This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1549.
How to go off topic for higher IELTS speaking scores.
Welcome to the ielts energy podcast from all ears english, downloaded more than 35 million times, with examiner trained ielts whiz, aubrey carter and michelle kaplan, the new york radio girl.
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When can you go off topic on the IELTS speaking exam?
Today, we'll share how going off topic affects your scores.
We'll also provide a band nine speaking part two answer showing the best way to do it.
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Hello, Michelle.
Welcome to IELTS Energy.
Hello, Aubrey.
How are you?
Great.
It's so fun to have you here.
Lindsay is out of town this week, so Michelle is joining me.
And this is an amazing.
We got a great question about whether or not you can go off topic in your IELTS speaking answer.
So I'm excited to dive into this today.
What would be your guess, Michelle?
Do you think students can go off topic?
Yeah, I think so, because it's real life.
I mean, that's how we speak, right?
Exactly, right?
As long as you have answered the question, you do have to directly answer the question.
Then you can absolutely go off topic.
The trick is when, right?
Because these part two answers are long enough that you absolutely are probably going to go off topic.
But let's we're going to talk about like the rest of the exam and whether you should be going off topic.
But first, let's read the question.
Do you want to read it for us, Michelle?
Sure.
So this question comes to us from YouTube.
And the listener asks, I watched the video about going off topic and speaking part two.
So my question is, for example, if the topic is a place you'd like to visit again, is it okay to talk a little about that first and then transition into a story about a friend I met there?
Great question.
Yes.
And absolutely.
As long as you answer the question directly and fully, you can go off topic.
So if you answer this, you talk about a place you'd like to visit again.
You share some details about it.
Then if you spend a full minute talking about someone you met there, absolutely that can still be a band.
Nine answer.
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah.
And this is especially useful on part two, where you have to speak about something for a full two minutes.
It's hard to fill that two minutes.
Yeah, especially some of the answers are like they don't really lend as easily toward a story about it specifically.
So if the only story you can think about is a little bit off topic, that's fine.
As long as you have actually described what you're asked to describe in the question.
Right.
And you won't usually go off topic in part one and part three answers.
And we are going to explain why and show you how to go off topic in speaking part two to actually boost your scores.
Exactly.
But be sure to hit follow guys right here on IELTS Energy if you aren't yet.
So their episodes drop right into your queue and you never miss any of our great vocabulary and IELTS strategies.
Yes.
All right.
Let's dive in here.
So the first thing is for number one, you know, when to not go off topic.
What do you think, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So part one answers are fairly short.
You're only going to provide about three to five sentences.
If you go much longer than that, the IELTS examiner has to ask you a certain amount of questions.
So you just don't really have time to go off topic in these, right?
Those three to five sentences are going to be answering the question and providing a little more related detail.
Yes, yes, exactly.
So it's less likely you're going to go off topic.
They just want you to answer directly.
So number two, let's talk about what about speaking part three?
Yeah, speaking part three answers are also quite short and They might be up to one minute.
So there's a chance you could go off topic a little, as long as you have directly answered the question.
For example, if you're asked about crime rates in your city, if you directly answer that, then you could share about the crime rates in a city you moved from right.
But because they're still pretty short answers, you're going to want those details to still be pretty related.
You're wanting to show the examiner you can provide related details, right?
And if the examiner is running out of time and needs to ask more questions, they may have to cut you off before that minute.
So you want to be sure that you have fully answered the question before they have to cut you off for time.
Yeah, definitely.
So what about speaking part two?
Yeah, so this is when it's often difficult to speak about one thing for that full two minutes.
So a really good strategy is to tell a story and share what happened before, during and after the experience you're sharing.
But another good strategy is to segue to go off topic, to transition and talk about anything related.
Right.
So again, as long as you have directly answered the question, you can veer away from the topic.
Exactly.
So, for example, let's say, on part two, you're asked to describe a party or you're asked about parties.
Maybe describe a party you hosted.
For this question, of course, you would want to describe a specific party.
You could tell a story about a party to make it easier to share details.
But what could you do Michelle, if you can't think of a lot more details and the two minutes isn't up?
Yeah, so ideally you want to keep your ideas related.
So you could share about a different party you attended or you could talk about what types of parties you enjoy.
Like maybe you're talking about like house parties or you like really big parties, wedding parties, right?
Right.
Or you could give details about the best party you've been to.
I'm thinking about what is the best party I've been to.
But yeah, lots of different ideas, just keeping it related to the topic.
That is such a good point because we say, yeah, you can go off topic.
You don't have to be describing one party the whole time.
But if you switch to something totally different hiking maybe, or whatever you're answering a totally different question.
The segue is harder.
It's difficult to make it seem natural.
That could affect your fluency score.
Like, how do you get to this other topic?
Whereas, think about all of the things that are related to parties in some way.
Decorations in general, the types of food people like at parties.
Holidays that's related enough to describe a holiday that you celebrate.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely.
So after the break, Aubrey, I think you're going to do a sample answer for us.
Yes, I will answer speaking part two, going off topic a little bit.
So yeah, stick around.
All right.
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All right, Michelle, can you ask a speaking part two question and time me for two minutes?
And yeah, we're going to see what this would look like if I answer the question but then go off topic a little bit.
All right.
So I am going to set the timer.
All right.
So, Aubrey, describe a time you were worried about a situation.
Oh, I distinctly remember feeling extremely worried when we got a call from my daughter and we were out of town.
We were in Park City, Utah.
For the 4th of July, she was working so she couldn't join us.
She was 18 years old.
And she said, are you sitting down?
And that phrase immediately triggered all of these, this worry that you know who knew, who knows what had happened.
And she let us know that she had been in a very serious car accident.
She had totaled her vehicle and she was giving us all the details and we were, of course, first just worried for her safety, worried that she was okay, and but also then, when we found out she was all right, then we're worried about the car.
We're worried about the implications to her driver's license like her points to our insurance getting more expensive.
So many worries when you're dealing with something like that and I immediately thought of, you know, kids using phones.
Was she potentially distracted?
Because I know there's a real epidemic globally of, you know, kids being everyone, really being on their phones, so much that distracted driving is a real issue.
And so of course I was worried that that was maybe involved.
I had to talk to her about that.
But when I was a kid, None of us had cell phones.
So this wasn't an issue when I was learning to drive.
I didn't have to worry about being distracted by checking social media, checking a text, having my phone right there, maybe listening to music on my phone.
It was just me and the car and whatever was on the radio and maybe the friend that was chatting with me.
We didn't have all of the technology that kids have today that can potentially distract them and cause accidents, and so i was thinking about my childhood, because i was in an accident when i was a kid.
Okay good, you're done.
That was two minutes.
Yep, that was two minutes.
Wow.
It's funny how it can feel so long.
Two minutes can feel like nothing in certain situations and everything and others.
Sometimes it has felt really long for me answering these practice answers.
If I don't tell a story and if I don't pivot away, I feel like I'm talking forever and I'm having a hard time coming up with more details.
But with these strategies, it goes by in a blink.
Yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
So first of all, I'm glad that Addie is okay.
Thank you for sharing that story.
That was a, it was harrowing.
That's a band nine word for something that was really horrifying and scary.
It was a harrowing experience.
Yeah.
So yeah, I took some notes.
Yeah well, one thing I thought was really, I mean the way you talked about what Addie told you.
You know, you said, She said are you sitting down?
And the implications of someone saying like, is anything like that?
And then you were transitioning into talking about all your worries and you were worried about her.
Once you realized that she was okay, all the car and everything.
And then... you know, at this moment, I mean, the basics of the story are kind of done, right?
So it's interesting because I would potentially get emotional if I shared a lot more details about that story.
And you know we've talked to you about like avoid anything that's going to make you emotional.
It's harder to speak clearly and keep your thoughts together if you're going to get really emotional during the speaking exam.
So in this is one situation where it's really strategic to pivot away from that story, instead of providing a lot of details, like I'm going to talk about how there wasn't, you know, there weren't phones to distract us when I was a kid, to keep myself from having to share a lot more personal details with the examiner.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So like, kind of you went through like the basics, like, the top layer of that story.
So you don't get too emotional, you gave the basics.
And then you're really at this point where now you know you're not going to go deeper into the story.
So you need to pivot into something else.
So You were saying, I immediately thought of social media.
I thought of phones.
And so you transitioned into that.
And then you kind of pivoted again because you brought it back to yourself.
You said, when I was a kid, right?
So you're still keeping it connected.
But you're saying, when I was a kid, we didn't have all of this.
It was just me and the car, right?
So I thought you just used a lot of really good transitioning phrases like oh.
When I was a kid, I immediately thought of right.
To pivot a little bit, but still connect it.
Yep.
Exactly.
You need some kind of phrase to pivot away to transition, to show how it's still related, how it's still linked.
The examiner is looking for you to link your ideas, to make things make sense.
If you just out of the blue say, speaking of car accidents, kids are on social media a lot.
That doesn't really link those thoughts, right?
You need these phrases.
When I was a kid we didn't have mobile phones.
And you make it link, make it logically, make sense for the examiner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think that that made it very interesting.
And I think you did a great job.
You yeah, you need to practice answering these questions on your own.
I kind of love Michelle, when you're like huh, that makes it what's the best party I've been to?
You IELTS students out there.
You have to have thought about that.
You need an answer, especially in part one.
If you're asked what's the best party you've ever been to, you don't have time to think about it.
You have to be ready to answer right away.
So you need to be practicing answering your own questions and use this strategy and of changing the subject, especially on part two, so you can fill that full two minutes.
Exactly.
So yeah, very interesting here.
Again, you can definitely change the topic on speaking part two, as long as you have answered the questions.
So really good stuff here.
Aubrey, thanks for talking about this with us today.
And thanks for sharing that story with us.
I know that's not easy.
Yes.
Thanks, everyone.
And yeah, practice answering your own speaking questions so that you are confident and ready on test day.
Thanks, Michelle, for joining me today.
All right.
Thank you, Aubrey.
See you next time.
Very good to be here.
See you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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