
18:58 me as an examiner judging you. It's it's
19:01 a completely exhausting process. So
19:03 short answers are often more related to
19:05 fatigue, to tiredness than to English
19:08 ability. So what they do is and
19:10 something you should never do is they
19:12 surrender. They give up. And what you're
19:14 really saying to the examiner if you
19:16 just like I don't want to answer these
19:18 questions is give a short answer again.
19:21 You are saying to the examiner, I don't
19:23 have enough English to answer this
19:25 question. Again, you should never do
19:26 that in an English test. But don't
19:29 worry, I have a solution like every part
19:31 of the IELTS test. But before that, I
19:32 have some really, really good news for
19:34 you. This is something that many
19:36 students don't know or understand. I
19:37 think it's a bit of a secret. I don't
19:38 know whether I should actually be
19:40 telling you this or not, but in part
19:42 three, the examiner has a range of
19:44 different questions that they could ask
19:47 you. They have some easier questions for
19:49 the lower level students and then they
19:51 have really, really difficult questions
19:53 for those band seven, eight, and nine
19:55 students. If you get a really difficult
19:57 question, this is a good thing. It's an
19:59 exceptionally good sign. That means the
20:01 examiner thinks that you are maybe at a
20:03 band seven, eight, or nine, and they're
20:05 asking you more and more difficult
20:08 questions to really stretch your English
20:10 ability and separate out the band sevens
20:12 from the band eights from the band
20:14 nines. So now you know if you get a
20:16 difficult question, that's a good thing
20:18 and you're going to be happy about it.
20:20 How do you tackle those difficult
20:22 questions? Well, first and foremost,
20:25 always attempt an answer. But again,
20:27 what if you have no idea? Well, you
20:28 could do something like this.
20:30 >> I'm not too familiar with the topic of
20:33 AI and its relation with education.
20:37 However, in my knowledge, I do know that
20:41 AI is developing more and more and it
20:45 might be able to replace some uh
20:48 teachers jobs or tasks but it will not
20:50 replace the trait of empathy.
20:53 >> So remember it is not a knowledge test.
20:55 It is not an IQ test. It is not a test
20:57 of how much you know about a certain
20:59 topic. It is a speaking test. So again,
21:01 if you say nothing, what you're telling
21:04 the examiner is I don't deserve a high
21:06 score. But if you attempt an answer,
21:09 even if in a very very limited way and
21:12 you tell the examiner how you don't know
21:14 much about that topic, the examiner then
21:16 thinks, okay, they might not know much
21:19 about that topic. Let's change topics.
21:21 Let's ask them something slightly
21:23 different and see how they get on. So
21:25 you don't really have much to fear. It's
21:27 far more likely in part three you'll get
21:29 some kind of topic you know something
21:32 about. So how do you shine? How do you
21:34 show the examiner that you deserve a
21:35 band seven, eight or nine? Watch this
21:37 clip and think about what the student
21:40 does in terms of how they structure
21:42 their answer. They do four things. Think
21:44 about the four things that they do. What
21:47 skills does a person need to be a great chef?
21:48 chef?
21:51 >> Interesting. I think I mean from what
21:53 I've heard I've never worked as a chef
21:56 or worked in a kitchen before but I
21:59 think it takes a lot of trial and error.
22:01 So for that reason I would imagine that
22:03 the person would have to be very patient
22:06 and with that patience you need to have
22:08 an inherent uh passion for the food that
22:11 you're making. I think chefs usually
22:14 specialize in in one or more cuisines.
22:17 Um, so just having an understanding of
22:19 the background of the spices, where it
22:21 comes from, of the meat where it comes
22:23 from. If you're not passionate about
22:27 that, it can probably tire you out to be
22:31 that invested in learning. So patience,
22:34 passion, and a good environment like
22:38 access to good teachers, access to good
22:41 books, access to good produce would
22:43 probably help you hone your craft a lot
22:45 more. So number one, they directly
22:48 answered the question right away. Then
22:50 they explained why they think that or
22:52 why other people think that. Then they
22:55 backed it up with examples or you could
22:57 also include a personal story if it's
22:59 applicable. And then they developed it
23:03 even more by showing another point or
23:05 showing the other side of the argument.
23:07 If you follow that fourpoint structure
23:10 and you practice it using
23:13 this PDF, then you will do very very
23:16 well on test day. But if you want even
23:18 more help and you want our help
23:20 one-on-one and you want us to hold your
23:22 hand and take you through exactly what
23:25 to do on test day by giving you all the
23:27 structures, all the strategies and
23:29 one-on-one feedback and to do a mock
23:31 test with either me or one of the other
23:33 ex-examiners on the team, we have our
23:35 VIP course. What I'll do is I'll put a
23:38 10% discount code into the description
23:41 below. Just click on that link. The 10%
23:43 off is automatically applied and you can
23:46 go and join the VIP course that covers
23:48 not just speaking but writing, reading,
23:50 and listening. Everything that you need.
23:52 We often have no places available
23:54 because of the demand for our services
23:55 and the amount of feedback and
23:57 one-on-one attention you'll get. So, not
23:58 guaranteed that there will be places,
24:00 but if there is one, you can go and use
24:03 that 10% off. So now you know the
24:05 strategies band seven, eight, and nine
24:06 students use. But that's just part of
24:08 the way there. You still have a few
24:11 other things to do. Remember, vocabulary
24:13 is a huge part of the speaking test. The
24:15 better you use vocabulary, the higher
24:17 your score will be. Here are two
24:20 different vocabulary lessons that will
24:22 help you improve your vocabulary speaking
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