How to Prepare for the IELTS Oral Exam

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

The IELTS oral test: the IELTS speaking test lasts from 11 to 14 minutes and takes place in the form of an oral question between the candidate and the examiner. During the questioning, you will have to answer the questions posed by the examiner, speak comprehensively about a topic chosen by the examiner and justify your views on a number of aspects related to it. The test consists of three main parts:

Some personal questions about yourself, your life, your interests
A short conversation on a particular topic
A discussion on topics related to the above conversation

Steps

Step 1. Relax and speak as naturally as possible

Candidates who fail to fully engage in the conversation * may not reach their potential score range. This may be because they have not been able to fully demonstrate the language property they are capable of producing.

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Step 2. Learn how the oral exam is assessed:

the purpose of the test is to test your ability to communicate effectively. The examiner judges this skill according to four different components:

Fluency and consistency: This measures your ability to speak without too many pauses or hesitations. It also takes into account how accurately and clearly your opinions are received.
Lexical Resources: This aspect relates to your use of terms and the contextual property and accuracy of the vocabulary you choose to use. It will not only be considered how you select words, but also how appropriately you use them.
Grammatical context and accuracy: The variety of grammar constructions you use and the degree of correctness with which you apply them are both judged by the examiner. Therefore, in each phase of Speaking, the extent of the number of grammatical forms is as important as the appropriate use of them.
Pronunciation: This aspect does not only concern individual terms, but also entire sentences. The examiner will consider how easily what you say is understood.

Step 3. Be prepared to answer the questions in the first part of the question

This begins with an introduction in which the examiner asks you basic questions about yourself and asks to see your identification. At this point he will continue with further questions about yourself, your family / city, your job or studies and a range of similar topics that are familiar to you. This part of the test lasts 4-5 minutes and in it you should give longer answers to make sure you show your best skills. What is being tested is your ability to:

Provide complete answers to all questions
Give longer answers to certain questions
Convey information through descriptions and explanations

Step 4.:

Sample questions: the examiner will ask for general information on topics such as:

Your country of origin
The city where you live
How long have you lived there
What do you do: study or work
Your interests and future projects

Step 5.:

It is not possible to predict which topics will be addressed at this point by the examiner; however, some familiar topics related to yourself or your country could be:

Family and family relationships
Modern and traditional lifestyles
Modern or traditional buildings
Tourism and tourist places
Festivities and cultural activities
School and the education system
Life in the city and in the countryside

Step 6. Know what you might expect

The introductory section of the test will run more or less as follows:

The examiner greets the candidate and introduces himself.
The examiner asks the candidate to clearly state their name, due to the recorder, and confirms the candidate's country of origin.
The examiner then asks to see the identification of the candidate. The rest of the first phase of the test will be structured as follows:
The examiner will ask the candidate a series of questions about his city or occupation.
The examiner will ask questions about a known topic or of general interest.
He could ask three to five questions that will lead to the extension or development of this topic.
The examiner may also question the candidate on more than one topic.

At this stage of the test, some typical questions might be:

What's your name?
What country are you from?
Describe your city to me.
Where do you live?
Tell me about your family members.
What do you study?
What is your least favorite thing in your studies?
Do you like to eat at the restaurant? Because?
Which means of transport do you use the most? Because?
Where would you like to go on vacation? Because?
Tell me who you would most like to go on vacation with.

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Step 7. Carefully evaluate what you know about each of the topics mentioned

Try to think of all the questions you might ask someone you want to try to get to know and make sure you have all the vocabulary you need to discuss the various topics in depth. Check and train the pronunciation of each new term. Practice stretching your answers. You will have a better result in the IELTS interrogation if your speech is fluent. Also, you will be more likely to speak fluently if you have already thought about the subject and have some ideas to express. Before the test, think about the language you will need to use to discuss these topics. This does not mean memorizing or rehearsing a speech over and over, as you can never be sure what will be asked of you. You should also prepare yourself to use tenses such as past, present, and present perfect to describe your current situation. For example: "I have been studying English for two years, since I moved to the city".

Step 8. Prepare for the second part of the question

This is the most challenging phase. The examiner will give you a card with ideas related to a particular topic. These tips are meant to help you prepare a short one or two minute speech. You will be given a minute to organize your thoughts and make notes. The examiner will then ask you one or two questions formulated accordingly, at the conclusion of this part of the test. The second part will last three to four minutes, including one minute of preparation for your speech. What is being examined is your ability to:

Talk about a topic in detail
Develop your ideas in a speech
Use grammar correctly and speak clearly

Step 9. Example:

describe a person from your youth who had a great influence on you:

You should say:
Where did you meet her
What was his relationship with you
What made it special
How it affected you so much.

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Step 10. Before the test, you should practice talking about topics for a minute or two, first taking notes appropriate to the topic to help you

Register and then listen to the recording paying attention to how clear your pronunciation is and how well you have selected the vocabulary. You will also need to practice taking notes in the form of bulleted lists, symbols and abbreviations. There are many ways to do this.

For example: if you are preparing the speech from the example above: "Describe a person from your youth who had a great influence on you" and you are thinking of your grandmother, who was a musician and took care of you when you were little, he taught you to play the piano, talked to you often about music and musicians and encouraged you to express your feelings through many different forms of music, then your notes might look like this:
Grandmother
Musician
He taught me the plan
Intro. Me -> Many kinds of music
Encourage feelings through music
Great influence

Step 11. As you speak, take each point you have written and expand it into complete sentences, but also add more information

Eg:

"Grandmother" could become: "The person who had the greatest influence on me was, in truth, my father's mother: my grandmother; she had grown up in the countryside and moved to the city in 1965 to have a better education. " and "Intro. I-> Many kinds of music" could become: "You opened my life to music in its many and different forms. We made music by clapping our hands, using bottles, jars, pots and pans and everything we could use, in the same way as the piano. My life was full of music"

Step 12. Use examples from your life experience

You can talk about these things more easily than stories made up or read somewhere. Try to relax and enjoy the experience of telling the examiner as much interesting information as you can about yourself.

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Step 13. Prepare for the extended third party conversation

After asking a follow-up question or two, the examiner will guide you in an extended conversation about the topics you talked about in the second part of the test. He will broaden the discussion on the topics covered in the second part of the test, possibly starting by asking you to describe something, then asking you to try your hand at something a little more difficult like comparing, evaluating or hypothesizing. The questions will get slightly more difficult as the third part goes on. Finally, the examiner will conclude the oral exam simply by saying something like:

Thank you, this is the end of the oral exam

Step 14. Know what is being examined

.. your ability to:

Give in-depth answers to questions regarding the topic.
Use the language of comparison, evaluation or hypothesis.
Explain and justify your views, statements, predictions, motivations, etc.

Step 15. Practice with sample questions:

it is not possible to predict which questions you will be asked at this point of the test, apart from being sure that the topic will relate to the one addressed in the second part of the test. Some questions will spontaneously arise from the discussion and the amount of information you will give at this stage will increase. For example, consider the following test topic:

Describe a piece of music that has had a great effect on you. Possible related topics could be:
Music in society
Cultural aspects of music
Marketing of music

Also, the examiner might start the discussion from the first related topic (music in society) by asking you to describe how important music is in everyday life in your country. After discussing this, he may ask you to compare the importance of music now with what it had for your grandparents when they were young. Later, he may also go on to ask you what you think the effects of music will be for future societies.

Step 16. Confront everyday issues frequently discussed in newspapers or on the radio and on TV programs

Get used to reading newspaper and magazine articles, especially those that deal with specific topics and contain arguments and opinions. Also, listen to radio discussions such as "back-and-forth" and watch television interviews covering issues of current interest. This will not only give you excellent listening training, but will build your background knowledge of the topics that may arise in both the oral and written tests. Choose a topic. Record any vocabulary you might find useful in discussing it - write down words found in newspaper or program news (TV, radio, newspaper). Try developing one every day. When choosing a theme, decide what your stance will be on it, and especially the steps you will need to take to get to the desired stance and how to resolve any issues in discussing it. Be prepared to use descriptive and comparative language. For example, regarding the theme of music and society mentioned earlier: "In my country, traditional music plays a much more important role than it seems to have here in Australia. It is played in important events such as official holidays and ceremonies as well as on special occasions such as weddings and funerals ". Train yourself to use conditional sentences to talk, for example, about hypothetical topics from a global or general point of view. You could say, "If the world's economy becomes even more global, all nations will lose their cultural independence," or, "If world leaders spent more money on behalf of the poor, many of the world's conflict problems would be solved."

Step 17. Be prepared to use a good range of tenses and grammatical variety to help you guess what will happen

For example, the interlocutor: "What role do you see in the future for music in society?", The candidate: "Well I had (and have) always hoped that all the people of the world can benefit by sharing their common experiences in the field of music. In the past, there have been many examples of musicians who have joined forces to raise awareness of world issues arising from famine or the abuse of human rights. ", or again:" If different cultures could recognize the characteristics common with the music of other countries, they may be less fearful of others and better understand their cultures."