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Help – My IELTS Speaking Test is tomorrow!
I hear this often with IELTS students. I really don’t understand why people leave it so late.
Going over the exam procedure, making sure that you know what to do and when things are happening, checking the times etc.. is one thing you should do the night before, but trying to address the whole speaking test the night before or even in the days before the exam begs the question – should you even be doing the exam?
What should you do the night before an IELTS exam?
In actual fact my advice to students the night before their exam is (after they have checked the points mentioned above) to relax, watch a movie, read a book or magazine (in English) and go to bed early!
Students are used to late night cram sessions but this will not help you to be fresh for your exam.
Frankly I would not be prepared to give this kind of last-minute coaching for two reasons. Firstly it wouldn’t be helpful and I don’t want anybody investing their time and money in something that isn’t going to help them to succeed and secondly, I have a feeling that if the result wasn’t the one wanted then I’d probably get the blame!
So, my BIG message to all IELTS students in this post is please, please don’t leave things to the last-minute.
If you take a driving test do you get into the car the day before for the first time? Language is a skill the more you practice the better you get generally. Speaking is the most fundamental part of a language and you just need to find opportunities to practice. If you can’t speak well how on earth will you manage in your new country, your new job, or your new study? That’s what the IELTS is testing! Do you have the right level of English to succeed in the venture that you are embarking upon?
Preparation is the key to IELTS Success
Your approach to preparation in the IELTS tells me a lot about how you will succeed. This is what the success students do
- They are organised, and have a plan and who create a process for their learning and their preparation.
- They balance their general English practice with their IELTS test practice and know that it is impossible to get a good band without both.
However, I also meet students who keep on just ‘having a go’. This approach to the IELTS exam is VERY EXPENSIVE and will not guarantee you success. If you do not get exposure to English except via the Cambridge practice tests then getting a high band score is going to take a VERY long time and in some cases where a student’s English is not of a high level it will be impossible.
There are no short cuts in IELTS. Either you have the language or not and no amount of IELTS practice can make up for a lack of good English language skills just as really great language may still not get you your score if you don’t prepare well for the exam itself.
So, particularly in the speaking, make sure you give yourself the best chance and start to practice as soon as you can and way before you go into the exam.
When it comes to speaking there is no substitute for actually doing it, getting out into the world and creating opportunities to use English with other people. These don’t have to be English native speakers – you can practice with other people who speak well or with other IELTS candidates who are looking for the same band score as you.
How can I practise?
Yesterday I was speaking to Zakir from Pakistan. He is taking his test this week and he told me how in the last test he only scored a low score but wanted to get a 6 or 6.5 this time. His strategy for improving his score is to speak every day with a friend who is about the same level and they go through the test pretending one of them is the examiner and the other the IELTS candidate. They choose lots of topics and ask and answer the questions as if it were the real exam. They also take some time to chat as well. I was amazed at his level of fluency and confidence through using this simple technique to improve his speaking. If you don’t have the chance to speak to a teacher, join a class or converse with English speakers then a simple arrangement like this will really help you to get some fluency and use your English.
On my Gapfillers site I encourage members to find speaking buddies – other members who are on the same IELTS journey who they can connect with on Skype in order to practise the speaking. I also run speaking workshops where we practise the test and talk about how to approach the speaking using practice exercises to improve performance. The speaking may only be a short part of the test but I really feel that it is one in which you can have a lot of influence over your score so it’s really worth making that extra effort to make it good!
So, here are some tips to improve your speaking:
- Find speaking buddies to practise with
- Record yourself – it’s good to hear how you sound and this will help you to hear where you hesitate or where your speaking might not be clear
- Take any opportunity you can to speak – join a local English club or start one yourself! Look for an online one or start one yourself
- Choose some topics write them on bits of paper, fold these up, put them in a container – everyday choose one at random and speak about it non-stop for 1 minute (then extend to 2 minutes) Choose some ‘silly’ topics like oranges or purple shoes etc.. if you can manage 2 minutes on this then the IELTS Part Two will not be a problem
- Don’t stick to IELTS books go beyond this and just get out into the world to found opportunities if you have a wider experience then you will have much more to say in the IELTS exam
- For pronunciation find recordings of poems or other short pieces and try to imitate the speakers – record yourself and compare
Do you need help with your IELTS exam?
As a former IELTS examiner and with over 15 years of experience preparing and coaching people for the exam especially at Bands 7 and 8 I know what it takes to achieve these scores.
Check out my Free Webinar “The 5 biggest IELTS mistakes and how to avoid them” – you can access it immediately by clicking here.
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