This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1584.
Don't fumble an easy pass.
How to avoid the three biggest speaking part one mistakes.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams.
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IELTS Speaking Part 1 should be the easiest part of the speaking test for you.
So don't make these three common mistakes.
Find out exactly what they are and how to avoid them today.
Have you ever finished a conversation in English and thought, I know I can say that better?
You understood everything that was said.
You had ideas, opinions, maybe even a joke.
But when it was your turn to speak, your answer came out shorter than you wanted or more basic than how you would say it in your own language.
This happens when your understanding is stronger than your speaking fluency.
The good news?
That gap is very common and very fixable once you know exactly where you are.
Take our free two-minute fluency quiz to discover your current English level and what to work on next.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.
That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E.
Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
I'm doing good, Aubrey.
How are you?
How's it going?
Excellent.
I have a question for you.
Okay.
What do you think is the easiest part of the IELTS speaking exam?
I want to say that speaking part one is easier because the questions are easier, but...
Sometimes, knowing that can really cause you to make mistakes like easy, like unforced errors is what I would call them.
Yes, I agree, right?
Part one is definitely easier.
That's the kind of questions your friends might ask, things that you talk about more often.
But yes, because of this, you might make mistakes because you aren't on such high alert, right?
Like these are easy.
And so today we're going to talk about the three most common speaking part one mistakes, so that you can avoid these on test day for higher scores.
Yes.
Save your mistakes for a harder section of the test.
Exactly.
Don't make these mistakes and blow it on the easier part.
No, no, no, no.
Right.
So.
All right.
So let's get into it, guys.
Before we get into it, though, the three mistakes hit follow right here on the show.
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Yes, absolutely.
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And let's dive in first with just some details about part one.
As we said, these are questions about yourself.
They're much more casual and informal, right?
Favorite restaurant, what you like to do with friends.
And so we do sort of let our guard down.
It's like, okay, this is easy, right?
You think you're speaking to your friend, right?
As it feels that way a little more.
Yes.
And you are asked about three different topics.
So this sometimes might throw people off a little bit.
You kind of get in the zone with one topic.
There will be like related questions on a topic and then suddenly they're going to pivot to a new topic.
So just be prepared for that because conversations don't usually work that way.
Right.
As I was going to say, it doesn't feel if someone did that to you in a conversation, like at a party, that'd be weird.
They would have weird social skills.
Yeah.
There's no pivot really.
There's no segue.
They're just going to ask you about a new topic all of a sudden.
So, all right, let's get into it.
The three mistakes, Aubrey, what would be mistake number one?
Yeah.
Number one is that answers are too short, right?
Because part one answers often seem so simple and easy, you might become too relaxed.
You could end up even just using one word answers or just very short answers.
This isn't good enough.
You still need to have details.
You still need to show your fluency.
So here's let's give a couple of examples of what not to do.
If your question, Lindsay, was what is your favorite restaurant?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Magianos.
Magianos.
No, right?
One word answer and you're like, okay, I answered the question.
Next.
No, you need to provide details.
Even though the examiner didn't say and why and tell me about it, right?
You still have to provide details.
Yes, exactly.
So let's do a better version of that answer.
Yeah.
You want to ask me?
Yeah, sure.
What is your favorite restaurant?
Maggiano's.
It's an Italian restaurant around the corner from my house.
They have the best eggplant parm.
It's better than my grandma's.
And that's saying something.
That is a more much more filled out answer.
Right.
Yes.
Right.
You have to still have answers with details.
Answers in this section should be two to four sentences.
Right.
You have to provide enough detail to be showing your fluency and fully answering a question.
Do we come up with details?
So you had some really nice details there.
I guess we can give even another example of a longer answer, right?
We could, right?
Because what you want to do is think about the question words, Right.
Who, what, where, why and how.
And those are what's going to give you the details.
Right.
Who do you go there with?
Why is it your favorite?
What do you eat when you go?
Where is it?
Why is it your favorite?
If you share the answers to any of those questions, that's going to give you a lot more details.
So here's another.
Very this is different from what you said in your answer, but your answer was also really good, right?
Yeah, go ahead and give us a band nine answer.
Band nine answer.
All right.
So again, you want to ask me the question one more time?
All right.
What is your favorite restaurant? an Italian spot named Maggiano's.
It is by far my favorite place to grab dinner.
Their eggplant Parmesan would blow your mind.
Every dish is super delicious.
I truly pity anyone who hasn't been able to check it out.
Nice.
Yes.
Such great intonation, right?
Great vocabulary details.
You're sharing what you eat there, why you go, right?
So all of these details are making it a much higher scoring answer.
Nice.
All right.
So that is the first mistake, the fatal mistake.
You don't give enough information.
You just give a one word answer or a few words.
It's not enough.
Yep.
Even though they're pretty simple questions, it can't just be a simple answer.
Got to provide details.
What would be number two?
What's the next biggest mistake?
Yes, is that your vocabulary is low scoring.
So the vocabulary you use in speaking part one will be quite different from the vocabulary you use in speaking part three and on your essays on the writing exam.
If you want a higher score, you need to use a range of vocabulary, including slang, phrasal verbs and idioms.
I mean, that's why we do so much vocab on the show, right, Aubrey?
We do vocab on so many different themes.
Yes.
Because you need topic-specific vocabulary.
Exactly.
Yes.
The examiner really wants to know that you know more words than the average person, the average candidate or than the average textbook.
Right.
They want unique words.
They want words they haven't heard from everyone.
That's what makes them band nine.
Right.
So a good strategy is to have a short list of slang and idioms ready to use.
And they should be pretty flexible so that you could use them on lots of different questions.
Yes.
I love that idea.
Um so some examples from our sample answer that we just gave.
We use the word super right, that is clearly a trendy slang right now.
Yeah, but this works right.
This gives you greatest.
You said it's every dish is super delicious.
Instead of saying very or really, this is slang to say super delicious, way or totally.
These slang words that boost your vocab score.
And also I used an idiom, blow your mind, right?
That's not one that the examiner is going to hear from every candidate.
Exactly, right?
You said the eggplant parm would blow your mind.
This is idiomatic.
This is more rare.
If you were just to say their eggplant parmesan is really good.
That is low scoring band four, maybe even right.
You need idioms.
And especially this blow your mind.
You could use that for so many different questions.
Like it just means really good.
Think about how many times you need to say that on IELTS answers.
Love it.
So good.
So good.
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All right, Aubrey, there is a third fatal mistake on speaking part one.
What is it?
Yes, it is low scoring pronunciation.
Monotone is most glaring on speaking.
Part one, because you are sharing personal information and you should feel something about what you're saying.
So the examiner should be able to hear emotion in your voice that fits your answer.
Yeah, you should be emphasizing interesting words just like we did in our example to vary your tone.
Again, go back to the rewind back again to the example about Maggiano's.
There was a lot of variation in my voice.
Exactly right.
That would be a very high scoring pronunciation score.
I'm going to share it with a monotone. this would be a very low scoring pronunciation score.
If you gave the same answer and said an Italian spot named Maggiano's is by far my favorite place to grab dinner.
Their eggplant Parmesan would blow your mind.
Every dish is super delicious.
And I truly pity anyone who hasn't been able to check it out.
I'm very flat, right?
There's no emotion.
I'm not emphasizing any words.
And this would be like band five, band six pronunciation score.
Yeah, and even if you do maybe put in some fun slang or idioms, I might miss them as the examiner because it's so monotone.
You kind of lose me a little bit, right?
You might put them to sleep and they miss a lot of your great vocabulary.
It's so true.
So this is really important.
And this is one of the things students let slip most often, because you are thinking of the grammar and the vocabulary you need to use and the details.
And it's easy to not realize that you're falling into a monotone.
So you need to practice doing this, varying your tone, record your answers.
Do you sound excited about it?
If you're talking about what you did on the weekend your favorite restaurant you should sound excited.
You should be emphasizing words that make it sound like you're interested in what you're saying.
I love it.
So good.
Guys, go on over to IELTS Energy 1581 after this episode.
Gravitate toward this Band 9 music vocabulary.
Speaking of vocab.
We went into a whole.
We taught you a number of vocabulary expressions around music there.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
And those were part one questions.
So all of these strategies you should be using with that vocabulary when you practice answers about music.
Be sure not to fall into any of these traps.
Don't make these mistakes when you're practicing so that you don't make them on test day.
Yeah.
Any final takeaway?
I mean, I think for me, the takeaway here is don't fumble an easy pass.
Right.
Like this is exactly that's a great football metaphor idiom.
Right.
It's so true.
These.
You should have the highest scores on part one, because you will definitely have something to say.
It's things about your personal life, but you need to say enough, provide more detail, use interesting vocabulary and definitely avoid monotone.
Yes, 100%.
Really good stuff today, Aubrey.
And guys, don't forget, hit the follow button right here on the show or over on YouTube if you want to subscribe to our channel over there.
All right, Aubrey, I'll see you next time.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
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You're welcome.
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