Three Tips to Improve Your IELTS Speaking Exam

Depending on someone’s skills, the Speaking Exam if the IELTS may be the most difficult of all the subtests. This is because the exam is not just a test of Grammar prowess and range of vocabulary, it is also a test of guts to get the glory.

The Speaking Exam, like any speaking activity people engage in, is a performance. This is why a good dose of the right attitude mixed with command of the English language and a healthy, well-opinionated mind is truly the formula to boost one’s speaking exam score.

Here are some tips to get a good score in your Speaking Test.

Build up your confidence. The premise above is important: the speaking examination is a performance. Like any other performance, the outcome is affected by how anxious you are – and how you can reign in that anxiety and do your job. Confidence in speaking is not easily achieved, but here is one great fact that you might like to keep in mind:

You have been exposed to the English language since forever.

Okay. That may be an exaggeration, but you’ve been exposed to the language at since birth, at least. You can read English (or else you wouldn’t be reading this now), you can understand English movies, and you can speak English. This means you have the very basic of proficiencies. All you have to do is to enhance it. Confidence increases when skill does.

Have an opinion on everything. During the IELTS examination, the examiner can ask you any question under the sun. It may range from your favorite movie to the ethical considerations of kids in advertisements (and yes those are actual IELTS questions). Not having any idea can severely mess up your score – it can cause you to stutter, to not answer spontaneously, or to just remain silent for long, empty seconds. Your fluency goes down and so does 25% of your total score. To be truly prepared for IELTS Speaking, you should not only work on how the words come out of your mouth, but what ideas come out as well.

Speak English as much as possible. The best way to ace the IELTS Speaking Exam is to become a proficient speaker and this is not an overnight process. Proficiency comes from constant practice – from enhancing your fluency to bettering your pronunciation and clarity. This can best be done by application of skills and fine-tuning the said skill in practice. Not only will it help you boost your speaking exam score, it will also make your life abroad easier.

The main thing that you must remember about the speaking test is that even if you are quite proficient in English, how you present yourself is also important.

Good luck!