How much do you know about IELTS speaking part 2? Make sure you understand everything about speaking part 2 before you do your test.
Quiz
Are the following tips and advice good or bad?
- If you don’t know anything about the topic, ask the examiner to give you another cue card.
- You must write answers to each question on the cue card during your 1 minute preparation.
- You shouldn’t look at your notes while you are giving your talk.
- You will get a low score if your talk is boring.
- You should only add information to your talk relating to the prompts on your card.
- The examiner will interrupt you if you go off topic.
- If you don’t speak for 2 minutes, you won’t get a high score.
- The examiner is not interested in your grammar in part 2, only in your fluency.
- Use plenty of idioms to get a higher score.
- You should expand your talk by adding descriptions, details and stories.
Answers
All the advice given above is bad except for one. Read the comments below to learn more.
- You can’t change your topic. Even if you don’t know much about it, you should still try to talk by adding your own ideas and information.
- There are no questions on the speaking part 2 cards. There are prompts on the cards which are only guidelines. You should decide how to write notes in a way that is useful for your talk. The notes are only to help you remember your ideas so you decide if you want to make notes on each prompt or not.
- This is really bad advice. Of course you can look at your notes. Your notes will help you remember your ideas. However, don’t look down at your notes all the time. Eye contact with the examiner while you are speaking is important. Just glance at your notes from time to time to help remember ideas.
- There is no score for having an interesting talk or a boring talk. However, an interesting talk usually contains a better range of language and for that reason adding interesting details can help.
- This is also poor advice. The prompts should be used as guidelines. If you decide not to follow them, it is up to you. Personally, I recommend following them because they provide a useful structure for your talk but you need to add more information to each prompt. It is your choice what extra information you add.
- The examiner will not interrupt your talk at all. Once you start talking, the examiner will remain silent until you have finished. Also there is no scoring for being on or off topic in IELTS speaking. You shouldn’t change the topic but you might want to add some interesting details which are not mentioned on your card.
- Part of fluency is your ability to speak at length but that doesn’t mean you must speak for 2 minutes. If you only speak for 1.5 minutes but during that time you speak without hesitation, you can still get a high score.
- There are four marking criteria in IELTS speaking (fluency, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation). These criteria are scored from your answers to ALL parts of the test. While part 2 is a good chance to show your fluency skills, your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation will still be assessed.
- Using idioms is not a sure way to get a high score. Idioms should be used appropriately and correctly and should definitely not be over used.
- This is absolutely correct advice. You need to expand your talk by adding more detail and descriptions. This website (IELTS Advantage) has a great strategy for developing your talk. I’m sure you will all find it useful.
