IELTS Speaking Practice Test- Almost Perfect

Let's talk about fashion and style. How would you describe your style? Interesting question.

I feel like my style is diverse. On some days, I just put on a black t-shirt and a jeans and on some other days, it depends on where I'm going. I'd like to dress up a little bit, put on some fancy clothes, and just go out with it.

What influences your clothing choices? H it depends on my mood and also it depends where I'm going. So for instance, let's say I'm going to the gym, of course I'm going to be in like sports wear.

Or if I'm going to a wedding, I have to wear a suit and tie. And uh if I'm going, let's say um to a social gathering with my friends, it's just going to be like smart casual or casual clothes. How has your style changed over the years?

A lot actually. See, when I was a teenager, it was kind of like funky or uh street wear, crazy colors, you know, put on some bracelets, some necklaces, crazy hairstyle. But as you get older, uh I changed my style a little bit to more u elegant, more simple and less crazy colors.

Now, let's talk about art and creativity. What type of art do you prefer? Actually it depends because I think art is branched.

So for instance art consists of music, theater, cinema and paintings. But for me personally I love art and uh specifically I love cinema. Would you like to learn more about art in the future?

Yeah sure. I am open for different ideas, different perspectives, especially I'm not interested at the moment in let's say paintings or uh modern art, but I'm interested in the future to learn more about it. Now, let's talk about relaxation.

How do you relax? Oh, I love relaxing. Uh there is a lot of ways to relax.

I could just uh book a massage session or the most common way and my favorite way is uh going to the beach on an early morning where it's empty, no one is there. I just grab my stuff, go to the beach and just sit and chill there. What do you do to manage stress?

Interesting question. There's a lot of ways but uh the first one I would always use it is just to take deep breath and just slowly exhale and uh since I'm a Muslim guy I I read a lot of uh Quran so it helps me like calm instantly. What helps you stay calm when you're very busy?

I think just being busy the idea itself it keeps me like calm. I'm not a very stressed person in general, but sometimes you get in a trouble or in a situation where it makes you just uh stressed or anxious. So, I try to uh cope with it and just like remember that it's not the end of the world.

I can just finish the task and be with it. Describe a time when you help someone solve a problem. Uh recently a friend of mine asked me about uh what's the best car option to buy since he was having a lot of issues and problems in his current car.

So I was like uh sure I would give you like few options uh and the first option was uh Ford since I own a Ford car and it was a pickup truck. So I would definitely like recommend it for him this option but he told me like uh I prefer something a little bit smaller and more uh eco fuel and efficient. I said sure and uh I gave them a different options about let's say Toyota is a really good option and um Nissan they have a variety of options.

I really decided to help him since I have the knowledge about the cars and what's good, what's bad, what's like what fits his personality because it's really important to have a car that fits your personality other than the uh eco fuel system or uh the fancy look or the color. And uh I really felt happy helping him about the option and he eventually ended up buying a Ford truck. Um, the reason why he bought this pickup truck because it's a big car and when you drive a big car in the streets, it really helps you and let's say seeing the view from afar to avoid uh a car accident or a sudden break and at the same time uh people just avoid uh come across coming across you and it's just like you feel like a king driving a big car.

So, we've been talking about a friend that you helped solve a problem. We're going to continue to talk about problem solving. What qualities make someone good at solving problems?

Ooh, tough one. To thank you for watching this video, I want to give you a free course that has helped thousands of students improve their IELTS speaking score. What it's going to do is take you through every single part of the test and give you strategies for part one, part two, and part three, and also allow you to practice at home for free and get feedback to sign up for that for free.

All you have to do is just click the link in the description. Thanks very much, and let's get back to the video. In my opinion, the age of the person because u the older you get, the more knowledge and wisdom you get with life experience and interacting with different type of people and personalities and characters.

So in my opinion I think uh the age is one of the qualities or um let's say um a point where it helps in being qualified in solving a problem. Why do some people prefer to solve problems alone rather than ask for help? For me personally, uh I like to feel that I am an independent person and try as much as possible to solve a certain problem with my own knowledge and with my own abilities before I go out and ask someone for help.

For example, um once I had a problem about choosing the right major where I wanted to study. So my parents were actually like trying to uh suggest for me to study interior design like my brother. But for me I was like no I prefer to choose something that I love.

So I ended up choosing uh the media field and mass communication. Now let's talk about emotional intelligence. What role does emotional intelligence play in solving problems?

Oh, it's a big role actually and it's really important to have the emotional intelligence. I didn't have it before like when I was younger at uh in my teenage years also 18 19 because it's a crucial uh thing to have in helping you like solve problems or solving a conflict. Let's say you are having a a discussion with a friend of yours.

So if you have the emotional intelligence, you wouldn't change it to become a problem or a big issue between you two. If you have the emotional intelligence, you would just take it as different perspectives between two friends and discussing and exchanging ideas. So it is really important to learn about it if you don't know uh a lot about the emotional intelligence.

Some people think that the best way to help other people is to be as empathetic as possible, while other people think that you should be brutally honest with people. Which do you think is the best approach? Oh, tough one.

Um, can you just repeat the question again? Some people think that the best way to help others is to be as empathetic as possible. To show empathy, show I understand you.

Yeah. and other people think that the best way is to just tell them the truth no even if it hurts their feelings. Okay.

Uh it's a tough one but uh I think both uh they both go hand in hand. Let's say being an empath or having empathy towards someone. It's really good especially if they are having like a a major problem in their life or they are trying to solve it.

Let's say depression. You can't be brutally honest with someone because you might end up uh pushing him or her to. So in this case, you have to be really empathetic or trying to choose your words wisely.

But in terms let's say someone who is actually rude or not a nice person and someone who is a bully or trying to attack someone you have to be brutally honest and strict with them and tell them you are doing something wrong. You you can't be like that or you can't act this way. So it depends on the context or the situation that this person in.

So let me give you some feedback on your performance. I'll give you feedback on part one, two, and three. And then I'll give you feedback on the marking criteria and your score.

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Hope that you become a VIP. If not, enjoy the rest of this free video. Your part one was very impressive because a lot of students when they first do the test um the first few questions you can tell they're nervous or they are overperforming.

Your answers were quite elegant because you weren't trying to show off. You weren't trying to give crazy big answers and you weren't um really nervous. You were giving very natural answers just like speaking to a friend or a colleague.

Uh, and I don't want to use the word simple because the people at home watching might think that simple means basic. I don't mean simple in terms of basic. I mean simple in terms of elegant and simple in terms of effective.

Um, so very very impressive. Your development was spoton. You weren't giving too much and you weren't giving too little.

you would answer the question and then you would give enough information for the examiner to really judge your pronunciation, your grammar, your vocabulary, uh your fluency and all all of that was good. I have no real feedback uh to give you on that. No negative really to say.

There's some issues with fluency and grammar and vocabulary and it but we'll come to that in a minute. Part two. What I liked about your part two performance was you picked a real scenario and you attached it to the the Q card.

So they asked you about a problem you solved. It's quite a vague topic and the reason why they always give something quite vague is so that people no matter where they are in the world can attach real scenarios from their own life. And that's what you did talking about your friend.

Talking about a real situation allows you to be a lot more fluent because you're not recalling or thinking too much. You're just talking naturally. So again, I'll use the word naturally a lot because that is I think is the the most important thing and you did that very very well.

However, you did stop at about 1 minute 30 and what I did was I just did this. Now if the examiner is good, they will give you some cues to help you speak because really you need to get to 2 minutes and the examiner will always stop you. So once I reach the 2 minutes, yeah, the best piece of advice is just keep talking until they stop you.

They will stop you because they want to go home. So like they they will stop you. It's hard to judge on test day.

You spoke for 1 minute 30 nearly exactly. On test day, you might be a little bit stressed. You don't seem like the type of person that that would be stressed, but believe me, even even the coolest customers can become stressed.

And time warps a little bit when we are stressed. So you might only speak for 45 seconds and think that you've been speaking for 2 minutes and then you stop and the examiner is like, what you're basically saying to the examiner, I don't have enough English to complete this, so just keep talking. When I did this, yeah, you immediately started talking more fluently again.

Um, so you wouldn't really lose any marks or anything because of that. Uh, sometimes when students stop talking and you do this, they are like and become flustered and more stressed. Yeah.

So, but you made great notes on on the page. I would encourage you to do that on test day. The notes are not there to be to be read from.

The notes are there to just help you if you get stuck. So if on test day you're like, I have nothing else to say, quick look at the notes, continue on. Part three was also good.

The thing I liked about your part three performance was it seemed as if you were approaching it like a challenge or a game. You're like, "Oh, this is actually interesting. " Yeah.

That's very different from how most students approach it, which is, "I hate this I don't want to be here. Uh why is he asking me these questions? I hate this.

I love challenge. Exactly. So what I loved about yours was like you could tell you're like, "Oh, that's actually you could tell that you found them genuinely interesting.

" Now, not all questions will be interesting like that. But on test day, have that approach. They just it's a little game.

It's a challenge. And and you did really develop your answers quite well. You showed a lot of the time.

You showed the both both sides of the argument and everything. So let me give you some feedback on your scores and and the marking criteria. So there's four marking criteria.

Pronunciation, fluency and coherence, grammar, vocabulary. Pronunciation is divided into two. The first part of pronunciation is can I understand what you're saying?

I can understand 100% of the words that you're saying. You do have a slight accent, but that doesn't matter. Okay?

You're not being judged on how British or American you sound. That's not what good communication necessarily is. What good communication is is can the person who's listening to you understand what you're saying.

So for that the examiner will give you at least a seven. Then uh when the examiner is considering should I give him a seven or an eight or a nine they'll think of these things called higher level pronunciation features. What does that mean?

So one of the things that it means is intonation. Sometimes our voices go up sometimes our voices go down. And what we do in English is we use that to convey meaning.

I don't know what it's like in is Arabic your your native language. I don't know if they use intonation to show meaning, but in a different language they do. Yeah, they do.

You don't speak with what we would call a monotone, which is basically someone who just speaks with completely flat, but you're you're so cool that you're not going up or downation. So, that would be one area of improvement. It's not bad.

Yeah, it's not bad. It's just a part of my character. It is.

Yeah, it is. But it is important on the test day. On test day for general communication, it doesn't I don't think it is terribly important for you to invest a lot of time in that.

But if you wanted to ban nine, you would have to work on that a little bit. The quick way of fixing that is to speak with things very passionately. You love talking about fashion.

Oh, you know, my style used to be this. You will naturally improve your intonation by adding more emotion, but you seem like you're quite cool and collected, so maybe that's part of your character and that isn't going to but it again, not everybody needs a band now. And it might actually lead to more issues because if you're thinking about being more emotional, it could affect your answers, it could may lead to mistakes cuz you're thinking in an unnatural way.

So I I wouldn't necessarily do that. Other thing is connected speech. So when we speak in English, I would not say, "Do you want a coffee?

" Say, "Do you want a coffee? " Yeah. You speak more towards the end of saying each word, each syllable individually because you speak quite slowly.

You don't connect the words together as much as a native English speaker would. Again, not a criticism for you in your job. I think the most important thing is that you should be understood.

So again, if you try and learn lots of connected speech and you start talking like the way I'm talking right now, I don't talk to my family and friends like this. I'm speaking extremely slowly for me and clearly for for the people watching at home. If you heard me speaking to my friends, I would understand.

You wouldn't understand anything. So I think and connected speech is also something that is it could take years to learn. So is it really worth your time to sound more like a native speaker if that is even your goal?

Your goal I think is to speak English and be understood. So I wouldn't worry about it too much because you are not using connected speech and intonation the same way a native English speaker would. I would give you a band eight rather than a band nine.

So, it's a lower band, but you shouldn't think I'm bad at speaking English. It's actually because you're so clear. Yeah, that's you know.

But does that make sense? It does make sense. Yeah, of course.

But I mean, band eight is a a great less than 1% of people get a band nine. Oh, okay. So, don't worry about not getting a I'm fine with that score.

Let's talk about fluency and coherence. Coherence means did you answer the question and did you develop the question enough? I don't have any worries about that.

Whenever you get asked a question, you think deep. You can tell you're thinking deeply about the question, you go, hm, that's that's actually an interesting question. And that's a good tactic.

But sometimes you think so deeply about it that you're thinking about the next thing to say, you don't have a fluency problem because your English is bad. Some people do. So, I'm sure you know people, your friends or family that don't speak English to the level that you do and and they're searching uh for the correct adjective or uh the correct tense.

You're not doing that at all. You are doing what we call searching for ideas. Again, I don't think it is a huge issue.

You're quite a unique candidate in that if we tried to make you better, it might make you worse. Yeah. I don't understand that.

Yeah. So if we tell you don't think and just speak the first thing that pops into your head, that would be my advice for most students. Yeah.

But for you, I think that your style of communication actually is improved by thinking deeply about it. But on test day, I wouldn't try and think of the absolute best idea. I would think of what's the easiest idea for me to talk about.

And that will improve your fluency a little bit. I would say your fluency is at a band eight because of that reason that you do pause quite a lot. Um, and if I give you a band nine, everybody in the comments will be like, he pauses too.

But the the the key for people back home is that what it says in the marking criteria is unnatural pausing. I've gotten to know you today, so I know that the pausing is not unnatural. It's actually who you are.

But an examiner on test day doesn't know you at all. and they might think, well, he he doesn't know the right adjective. He doesn't know the right tense.

You know, for most people in the world, a band eight is extremely high and is good enough to move to any country in the world. Band 9 is just showing off. You know, band I'm humble.

I need a nine. Grammar, you have enough grammatical structures to talk about anything. So some people if you ask them to talk about the past and compare it to uh the future they don't know really how to do it or compare two things they don't really you have no issues whatsoever.

You do make little grammatical errors sometimes. So for example this is a mistake that I actually make more simple instead of simpler or you said open for instead of open to. So like a little preposition error but native English speakers make those little slips too.

I make those little slips. So what it says in the marking criteria for band nine is the mistakes that you make are slips like that and they're very infrequent. So I think your grammar is at a band nine.

Same with your vocabulary. Sometimes you could use a word that is a little bit more advanced. If I give you the advice of improve the complexity, you might make more mistakes.

I think you're on the border of a band nine for vocabulary. So I think overall you're at a band like 8. 5.

As I said before, band 9 is less than 1%. Band 8. 5, I think, is top 2 or 3%.

Not of speakers in the whole world, but of people who do the IELTS test. Oh, yeah. I think people can learn a lot from your performance cuz it's so different to what most people do.

It's unique. Something new. It is unique.

It is unique. So, yeah. Thank you very much.