In Part 2 of your IELTS Speaking test,
if you can’t think of an example
of the topic you are given to talk about,
what are you going to do?
If you’re not sure,
keep watching because in this video
I’m going to show you a simple and effective strategy
for dealing with this problem,
and what not to do,
so that you have the best chance
of getting the IELTS band score you need.
You’ll also see how an IELTS Speaking band score 7 candidate
used this strategy
when he couldn’t think of an example to talk about,
and how you can use this strategy too.
My name’s Pete Jones
and, with 10 years’ experience as an IELTS examiner
and even more as an IELTS teacher,
I’ve seen almost every kind of problem
you could have in the IELTS test.
I’ve also seen which strategies
for dealing with these problems work and which don't.
And I’ll be talking about more of these strategies in other videos.
So if you’re new to my channel,
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One common problem you may experience
is getting a difficult topic in IELTS Speaking Part 2.
Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test
is the part where you’re given a topic to talk about
for one to two minutes
and, before you start talking,
you have one minute to think about what you’re going say
and make notes if you want.
Here’s the Part 2 topic that was difficult
for the IELTS Speaking band score 7 candidate
you’ll see later in the video.
Now, what’s difficult for one person can be easy for another.
If the topic I just showed you
isn’t difficult for you to talk about,
you should still keep watching
so you know what to do
if you do get a difficult topic in your test.
A difficult topic is one that you can’t think of an example for
or one that you can think of an example for
but can't speak about in English easily.
A topic is also difficult
if it includes some vocabulary that you don’t understand,
but in this case,
you just need to ask the examiner
what the word or words mean.
So, when you do understand the topic
but you can’t think of an appropriate example to talk about,
what’s the best strategy to use?
Well, a simple and effective strategy
is to be honest
by telling the examiner you can’t think of an example
and then changing the topic slightly
to one that you can think of an example for.
For this Speaking Part 2 topic,
you could change the topic slightly
by talking about an article instead of a book,
talking about a book that you didn’t enjoy
instead of one you enjoyed,
or talking about a book that you’d like to read
rather than one you’ve already read.
In each case, you should start by telling the examiner
how and why you are changing the topic,
and then you can still use the points on the task card
to help you organise your ideas
and keep talking for 2 minutes.
Here’s an example of an IELTS Speaking band score 7 candidate,
Sam from Spain,
changing the topic slightly
because it would have been too difficult
for him to talk about easily if he hadn’t.
Notice how he starts by explaining
how and why he is changing the topic,
and then uses the points on the task card
to organise his ideas.
Normally, I don't read books,
and even less in English,
but I read almost every day articles.
The last article that I read was about global warming.
Why I decide to be reading about that?
Well, basically, I am concern about global warming.
There are many things happening around the world
that I don't wanna go deep into those topics,
but in general I consider that,
as a human being living in the planet,
we have to be conscious of the importance
of taking care of the environment.
So I always try to get, like, update data
about this specific situation.
And this article really
was pushing me to think in a different way,
to understand how critical could be the problem
if we don't start, like, changing the way
how we are consuming,
or the way how we are behaving as a society.
I can see that this can be very critical
if we don't really start being thinking seriously
about that situation.
Why I enjoy reading about that...
Basically get any kind of new knowledge about global warming
is very important for me
because I can really understand what's happening nowadays
around the world,
and I can feel that I will be in the same page
with whatever happens around the world.
I always wanna keep myself conscience,
and I wanna always trying to be doing as much as I can
to cooperate, to be collaborating,
to reach this goal to have a much better environment.
So, Sam started by explaining that he didn’t often read books
but he reads articles almost every day,
and he then talked about the last article he’d read,
using the points on the task card
to help organise and develop his ideas.
He used the same strategy of changing the topic slightly
when he took an IELTS Speaking test
and was very happy to get the IELTS band score he needed.
Now, you may be wondering why you shouldn't just
ask the examiner for another topic instead.
It sounds like a simple strategy, right?
Well, if you do ask,
it’s very unlikely that the examiner will give you a different topic,
and you’ll still have to talk about the one they’ve given you.
You’ll also have wasted some of the time you have
to think about your answer and take notes.
You may be wondering why you have to use a real example
and whether it would be easier just to make an example up.
You can do this, of course,
because there’s no lie detector in the IELTS Speaking test
and the examiner isn’t going to check
if what you’re saying is true.
In my experience though,
IELTS candidates who make something up
usually run out of things to say
or are not easy to follow
because they hesitate a lot,
repeat ideas
or don’t develop their ideas clearly.
And if you run out of things to say
or if your ideas are not easy for the examiner to follow,
it will affect your band score.
So, if you get a difficult topic in IELTS Speaking Part 2,
change the topic slightly
to one you can think of an example for,
tell the examiner how and why you’re changing the topic,
and then follow the points on the task card.
For the Speaking Part 2 topic in this video,
you could start your talk by saying
I don’t read a lot of books, but I do often read articles,
I can’t think of a book I’ve read
but I can think of one I’d like to read,
or I can't think of a book I enjoyed reading,
but I can think of one I didn't enjoy.
Being honest is a simple and effective strategy
because you can use all of the one-minute preparation time
to plan what you’re going to say,
you’re more likely to be able to talk for 2 minutes,
and you can still use the points on the task card to help.
All of this will give you the best chance
of getting the band score you need,
and you won’t lose marks for doing it
as long as you explain at the beginning,
like the examples you’ve just seen.
I’d love to hear in the comments below
if you’ve seen, or been given,
a difficult IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic
and how you would change it slightly now that you know how.
If you want to learn other strategies
for dealing with problems in the IELTS test,
check out my other strategy videos
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so you don’t miss the next one.
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