10 IELTS Speaking Hacks from a Former Examiner

Welcome to your course on how to hack the IELTS speaking exam. I truly hope and believe that this course will enable you to obtain a higher score on your speaking test. Throughout the course, we'll see what you should avoid doing and what areas you should be focusing on. But, like anything, you'll need to put in some work and practice for the exam. Remember, fail to plan, then plan to fail. Every year many IELTS candidates walk into the speaking exam cold and this can be a very uncomfortable situation for them and the examiner. Here are some areas where candidates could have been more informed. Some test takers don't do their homework and figure they can just walk into the exam and wing it. Then they're surprised when the examiner turns on a digital recorder, the timer, and then begins to time and record the exam. The IELTS speaking exam is very precise and follows strict procedures. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's move on to some useful tips. These are basic tips rather than hacks, but they're going to help you immeasurably on the day of the speaking test. Tip one, show up early. This may seem like basic straightforward information, but there are always a few candidates who show up late, which means they're stressed out and even more nervous than they need to be. Please allow yourself some margin, some extra time for traffic, parking, or any other obstacles that may induce added stress right before your exam. There's an expression that you may do well to memorize. If you're not five minutes early, you're late. Tip two, remember to show up with the correct ID. Second, ensure that you bring the ID that was used for the registration process. Yes, it seems strange that this actually needs to be mentioned, but believe it or not, some test takers have been refused admittance to the exam since they didn't bring the ID that was used to register for IELTS. Failure to bring the correct form of ID means that you can't take the exam and you'll need to reschedule for another test date. Most candidates tend to register with their passport. Make sure that your identification of choice is up to date and won't expire by the time you take the exam. Now, let's hit the 10 speaking test hacks. Know the three sections and their time limits. The speaking exam is 11 to 14 minutes in total. It shouldn't be less than 11 minutes and can't exceed 14 minutes by more than five seconds. If you're cut off by the examiner, it's because you're being guided to the next section of the exam or the exam has reached the 14-minute point. The examiner isn't trying to be rude but has strict regulations to follow and must ensure that these rules are being followed. Each of the three sections must be a fixed amount of time. So, there are three sections to the speaking exam. Let's look at them now in greater detail. Section 1. Introductory Questions For the introductory section, Part 1, the examiner will ask basic questions designed to put you at ease since these questions don't involve too much thought before providing a response. You'll be asked simple questions such as where you live, work, or what subjects you study in school. You'll also be asked general questions about interests, travel, or entertainment. This section is five minutes in total. There will be three sets or frames of questions that the examiner will choose for this section. The first set of questions will usually ask about school, where you work, or where you live. The following two sets of questions will be fairly simple sets of questions that you should be able to answer easily. Let's move on to section two, the long turn. In part two, usually referred to as the long turn, you must speak on your own on a provided topic for one to two minutes. Examiners will say, remember, you have one to two minutes for this, so don't worry if I stop you. I'll tell you when the time's up. Can you begin speaking now please? What this really means is speak for two minutes. Some test takers don't realize that they have one minute to prepare before trying to speak for up to two minutes. Although the examiner really wants the test taker to succeed, he or she may only be able to just sit and watch the timer as dead air is being recorded for two minutes. If the test taker dries up or stops talking during the long turn, the examiner should ask the candidate to provide more information about the topic after five seconds of silence. Remember, this section is four minutes in total. And finally, we have section three, the dialogue. Part three is a dialogue that builds on the long-term topic, and the test taker will be required to respond to both scripted and unscripted questions by the speaking examiner. Scripted just means that the questions have been planned and typed out on a test booklet. Keep in mind that the questions will become increasingly more difficult. In this dialogue between the two of you, the examiner will ask you more complex questions that are related to people in general. Remember that this section is five minutes in total. As mentioned, your examiner must time the entire exam. It can't exceed 14 minutes by more than five seconds. Yes, that's how exact the speaking test is. What this means is that the examiner can't exceed five minutes for part one, four minutes for part two, and five minutes for part three. The examiner will navigate you through the exam and may need to cut you off in order to stay within this time frame. Pay attention to the examiner who will frequently be looking at the timer to see how much time is remaining for that particular section of the test. So once again, speaking hack one is know the three sections and their time limits. Okay, so we've covered the time limits for the exam. Now let's move on to our next hack. Speaking hack two, know you're being recorded right up until the time you leave the test room. Examiners aren't permitted to provide test results immediately after the exam or give any hints as to how well you performed. For this reason, an audio recording shouldn't stop until the candidate vacates the test room. Many test takers attempt to obtain their speaking results right after the exam, asking the examiner how they performed. But the examiner is not permitted to disclose this information, and the examiner is protected by allowing the recording to continue until the test taker exits the exam room. In other words, both you and the examiner are caught on tape as a procedure, but also as evidence. Bear in mind that the audio recordings are listened to afterwards for two reasons. First, to ensure that the mark awarded is in fact accurate. Each exam is listened to by the examiner as well as a second examiner or trainer to verify that the mark is precise. Second, to ensure that the examiner has administered the exam as per the IELTS protocol and followed the script accurately. In other words, the recording ensures that the examiners do their jobs correctly. Examiners are also regularly monitored since the IELTS exam is held to a rigid international standard. This means that there are random inspections on examiners to ensure the quality of exams is held to the IELTS standards, no matter where you may take your speaking exam. So whether you take your test in Dubai, New York, or London, the standards and procedures should be identical. The exam is always scripted and read by the examiner. Many test takers don't know that the examiner is reading nearly all of the questions verbatim, word for word. The examiner is provided with a script of questions and must follow it exactly. Examiners can't provide their own questions for part one or part two of the exam. It's not until part three of the exam that an examiner should provide unscripted questions in addition to the scripted questions. Part three is a dialogue which builds on part two. This means even the examiners can't just wing it and are reading questions exactly as they appear on paper. Oh, and another thing, examiners can only repeat a question once. If you fail to answer the question or didn't understand it a second time, the examiner will have to move on to the next question and can't explain why. So remember, parts one and two are completely scripted, so the examiner cannot answer any questions that you have. Speaking hack four. Thank you means stop talking. Make sure you understand the verbal cues and body language of the examiner. For instance, if you're a chatterbox and you just keep motoring on, the examiner has every right to shut you down in order to move on to the next question, since the exam has a rigid time limit. Please do yourself a favor and avoid being one of those candidates who just rambles on and on, disregarding the examiner's verbal cues. When the examiner says, thank you, this means stop talking. Examiners may also use body language pointing to the timer suggesting that you are running out of time. On the other hand, you may be shy or nervous and may only respond with short responses such as yes or no. Try to remember that this is a speaking exam and that you need to talk in order for you to be evaluated on your level of speech. If you're a little bit shy, you should really take the time to practice with someone several times before the exam so that you feel more comfortable. But if you're a motor mouth, try to dial it down a little bit and look for the body language indicating time for your current section has nearly expired. Speaking hack eight. Remember that sections two and three are always connected. The long turn or section two is always related to the dialogue or what's known as section three of the speaking test. This means that the prompt you've been assigned the topic will be used to culminate the exam. A prompt is simply another word meaning the topic you see in that rectangular box. Section three is made up of two question sets. The examiner will move through the sets from the easier set to the more difficult one. Once again, the questions are scripted, but for part three, the examiner is required to think of additional questions related to the topic. In order to give this section a more conversational flow, these extra questions are added, but they usually refer back to some information you stated in section two. In other words, the examiner will take a mental note of some facts or examples you mentioned in the long term and then build on them for part three. Examiners are required to add extra questions for this section. It's the only part of the exam that isn't 100% entirely scripted. So to review in part three, the examiner actually must provide extra questions related to the ones already provided, adding to the conversational dynamic of this section. Remember, this final section is five minutes in length. Speaking hack nine. It's not all about you, especially section three. All right, guys, you must talk about people in general or society as a whole for section three. If you try to discuss your personal experience, the examiner should attempt to guide you back to discussing the topic from a broader perspective related to society or people in general. Part three is never focused on the candidate's personal experiences. Rather, it concentrates on issues related to society, community, and the bigger picture. For example, a candidate may be questioned on how the internet is changing the way we communicate. Let's see what happens. Examiner, how is the internet changing the way people communicate? Candidate, in my case, I use Skype to talk with my friends and family since I'm overseas. The examiner should then course correct this test taker. Examiner, but how has society in general changed by communicating using the internet? Candidate, I feel that society is becoming a tighter community. Social media like Skype and Facebook are connecting people even though they are thousands of kilometers apart. So remember, it's not all about you for section three. Speaking Speaking hack 10. Know how you'll be evaluated. Okay, here we are at the final hack for the speaking exam. And this is a big one. Do you know how you're going to be evaluated? If you do, this will give you a better idea of how to prepare. Let's go over the four speaking band descriptors. First, we have fluency and coherence. Are your ideas flowing from one to another? Are you using linking expressions and subordinate clauses. Next, we have lexical resource. Are you substituting various words, using expressions, paraphrasing, and figures of speech? Third, we have grammar or GRA. Are you utilizing the correct verb tenses? Are you employing complex and compound sentences or just simple sentences? Finally, we have pronunciation. Is your pronunciation easy to understand? Are you applying stress in the correct areas of your sentences? Is your voice rising and falling in the correct places? So, how does your final score get calculated? Scores for each of the mentioned areas can vary from a band 1 to a band 9. For example, a candidate could achieve the following score. for fluency and coherence, 7, for lexical resource, 7, next for grammar, a 6, and then finally for pronunciation, a 6. In this case, the test taker would receive a total score of 6.5 based on the average of the four scores. Guys, remember that the examiners can only give whole numbers for each band descriptor. Moreover, examiners don't total the final mark. It's totaled later on. While these band descriptors may not be new to you, it's worth reviewing them just to be clear on how the examiner will evaluate you. Five IELTS speaking grammar mistakes. The number one issue when it comes to grammar is not adding the S when talking about other people in the present tense. We sometimes call this the third person S when you're talking about he or she or it. In the present tense, there should be an S. For example, students might say, A person I admire is my uncle. He live in Canada and he work in a bank there. The problem, it should be, A person I admire is my uncle. He lives in Canada and he works in a bank there. The problem here is with speaking, you might forget that he or she might need the S. The problem is also pronunciation, as many students may say, he live in Canada. They know there's an S, and they think that they've said it, but maybe it's so quiet that the examiner can't even hear it. Moreover, it's even worse, as this is going to sound like a grammar mistake and a pronunciation mistake. What's the solution for fixing this? First, let's talk about pronunciation. There are two different sounds that are important. One is voiced, and one is unvoiced. Verbs that end in a voiced sound or a voiced consonant means if you say live, you can hear or feel there's a vibration. The S is pronounced zzz in the word lives. The voiced sound moves into the next consonant. He lives. She loves. He runs. On the other hand, there are the other consonants at the end of verbs that are unvoiced, like the word work. In North American English, and I say North because it's Canadians as well, we have voiced and unvoiced sounds. All vowels are voiced. However, consonants can be either voiced or unvoiced. Unvoiced consonants are made just with air, no sound from the vocal cords. For example, Voiced consonants do have voices in them, like m, b, z. So, we have unvoiced, such as, and then we have voiced, m, b, z. You can actually become aware of linking or connected speech. For example, he lives in Canada. When you're aware of the connected speech, it can really help you pronounce z, He lives in Canada, He lives in Canada. Does this make sense? He lives in Canada. Let's take a look at another example. He loves it. Zit. He loves it. Here's one more. He runs a lot. Runs a lot. Zalot. Zalot. What about the unvoiced consonants? He laughs at my jokes. He laughs at my jokes. Laughs at. Laughs at. See how they're linked together? Laughs at. Another common grammar mistake is using the present tense instead of the past, and this happens a lot in part two of IELTS Speaking. This is especially common for test takers who are describing a story, perhaps something that happened in the past. I like to tell you about a time I go to a movie. Last summer, I go to a movie in my town. In this situation, you can hear that the speaker is using the present tense instead of the past. Rather, it should be, I'd like to tell you about a time I went to a movie last summer. I went to a movie last summer. Okay, grammar mistake number three is using uncountable nouns like they're countable. Uncountable nouns are just nouns that you can't count, such as snow, gas, water, sugar, and sand. If we want to count sand or rice, for example, we would use a grain, a grain of sand, a grain of rice. One common mistake with countable nouns is email, which seems to be more commonly observed as countable. However, the word email is derived from the root word mail, which was uncountable. It's weird to hear people say, I received 20 emails today, but this seems to be the norm nowadays rather than the exception. There are so many uncountable nouns that are mistakenly used in the countable form. Let's take a look at a few examples now. Firefighters must wear the correct safety gears when they're on duty. This should actually be firefighters must wear the correct safety gear when they're on duty. Here's another case. The internet has all kinds of informations that should be investigated before accepting as accurate. This is incorrect. Instead, we should say, the internet has all kinds of information that should be investigated before accepting as accurate. The next grammar mistake is not pronouncing the ed in the past tense correctly or at all. It's really important that the examiner can hear the ed. Otherwise, it's perceived as a grammar mistake. This is especially the case with a voiceless ending such as the words walked, talked, baked, or faked. For the simple past, it's important to enunciate the T even though we can see the ED in written form. On the other hand, I've had students in Korea who are completely opposite and will overstress past tense verbs ending in ED. How does this sound? Some examples. Walk it, talk it, bake it, fake it. Similarly, there were issues with the voiceless ending ch. Churchy, lunchy, crunchy. We need to find a middle ground here. Listening to movies, podcasts, and YouTube will help you find the sweet spot for the correct pronunciation. Okay, this wraps up things for this lesson. It's not really until we get to part two, or the long term, where we seem to get into some pressure and have to find our best techniques and strategies for this part of the exam. If you recall, we only have one minute to prepare for this part of the test, and then we should speak anywhere from one to two minutes. And that one minute is really not a whole lot of time to prepare for the information you're given in the test prompt or the task card. First of all, that one minute is really precious. So we don't want to spend too much time trying to write complete sentences or steps or any type of complex outline. All we want to do is make sure that we have enough content to fill those one to two minutes. And for the most part, we would think that this information needs to be 100% completely related to the test prompt. But guess what? You can actually be off topic for the long term and you will not lose any marks for this, as you would for task two writing of the test. So if we refer to the speaking test rubric and look at the band descriptors, we can see that there are four criteria that are used for marking your speaking ability. Starting from the left, we have fluency and coherence, then lexical resource, which we know is a fancy way of saying vocabulary. After this, we have grammatical range and accuracy. And finally, we have pronunciation. Okay, so earlier on, we were discussing the issue of a test taker not staying on topic. And if we look under fluency and coherence, we see that the speaker can actually go slightly off topic, and it won't be an issue. Oh, this doesn't mean that you can just discuss your day at Disneyland if you have a topic such as your favorite photo of your favorite family member, unless that family member visited Disneyland with you. If you're completely off topic, this might lead to the examiner to think that you did not completely understand your question and as a result, the test taker would lose marks. It's important to also point out the fact that you're not even being graded on whether you stay on topic or not for the speaking exam. However, this is absolutely essential for task two writing as well as task one writing. To review, fluency and coherence just means how smoothly you can speak on the subject. Next, under lexical resource, as we said before, we have vocab, any expressions that you would be using for the speaking test. After this, we have grammatical range and accuracy. Not only does this criteria assess your grammar, but also your range of various sentence structures. For example, test takers should be able to use not only simple sentences, but also compound and complex sentences. And finally, we have pronunciation. How easy or difficult it is for the examiner to understand you. Now, if you're getting ready for the speaking test, you've probably been all over the internet and looked at all kinds of speaking topics you might be given for part two or the long turn of this test. And in your research, you've probably noticed that there will be some topics that are going to be relatively easier to speak on than others. The million dollar question is, are you going to get an easy topic or a difficult one on your test day. Unfortunately, what a lot of candidates try to do is create a memorized or scripted response that they can somehow attempt to bend and manipulate no matter what topic they end up receiving, which in the end is not going to work out well for them. You are far better off being authentic and speaking on stories from your past rather than trying to use some kind of magic formula that's going to give you a high score on the test. One really cool method of being fully prepared for any difficult question would be to write down three different scenarios based on time. What's great about this method is that you have all your bases covered. So looking at your test prompt, you can look at each of the bullet points and then write a story for each bullet point related to stories from your past, present, and then your future. Some of the most common speaking topics you will come across are as follows. Describe a piece of art you like. Describe a book that you've recently read. Describe a piece of advice you recently received. Describe a time of day that you like. Describe an exercise you know. Describe a member of your family that you get along with well. describe a gift you recently gave to someone. Okay, let's take one of these topics and go and use it as an example. Let's use the topic of books. Once again, the test prompt states describe a book you have recently read. You should say what kind of book it is, what it's about, what sort of people would enjoy it, and explain why you liked it. If we are using the technique for a past, present, and future story, one possible way of responding would go like this. First, we could quickly jot down some notes about a book we read when we were young, and of course, the title as well. In my case, I'm going to use a joke book called 100 Good Clean Jokes. This book really stands out to me because when I was young, I remember reading the jokes, memorizing them, and then sharing them with my family and friends. It was a great way to make people laugh, and it reminds me so much of my childhood. Okay, so this little story from my past will cover the bullet points of the type of book, what it was about, and why people enjoy this particular book. I also explained why I liked it, since it was a great way to have fun with friends and family. Now, the idea here is to also balance our time between each of these stories. We should spend about 40 seconds on the past story, followed by 40 seconds on a story in the present, and then a future story that's also 40 seconds in total. And if you do a quick bit of math, you will see that we've reached the two-minute point for this part of the exam. Nice! Let's continue this example and head to our story in the present. For this story, I'm going to go with a book on personal development by the name of a guy called Dave Ramsey. This is a book about learning how to manage your money, and it helps people to get out of debt and increase their wealth, and get to a point where they can give to others who are in need of financial help. This book is funny, it's direct, and it has seven steps to financial freedom. I think that people would like this book since it's beneficial as it can help them to get out of debt, start to increase their finances, and hopefully at some point be financially free. People who would enjoy this book would be those that are in debt, struggling month to month, and in need of some financial changes in their lives. Okay, so that was my second story based on a book that I'm currently reading. Now, let's look at a book that I would like to read in the future. A book that I'd like to read someday would be a book on investing and the stock market by one of the world's most famous investors, Warren Buffett. This would be a biography because it discusses his life and how he became the most famous investor in the world. And I think that people would like this type of book because you're learning about the stock market, investing, and once again, how to increase personal wealth. All right, so here we have it. Three different stories that take place in the past, present, and future, all related to the points on the task card given for part two of the IELTS Speaking Test. Find some super boring topics on the Speaking Test online and give this technique a shot. Keywords for part two of the speaking test. By now, you may be familiar with the concept of keywords, and hopefully you may have used keywords for the reading component of the IELTS exam. Well, this is a strategy we can also utilize for part two or the long turn of the speaking test. Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why is he mentioning keywords for the speaking test. Stay with me. Before we get to the keywords for the speaking test, let's make sure you understand the structure of IELTS speaking. To review, we have three parts and the exams extremely precise, running from 11 to 14 minutes in duration. Part one is the introductory component, which is the easy warm-up section. If you know anything about this test already, you know that part one is to put you at ease with questions that can be answered with not much thought. Topics will range from school to work, TV to movies, sports, even where you live and your favorite color. But then we head into part two, where you'll be assigned a speaking topic in a box, which is referred to as the speaking prompt. Okay, here's where we refer back to keywords that was mentioned earlier on. You won't be able to write on the prompt booklet provided by the speaking examiner, since it essentially contains all the speaking prompts used by the examiner on the exam day. However, you will be given some blank paper where you can write as much as you want, but only over a period of one minute. While you can't underline or circle keywords in the prompt, you can write down the keywords and then all you know about them in point form on the scrap paper. As a reminder, you only have 60 seconds to plan your speaking for this part of the test, so avoid writing complete sentences. Hey, you can even write down ideas in your own language if it's going to be faster and easier. The main thing is that you try your best to organize your points clearly and in a logical manner before you start the long turn. Unfortunately, some test takers fail to catch these keywords and some people choose to not even write anything at all. Look, if you don't want to stumble through this part of the test, it's best to jot down some notes and make sure you're prepared before you start to talk. An even better option would be to get online, find some speaking topics for IELTS, then perform the following exercise. First, time yourself for a given writing prompt. See how much you can write down about a topic in one minute. Next, try to speak on that topic for one to two minutes. You'll see how difficult it is to continue before you dry up and can't keep going. If you can speak on a given topic for one minute, you're doing all right. But if you can speak on a given topic for nearly two minutes, well, that's going to be exceptional. Why? Because your examiner will want you to speak as long as possible in order to assess your speaking skills accurately. Don't be concerned if you're talking for too long, since it's the examiner's responsibility to interrupt you, informing you that this part of the test is complete. Afterwards, you'll be asked a few follow-up questions about this task just to close this section before moving to part three, which is a dialogue related to the subject of part two. Some examiners claim they may know a test taker's score 30 seconds into the test, but really the examiner should be assessing you throughout the entire exam, all the way up until part three. If you have a friend who is also taking the test, why not just give each other speaking topics and then time each other? You could even find the IELTS speaking rubric online to see how you will be evaluated. Remember, no one is ever born an exceptional and articulate speaker. Like most things, it's a skill that takes time and practice to develop. It's a skill that you too can have if you put in the hard work and stay focused. Let's spark things here with a fantastic expression. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first. In our last session, we looked at keywords and how they can help you perform better for part two, or otherwise referred to as the long term. In this lesson, let's move on to part three of the speaking test. Okay, let's see what you know and need to know about part three of the speaking exam. First, you probably recall that it's a dialogue, which simply means that it's going to be a two-way discussion, which is completely opposite of part two, which is essentially a monologue that you provide on a given topic. Remember, the topic of part three should be a natural progression building on part two. What this means is that the examiner should be selecting and creating questions for your discussion that continue along the same theme from the last section of the test. There may be rare cases where you're given a different topic than what was provided in part two, but this would tend to break away from the standard protocol and procedures for IELTS speaking tests in any country. What do we need to be mindful of for this part of the test? First of all, we need to understand whether we need to speculate or hypothesize after hearing the examiner's question. One very important point that you need to remember is that the questioning will be related to community or society in general, and that the line of questioning will not be specifically aimed at seeking a response about you and your life personally. For example, you may receive a question regarding how technology is changing communication, and then you begin to provide examples in your own life with your friends and family, and how you guys use WhatsApp, Facebook, or Skype to stay in touch. The examiner should then course correct you and try to get a response that is not specific to you and your life. What I mean by this is that he should then rephrase the question so that it's related to society in general. Just try to keep in mind that part three will be related to people in social groups, possibly their problems, and perhaps solutions. The questioning may start off being quite general, more basic in nature, but then gradually become more complex, requiring a higher order of thinking and vocabulary. If we revisit our topic of technology and its use for communication in society, higher order thinking questions may be as follows. Why would governments block communication software in their respective countries? Do people require such apps for communicating with friends and family abroad? Here, we would first need to understand the subject, which is governments banning the use of apps such as Skype, and how there's a benefit to this action. Who does this benefit and why, if it's definitely not advantageous to citizens who need these apps to keep in touch with friends and family? We would then have to come up with arguments that would have to support this move of the government and how or if it's going to benefit society as a whole. Here's another example of higher order questioning. How has technology changed communication in your country compared to 20 years ago? This is a vanilla question that you've most likely already seen online, and it's pretty common in the IELTS landscape. Here, you would need to draw a comparison between your country in the past to your country in the present. You would want to give concrete examples demonstrating a marked improvement in the lives of your fellow countrymen and how much better things are now with WhatsApp, TikTok, Snapchat, or Instagram. You may also want to provide the drawbacks or the disadvantages as well, such as how kids these days are staring at their phones instead of engaging in traditional conversation with family members at home, or even worse, parents who are disengaged interacting with their kids. All of this to say that you need to think big picture and utilize vocabulary that can help you get your point across in a genuine and intelligent manner. Be really careful of throwing around big words that you think are being used properly as this can actually detract from your speaking score. Another no-no is memorizing scripted responses. What this means is that a test taker goes online, finds some magic script that a former test taker used, memorized it, and then attempts to retool it in a way that works with his or her assigned speaking topic. Can you see what the problem is here? The memorized script is going to sound clunky, jarring, or inappropriate to the examiner. And this is definitely going to cause the examiner to raise a red flag for this candidate's responses. Remember, memorized scripts will cost you in the long run. You are far better off if you spend some consistent time acquiring regular vocabulary and expressions and knowing how to use them. Oh, and regarding your vocab and expressions, be very mindful to avoid repeating them over and over. You need to be substituting vocab, phrases, and expressions to show you are articulate and you have a strong command of the English language. Remember that variety is the spice of life and to mix it up when using expressions and vocabulary. You need to also keep in mind that you're having a dialogue, but that it's also an examination and there's no place for street slang and urban expressions. While you may love certain types of English movies and music or games, more often than not, you're picking up slang that will go against you in a professional setting such as IELTS or in the workplace. Make sure that you use discretion and exercise professionalism in the exam. Your examiner will appreciate it. What about your body language? Well, it wouldn't hurt to sound interested and provide full responses to questions. But what if you're stumped? First off, you could ask the examiner to repeat the question to buy you more time. Second, you could use fillers to provide you with a little bit more thinking time. Finally, make sure you avoid um, ah, or hmm, which don't lend well to your ability to express yourself in a coherent manner. Okay, let's jump into this lesson on connectors and regionalism. Of course, you've heard the term fluency, and you may or may not know that this is actually 25% of your IELTS speaking mark, which falls under fluency and coherence, a marking criteria used in the IELTS speaking exam rubric. I highly recommend that you find the IELTS rubric online just so you know how your speaking's going to be assessed. Let's take a look at band 6 on the IELTS speaking rubric now. You might be asking, why a band 6? Well, this band indicates where a speaker is competent and is the borderline where anything under this band suggests we need a lot more improvement for our speaking ability. So, if we look at band 6 on the rubric, you'll notice that it states the test taker is willing to speak at length, though may lose coherence at times due to occasional repetition, self-correction, or hesitation. Repetition is the habit of relying on the same words over and over, such as like, so, or actually. Repetition could also be peddling on the same word until you can find the thoughts you want to express. And finally, we have self-correction. What I mean is what I meant to say. Now, one of the requirements you have for the exam is to provide your opinion on questions you're going to be asked by the examiner. You might be asked if you like particular places or activities. One tip for you guys is not just what you say, but how you say it. Examiner, Do you like video games? Candidate. Actually, I'm not really a fan of gaming and I feel it's a little bit of a time waster. This is opposed to, actually, I'm a bit of a game junkie and once I start, it's pretty hard to stop. Can you hear the difference between these two responses using the same word? Intonation is huge in English and can communicate just as much as the actual words. Oh, and you may have also heard in both responses, a bit of. In the first example, we hear that gaming is a bit of a time waster, while in the second example, the speaker is a bit of a game junkie. We use this expression to indicate a small amount, but what we actually are doing is understating something. Here's another example. Candidate, I'm a bit nervous about my speaking test as it's only a week away. This speaker is actually understating the anxiety concerning the upcoming exam. Another way you can share your opinion is by using honestly or to be honest. You may choose to share your opinion with these two, but the problem I personally see is that many candidates overuse honestly and to be honest. Be really careful of using them sparingly. The same thing applies to using actually. And so, something really interesting about the English language is that it can be fairly regional. What I mean is, certain people end up using a few keywords that are common to the UK or Canada, Australia, or the States. For example, it's quite common for Brits to use the word right at the end of a sentence. Canadians and Americans, depending on their location, may use, you know what I mean? As a Canadian, I notice that we tend to start a lot of our sentences using so. And I'm pretty sure you may have heard that we Canucks, Canadians, have a tendency to use a at the end of our sentences. If you're emphatic and you want to show how much you're in favor of an activity, you may use absolutely. I absolutely love gaming. Maybe you're not nuts about games, but do play from time to time. I kind of like playing video games. This is actually fairly informal. To be a bit more formal, I somewhat enjoy playing video games. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, no, I'm not really into gaming. I'm not a big gamer, or I'm not a fan of gaming. Did you notice that I'm not repeating the phrase video games? It's already assumed we're discussing this topic. so to repeat the phrase over and over sounds wooden and repetitive. Let's move on to another type of question you may have. For instance, do you think financial education is important? If your answer is yes, you could say this is pretty much essential. You may have heard European teachers state, yes, I reckon it's essential, and this is absolutely fine. Are you catching that regionalism again, in North America, most people would tend to say it's pretty much essential or it's pretty much a no-brainer. But in the UK, reckon is much more common than in North America, unless perhaps someone's from the Deep South. So remember, connectors are going to keep your speaking smooth, and this is assessed under fluency and coherence on the speaking test rubric. Also remember that certain expressions are popular depending on the region as well as specific accents. So you can see that it's not just a matter of showing up for the speaking exam. You need to have an understanding of each section of the test. You need to avoid certain responses and how to speak professionally and confidently. Congratulations for making it to the end of the course. These 10 hacks will help you cut through your speaking exam with confidence.