I'll be your examiner today my name is Asiya Miart
what is your name I'm Alice Rand Can I see your passport please
today I'm inviting you to an IELTS speaking exam to witness some of the most common mistakes IELTS
students make why this topic just the other day I happened to meet up with a
friend of mine as a former IELTS examiner and we talked about mistakes test takers
make that are not really grammatical errors or errors in vocabulary but mistakes all the same
that can lower your score and I'll show you how to avoid them let's get started [Music]
what about this first dialogue you saw without examiner and test taker one of the first things
my friend told me that really stood out is that some students don't look at him and don't
say anything unless they really have to I know you may be feeling extremely nervous but that
shouldn't stop you from smiling and establishing eye contact with the Examiner remember that the
test is a kind of dialogue and the best dialogues are those where each person plays their part and
for the test taker that means been open and friendly for example when the examiner invites
you into the room by quickly checking your name say yes good morning nice to meet you
then when the examiner asks to see your ID don't just hand it over in silence say here you are
that sets the tone of the test and makes you and the examine I feel comfortable from the beginning
now then the exam has started you've introduced yourself shown your ID let's have a look at what
happens next where do you work I'm a chemical engineer and I work for an international
petrochemical company I'm working in the research laboratory where at the moment we're looking for
ways to reduce the sulfur content of heavy oil and is there anything you would like to
change about the place where you work do you know why the examiner interrupted because the
answer sounded memorized we know that at the very start of the speaking test the examiner
is either going to ask us about where we live or what we do and even though the actual questions
can vary from time to time we can now memorize familiar personal details The Examiner wants you
to talk freely and originally about a series of topics and will quickly cut off memorized phrases
it was enough for the test taker to stop at petrochemical company or at most research
laboratory an important thing to remember is that you should not get upset or worried if
the examiner interrupts you now let me show you a couple of brief moments from our exam is the area
where you live a friendly place yes it is what kind of music do you listen to when you are alone
a classical what's the problem here both answers are too short and I invite in the examiner to
ask why just to get you to at least give a short explanation or go into a little detail
this test is a chance to show off your English well you have to take every opportunity you get
to do that in part one you don't need to say that much maybe one or two connected
sentences for example well yes it's pretty friendly most people who live there have
been there for some time so everyone knows you and I guess it's a very close-knit community
excellent that clothes need Community collocation is definitely some Band-Aid vocabulary
generally think about using 20 25 seconds for each answer I listen mostly to classical music
in fact I know it's not very common for someone of my age but I find it really
relaxes me though when I'm with my friends I just listen to you know the latest pop music
you can find More Sample answers and vocabulary to over 40 challenging IELTS speaking topics in our
IELTS speaking library but remember those are just for reference don't learn them by heart maintain
a natural flow of conversation in Parts one and three but what about part two your two-minute talk
where the flow is entirely your responsibility let's take a recent part two topic as an example
describe a time when someone gave you something you really wanted you should mention what it was
when it happened who gave it to you and describe how you felt about it
I'd like to draw your attention to two possible mistakes here is the first I really wanted a
complete collection of hard cover Harry Potter books because first I watched all the movies
and then I started listening to the audiobooks on Audible and that's when I discovered that the
movies emitted so many interesting details the problem with the movies is that have you noticed
the problem happens to all of us sometimes we get lost and start talking about books
and then compare them to movies but then instead of returning to books we continue talking about
this movies and that's not the task if you talk about the movies rather than the books
for too long The Examiner will probably think twice about giving you a high score in fluency
where it mentions to develop the topic fully in the meantime let's return to our exam room
and that's why I was so happy to receive these books for Christmas
oh as I said before I first started listening to Harry Potter on Audible this mistake happens
when we start repeating ourselves plan your answer in the one minute you have
to prepare and practice at home with the timer to know how long your answer should be
this can help you avoid this problem there is another type of repetition that I think is more
interesting because if we become aware of it we can work on ways to avoid it in the speaking test
would you like to travel to space one day Frankly Speaking no it's potentially very dangerous
do you like trying new foods Frankly Speaking I love cooking and eating all kinds of exotic dishes
you see what I mean I'm calling it overusing over dependency we all have words and expressions we
like to use the problem is when we turn them into kind of language crutches will appear to depend on
record yourself practicing and take note of words and expressions you're perhaps using
too frequently once you know them you can work on using them less often also be an overuse of
connecting words you know like however on the other hand or my personal favorite so
it's remarkable how we tend to pick one or two of those and use them all the time
but the overuse of certain connectors is part of another mistake we can make and that takes
us back to the beginning of our talk today uh remember we were saying that uh the IELTS speaking
test should be like a friendly conversation well talking is not the same as writing have a listen
furthermore I strongly believe that children should be taught from infancy to share their
possessions with their peers especially if they have no siblings if you're right on a topic of how
to help young children to socialize with others it looks good but saying it in a conversation
it's far too formal how about this also I really think we need to show young kids how to share this
stuff when they play Above All if they have no brothers or sisters the mistake some of us make
is thinking that because IELTS is a formal test then all our language has to be formal
accurate with a good range of vocabulary yes please don't try to sound too formal
another point that came up in our chat takes us back to repeating but in the
sense of overdoing those expressions we can use to comment on examiners questions
do you think young people today read less than in the past that's an interesting question
do you think parents should limit how much TV their children watch I've never thought about that
before be careful not to use too many comments like this yes it's a good way to give yourself a
second or two to think but it seems that examiners feel that some test takers use these Expressions
far too much my friend recalled times when a candidate would use them before each question
in part three once or twice is enough because it soon starts to sound like you're using memorized
phrases the next mistake may come from the desire to show how fluent you are or just feeling nervous
this is speaking too quickly my friend remembered a test taker whose grammar and
vocabulary were very good but they spoke very quickly with hardly any intonation
remember that the examiner will not be judging if he or she can understand you but whether an
average native speaker not an English teacher will find you easy to understand think about
that so practice record yourself talking and listen to your answers don't make the mistake
of thinking that pronunciation and intonation are less important than grammar of vocabulary and if
you speak too quickly you tend to lose clarity now let's listen to this post-exam question from
our test taker you know in my test I said I like giving advices instead of I like giving advice
how many points will I lose a common mistake is to think that the examiner is only interested
and is actively counting your mistakes actually examiners are looking for positives not negatives
of course they will notice any errors in grammar pronunciation or choice of vocabulary
but not with the intention of trying to put your score down the experienced examiner is trying to
get you to show off your best possible English so try to look forward to this opportunity I
know it may require a big change of attitude my friend for example doesn't like being called so
and says that candidates should use his first name to address him surely you examiner will
seem less scary if you call them Jimmy or Katie I think it 'd be useful for you to watch a full
mock exam and see what happens and what problems students May encounter have one where my dear
students scored very well but not perfect Can you spot what he should work on that's the video and
thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye