Incredible Band 9 Speaking Test (she's only 17!)

watch this video and try to guess what's happening [Music] Did you guess what's happening this is Sia from Kazakhstan opening her IELTS results What were they well she got reading nine listening nine writing eight and speaking nine So overall band nine And as you can tell well as you can almost tell she is ecstatic It's hard to tell whether she's ecstatic or sad but yes she is super super happy to get such an amazing IELTS score She's probably in the like 0. 001% of IELTS test takers I've only really ever met one other person that's got overall bad nine So it's absolutely incredible Anyway we met up and we did an IELTS mock test and that's what I'm going to show you today So watch the mock test and learn from all of the great vocabulary tactics and techniques that Sia uses in this speaking mock test And stick around until the end because Sia gives you some great advice for how to improve your English and IELTS skills All right enjoy Good morning My name is Eli Hows Can you please tell me your full name of course My full name is Sai Kidi You can call me by my first name Sia In this first part I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself Let's talk about what you do Do you work or are you a student i'm a senior in high school So I'm graduating this year What subjects are you studying well since I study in a public high school I don't really have a choice the subjects that I get to study So I have to study some compulsory subjects like calculus history literature and there are some extracurricular activities like drama classes and swimming that I can take However since I am preparing for my exams and for my college admission um I don't really have time to take up those extracurricular activities And what would you like to do in the future that's a really interesting question I'm really into political science So probably that's the sphere uh where I'll pursue my bachelor's and hopefully master's degree and maybe my career as well Let's move on Let's talk about cafes Do you have a favorite cafe uh sure It is a place right near my house It's a warm cozy place What makes it special is the friendly atmosphere there Um also I love the attention and love with which the staff make each cup of coffee It makes the experience even more enjoyable Do you often go to cafes by yourself yes I find uh cafes to be a perfect place to work and or unwind with a book because the hum of background conversations coupled with some soft music they give you the feeling of concentration without the feeling of isolation What do you think helps to make a cafe popular well uh there are several factors that make a certain cafe popular among people The first that immediately springs to my mind is a word of mouth recommendations I mean if a cafe has good food there good service um and etc People would be more likely to visit it again probably with their friends So it would help to grow it a loyal clientele Um also we have to consider that since we live in a digital era uh era it is important to pay attention to media presence So if cafes make their uh Instagram Tik Tok or even maybe YouTube pages more attractive to visitors it can play a significant role in their popularity Why do some people prefer cafes that are part of larger chains rather than small local independent cafes wow that's a really interesting question probably because international cafe chains they are um they seem more reliable to people because they already know what to expect and usually they offer certain conveniences like huge parking spaces or reliable Wi-Fi to their uh customers Let's move on Let's talk about perfume Do you like to use perfume i love perfume It's honestly a part of my outfit If I do not have perfume on I feel as if there's a part of my outfit that's missing So honestly I have a very big collection of perfumes that I use And in fact all of my family members are obsessed with um like smell and with perfume So I think it's something that runs in my runs in my blood And how often do you wear perfume every single day I wear different perfume every single day By the way um that depends on my mood and what outfit I'm wearing for the day Have you ever given perfume as a gift well um I did not really think that it is a good sign to give perfume at least in our culture in Kazakhstan Uh but to my international friends that came visiting from Italy there was a certain perfume uh that I bought from the UAE and it had a very specific smell that I knew that my Italian friends would enjoy So I that was the only occasion when I gave perfume as a present Um although I've been to many different places with beautiful scenery there is a place that has a special um place in my heart and it is the Swiss Alps I think the Swiss Alps are famous worldwide for how beautiful the mountains are especially in the winter and I had the opportunity to visit the Swiss Alps last December with my family as we were staying there for a family holiday It was a very interesting destination and a very interesting choice that I've made because I got to choose where our family was heading And the country that immediately sprung to my mind was Switzerland because I know that Switzerland is known for its gorgeous nature And since we visited uh Switzerland in December we decided to go to the Alps and stay in a very um small village that is not densely populated And that gave us a chance to enjoy the beauty of the mountains fully because we were able to see huskys running all over the place And we were able to go snowboarding and hiking which was very enjoyable because of the fresh air and the freshness that um the Swiss Alps offer Since we've been there in December we got to the airport right after fresh snowfall and that made the experience even more surreal We also got to visit a few virgin forests The experience is indescribable because the nature there is was unexpectedly beautiful I've never thought that I would be lost for words when I saw this scenery It was a totally picture skew scenery Also our hotel room had a beautiful view of a lake that had a glass-like coverage on it and it felt as if we can go ice skating there but unfortunately Thank you Would you like to return to the Swiss Alps um sure If I ever get an opportunity again I'd love to go there Okay So we've been talking about a place that you've been to that has phenomenal views and I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions related to this Let's consider first of all the beauty industry Now some people say that beauty products are a waste of money What do you think well um on the one hand some products really are overhyped and they do not uh they're not worth the hype that they're getting from the audience But on the other hand there are some products that serve a genuine purpose for example they can improve your skin make your skin brighter and reduce your acne for example So yeah while some products are overly estimated and they are not worth the attention that they're getting there are many other products that are in fact helpful and useful not only in terms of improving your skin uh improving your skin and the way that you look like your natural appearances but also in boosting your self-confidence How do you think the beauty industry advertised their products so successfully well I believe that the way that the marketing um sphere is built and the way that they market their products is very interesting because the beauty industry itself downplays on the humans's most important need and that's the need to be accepted by society So they make up their own insecurities They bring up the insecurities in women and they make their products sort of the answer towards the insecurity And it's really interesting how they do it because once uh women feel insecure about something they search for a project that solves the problem and it turns out that the solution is their product Yes that's very true So do you think that possibly beauty companies should not be allowed to advertise to children probably yes because children's minds are not fully formed yet and their cognitive processes are still developing Therefore they might be way more vulnerable than any other group let's say of people towards these aggressive marketing actions So I do believe that children especially young girls should not be a target for marketing campaigns Let's move on Let's talk about beauty and culture Why is it that so many people equate beauty with youth well there are cert there are several reasons for this The first one is the way that youth is being promoted in the media Like we consider people who do not have wrinkles who have this who have these youthful features beautiful And that's partly because of the way that we are programmed biologically like evolutionary people who are young are considered to be more viable and since they are they since they have more ability to um prolong um their life and to live a longer life they are considered to be more attractive towards uh for example other sexes or towards like their partners and etc So I believe that there is a twist of evolution but also um media also adds certain sprinkles of the way that we see how youth is equal to beauty Now do you think that people that are beautiful or people's level of beauty can affect their success in life many in many ways we find that physically attractive people they are more successful in career in business in for example even deals because we are people we're not logical we are biological creatures and that's why physical attractiveness makes one look more trustworthy as a business partner or as for example if you're an investor you are more likely to invest in a physically attractive or in other words a conventionally beautiful person's business or project even if their business model is weaker in many respects than the other person who's not maybe as attractive Sounds like a sad thing to me What about you it is a negative development because truly there are geniuses who may not objectively look physically attractive but their ideas are worth millions and billions of dollars but because of the way that we are wired they may not have the same opportunity or they might have to work a lot harder than their more attractive counterparts So we may state that the society may be losing a lot of geniuses because of this conception Thank you very much That is the end of the speaking test What an amazing speaking test That was incredible Now Sia I know you've already scored band nine You've got the top score in IELTS speaking And I know that you actually got overall band N which is incredible I think you're in the 0. 001% of IELTS test takers that have been able to achieve such a high score And the amazing thing that I experienced was your level just went from strength to strength Part one was good part two was even better and part three was phenomenal You were dealing with some really difficult concepts and you were explaining your ideas so articulately and so well How do you do that give us some tips What can people do to to get to your level of English uh thank you so much Eli for your feedback Uh well in terms of improving speaking I'd say that if a person is at a beginners or like at the starters level one thing that they can do is shadowing a technique that I have used throughout my English learning journey It is a very effective technique since it helps you improve not only your speaking but also your listening at the same time uh particularly shadowing helps to improve fluency and coherence marking criteria that are very important in IELTS as far as I'm concerned Uh the other technique that I would use is reading a lot and not just reading reading out loud It's very important because when you hear yourself read you tend to remember the grammatical structures even if they are way more complex than the grammatical structures that you are used to using In this way you are sort of putting your brain into an environment when they are learning the English language in a natural way In other words you're learning the English language as if you're as if you're learning or as if you were learning your mother tongue because primarily when we were learning our mother tongue our first language nobody gave us a textbook nobody gave us you know grammatical rules We had to learn it through the immersion method The same with English And it's very important to understand that if the first technique the shadowing technique can really um enhance your pronunciation your accent for example right you can acquire a British American whatever accent you want by repeating what native speakers say The second technique is really important to develop um eloquence and your ability to transmit and convey your thoughts in a very structured and cohesive manner because we all know that in any given language even if that is a language that you've been speaking for years like from the day that you were born in order to increase the level of your um of how structured you speak of your uh coherence in even your native language you need to read a lot because reading helps you get that me mental fog away from your brain when you're speaking and helps you think in more structured bits I really noticed about your answers your way of thinking is very organized So you said well there are several factors first of all and then you would introduce the first idea and then you would develop it probably with an example and then you would say second of all and it's almost like if I were to see a transcript of your answers I'd be very impressed because I could read it and immediately pinpoint what you were talking about at every second of your of your conversation So is that something you do deliberately or is that something that's naturally occurred as a result of your shadowing and reading out loud techniques well naturally I don't think that people do speak I don't think that people speak in um organized and structured in a structured manner because we are very chaotic whenever we speak like freely But that is a technique that I got to acquire when I was preparing for the ISELS exam because I figured that the examiner like a lot of people do not understand that examiners have a very hard time assessing your level of English because they have only 11 to 14 minutes and in that very short amount of time they have to figure out what your level is and give you the most objective score And I figure that it's my job to help the examiner assess my level as objectively as possible And in order to do that I figured that I need to use contrasting language in order to show not only one side but also the other side of the issue And that would help to show my lexical resource as well as my ability to use different cohesive devices effectively to the examiner Great So how did you feel when you when you opened your test report card and you saw that you got overall ban nine it was a surreal moment because I've um you know like I've been attempting to get the score for six years and I've been studying deliberately to get the score and I took the test overall about 20 times if I'm not mistaken I took my first ISS at the age of 11 and got a 6.

5 overall and 8. 5 in section of speaking And for me back then I had the highest possible level because for me at the age of 11 English was the language that I felt most comfortable conveying my thoughts in And that was like a big disappointment because I did not even get a seven like a C1 And then I took the exam twice at the age of uh 15 and got an overall of an eight and then I scored 8. 5 at the age of 16 However I knew that I could score higher I had this you know like feeling that what did not give me um peace I felt that I could do much better I can get this nine And you know like in every ESL or EFL learners um journey there is this you know trophy of getting a band nine and it's like oh my god I want to get this band nine And I had this I had this feeling I had this ambition of getting a band nine at starting from my first ever test like at the age of 11 you could see interviews and I'd say I want and I will get a band nine And it turns out that six years later after studying hard after working deliberately I finally scored this uh band this perfect band nine And when I opened it up I actually did not expect to get a band nine because Eli I've been getting 8.

5s like straight in a row I would get 8. 5 8. 5 So I thought that I would get an 8.

5 Um and then when I saw this you know like number nine it felt as if I was hallucinating and as if you know like I did not see the number correctly There's actually a video of me reacting to my score and it's it just went viral on the internet Um I I called my mom and I said I got a nine finally And it's a call that I've been meaning and I've been wanting to have like this conversation with my mom for such a long time because can you imagine 20 times over and over calling your mom and saying "Mom I didn't do this this time I couldn't get B nine. " And it's 20 times like a failure 20 times it's as if 20 times somebody pours ice cold water onto you or somebody gives you like the hardest slap of your life and finally getting to call my mom and say "Mom I did this Mom thank you so much for believing in me and thank you so much for not giving up on me because my mom was the person that was all along the way. " And she would always say "You can do this I believe in you Just study harder You can get this sa and she was a person who was who believed in me at times when I even did not believe in myself or I did not have the faith that I could do this anymore.

" And that call was very special to me So she was the first person that that knew about this band nine and then my whole team knew and then as it appears um the whole you know like the country Kazakhstan knew and all of all everybody was very proud and I was very proud of myself and the work that I put to get this band 9 because I don't think that people understand how different like bands 8. 5 and bands nine are because it seems as if it's only like um an 05 score difference but it's actually not It's like getting a an 8.