How Do I Get A Band 9 in IELTS Speaking?

imagine walking into your I speaking test confident and prepared knowing no matter what happens you're going to get the I score that you need now picture walking out of the exam Center knowing that you have got the score that you deserve this might sound impossible but it's not I know this because I've helped thousands of students who are struggling just like you get a band seven8 or nine and in this video I'm going to take you on a journey and tell you exactly what band five and six students do differently from band s 7 8

and 9 students and these things that band 7 8 and N students do differently are easy and simple to learn you'll discover the hidden traps and common mistakes that trip up many students and learn the key techniques that could Skyrocket your score so if you're ready to go from fear and stress to just knowing exactly what to do on test day and having total confidence keep watching the video so the I speaking test has three parts so I've divided this page into three and we're going to compare what do Buy B five and six students

do very very differently from ban S 8 and N students for parts one Parts two and parts three so let's start off with part one this is your opportunity to create a great first impression with the examiner and also and I think more importantly it allows you to relax into the test if you relax into the test in part one you're going to be much more relaxed and more fluent throughout the entire test so it is very very important that you get part one right so there are three things that Bond five and six students

do differently from Bond Seven 8 and N9 students and I'd like you to look at this clip of two students answering the same question in part one and I want you to think about which one might be at about five or about six level and which one might be at about seven about 9 level um but really think why why are they at that level not that they sound more impressive or they have a better accent or they're using fancier words what are the things that you could copy or that you could stop doing that

will really improve your score so I grew up in Dubai and it's actually one of the um most populated countries in the GCC um people come here to visit for tourism and uh it's actually a good spot for um uh to visit the largest uh the largest uh Tower it's called the B khif I'm from India to be specific I am born and raised in Delhi and my mom is from Bombay and my dad is from Kerala but I've grown up my entire life here in Delhi and I went to school here went to University

here the first student is doing something that examiners are trained to spot this problem creates the worst first impression and could even get you about zero and it is memorized answers so why is this such a big problem well first of all the ielt test is not a memorization test it is testing your ability to communicate clearly in English not to memorize a bunch of sentences and repeat them to the examiner it's also considered cheating think about it this way if you really knew how to speak English to the level that you were trying to

get to would you need to memorize answers no and it also lowers your score in two very very important ways it makes you sound worse listen to this clip and think about how memorization might have led to a low score I come from India India is a very populated country it's the most populated country in the world right now and we have lots of cultures and lots of traditions and we have many many different languages and uh we also have different religions and we also celebrate them very much so did you notice the first problem

I want you to think back to when you were a child in school and think back to the lessons where the teacher got you and the other students to read out loud from the book how did you feel do you think that you sounded fluent or not so fluent this is exactly how you sound when you memorize an answer you sound like a robot but don't worry there's an easy way to fix that and I'll tell you about it in a second so did you spot any other issues let me explain here what the other

issue was so I want you to imagine this is the destination that you're going for course you're trying to get to about N9 and we have here student a and we have here student B so the examiner asks them tell me about your hometown student a talks about the history of their Hometown culture of their Hometown famous things in their Hometown the food the weather the night life and on and on and on student B just directly answers the question and this is what the students do they go off topic and this is why many

of you complain about examiners constantly interrupt you and stop you mids sentence it's not because the examiner is rude in part one they have to ask you a range of different questions I think between N9 and 12 different questions and if you're giving these very very long memorized answers they're going to stop you in the middle of your sentence you're going to feel oh The Examiner thinks I'm doing really badly you're going to get more stressed and you're going to sound even more robotic and your score is going to be terrible so now you might

be thinking well how long should they actually be you're saying don't give very long answers but should I give short answers that's not good as well no let's look at what band s and n students actually do the strategies students at band 7 8 and N use are incredibly simple for part one I discovered this when I was teaching in Saigon in Vietnam and what I used to do was I would go in maybe 10 or 15 minutes before the class started and I would speak to the students about things that that happened at the

weekend or sports or the weather just normal chitchat questions that you would talk to a friend or a work colleague or a teacher about and during that 10 or 15 minutes before the class started a lot of students gave band nine answers then once the class started I did something interesting I would get one of the best students the students that were the most fluent that were at a ban n level in those 10 or 15 minutes and I would do a mock one-on-one speaking task with them and they would go from band nine to

saying something at the weekend I went to vau I like seafood they have nice Seafood it was by the Sea it was nice by the Sea so from a band nine down to a band six or seven and I instantly improved the speaking scores of the entire class by just saying one thing why don't you speak in the same way as you did 10 minutes ago you see in the 10 minutes before class they were talking to me like a normal human being like a normal conversation they spoke naturally like they would to a friend

or a work colleague and they answered the question directly without going off topic and I call this test mode students go from sounding very very fluent to as soon as the test starts sounding like a robot but how can you overcome that there's one simple strategy that band n students use and I want you to watch these clips and try and figure out the strategy is your daily routine different at the weekend compared to during the week yes 100% so the the weekdays are for work mainly being productive paying the bills and the weekends I

get to do whatever I want to do so really treasure and enjoy my weekends do you prefer to read magazines or newspapers definitely magazines um mostly on the topics of fashion or Interior Design This is what I really like cuz I like to see creative sides all from all over the world I like to see what people are talking about what's new what's trending and um I like to learn like I like to have knowledge of things of like what is this called or what is that called because usually when you see pictures you don't

usually know what it's called so when you read a magazine or where you get the knowledge that's that's where you get to know oh this fabric is called this or this uh decoration is called that so I think it's very good on information so did you spot it they simply directly answer the question and then add a little bit more detail this detail could be an explanation or an example a personal story and if that's confusing or overwhelming just answer the question like you would if you were in a coffee shop with a friend remember

they are testing your ability to speak naturally in English not to memorize a bunch of answers and impress The Examiner with fancy structures so let's now talk about part two of the speaking test part two is often the most feared part of the speaking test because it requires you to do something that a lot of students are uncomfortable doing or they're not used to doing so in part two you'll be given a q card that looks like this and they'll ask you to speak about that topic for up to 2 minutes this can be quite

scary because it's difficult to speak about anything for 2 minutes especially in a foreign language when you're under stress and you have a scary examiner like me looking at you but what if I told you it wasn't part two that is scary it is the strategy that students use that leads to low scores and what's also really interesting is when students stop doing these things that b five and six students do and they switch to our strategy that our band 7 eight and N students use not only do their scores improve but part two become

something that they look forward to it is their chance to shine and show the examiner how great they are without any worry without any stress first listen to this student and see if you can spot any problems with what they're doing describe some food or drink that you learned to prepare um I don't really prepare much food or drink because uh my wife does most of that for me but uh food or drink you learn to prepare uh does uh a cocktail uh kind I know how to make a Bloody Mary uh when and where

you learn to prepare this um I learned to prepare it uh one morning uh when I was thirsty uh how you learn to prepare it um I just looked up up YouTube and explain how you felt about learning to prepare it um I don't know uh it quenched my thirst so to you spot what the problem was what most students do do is they look at the topic and then they talk about bullet point number one then bullet point number two then bullet point number three then bullet point number four but why is that a

problem well first of all there might be one or more of these bullet points that you just don't have much to say about them so what food was it cocktail it was a bloody Maria but there's not much you can really say about that apart from what the thing is how I learned to do it again I learned it on YouTube not a big deal I can't really talk much about that so it's really limiting the amount I can talk and remember it is a test of speaking for up to 2 minutes then there might

be a bullet point that you just feel uncomfortable talking about or you don't really know what to say for that so explain how you felt I don't really have major feelings about Bloody Marys and bu cocktails I just made it up on the spot that makes it extremely difficult to speak fluently for up to 2 minutes and then once you get to the end there after I don't know 20 30 seconds for the average student you run out of things to say and you're like oh I've only been talking for 30 seconds I'm going to

fail my test and everything gets worse and worse as you get more stressed and more stressed so this is the most common strategy and what does it lead to poor fluency run out of things to say and feel like you failed I've done so many tests with students who were doing really well in part one and I was like this student might be at a band seven or a band eight and then they use this strategy and completely fall apart so what do band 7even 8 and N students do differently I want you to listen

to this student who got a band nine and look at the Q card and think about what they're doing what are they doing differently to these B five and six students food that I learned to prepare um I'm pescatarian so I don't eat meat um but I love food and I have a gluten intolerance so I can't eat a lot of the Indian food so this is a little recipe that I learned how to make which is basically Pan um we call it cottage cheese in English um it's like a it's like a spiced tomato

base with cottage cheese um with parata Roy but it's made out of raggi flour which is gluten-free and super rich in calcium and very good for people with diabetes although I don't have diabetes it's very nutritious basically together it's the perfect meal keeps you full I I love being healthy I try to be as healthy as I can so um yeah that's probably my go-to meal in the evening cuz I don't have to think about I have all the ingredients I don't have to think about how to make it it's kind of automatic and it's

delicious which is the most important part it's not compromising on The Taste because I can't eat salmon and rice every day I want to eat something that's more um flavorful and uh nutritious sometimes when I'm feeling adventurous I like to eat it with uh yogurt either Greek yogurt or regular yogurt and add a couple Indian spices into it and mix it up so the spiciness of the pan cottage cheese um the the texture like a drier stiffer texture of the ragi Roy and the creaminess and coldness of the yogurt is match made in heaven so

hopefully you spotted they don't stick to the bullet points instead what they do is they focus on the main topic so they're always talking about the main topic but they're not necessarily using all of the bullet points what they do instead is they have the freedom to add other bullet points So within that main topic they are adding things that they feel more comfortable talking about whilst talking about that main topic for example if you got this Q card you might feel very comfortable talking about these two bullet points but this third bullet point is

going to take only a few seconds to talk about and then this fourth bullet point is something that you don't really know anything about and you don't feel comfortable talking about it but you might find it easy to talk about other things related to the main topic such as a description of the main topic a story how you feel about it something about the past or something you hope to do in the future related to the main topic or any other point that you feel com comfortable talking about now should you use all of those

ideas no just the ones that will help you speak fluently for up to 2 minutes and anyone that tells you you must talk about each bullet point in order doesn't know what they're talking about now let's move on to in my opinion the most difficult part of the speaking test part three why is it so difficult I want you to listen to these students and think about the questions don't Focus too much on the answers but focus on the questions is being asked and think about how you might respond to them do you think that

it's better to buy a property or rent a property no should the same regulations apply to online advertising everywhere it you mean the by the regulation um on the I cannot find the the name how to say it um let's jump to another question so as you heard part three questions are a lot more challenging than the typical part one question but like everything with the IELTS test the problem is not the questions the problem is the strategy that students use to answer them so let's start off with the things that you should not do

the most important thing that you should avoid is no response if you say to the examiner I don't know or just nothing comes out of your mouth or I've even had students burst out laughing in my face when I ask them some part three questions what you are saying to The Examiner is my English is not good enough to answer this question but what happens if you really do have no idea some of these questions are very very difficult we'll give you a strategy for how to tackle any question no matter what the topic is

in a second the second thing that you should never do is give a short answer and short answers in part three of the test normally have nothing to do with your English level or your speaking skills 15 minutes of talking in a foreign language in a very stressful situation with somebody scary and horrible like me looking at you and judging you is an exhausting process it is often more related to fatigue to tiredness than it is to English ability so what they do is um something that you should never do is they surrender they just

give up they're just saying I Surrender I don't want to answer more of these questions my level is not as high as you really think it is but I have some really really good news for you and this is something that not many I students know or understand I think it's a bit of a secret I don't know whether I should be telling you this but in part three The Examiner has lots of different questions that they could ask you they have some easier questions and some more difficult questions if you get a really difficult

question that is an exceptionally good sign that means that the examiner thinks that you might be at a band 7even 8 or n and they're asking you these more difficult questions to really stretch your speak ability and separate the band sevens from the band eights from the band NES so now that you know if you get a difficult question that it's a good thing and you're very happy about it how do you tackle those difficult questions the first and most important thing is always attempt an answer but what if you have no idea well you

could do something like this I'm not too familiar with the topic of AI and its relation with the education however in my knowledge I do know that AI is developing more and more and it might be able to replace some uh teachers jobs or tasks but it will not replace the trait of empathy remember it is not a Knowledge Test it is not an IQ test it is not a test of how much you know about that topic it is a speaking test again if you say nothing what you're telling the examiner is I don't

deserve a high score but if you attempt an answer even if it is in that limited way The Examiner will think okay they might not know much about that topic let's change topics let's ask them about something slightly differently and see how they get on and you'll probably get something you do know about but it is far more likely in part three you will get some kind of a topic that you do know something about so how do you shine how do you show The Examiner that you do deserve a band seven eight or nine

watch this clip and think about what the student does in terms of how they structure their answer what skills does a person person need to be a great chef M interesting I think I mean from what I've heard I've never worked as a chef or worked in a kitchen before but I think it takes a lot of trial and error so for that reason I would imagine that the person would have to be very patient and with that patience you need to have an inherent uh passion for the food that you're making I think chefs

usually specialize in in one or more Cuisines um so just having an understanding of the background of the spices where it comes from of the meat where it comes from if you're not passionate about that it can probably Tire you out to be that invested in learning to patience passion and a good environment like access to good teachers access to good books access to good produce would probably help you hone your craft a lot more so they did four things here they directly answer the question they then explained why they think that or why other

people think that they then backed it up with examples or you could include a personal story and then they developed it even more by showing the other side or you could give a new point but here's the most important thing here's the key lesson for the entirety of the speaking test what do all of these band 78 or9 students have in common well when you're talking to a band 78 or9 student it doesn't doesn't feel like a speaking test it feels like having a normal conversation B 78 to n students answer questions naturally and they

do that by steering the conversation to things that are easy and comfortable for them to talk about they don't use tricks or hacks to try and cheat the test it can't be cheated instead they use the English they already have the ability they already have to clearly communicate naturally with the examiner and show them the score they really deserve and that's how they get the score that they really deserve but very importantly if you don't practice all of that you're never going to be able to do it on test day so here's a video that

gives you access to more than a thousand I speaking questions and shows you how to practice at home for free hope you enjoyed the lesson and I'll see you again next time