Don’t say…… (part one)

IELTS Speaking

It often surprises people to learn that native speakers don’t necessarily perform particularly well in the IELTS speaking exam. They won’t make many, if any, mistakes but they fail to use a wide vocabulary resource or a wide range of complex structures. They will...

Just a minute

IELTS Speaking

I am often asked how best to use the minute you are given to consider your response to part two of the speaking task. I will consider a number of tactics in later posts but for now I would suggest that you should read the question carefully. This might seem like...

Recycling people

IELTS Speaking

The same themes have been reoccurring for years in IELTS speaking part two. The details change but you can often recycle prepared material. Let me give you an example. Here are two part two topics about people: Describe someone you know who has an interesting job. You...

IELTS speaking part two – end on a conditional!

IELTS Speaking

If you are lucky enough to get a topic you like for part two and feel confident enough speaking about all the parts on the card fluently and coherently then I recommend that you keep going until the examiner stops you. Don’t worry about crashing the two-minute...