I was chatting to an IELTS examiner about things that stop students doing well on their speaking and writing tests and one thing he said was really interesting- ‘The speaking and writing tests are not lie detector tests.’ What he means is that many students think that you have to tell the absolute truth. You […]
Speaking
7 Ways Idioms Can LOWER Your IELTS Score
I probably get asked more questions about idioms than any other single thing. Every day I get questions like: Will using idioms increase my score? Which idioms should I use? How many idioms should I use in the speaking test? Should I use idioms in the writing test? This is one of the most misunderstood […]
7 IELTS Fluency Problems
Of all of the things I assess on the IELTS Speaking test, the most common problem is fluency. Fluency is your ability to speak smoothly (not quickly) without noticeable effort or loss of coherence. Poor fluency is normally associated with frequent self-correction, hesitation, pausing or repetition. In order to help you improve your fluency I will […]
IELTS Speaking Topics Video
https://youtu.be/6TbaOA-tlQA
Speaking Part 3 Tips
After your 2 minute monologue in Part 2 of the Speaking test, the examiner will ask you around 4-5 more abstract questions about the same general topic you talked about in Part 2. For example, if Part 2 was about mobile phones, they might ask you deeper, more complex questions about mobiles like: How have […]
IELTS Speaking Part 2 Tips
Many consider Speaking Part 2 to be the most difficult part of the IELTS Speaking test because it is a monologue. A monologue is different from the rest of the test because you will be speaking alone, without any questions or help from the examiner. The examiner will give you a cue card similar to […]