Top Ten Mistakes Students make on the IELTS speaking Exam

 1.  Students forget their verbs.

Many times students forget how to conjugate their verbs.  For example, Yesterday I will go to the store.  Or, Tomorrow I see the movie.  It sounds really bad if you can’t conjugate your verbs.  If it’s in the past, make it in the past, if it’s in the future, put it in the future.

 
2.  Students focus too much on their grammar.

Students always want to make sure that they are using correct grammar and this sometimes can affect their communication.  When that happens it’s really bad.  If you can’t just say what you want to say and are always worried about how you are saying it, than you’ll never say anything at all.  It’s better to say something than to say it perfectly after 10 tries.

 
3.  Students get too nervous.

You’ll get nervous before the IELTS speaking exam, even a native speaker would!  But you can’t get so nervous that you won’t speak or you’ll forget how to speak.  That would be bad.  Speak to as many foreigners as you can before the test.  Use “tongue twisters” before the test to loosen yourself up.  Practice all the time.  Pretend that the IELTS examiner is your close friend.  Use whatever method helps for you but just don’t get too nervous.

 
4.  Students focus too much on pronunciation.

Students always want to make sure that they are speaking English with the correct pronunciation and this sometimes can affect their communication.  When that happens it’s really bad.  If you can’t just say what you want to say and are always worried about whether you are saying it wrong or not, than you’ll never say anything at all.  It’s better to say something wrong than to say it perfectly after 10 tries.

 
5.  Students don’t practice enough.

Sometimes students come into the IELTS exam with not much practice and that makes it very difficult for them to truly succeed.  I think every person who has taken the IELTS speaking exam would tell you that if they practiced it was worth it, and if they hadn’t practiced they wished they had!!  Practice makes perfect is the perfect way to explain this situation.  Practice everyday and all the time.

 
6.  Students think asking a question is bad.

When you don’t understand something that the IELTS examiner asks you or tells you, it’s ok for a couple times to ask them, “I’m sorry, could you say that again?”  or “one more time.”  These questions are not bad and are actually going to get you a higher grade than someone who just says, “huh??”  or “mmm?”  Saying these questions actually means that you are interested in what the person is saying and you WANT to understand.

 
7.  Students feel that they must answer as soon as possible.

When a question is asked it’s ok to stop for a second or two and think.  But make sure you are communicating that you are thinking.  When a good question comes out and you have to stop and think for a few seconds you have to communicate with the examiner that it was a good question.  Such as: “that is a good question.”  And  “That is a really good question.”  While saying this, you are thinking, and when done thinking you can go ahead and answer the question.

 
8.  Students assume speaking faster is better.

Some students like to be a motor mouth.  They feel that if they speak faster that will make it look like they can speak well and that they are more experienced.  This is not so.  IELTS examiners can see through this and they will not grade you very high if the content is there.  Speed only means that you can speak fast, it doesn’t mean that you know what to say or that you have something to say.  Make sure you have something to say and that you say it at a normal speed.  Some natives speakers do speak slow.

 
9.  Students think they should speak with a British Accent.

It doesn’t matter whether you speak with a British accent or an American accent or a Chinese accent or even an Indian accent, the IELTS examiner will not judge you on your accent.  They will judge you on your fluency and whether they understand you or not.  Just practice speaking, not speaking with a particular accent!

10.  Students think section 3 is the most important.

Students should be aware that all three parts of the IELTS speaking exam are important.  Section 1 is probably the easiest, but section 2 is also not impossible because you can plan for a possible answer, but section 3 is more difficult because it is nearly impossible to predict the questions.  But even if you do really well in section 3 and you did poorly in section 1 and 2 you will still have a low grade.  Work hard on all three sections.