good morning aubry how's it going i'm doing great my kids are back in school after spring break so
it's hard to have them home and get anything done so i'm very excited that they're back in school
you have an early spring break it's so weird that it's like completely different across the country
james spring break is next week and then my mom works for schools in california and their spring
break is like three weeks from now like so to start a lot earlier because oh that's right during
the summer so we go back to school a couple weeks before everyone else so it's according to that
right so yeah it's always early you know guys i want to encourage you to not fast forward through
the beginning conversations of these episodes because i know some students do i know i listen
to some podcasts when i do that i'm like i just want to get to the information that i'm listening
for but guys for you as isles candidates whether you're watching us on ielts energy tv on youtube
or if you're following the podcast wherever you get podcasts guys the beginning conversations um
they are exactly how you should speak on your speaking test now this might be a surprise for
some students right and that's what we're talking about today i don't speaking do you
know what you're doing this is like one of my favorite titles we've had in a while i know it's
really fun because a lot of students out there a lot of our listeners i think they feel that
they don't really know what they're doing that's why they're here to get the tips like i need to
be more confident and know that i'm knowing what i'm doing but i think we also have listeners that
do feel like they know what they are doing and they might actually have some myths some false
information that they don't realize isn't true so totally whichever of those camps you guys fit into
today's episode is going to be really useful for you yeah guys so we're going to give you the top
five myths or misunderstandings that students have about ielts speaking um before we get to
those myths we have a couple uh pieces of news to talk about and they're related to speaking guys
um first we want to give a shout out to all of our chinese followers who are looking for us and
enjoying our speaking tips on chinese social media in case you guys didn't know we do post videos on
lrb and billy billy so check us out on there guys um and people can also read long articles about
deeper learning that we are fans of on wechat we have an official account so wherever
you are in the world guys all ears english is on your social media channels um now we had another
interesting question which does also connect to speaking more naturally learning how to speak and
being able to evaluate speaking what was that other interesting question we had from a follower
aubrey yes we have a student who emailed us saying that they want to be an ielts examiner in turkey
and they were asking what are what do i need to know what should i study what can i do to prepare
in advance and it's true it's really i think the better you understand what the examiner knows and
does and has learned and is looking for the better you will do on the speaking exam so this is all so
related definitely um i've already emailed that student telling them how uh examiners are made
and accepted um but guys just remember that i was an ielts examiner for 14 years i have been
involved professionally with the ielts exam for a very long time and aubrey knows everything i know
uh because she is three keys certified so all of this insider information today guys we know this
because we have the insider information and we help thousands of students pass the ielts exam
and so we know what their problems are and how to fix them so let's get right into it what is
the first sort of misunderstanding students have about ielts yes so all of these are
based on questions our students have had for us or things that they do in practice exams and classes
and we realize oh you have a misunderstanding something needs to be clarified so the first one
is about speaking part one where a lot of students feel that they need to use formal impressive
academic language and they're avoiding using slang and idioms and informal speech
because they're thinking band 9 vocabulary this has to be impressive and uncommon this totally
really going to hurt your vocabulary score because you need that variety of vocabulary you need that
informal vocabulary and it's more appropriate for a lot of these part one questions which are
personal questions that a friend would ask you exactly exactly um on the scoring rubric right
that the examiner looks at remember that there's not there aren't separate tables of information
for speaking part one speaking part two speaking part three you're not graded individually you're
graded on your performance as a whole that's why one of the descriptors for band seven or higher
vocabulary on speaking is that you the student you the candidate show a range of vocabulary so
a range that means informal semi-formal formal so the misunderstanding here comes from students
not having access to insiders like us and it also is misleading when students look for quote
unquote ielts vocabulary online and it's like band nine vocab or whatever and it's all these like
it's basically the academic word list you know um but like aubry said that stuff doesn't make sense
in in part one you know if you're asked about your favorite color you're not going to say like um
well in my research into psychological effects of varying hues on one's mental state
like that's that's so weird i felt weird saying it um you're not gonna do that you're gonna be like
oh my god this is this is funny because honestly my entire life i for some reason have been most
comfortable with the color blue and every hue of blue from navy to turquoise right and so
that makes a lot more sense as a part one answer exactly right if you try to get academic think
about it just doesn't make sense and the problem is students get where they're seeing the examiner
and so they put themselves in the role of a student so they feel like they need to speak
like a student use academic language be respectful in their tone and that can really hurt you because
if the examiner is asking you a question a friend would ask to ask you that's the appropriate tone
that's the appropriate vocabulary how would you answer that question if a friend asked you exactly
exactly so that's how we choose um the vocabulary that we use when we're answering in part one
now this connects to our second point guys because this is also like this is a tricky thing you do
have to speak like you are speaking to a friend to some extent and that is just in your word choice
right however this is point two guys you still can't approach this like a conversation with a
friend because a conversation with a friend is um it's two ways like you are asking them questions
and they are talking as well right but that is not part of the ielts exam guys um when i was an
examiner it's always an uncomfortable and awkward thing if a candidate asks me a question because
guys as an examiner i am not allowed to go off script i must follow the script in my testing
booklet word for word in most cases until i get to part three and i can develop the conversation
and think of my own questions but other than that i have to only say what's on these pieces of
paper in front of me guys so if you're like well what do you think what's your favorite color the
examiner can't answer you so instead i have to be like i just have to nod silently and ask you
another question so like that's weird so don't talk directly to the examiner that's point two
yeah that's the tricky line to um tread right to use this informal vocabulary use the slang
but not see it as a conversation you can't ask them any questions even justify like what about
you what do you think would be awkward they're just going to ask the next question so avoid
that don't approach it like a conversation but think about your vocabulary how would i what
vocabulary would i use what slang would i use if i were speaking to a peer to a friend or a colleague
exactly exactly all right so the next two points guys are both about speaking part two
this first one we have covered on this show guys so we won't spend that much time on it
but just to remind you guys in speaking part two you do not have to talk about those bullet points
okay again as an examiner i almost never even looked at the bullet points we don't care about
the bullet points on that card on that part 2q card it is not part of your score if you do only
focus on those bullet points you won't have enough to say you're not going to fill the two minutes
and it's not natural it's a weird answer if you just focus on those three bullet points right
and i wonder if students collocate the bullet points on the general task one letter sometimes
with the bullet points on task part two speaking totally i really want to separate those in your
mind right yeah for that letter you're given those three bullet points and you absolutely have
to address them directly that's a very different thing for writing so don't associate them together
the bullet points for writing and speaking think of it as the bullet points on writing
are very important we have to look at those we have to read them think about them address them
when it comes to speaking it's actually better to ignore those bullet points they're a suggestion
the examiner is likely not even going to look at them and they might derail you
when you should be telling a story and sharing all these interesting details if you're feeling
like i have to address these bullet points and then you address those and have nothing else to
say you need to speak for that full two minutes so don't let those bullet points keep you from
doing that in a fluent way exactly exactly and then uh number four here guys also about part two
misunderstanding or myth number four um a lot of students still think that their part two answer
has to be like perfectly organized like it's a task two essay or something with an introduction
and a body and a conclusion um again guys always keep in mind that the examiner is not grading you
part by part there is nothing in the scoring rubric that is like part two has a conclusion
that it there's not part of how i'm grading you as a speaking examiner guys um in speaking part
two in fact it is better to not have a conclusion because that means you are like part way through
a story or part way through a tangent or a side note and the examiner must stop you ask you the
closing question for part two and move to part three that is better that shows your fluency
right whereas um if you are like really focused on fitting in like introduction conclusion
again like it's weird like nobody talks like that and and secondly you probably will like
be so worried about the conclusion that you're not gonna finish the two minutes you just like
go through your notes say a conclusion and then there's that awkward silence for the rest of
the two minutes while the examiner looks at you moves her hand to be like keep talking and like
you don't want that to happen so again don't worry about a conclusion often in speaking classes if a
student shares a conclusion and then their space they'll sort of awkwardly start trying to share
other details something else there's going to be some kind of pause hesitation gap so yeah you're
exactly right the the likelihood that you're going to start your conclusion at the exact right time
to finish at exactly two minutes is almost nil right it's so unlikely that you're probably going
to have space at the end yeah just don't do it don't worry about concluding keep telling the
story share more details go off on a tangent let the examiner stop you at two minutes and
i think like um something else that might happen if you're worried about a conclusion
is that you plan on having a conclusion and then you run out of time and you don't get to say it
and then you feel as a candidate you feel thrown off and then you're like panicked in part three
because you're already telling yourself like if you guys are watching this on youtube i'm itching
my nose right now because i have a little bit of a cold i don't i know it looks bad but that's what's
happening um so um we don't want you to have like unrealistic expectations of yourself and also
the wrong expectations right because then you're going to be panicked for no reason
so that's another reason don't worry about the conclusion all right now the last misunderstanding
we want to clear up today about the ielts speaking exam has to do with part three guys um we still
get a lot of questions from students and comments on our youtube videos with sample answers like but
you sounded too informal for part three i don't think that's a good answer or you use you talked
about personal information in part three that's not a good answer so why are those why are those
comments wrong aubrey yeah because for part three you absolutely can use slaying idioms informal
language and you absolutely can use personal examples as long as you're answering the question
even if it is talking about society as a whole if you answer that and then make it personal to share
why you feel that way that is all on topic that is all answering the question there is nothing in
the scoring rubric that says part three has to be informal vocabulary and there can be no personal
examples the examiner is just looking for you to answer the question in a fluent way and if you can
do that using a personal example you're actually likely to give a better answer with more details
more interesting information make it personal if you can yep it all comes back to the scoring
system guys it's about your ability to communicate naturally and effectively and using personal
examples to prove your opinions or support your ideas in part three that is effective and natural
right and that's what it's all about um and do remember that it still is a range that we're
looking for so yes it is totally natural to use some informal language in part three but you do
also have to use some formal academic language in part three so it's gonna be a mixture there okay
all right guys so if you are wondering what you would get on your ielts exam if you took it today
right now you can find out for free take our super fun ielts quiz and get some free resources we made
for you guys go to aliasenglish.com my score to take that free ielts quiz all right sweet
awesome aubry thanks for chatting today yeah i'll see you next time bye-bye