Besides being a travel blogger, my day job is to give tips for IELTS Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing. I’m working as an English Proficiency Guide under MedPro International. I teach nurses, medical laboratory technicians, and even Physical Therapists. In this post, I’m going to give tips on how to get a band score higher than 7!
1. Know the criteria.
There are four criteria in IELTS Speaking: Fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. Now that you know the criteria, you need to make sure that you satisfy all of them.
2. Be Confident.
This tip may sound cliché but you really need it. Most of my students who works inside the laboratory say that they rarely talk to people that’s why they find it hard to converse, especially using the English language. My tip is to pretend that you’re confident. Fake it till you make it! When you enter the examination room, greet the interviewer with a smile and confidence. Fluency is the ability to express yourself confidently.
3. Talk as much as you can.
Start at home and in your workplace. Keep in mind that you will work in the United States and English is their native language. It may sound funny at first to suddenly speak English with your family members and colleagues but it will help you in your preparation. Tell them that you are going to take the IELTS. Ask them to correct you if you have wrong grammar or pronunciation.
4. Use cohesive devices.
Apart from being fluent, you must also organize your thoughts well. Make sure that your ideas fit together smoothly. Don’t just enumerate your answers in part 2. Use cohesive devices as transitions when you are going to talk about another idea.
5. Always paraphrase.
Don’t repeat what’s on the question. If the questions says “What’s your favorite food?”, don’t say “My favorite food is….”. Try to be more creative by saying, “The food that I love to eat is…”
Use vocabulary that you think will impress the examiner. Paraphrase but don’t overdo it. Spending so much time thinking about what word to say affects your fluency.
6. Don’t be a Grammar Nazi.
It’s important that your subject verb agreement is correct. It’s also essential that you are consistent with the tenses of your verb. However, if you made a mistake, don’t panic. You can correct yourself right away but don’t overdo it. Even native speakers commit grammatical mistakes. The more you correct yourself, the more it is noticeable to the interviewer. So chill!
7. Speak Clearly.
You don’t need to have an American or British accent to pass the IELTS. You just need to utter the words clearly. Speak at the right pace. Don’t speak too fast or too slow. In addition, learn the difference between letters I and E, O and U, P and F, and V and B!
8. Give examples and experiences.
Ideally, you need to talk for about 11 to 14 minutes. Don’t give a short answer. Try to extend your answers by providing examples and experiences.
9. Be prepared for challenges.
What if you didn’t hear the question? What if you don’t know the meaning of a certain word? The best way to address this is to ask for clarification in a subtle way. Repeat any word you heard and then ask the interviewer to be specific. He might repeat the question again. This gives you more time to think.
10. Practice.
There are so many resources online. You can even download some IELTS Speaking Applications. Read a lot of practice tests.
I wrote these tips for IELTS Speaking based on my experience in teaching. I hope these are helpful for you! If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment.
Read more about my IELTS Experience:
Book for an exam using this link: https://www.ieltsessentials.com/global/ieltshome
Thankyou for the tips,very educative