- So many students worry about how to introduce themselves
to the examiner.
And what's actually going to happen on test day
when you're doing your IELTS speaking test.
And this can actually cause many students
to get a lower score than they deserve.
So what I'm gonna do in this video is take you from
leaving your home all the way to part one
of the speaking test.
Exactly what is going to happen,
how to introduce yourself,
what's gonna happen at the test center.
And a few vital pieces of information that will help you
perform to the best of your ability.
So this is the examiner on test day,
and this is your home.
I am much better at teaching IELTS than I am at drawing.
I'm terrible at drawing, so forgive the drawings.
So really your preparation starts about 48 hours
before your test.
So about 48 hours before your test,
the first thing is do not cram.
What does cram mean?
It means do not try and study as much as possible
in the days leading up to your speaking test.
You are not going to improve your speaking ability
whatsoever in the days, leading up to your speaking test.
If you cram and you're sitting up all night studying
and trying to frantically find out
how to improve your speaking score,
it will actually lower your speaking score
because you will get desperate, and you will go onto YouTube
and be looking for tips and tricks and hacks and shortcuts.
And most of the stuff about the speaking test online
is totally false and will lower your score.
So do not do this.
What you can do instead is something that we call
an English warmup.
So just like an athlete would warm up before a big event.
What you can do is watch some English movies
or English TV shows, or listen to some podcasts in English,
or read an English book, something like that,
nothing too strenuous, nothing too difficult,
but just a warm yourself up if you want to do something
before your test day.
Also you might not consider this,
but sleep and diet are really important.
We've had students who really deserve
a band eight or a band nine,
and they've got a 6.5 because they didn't sleep very well
the night before, or they didn't eat that morning.
And they got to the test center and they just couldn't do
anything because if you don't sleep well
and you don't have anything in your stomach,
you're not going to have the focus and the energy
to actually perform at your best.
So make sure that you're getting enough sleep in the days,
leading up to your test.
And you're just eating a healthy diet.
So 24 hours before your test.
So the day before your test,
it's really important that you plan your journey.
You wouldn't believe the number of students
that show up late to their speaking test.
And if you show up late, you're going to be very sweaty,
you're going to be very stressed.
And again, if you deserve a band seven
and you show up late and you're very stressed,
you're probably going to get a 6.5 or six.
That's not the fault of the examiner, that's your fault.
It doesn't matter if there was bad traffic,
that's your fault for not planning your journey,
or the bus was late, or the train was late,
or whatever it is your responsibility
to get to the test center on time.
So plan your journey. How are you going to get there?
Are you going to use public transport?
Are you going to use your own transport?
Are you relying on someone else
to bring you to the test center?
Do they know how important it is that you get there on time?
Make sure that you get there at least 30 minutes
before your actual test starts.
Because when you get there,
it's going to be extremely busy.
There's going to be a lot of people who don't know
what they're doing, who are very stressed out.
Often the staff at the exam centers are not very good
at their jobs and they're stressed out.
So if you get there very early and get through
the whole registration process relatively stress-free,
then you can perform to the best of your ability.
And make sure that you pack your ID and water,
and if you need food, if you need medication,
whatever I don't know, whatever you need
in order to perform to the best of your ability,
pack that into a bag the day before.
So it's just one less thing to worry about, okay.
So on the day of the test,
you wanna get to the test center at least 30 minutes
before you need to register.
And you're gonna go in and the staff at the test center
will register you.
They'll also allow you to, you know,
if you have a bike, if you have any belongings,
they will give you a locker or a key or somewhere
to keep your belongings, keep your bags safe.
So don't worry about bringing all this stuff.
You don't have to bring it into the exam room.
You'll then be asked to go to some kind of a waiting room
where you will wait outside the test room,
and wait for the examiner to call you.
So make sure you use the toilet
if you need to use the toilet.
Again, it sounds very funny,
but this has led to people failing their tests.
Or they are very nervous,
they don't know where the toilet is,
they don't go to the toilet and then they're focused
on not peeing themselves
rather than answering the questions.
It sounds ridiculous, but it does happen.
And you need to do something while you're waiting outside
this room to relax.
That could be breathing,
that could be some kind of meditation,
whatever works for you.
But if you sit outside the exam room and just think about
how terrible your speaking is, and you're going to fail,
and you're just thinking of very very negative thoughts
that is going to influence your performance.
So you need something to take your mind off
those negative thoughts.
And what I would do is what we advise our students to do is
tell yourself how much preparation you've done.
Think about how good you are
at speaking the English language.
You deserve to get the score that you need
because you've put in the work, right?
And also accept that nerves,
so being nervous, being anxious, this is normal.
This is your body preparing you physiologically
for a stressful situation.
So it's going to dump adrenaline into your system.
And that is why you feel nervous.
So just observe that as something that is good,
because it's going to help you focus.
So be aware that that is happening to you.
It will happen to you, but you use it in a positive way.
And then the examiner is going to come out of this door.
And they're going to invite you in to the test room.
Now, I haven't put a smiley face here for a reason.
Many students think that if the examiner is not friendly,
or the examiner is not smiling,
that it means that the examiner is going to give them
a low score or the examiner doesn't like them,
or the examiners in a bad mood,
and they're going to automatically give you a lower score.
The examiner is doing their job.
Some of them are friendly, some of them are not so friendly
that has no influence over your performance
and over your score.
What influences your score is your performance,
not the mood or whether the examiner has a big smile
on their face or not.
So how do you greet the examiner?
That's the title of this video and many of the videos
that you'll find on YouTube and blogs and stuff like that
will tell you to greet the examiner in a very specific way.
And if you greet the examiner in a certain way,
you will improve your score.
That is total BS.
It does not matter
how you greet them.
It's simply does not matter.
They are not even thinking about your score right now.
The test only begins after they ask the first question
in part one.
Any teacher or YouTuber or so-called expert
that is teaching you that if you greet the examiner
in a certain way, you'll get a higher score.
They have never been an examiner.
and they don't know what they're doing.
Because anyone who has been an examiner knows
that you do not score the student until
you ask the first question in part one.
But one thing that you should do is speak to them
like they are human.
The examiner is not special.
They are not more intelligent than you are.
They are not more important than you are.
If they were very intelligent and very important,
they wouldn't be an IELTS examiner in a foreign country,
listening to you on a Saturday morning.
They are a human being.
This is not going to influence your score,
speaking to them like a human being,
but it's going to help you relax.
And if you're relaxed and just speaking to them
like you would a normal human, then your pronunciation,
your fluency, your grammar, your vocabulary
is all going to naturally be better.
Because our brains operate more fluidly more effectively
when we're not stressed, when we're not nervous.
If you think that the examiner is this really important
person, and you need to speak to them like they are,
you know, the president of the country
that you're currently in that is nonsense
and you're going to speak to them in a very robotic
unnatural academic formal way.
IELTS are not judging your ability to speak in that way.
They're judging your ability to speak just normally
to normal people.
So speak to them like they're a human being
that's going to help you relax
and everything will be much better if you do that.
So they'll ask you to sit down
and you'll sit down opposite them,
and they will be recording what you are saying already.
Even though the recording, what you're saying already,
they don't use this to judge your score.
Your score doesn't begin until they ask you
the first question in part one,
but don't be put off by this.
Also, they might make some notes.
Don't worry about what notes they make.
So it's a very common thing that the examiner
will write numbers.
So it might be a number like the timing
or something like that.
And you will look at it and think, oh my God,
they wrote down five, I'm at a band five.
Or they might write down nine,
and you think that you've got a band nine.
These have nothing to do with your score.
So ignore the notes that they're making.
They'll then ask you if they can like double check your ID,
hand it to them, you don't have to worry about this.
And then they'll ask you two questions.
What's your name? Just tell them your name.
There is no special way of telling your name.
That's not that complicated.
And then they'll say, what can I call you?
And you just say, you can call me whatever,
whatever your name is, whatever you want to be called.
Again there's no special way of saying this.
Just tell them you're not being judged yet.
Then part one will begin and they will ask you
about some common topics.
So home, home town,
work or study.
A very common mistake that many students make
is because they're anticipating these topics.
They will memorize answers for these topics.
Do not do this.
If you do this, what you will do is you will indicate
to the examiner that you don't know how to speak English,
because memorization and communication
are two very very different things.
And you're basically giving the examiner the first
impression that you were trying to cheat the test.
And what will happen is you will give a very long
memorized answer for one of these common topics,
with lots of great vocabulary and lots of great grammar,
and you're very fluent.
Then they'll ask you about some unusual topics.
Why do you think they do that?
Why do you think, they'll say, do you like hats?
Or when was the last time you bought a birthday cake?
They will ask you about these more unusual topics,
because they know that you're not expecting these.
You don't have memorized answers for these,
and they will judge you on your answer
for the more unusual topics.
In other words, they answered that you did not memorize.
So just again, speak to them like they're a human.
If a human asked you, do you work or do you study
or tell me about your home town,
you would just answer naturally.
And it's also important to realize that
the first few questions in part one are just a warmup.
They're a warmup for you because just like again,
like an athlete, you need to relax into the test.
The examiner is considering what you're saying,
but they're not judging you too harshly at the beginning
of part one, because they know they're just warming up.
This also gives the examiner a chance to warm up
and get used to your accent,
your style of speaking, your pronunciation
and focusing on what's actually happening.
So that's it hope that you enjoyed this video.
And if you want more information
about the IELTs speaking tests,
go to ieltsadvantage.com
you'll find a huge amount of information,
or you'll find lots of other speaking videos
on this YouTube channel.
If you click below in the comments or sorry,
in the description, you will find a free speaking course.
It's a three-day course that will show you exactly
what you need to do in part one part two,
and part three of the speaking test.
But because you're watching this video,
your test is probably tomorrow.
So you probably won't have time to do the test,
or do the course.
If that is the case, good luck and remember,
speak to the examiner like they are a human.
(upbeat music)