IELTS Speaking Band 8.5 - Almost Perfect

Let's start talking about high school, who was your favorite teacher in high school? I think my favorite teacher in high school was Miss Malika, she was my second grade teacher and I think eventually, in the later stages, she became my eighth grade teacher. Plus, I was very familiar with her and she remembered me. So we had good memories together. What was your favorite subject in high school? My favorite subject would be, I think, English because I liked reading stories and novels and that just kept me going. engaged in which, like with the other subjects, you had to um, it was more technical, I enjoyed reading and I still enjoy reading, so I say English, do you ever miss being in high school?

In fact, I do it because I started working very early. I didn't get to experience college or college, so the memories I have or the friends I have are from high school and I think about times where we could just go back and have a reunion and have that moment again. talk about transportation, do you take public transportation or private transportation? I don't like public transportation. I moved to Dubai a few years ago and got my driving license only because I hated riding the subway or buses. Then I got my driver's license. I have a license and enjoy driving.

Is it easy to take public transportation in your country? In my country, yes, it is quite easy and convenient. I would say the streets are very busy and the traffic is crazy. So it's easier for people to get to work with the public. transport um yes, driving a private car is popular in your country um I would say that in the countryside it is quite popular um as there are not as many modes of transport as in the big cities, so in the countryside it is quite popular and in the big cities people prefer to take public transportation it's faster, it's convenient now let's talk about the internet how often do you use the internet?

I think every day we are also addicted to the Internet, so yeah, what are your favorite websites to visit? I think it's Instagram. I think Instagram is the only website. I use it every day when I'm bored, just to see what my friends are doing and that's yeah. Instagram Do you think you ever use the Internet too much? I would say when I'm having a bad day, I would do it. just stay home and scroll through Instagram and try to escape reality somehow, but on other days, like when I'm out and about, I don't use Instagram much or any social media website.

Now let's talk about your free time, what do you do? I usually like to do a lot of things in your free time actually it's just um I think I'm someone who likes variety in everyday life so um I just go out to see a new place or try a different activity, see My friends, yes, I try to stay busy on my free days. Are you very active in your free time? I like to think that I'm active yeah um if I have nothing to do I just go to the gym um or the pool um I read a book but I try to do something in my free time, something, yeah, what do you usually like to do on the weekends? ?, as I mentioned before, I like to see my friends, try a different restaurant, cafe or activity, last weekend I went to try this ice bath, you just jump into an ice cube uh so yeah, try it different things describe a day when you thought the weather was

perfect

where we um I was there a couple of months ago um uh just as summer was about to end um there was this day when I was I was standing on my balcony, I was a little cloudy that day um and then a few minutes later I saw the lightning and the storm and it got darker um and then we was standing on my balcony and I saw the lightning and I have the full view of the Dubai skyline so I can see Birch Khalifa, the frame of Dubai and I saw the lightning right above Birch Khalifa, which was beautiful.

I recorded it and posted it on Instagram and then I saw a lot of people posting the same stories but from different places um a friend of mine came um we had a glass of wine on the balcony and then it started raining um like a heavy rain, a thunderstorm and It's not very common to see that in Dubai. That's why I thought the weather was

perfect

because it's always hot, sunny and humid and as soon as the season starts to change, I think they do something called cloud seats, where they apparently make it rain, like this. which was very beautiful. look at the rain, we had a good day, a nice afternoon on the balcony having a glass of wine, looking at the beautiful weather, the traffic was very crazy with the way the roads were flooded, and I think a lot of us ordered some food by the way. um and it took us two hours to get the food the deliveries that's the end of the two minutes and that's the end of the second part and we're going to move on to the third part now so we've been talking about a perfect day and we're going to keep talking about the climate.

What type of climate do people dislike the most in your country? Thanks for watching this video. I want to give you a free course that has helped thousands of students improve their conversation scores. 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 to sign up for free, whatever you have. What you need to do is simply click on the link in the description. Thank you very much and let's get back to the video.

I think in my country, India, it is quite hot and humid, especially in some parts of India, so I guess people hate summer because it can get hot. really intense uh but where I grew up it's not very hot so in some parts especially in the north it's not very hot actually all year round the temperature I would say would go up to 22° but we went down from From onwards. It's very hot and humid and it's just because a lot of people use public transportation and it's not easy to use public transportation or walk because when it's that hot I guess they would hate the hot weather more than the cold, yeah what jobs? can be affected by different weather conditions um many jobs uh related to transportation I feel like it will be affected when driving um I would say taxis or buses even uh flights Pilots or cabin crew um when the weather is not right flights can be delayed and then if it's raining the taxis couldn't die from water or flooding so I think a lot of transportation and even food related jobs like deliveries and all the delivery companies would have an impact. in a way now let's talk about weather forecasting, what is the best way to get accurate weather information?

Well, I personally use Google Maps or sorry, Google weather reports. I'm not too sure about this one because it depends. From person to person for me, I think Google weather reports are pretty accurate, but I don't have a clear answer for that, is it easy to predict the weather in your country? I guess so, because, as I said before, some In some parts of India, the weather can't, the temperature doesn't go above certain degrees, but in some parts it's very hot and humid all year round, so I think it's quite easy to predict, but when it comes to rainy or monsoon season, it is a bit difficult like last year, sorry, a few months ago, in northern India it was raining a lot and the rain did not stop for, I would say, two weeks so it wasn't predictable, that's the end of the oral test, well done.

Thank you, I would like to give you some feedback on your performance because I think you are capable of getting one of the highest

band

s, but there are some things you need to keep in mind, so what will I do? It's just that I'll divide the feedback into part one, part two and part three and then I'll give you feedback on fluency, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, I'll talk about the technical parts, which

band

s you'd like to thank for getting this far. in the video I want to give you a 10% discount on our VIP I course The VIP course is the most successful I course in the world, that's a fact because we have more band seven, eight and nine success stories than any other ILS course in everyone.

We do this by simplifying the entire process, supporting you with some of the best teachers in the world and being with you every step of the way until you get the score you need. All you have to do is look down at the description. just click there and you can register if you have any questions about the VIP course feel free to contact us. We answer 100% of the questions we receive. We hope you become a VIP, if not, enjoy the rest of this course for free. The first part of the video was great and you developed your answers enough, it was like talking to a friend or talking to a colleague and you could tell you were a little nervous, but those nerves didn't really do it in the first part, anyway, They didn't. prevented you from doing well and you knew how to answer the questions naturally, your nervousness did not cause any problems with fluency on test day, yes, you may be even more nervous, so many of my tips for you will be kind. to keep your nerves from taking over the way I always describe it is that our brain is like a computer and stress is like putting too much, opening too many programs on your computer, like you have a great MacBook Pro, but if you put it on Under stress, everything slows down and I think the same with you, you have a MacBook Pro to speak English, but you are putting too much pressure on yourself, so the enemy is really yourself. if that makes sense and you're more than capable of doing it well and what I would always say is I know it's hard because you're talking to an examiner you've never met before, but imagine a friend, imagine someone you're close to. and you are only asked these questions imagine you are in a coffee shop in your local area having a coffee, maybe if you are asked some of these questions you will ask yourself: why are you asking me that? that kind of frame of mind that attitude and that often helps students the other thing you need to know is I wouldn't lie to you, I'm telling you that you are very, very good, you are more than capable, so you need to be confident. in your part two, on yourself, um it was okay, there was also a bit of repetition in the middle, you said, yeah, my friend came, he had a glass line, um, that would be a problem if you did that constantly, so If you said, uh, something like there was lightning, my friend came, we had a glass of wine, we put it on Instagram, yeah, there was lightning that day and you know my friend came, you didn't do that, you just kind of repeated the reason. why you did that, I think.

It could be wrong if you were trying to think of more things and wanted to keep talking while it was correct, yes, that's right, okay, then the examiner will recognize it and probably won't mark you for it. They will only mark you. If you did it a lot because there are four bullets, what a lot of students do is talk about the four bullets or maybe some other things for a minute and then they just come back and repeat. they'll just repeat them, you didn't do that, but again on test day, if you get nervous, it's kind of like a defensive thing, it's like looking at the points again, oh, I'm just going to talk about that stuff. so a good tip is to add maybe three or four more bullet points, common things like how you felt, past, present, future, examples, stories, things related to that topic and then when you start to think, oh, I'm running out things to say, just look.

Talk about it and then talk about it, so give yourself enough ammo to use the third part. You did it. You did very well in the third part. The examiner will ask you more difficult questions. The worst thing you can do is when you have a difficult question. The question is simply that a lot of people just laugh and say I know, I don't know, you didn't do that even though you got a question that you didn't know much about, you did very well because you attempted an answer. If you try to answer, what you are saying to the examiner is: I don't know about this topic specifically, but there is nothing wrong with my English.

Remember that it is an English test, it is not a knowledge test, it is not an IQ test like bn is. Up Mark, I think you might be able to get a link, but let's see if you would actually get a band. The first thing is the pronunciation. The examiner will be thinking about two things. Clarity, can you understand all the words? what you're saying and then higher level pronunciation functions we'll talk about clarity first you're from India um and there's nothing wrong with having an Indian accent a Vietnamese accent an Irish accent there's nothing wrong with any of those things except a Many of the Indian students we work with worry that their accent is too strong.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having a strong accent or any accent, but I think what they're saying is that their accent causes them problems. the listener with certain words that are not a problem for you at all, there is not a single word that I cannot understand, you still have your Indian accent and that is great, you should be very proud of it, there are not. Extra points for sounding British or American. I'm sure you know many Indian celebrities who have an Indian accent but they speak English very very clearly, um prianka shopra for example, like she speaks with an Indian accent but you canunderstand every word he says.

The same thing happens to you, so you are doing very, very well. One thing about being nervous and stressed is that sometimes people can talk a little bit in their mouth, yeah, um, and they talk in the back of their throat because it's just a subconscious thing where we don't want to be criticized. , we are afraid of saying something bad, so we speak inside our own mouth. To make it when I was a kid, my little nine year old does it all the time. It's about trust. You know you didn't do that, but I could see that if you were really under pressure and you were very like, let's say. you had a Visa deadline, yes, and you have to get this and you know everyone is waiting for you.

You could go on the test and talk inside your mouth, which could affect clarity and could lower your score a little. This time it didn't happen to the best of my ability. The advice would be to imagine that you are talking to the examiner and he is sitting against that wall and pointing 10 feet away, so we are about 6 feet away, double that, okay, don't be afraid, like he's I. talk to yourself quite loudly right now, don't be afraid because you'll see that you seem like the kind of person who maybe thinks that talking loudly to someone is rude and some different cultures, I don't know them, is it the case in India or um , yeah, I think I'm Irish, so we don't care how high you know it.

If you go to an Irish pub, you'll hear most people speak a little louder. again pretend they're 10 feet apart instead of 6 feet apart, you also use higher level pronunciation features pretty well, um intonation, so intonation is when our voice goes up and our voice goes down if I'm late getting home and I say my wife says okay, that doesn't mean it's okay, you know, so we use intonation to convey the meaning. so good F good, the same word two completely different meanings one I'm in trouble one everything is really fine when people are nervous they tend to have quite flat intonation, you didn't do that, but on the day of the exam, just keep in mind that a Good advice is that before the exam you record yourself

speaking

and listen to your intonation, if I hear you talking to your friends, yes, your intonation would be more extreme, I think because hey, hey, how are you doing?

You know more when people are in an exam and they are nervous and formal, they tend to talk more like that and very, very formal, it's not a formal exam and you might get an examiner who is very friendly, yes, sometimes not, sometimes they would have a, you know, everyone has a bad day and their intonation can be quite flat and formal and robotic, and people often mirror other people, especially when there's a party. Dinam as if someone seems. more powerful because they are examiners, some students come in and have great intonation outside of the exam and then they come into the exam and their intonation, their speech patterns are a little bit stiff, formal and robotic, that was not the case.

I don't think a little bit with you, maybe, but it's not a big deal. Well, next is, um, consistency and fluidity. Consistency is: did you answer the question? It's like I'm asking you to talk about when the weather was perfect. the weather was perfect and you asked all the questions, answered them and developed them enough, even some of the questions in part three that you had difficulty with, you developed them enough and that was absolutely fine, no problems. that in all your fluency, um, the only time you had a problem with fluency was in the middle of the second part when you knew how to rephrase things and you were repeating things to try to think of other things, that's okay and because it just you did it. once in the second part it's not like they're going to focus on oh you paused once or you repeated something once they'll listen to it all and base the score on everything um and you did a great job overall you paused Sometimes , in the third part, when you were trying to think, but that had nothing to do with your language ability, some people pause when trying to think of the right ad, what is the right verb to use, and what is the tense. to use, you didn't, it was really just about ideas and again, that's related to stress and nervousness because people think that the examiner wants the best idea or the right idea.

Remember that it is an oral test, there are no extra points for great ideas. You could be the world's leading expert on climate and weather forecasting or you could know nothing about it, it doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is your pronunciation, your fluency, your grammar and your vocabulary, so do what you did and if You get an unusual topic or topic that you're not comfortable with, do what you did, which is try it, but explain that I don't really know much about this and again, just don't put too much pressure on yourself thinking that I need to give the best in the world.

Answer that you don't do it for grammar, um, so there are two things that the EX examiner will think about: one is the range of your grammar, do you have enough grammar? So if I ask you about the past, do you know how to use past simple, present perfect, um, if I? Ask yourself about things to do in the future. Do you have future structures? Do you know how to use comparatives and everything and superlatives and all these different little grammatical structures? Everything I told you you were able to cope with that, so no I don't think there is any problem with your grammar range, the second thing the examiner will think about is your accuracy, overall your accuracy is very good, there are no systematic errors , which is a systematic error every time you use that part. of grammar like articles or prepositions every time or

almost

every time you use it you make a mistake that means that system that part of grammar you don't know how to use that you don't have that yet but you do have little slips from time to time um and those don't are a big problem so for example you have these mistakes most of the time you use prepositions correctly but sometimes you have small slips so most of the time you use articles you use them correctly but sometimes you make small slips but they are quite rare and not they prevent me from understanding what you are saying so if you told me my friend and I went to the cinema instead of my friend and I went to the cinema that does not prevent me from understanding that you and your friend went to the cinema, so in grammar you would get a very high score, but on the day of the exam, if you are nervous and that MacBook Pro starts to have too much pressure, like a computer we make. more mistakes when we are nervous and stressed, so there is nothing wrong with your grammar again, the biggest enemy is yourself, the more pressure you put on yourself, yes, the more mistakes you will make in vocabulary, so there are two things that the examiner will think in precision.

Are you using words accurately to describe things? and you know that the nouns, the verbs, the adjectives, are really precise. The words you're using, you have no problem with accuracy. And then the second thing is the range when I ask you about. weather Do you have enough meteorological vocabulary to do that? When I ask you about we were talking about high school and education. Do you have enough vocabulary? But I think you should play it safe a little so that the weather is nice. MH is there. other ways you could describe the weather that aren't inaccurate, there's nothing wrong with that, but in an oral test you're able to show more of your vocabulary now for the vast majority of people.

I would say the opposite, especially Indian people tend to introduce themselves and add these crazy, long, amazing words and think that will improve your score. You have the opposite problem, which I think is pretty rare. You are able to use more vocabulary, but you are quite confident and everything. It depends on the score you want, if you want the absolute maximum score, you don't need to have every sentence include a big complicated word, but just know that every once in a while you add something a little more advanced and that would really help you, I'm in the truth that you are able to do that or yes, it is up to you what you want to do, but that would be my advice, so for the pronunciation if you were nervous and spoke inside your mouth.

You'd get Pro on exam day, you'd probably get a band eight, but I think you're capable of a band nine. I think today you were a band nine, um, which is the maximum fluency score on test day if you were repeating things a little bit. a little bit and you were looking for ideas and you're putting too much pressure on yourself, you could possibly get a bonus eight. I think you are capable of getting a bonus nine today. I think you were a bonus nine, which is the highest score. what it says for grammar is that even a student of Bond Nine can make mistakes.

I think nowadays you'd probably get a Bond N on test day, if you're nervous and commit them a little more regularly you'd get around eight vocabulary. I think today you were a band eight because all your stuff is accurate but you are playing too safe today you would get a very very high score but in our next test I will expect an even higher score because I think you can do much better than you are . You are currently showing what you think about it. Any question or anything. No no.