What is the IELTS speaking test like?

Like many Brits, our migration agents recommended that we complete an English test to gain extra points for our 190 PR Visa for Australia. The AITSL website (for educational professionals) states that as a Primary School teacher, I needed to complete the IELTS general. This consists of four parts (like other English tests such as PTE) including: speaking, listening, reading and writing. By completing this examination, you can earn up to an extra 20 points towards your Visa- something we were extremely keen to do as the more points, the more likely you are to be invited to an Australia state (190 Visa) during the Expression of Interest stage in the Visa process. 

So £220 lighter and 100% more stressed than my usual self, I headed off to a building which brought me quite a lot of personal trauma (after having to complete a driving course there following a car accident I was in at 19- which wasn’t even my fault!).

I was ‘welcomed’ by a scruffy-looking gentleman at the reception to ‘have a seat’. Unless I wanted to sit on someone’s lap, there were no seats to take. I waited 30 minutes to be registered and when I went through, I was so nervous that I couldn’t even scan my own fingerprint properly.

The first part of the exam was my speaking test. You would think that as a native English speaker, who spends most of the day presenting herself to others and having trained large numbers of staff over the years, this sort of thing would not phase me in the slightest. However, I suddenly felt like I had forgotten all of the words in my own language and I am terrible under the pressure of exam conditions! 

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Part one started well, having to tell the examiner about myself and my work-I threw myself into these answers and started to feel quite confident. I then had to answer some questions about my opinions on the news, celebrities and the portrayal of celebrities on the news. This was a little tricky for me as 1) I choose not to watch the news and 2) I couldn’t care less about celebrities! However, I managed to articulate my answers quite well and felt as though I answered the questions fairly coherently. 

Now, I have been watching videos from expats about these tests and how random they are. But the next four questions really threw me. Four questions on sunglasses. Sunglasses. I didn’t realise until this test that I had more than a sentence to say about sunglasses. Hadn’t ever given it much thought! But something magical happened and I managed to turn into an optometrist and spout out some absolute nonsense, which in my head made me sound like an absolute sunglasses expert! 

Random waffle over, I then had to present an answer about an activity I enjoy doing outside, who I do it with, how often and where this takes part. Thrilled with this question, I used my one-minute preparation time to jot down some bullet points about walking and hiking. After all the preparation for my overnight marathon walk last year in London, raising money for breast cancer, it was fantastic to be able to relive the moments of our group training. The time to jot ideas down was really helpful and you are able to use the notes to support you in presenting your answer thoroughly. 

Then it was time for part three, where I felt like the examiner hit me quite quickly with the questions. My biggest piece of advice here is to digest the question before you answer- even if it is just for a couple of seconds. Regardless of your opinion, make sure you use reasons to justify yourself. My follow-up questions included: 

• Is it important to people you do this activity with to go outside? 
• Do you think it is important for people to go outside? 
• What activities can people do outside at different points of the year? 
• Do you think towns and cities provide enough green space for people? 
• Do you think it is important for people to look after the environment? 
• Can one person really make a difference when it comes to looking after the planet? 

Top Tips for the IELTS speaking test! 

• Don’t bother paying for apps! The apps I downloaded were an absolute waste of time- lots of errors, glitches and repetitive questions. Once you book the IELTS test, you will get access to IELTS premium for free. These questions are most like the ones you will experience in the real test. 
• Practice, practice, practice! Although you may speak English all the time, to get top marks, you need more than conversational language. I used the practice questions to familiarise myself with some of the potential content and practised recording my answers. 
• Look at model answers and the marking bandings- these are really useful in learning what it is the examiners are looking for in your answers. The videos of model answers provide a good scaffold for what you are aiming for to achieve certain marks. 
• Be aware of recent news events, and have some ideas of your favourite restaurants, films, TV shows and places to visit as these were frequent themes of the presentations when I was rehearsing answers. 
• Have a drink before you go into the test so that you do not have a dry mouth when speaking. I was not allowed to take water into this part of the test. 
• Google ‘sentence openers’ and ‘idioms’ – revise a couple of these each day in the lead-up to your test. This can help to vary how you start your sentences rather than always beginning with ‘I’ or yes/no’ and they can also help you to link ideas within your responses. Idioms show how well English is embedded into our everyday language and can support the informal part of the writing test, which I will talk more about in my next blog post.