IELTS Expert Breaks Down Band 9 Answers

So let's start by talking about your neighborhood. Do you like the neighborhood you live in? Yes I love it. It's really beautiful. Beautiful Queens and is next to the river. So every time I feel like you know I need to disconnect from life. Walking along the river is really restorative and calming. Let me tell you why this student is from

band

nine so that you can improve your score and also give you an idea of ​​what the examiner thinks when he listens to and judges a student. during the speaking test because that is really the key to improving your score, so there are four scoring criteria that the examiner thinks about when he listens to you grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency.

The first thing the examiner will notice here will be the pronunciation this is because your pronunciation not only affects your pronunciation score but it also affects the other three scores because if you think about it you could have perfect grammar, perfect vocabulary, a Perfect fluency, but if the examiner can't understand what you're saying, nothing like that. It really matters, it's like picking up a paintbrush. I'm overlooking all your good work. If your pronunciation is bad for this student, it is

band

9 because the first thing the examiner will notice with this student is that he understands exactly what he wants. they are saying for every word, every syllable, they are not native English speakers, but their pronunciation is extremely clear and that is really what you should focus on, not on fancy higher level pronunciation features, what you should focus on is whether the examiner understands.

Every word I say so far is excellent. Is there anything you think needs to be added to your neighborhood? I guess I have the sense of community, but there are more types of events where we can bring people together. You know, we meet regularly. Doing like say Jubilee week, you know the celebrations and anything that's more of a national celebration, but it would be nice to have something more regular, a sense of community. I guess if you could move to another neighborhood, where would it be? I would like to move. the beach somewhere by the sea, you know, because it would be really nice to be in nature because the neighborhood I live in is great, but it feels a little bit like a concrete jungle.

I know the river is close, but that's how it is. I feel like it takes me a bit of time to get right into nature, so it'll be good for you to know that, for example, on a beach, you know that another thing the examiner will be thinking about is your grammatical or verbal structure that you choose to answer. the question. specific question, are you using the right structure to answer that particular question? So I ask you a conditional question if you could move to another neighborhood, where would your answer be? I would like to move to the beach.

She uses the modal verb would to express. a polite wish or wish something hypothetical usually in the future that she wants to happen now what the examiner will do is she will ask you a variety of different questions that require a variety of different grammatical structures and tenses to answer appropriately and the examiner will be Listening to your answer to assess your grammatical range and accuracy and see how that changes and how she copes when the examiner changes the type of question she is asked. Let's talk about television. What is your favorite TV show? Actually, I don't look.

TV, but I watch a lot of YouTube videos, you know, and I tend to watch more personal development videos, you know, transformation stories. Do you prefer streaming or watching regular TV? I prefer to transmit. It's really hard for me to look at something without thinking and without intention. So before I watch something, it has to be something that holds my interests and I really know what it is about, so yes, I prefer streaming, so in this question I ask if you prefer streaming or watching TV. No, this is slightly different from the question. the conditional question I asked her before what I'm asking her now is not a conditional it is not a wish an unlikely event that could happen I'm asking about her current preference and she says I'd rather convey this is perfect for indicating her preference Because we use the present simple to indicate our current preference or something that is true in general, it would sound very unusual if she said something like I would like to convey in the future because that is not really what I asked her.

I didn't ask him anything. conditional hypothetical type question, so you're doing extremely well and then you choose the exact correct tense or grammatical structure to use, you don't just choose it as appropriate, that's what I mean when I say it's appropriate, you choose the correct, you are using it precisely. and you must do both if you hope to get around seven, eight, or nine. I hope you're enjoying the video so far. Thanks for seeing it. I want to provide you with a free course that has helped attract students. improve your IELTS speaking score, it's called the IELTS Speaking Challenge and what it will do is guide you through each part of the test and give you strategies for part one, part two and part three and it will also allow you to practice at home for free and get feedback, it's one hundred percent free, all you have to do is look at the description below this video, click on it, enter your email and we will register it and send you all the information.

Thank you very much and let's get back to the video, is there a program or YouTube channel that you don't like? No, not really, because if I did this, then I wouldn't pay attention to them. You know, I just surf. I tend not to pay much attention to things that don't. I don't like or you know you don't contribute to me better what your favorite TV shows were when I was a kid. I watch a lot of cartoons and they definitely have a good dose of fairy tale imagination. Superhero cartoons and the ones I like. Love that left an impression was about empowering girls, you know, powerful women who look good and do their thing, you know, and just, yeah, there's a cartoon called Jam and the Holocaust and I always thought it was really cool because Gem is a journalist and I believe.

Her alter ego is a journalist and she could just transform and look amazing at the same time, you know, that kind of shaped my first thoughts about how you know, maybe it could be my future job and I asked her about the past, what were they? your favorite TV shows when you were a kid and your answer is I watched a lot of cartoons so you decide to use the past simple here because you are talking about a specific event in the past at a specific time and it is a complete action so that is one of the occasions when it is appropriate to use the past simple, so again you will see the examiner ask a variety of different questions just to assess your grammatical range, so you should be aware of this when the examiner asks you a question, you should think about what the simple past is. the appropriate time to answer this question or the appropriate grammatical structure and they also do this with topics, which is why a lot of students complain about why they ask me about birthday cakes and hats and my free time, why so many weird topics, that's it very, very intentional. because it is to stop cheating because many students memorize lists of high level words and what the exam will do is include an unusual topic to test their vocabulary range for that unusual topic, let's see how they do it now let's talk about using your phone, What apps do you use the most on your phone?

I guess it's the social media app because I need to post daily for my business. I think I also love, you know, calm, like a kind of mental space, apps that really allow us to. You know, just disconnect from our day to day, you know, stress and then refocus because I think that's really important. How much time do you spend on your phone per day? Too much. Now I have a little counter that tells you. I wonder if my screen time has increased or decreased and I try to reduce it, but probably about three or four hours a day, a little too much.

Have you ever deleted an app on your phone? I don't think I've done it mainly because if I don't use the app, they just stop updating and then I don't do a good job of sorting them, but that reminds me to do it. Do you have notifications on or off on your phone? It's all off, yes. I don't like any kind of buzzing, you know, on my phone, even my phone is on silent all the time, um, yeah, very rarely I don't have any notifications on, so as you'll see, now we've switched gears to talk about mobile phones.

One of the reasons they do it is to stop cheating, but the other thing they do is they're thinking about your use of topics, specific vocabulary, meaning vocabulary that helps you talk about this specific topic, so that, for example, she uses words like turn off screen time and refresh. humming silently, so these are very topic-specific words that we use to talk about mobile phones, for example, we wouldn't use these words to talk about the weather or food, so notice I didn't say I'm using a lot of vocabulary high level. she's using topic-specific vocabulary topic-specific vocabulary is much more impressive than using the word plethora 17 times it's not about going on YouTube and memorizing a bunch of high-level words, it's about being able to discuss any topic you're presented with and this is basically cheat proof because it is impossible for you to predict what topics are going to come up and let me tell you that a little secret examiner does not base his vocabulary score on all these memorized

answers

that he has or on the topics that preferred The examiner bases his score on these

answers

, these questions you didn't expect because that's your real vocabulary level, it's not a memorization test, it's a speaking test and also the examiner is thinking if you are using these words and phrases after not just including accurately lots of high-level fancy words, but also choosing the appropriate topic-specific words to help you fluently discuss that topic and she is doing it perfectly and what many students will say when they look at a band 9 student.

They will say : I don't think it's banned, I am because what they think Bandine is is using a lot of words that they don't really understand. It's actually quite the opposite, using fairly simple words that are specific to a topic because that is a much more accurate and reliable assessment of your actual language ability. Now let's talk about your future. What job would you like to do in the future? I guess the work I want to do in the future is like the next level. What I am doing now in the future I would like to be a speaker who speaks on a larger stage and reaches more people within the audience about the human condition and the things we struggle with and the things we need to know to grow as people , so this is a really interesting answer because you've probably noticed that she's not as fluent as in the previous answers, so what we're going to do now is listen to her next answer and I want you to compare the answer that she wasn't as Fluent with the following answer and I want you to think about why that is and if it will really affect your score.

Will you study for a degree in the future? Well, because I actually spent a lot of time in my life studying and I just finished at the age of 30. I felt like I had had enough structured education. I believe that the best education you give yourself is experiential and I learned a lot of what I know now by doing because it consists of being in something and really being. practice the skills that you learned more effectively, so this is a really important insight into what the examiner is thinking because the reason she wasn't as fluent on answer 12 is that I think she was just overthinking, she had to really think about. about the answer, whereas with the answers where I was much more fluent, I didn't really have to think about the content of the things I was going to say because if you think about it your brain is like a computer, what happens to a computer? when you have too many programs open at the same time it slows down and can crash and this is one of the main reasons why students score lower in fluency they are thinking too much about the content they are thinking too much about the ideas and let me give you some Really, very good advice.

This is probably the number one most common tip we give to our VIP students to help them improve their fluency. They don't judge you on the quality of your ideas. They don't judge you by the content of the oral exam. Remember. you are only being judged on your fluency, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, there is nothing there that says there are more scores for high level ideas, you must answer the question which is part of fluency and coherence, but as long as you answer the question , it can be very, very simple and easy ideas, does that mean she doesn't deserve a band nine?

No. The examiner is not judging you for a bad answer and it wasn't even a bad answer, it was a very, very good answer. The examiner is judging you. Based on the totality of your performance, every answer you give you are being judged on your overall performance.As for fluency, many students think that if you make a small mistake it automatically lowers your score, that's not how the oral test works. Not at all, on the test, if you get a question that you don't feel comfortable answering, just choose something that's easy to talk about because that will help your fluency and also don't panic if you give a bad answer, don't panic. . and destroy the rest of your exam, go ahead and remember that you are being judged on all your answers, not just one answer.

This video is sponsored by us. Advantages of IELTS and VIP ielt course. IELTS VIP course is the most successful IELTS course in the world, that is a fact because we have more links, seven, eight and nine success stories than any other IELTS course in the world. We do this by simplifying the entire IELTS process by supporting you with some of the best IELTS teachers in the world. world and be with you every step of the way until you get the score you need. Thanks for going this far in the video. I want to give you 10 off our VIP cores.

All you have to do is look down in the description you will see our special link you need to get 10 off just click on it and you can register if you have any questions about the VIP course feel free to contact us Chris iletervantage.com is my email address we respond to One hundred percent of the questions we receive we hope you become a VIP, if not, enjoy the rest of this free video which is the end of part one, so now we will move on to the second part. I will show you a cue card you will have one minute to prepare you can take notes during that minute I will let you know when the minute is up and then I would like you to speak for a maximum of two minutes on the topic of the cue card it is clear, yes, okay , there's the coupon and I'll tell you that the second part gives the examiner the freedom and the space to really listen to your interpretation because they're not constantly thinking about asking the next question about what you're saying, that gives them sort of two minutes. just to sit down and really focus on different aspects of your performance and the challenge for students is to speak fluently for up to two minutes, that's really the biggest challenge when it comes to the second part, so let's listen and see how you do.

Please start when you are ready. One website that I really enjoy visiting is YouTube and the reason is that I think I'm more of a visual and experiential learner, so if you gave me an instruction to do something that I might only pick up as a very small snippet because my mind might don't retain everything that you have said and therefore in order for me to tackle the tasks I would need to know what that topic is about and I watch and learn in a more condensed way and I find YouTube really interesting and very engaging so It attracts my attention and what I like to learn are interviews with

expert

s.

You know things that people might break down into parts. I know more of a conversational type of style and I find interviews and explanations about human behavior, especially from neuroscience

expert

s, you know, really compelling and it's something that I think helped me with my work, so it was a very quick way to learn about something and that is. Why do I spend so much time on this, much more than I spend on books? Because if you can ask me to read a book, it's not exactly the same thing, you know, and you ask me to read a video, then I could keep a lot of the information. because it's not just what's said, I also see a person's expression, you know, and also the emphasis of something they say through the tone of voice, so it really helps me digest and improve my learning, and I visit the website. every other day you know or actually every time I need to understand more about something it goes straight to YouTube um well I like it thank you that's the end of part two so you can listen and see she had no problem speaking on that topic for the whole two minutes, so what I'm going to do now is break down the structure that she used so that you can practice using this structure because she did a very, very good job of taking the topic and then structuring it in a way that It was very easy for her to speak fluently for up to two minutes, so the first thing she did was answer the question directly and said that a website that I really enjoy visiting is YouTube, so this tells the examiner that you understood the question and you are coherent you are answering the question it is also useful for you because what you are going to do is make sure that you answer the question by stating the answer right away you don't have to do it this way There are many different ways that you can fluently answer the question for two minutes, but this is one way.

The second thing he did was briefly explain why he thinks that and he says the reason is because I'm more of a visual and experiential EXP student, so he doesn't go into much detail, but he explains the main points of his answer, then what he does It's going into a lot more detail, so for me, if you gave me instructions to do something. I may only catch a very small snippet because my mind may not retain everything you've said so it's going to go into a lot more detail and the fourth thing she does is give real examples and talk about interviews with neuroscience experts. so this structure is like a pyramid, at the top it answers the question, then it says why and then it goes into much more detail and then it gives more examples.

This is a great way to answer oral questions because it is a very natural way. and it's a very fluid and coherent way to answer that and it helps students and then what you can do is add a couple more bullet points so that if you get to the end of your examples, you can add a few more bullet points. points related to that main topic so practice that at home it will really help you. Another thing that she does very well here is that she relates everything to her real life and her real experience. This helps her to be fluent because it is much easier to speak. about things from your own experience of your own life it is much more difficult to speak fluently but something outside of your own experience outside of your own life and make it up than to relate it to something from your own life and many of these two parts two questions will be about quite topics vague, like for example, you talk about a book, you talk about a website, you talk about a vacation you went on, then it's a book or a website, you choose something that is a hobby of yours or a passion of yours that you know a lot or it could be related to your real profession your job if you are asked about a vacation talk about a real vacation you have been on or it could be a place you know very, very well, you know for example you could be living in London but you are from Ghana, you could be talking about I like coming back to Ghana on holiday because you know all those places and you can talk about them freely and easily and that will also help you with your vocabulary because it is much easier to talk about topics, use of specific vocabulary, appropriate and precise use if you are talking about your job, where you are a passion, a hobby, something that you know a lot about and now we are going to move on to part three okay, so you have talked about a website that you like, let's keep talking about websites so let me tell you a little secret about the third part that not many students know that the examiner has a variety of different questions and if they think you have around seven, eight or nine, they will ask you more difficult questions than students who are around five or six years old, for example, because what they're doing in part three is really stretching your ability, so if you have really difficult questions, you should be happy about that and we ask some very, very difficult questions.

In part three, let's see how he deals with this. What are the most popular websites in your country? In my country. I guess the most popular websites revolve more around discussions. and you know, questioning things, I guess the podcast is also making a big move, you know, because people are really developing an appetite for listening to conversations. I liken it to being a bit of a warrior, you know, just being a Fly on the Wall when this conversation is going on that you wouldn't otherwise have access to, but now it's freely available at anyone's fingertips, you know, she starts by saying that in my country, I guess the most popular websites revolve around debates and you know, questions. of things and many of you are commenting right now she doesn't deserve a bad night because she said um or ah or you know a lot of times there are ums and R or what we call audible pauses so she stops to think but there are signs that come out of your mouth and they're totally normal and if you think that makes you a bad speaker then you probably think these people are terrible speakers um um I think for me um I I uh it's also very natural to use fillers like I like and you know, it's in my mother, you know, I think, I think you know, you know, so if we look at the official marketing criteria here, what it says for band 9 fluency is any hesitation that occurs is used only to prepare the content of the following expression. and not finding words or grammar, so what does that mean in simple English?

What this means is that band 9 students when they are not thinking about what to say next, their expressions. I don't know why they use very complex language here, but the hesitation the hesitation means that you pause uh like you know it's just to think about the content the idea not to look for is this the correct grammatical structure to use is this correct vocabulary to use in bands six and seven students tend to use these audible pauses to think about the correct word or the correct grammar because their language level is not very high. Native English speakers and band 9 students use these audible pauses and hesitations to try to find the right answer, the right content, the right idea, we all do this even. in their native language and examiners have been trained to understand the difference between a student who has difficulty finding the correct word or grammatical structure and the student who is simply thinking of the next thing to say;

It's very, very easy for examiners to spot. What will happen to society if AI or robots replace humans in the workplace? Oh my god, can you say that again? Yes, yes, simplify the question. I understand what you are saying. Yeah, I just need to hear it again if Ai and the robots. take over from humans in the workplace about what is going to happen to society, so you did very, very well here by asking me to repeat the question, this allows you to clarify exactly what the question is on your mind and also gives you Give it a little time to think about it because this is a very, very difficult question and native English speakers who are experts in artificial intelligence would find it difficult to immediately come up with a very fluent answer, so it is totally normal to tell the examiner in the third part: can you repeat? the question or what that word means within the question, the examiner will do what I did, which was rephrase the question to make it easier to understand.

Oh my God, I watch a podcast, a clip from a former Google executive, and he said that's probably going to happen and the way he said it didn't sound, it didn't sound good at all, you know, it sounded like it was going to be a catastrophe because um, the way AI is being created right now is very unethical and unregulated and also very biased, so if we create something from the buyer's point of view, then the people it's not for AI was created might struggle to get the answers they need that truly support them in their lives.

I think I have to take a step back, you know, before we allow this to be fully implemented, you know, in every corner of our lives. I don't think we're ready yet to have an impact or support in areas of our lives yet, so this answer probably contains your higher level vocabulary uses words like catastrophe unethical regulated partial steps back and moves forward, but it really Importantly, and the difference between nine and all the others is that she uses this high-level vocabulary not to show off but to help her answer the questions. question, these words are not just memorized from a band 9 word list and included, they are part of your normal vocabulary and used appropriately and accurately, and you've probably heard me use those two words over and over again and it's you may be too. thinking this is the end of the test or we're heading towards the end of the test and oh my god she hasn't used any idioms yet give her a band five this is a complete misunderstanding of the official grading criteria what it says for band 9.

Vocabulary is the sustained use of precise, idiomatic language, so you'll find lots of videos online and lots of advice from IELTS teachers who say that the more idioms you use, the higher your score will be. This is a misinterpretation of the word idiomatic idiomatic does not mean idioms. includes idioms, but also includes things like informal language colloquialisms, slang compound verbs, in other words, idiomatic language is a languagethat native English speakers typically use, so let's look at one of our sentences to show you in a little more detail what idiomatic means. I think we need to take a step back before allowing this to be fully implemented into every corner of our lives.

Now there are no idioms there, but it is full of idiomatic language. A step back is a more idiomatic, more natural and more native form of English. to say stop and evaluate the impact implementation is a more idiomatic way of saying introduce something introduce something new every corner of our Lives is a more idiomatic way of saying all parts of our Lives 100 of our lives so you put all of these together and you get an extremely idiomatic sentence that only about nine students or one native English speaker could compose accurately now which is very, very different from you saying something like I'm over the moon, you asked me that question because it's been pouring rain, and The Dogs So today they include two idioms, but it's nonsense, it doesn't make any sense and it doesn't help anyone answer the question.

Some people believe that if AI takes over human jobs, the government should pay a minimum basic income to everyone. agree that it's almost like a dystopian future, isn't it? If our society is run by robots, what will happen to people? So what good are the people you know? Could they then go and enjoy their lives while receiving this basic income? The question is, then what are we doing here? You know, yes, we still give a small salary to enjoy our lives, but not really because our lives are run by robots, so yeah, I don't really know the answer, but it makes me feel happy. think about the dystopian future and that's the end of the oral test thank you well done so I hope the analysis helps you with your practice helps you improve your score to advance seven eight or nine and if you want to listen to it give it another band 9 performance.

I would recommend this video abroad.