GET 7-9 in IELTS Speaking #1

 How the Speaking test is scored.

1) 25 % Fluency and coherence
To get a high score for this criteria, you need to:
• Avoid unnatural hesitation and pauses.
• Avoid repeating the same words.
• Develop and expand your answers.
• Organise and connect your ideas in a logical way (use appropriate connecting words and phrases).

Example1:
Q:Do you think we are healthier now than 100 years ago?
A:"We are healthier in some ways. We are less healthy in other ways."
Compare this answer.
A:"Well, I believe that generally we are more health-conscious. But I think in some ways we are less healthy than in the past."

Point:
Use connecting words and phrases
Well, I believe…
Generally, …
But I think…

2) 25% Lexical resource
To get a high score for this criteria, you need to:
• Use a good range of vocabulary in your speaking.
• Use natural collocations (e.g. make a phone call, do a course).
• Use some ‘less common’ vocabulary and synonyms (e.g. bitterly cold instead of very very cold).

Example2:
Q: What's the weather like in your country in winter?
A:"Well, it snows, and sometimes it's very very cold."
Compare this answer.
A:"Well, it usually snows a lot, and on some days it can be bitterly cold."
bitterly cold (= vert, very cold)

Point:
you don't need to use this kind of vocabulary in every single sentence, but if you want to get Band 7 or higher you have to use some less common words or phrases.

3) 25% Grammar range and accracy
To get a high score for this criteria, you need to:
• Use appropriate tenses for past, present and future.
• Use appropriate structures when talking about hypothetical situations (e.g. would + infinitive, conditional structures).
• Use appropriate modal verbs when speculating about something (e.g. might, could + infinitive).
• Use appropriate structures when contrasting and comparing different things.
• Avoid mistakes with simple grammar.

Point:
to get Band 7, you should be able to use a range of different structures, and it's okay to make some mistakes as long as they are not serious mistakes. If your mistakes do not block communication, then they are not serious. Of course to get a higher band, you are expected to make fewer mistakes.

4) 25% Pronunciation
To get a high score for this criteria, you need to:
• Pronounce individual sounds correctly.
• Stress the right syllables in words.
• Use good intonation.