IELTS Commentry: How to get Band 7+ in IELTS Speaking (video lesson #2)

Today, in Lesson #2 Adam, our experienced ex-IELTS examiner is continuing his quest to help you score Band 7 or higher in IELTS Speaking. You can watch Lesson #1 here.

Lesson # 2 is about Speaking Parts 2 and 3, and you will learn the vocabulary, expressions and grammar to get Band 7, 8 – or even 9, depending on your current level!

In today’s video Adam gives you a very clever way to remember new vocabulary and grammar – you definitely want to try his suggestion, because it can make learning new words easier for you, and they will stick in your memory.

After the lesson there is a mock test with Adam being the examiner. You will get an opportunity to practice and implement everything you learned in this lesson.

Watch the video on YouTube here

Go here to get Adam to assess your Speaking, estimate you the score you’re likely to get now and tell you how to score higher.

In the video: Speaking Part 2 – ideas, grammar and vocabulary

Adam is starting by introducing a Part 2 topic:

Describe a job you would not like to do. Please say

– What the job is,
– How you know about the job,
– How difficult or easy the job is.

The key thing about this topic is that it needs you to speculate, guess or predict. When you’re certain about something in the future, you can say ‘would’ or ‘would be’.

So, “Being a garbage collector would be difficult”

Being unsure about something in the future, you could say ‘might be’, ‘may be’ or ‘could be’, and when you don’t use the same expression in every sentence, it makes a better impression on your examiner.

Many people find grammar terms, such as ‘second conditional’ scary or confusing. What is a ‘second conditional’ anyway?! Adam comes to the rescue. He does a great job of explaining what it is, and how YOU can use it, in plain human language.

Here is an example of a second conditional, and you really want to listen to Adam explain how to use it correctly:

“If someone were a garbage collector, they would/could/must have back problems.”

Is there a “first conditional”? Yes, there is! Adam explains about that one and how to use it correctly, too.

You probably know by now that synonyms are important in IELTS, but how well do you use them when you speak?

Imagine you started to talk on the topic, trying to describe a difficult job. Adam gives you some synonyms so that you don’t have to say ‘difficult’ over and over again. You could say ‘tough’, ‘tricky’ or ‘onerous’, and that would increase your score for Lexical Resource. What’s more, you could add some adverbs – and if you don’t know what they are, here are some examples: ‘very, really, quite, extremely, unbelievably’.

Another thing to help you get a higher score is idiomatic expressions. Adam talked about them in Lesson 1, but here are some expressions related to this particular topic:

“Burn the candle at both ends” – meaning to work very long hours.
“Work your fingers to the bone” – meaning to work very hard.
“Go the extra mile” – to do more than is expected of you
“Get off on the wrong foot” – to not make a good first impression

Speaking Part 3 – ideas and vocabulary

Since Part 3 questions are related to Part 2, it is important to have enough ideas to talk about. Sometimes you get questions on topics you didn’t really think about, and you may struggle to come up with ideas, so Adam is sharing some well-researched information that can help you. Take a moment to think how YOU might respond to a question like this:

“Which do you think young people prioritise more – an interesting job, or one that pays a high salary?”

Adam’s ideas are – some young people choose a high paying job because it gives them more money to buy things, more freedom to enjoy life, a better life partner, a higher status.

Others might choose a more interesting job to have better co-workers, to feel happy to go to work, and take pride at what they do.

Adam talks about many possible questions you may get in Part 3, but his main message for you is, pause and make your own notes. Write down your own ideas and make them as much about YOU as possible – because then you will remember the ideas and vocabulary.

Mock Speaking Test

And once Adam is done teaching, it is Mock Test time! Adam will be asking you questions as a Speaking examiner, and you will be answering them (and, hopefully, recording yourself).

You will be amazed how many things about your speaking you can notice from listening to your own recordings. Listen and check if you’re using the expressions he talks about in this video, if you’re using the grammatical structures he recommends, and how fluently you are talking.

Don’t forget to check for fillers – how many times you use words like ‘um’, ‘er’, ‘ah’, ‘like,’, ‘well…’, ‘you know…’. You can also check if you’re making little grammatical or vocabulary mistakes, or if you hesitate a lot. Make notes about any issues you notice, and do better on your next Mock Test.