Don’t memorise your answers in IELTS Speaking Part 2, that’s one of the worst things you can do. It’s really easy for an examiner to know when IELTS takers are speaking from memory. It is easy to understand why test takers do it, but give yourself a chance and don’t do it.
Well, don’t memorise whole answers by using the latest questions. Instead, memorise phrases, sentences and maybe even parts of stories. Then, when it comes to IELTS Speaking Part 2, you can use them to help you if you can’t think of enough to say.
Some might say that this is cheating, but think of it like this:
Think about a teacher you had at school, who used to say the same thing each class. For example, “Come here boy” or “Do you think this is acceptable?” or “When I was young, students knew what hard work was”.
What I mean is, it’s absolutely fine to have favorite phrases that you use all the time. Everyone does it, it’s natural
Another way is to think of it as cooking.
Imagine you want something to eat at home. Usually, you can make something from the food you have in the fridge, say eggs, tomatoes, cheese, and then you may also need salt, pepper, or chilli or even milk. These are the ingredients of whatever you want to make.
You would like to make yourself a cheese omelette, but when you are cooking it, it tastes terrible. However, if you add some salt and some pepper, maybe even a little sauce of some kind, then the omelette will taste much much better.
Imagine if you had several ingredients in the fridge when you have to do your IELTS Speaking Part 2. You could just add some of these ingredients together and cook your answer. These ingredients could include a person, a place, an object, an event, or even a journey.
This would mean that if you had a tricky question about ‘your favourite river’, then the river could run through your place, you could walk along its banks talking to your person, you could even set your ‘time’ near that river.
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Think of a person you know really well. Maybe your mum, dad, grandma, a friend, classmate or colleague.
After that, think of their defining features as below. This example was with a student who got a 7.5 for his speaking.
Example
A Person for IELTS Speaking Part 2 – My Grandma
Looks like:
- Not very tall
- Quite thin
- Frail
- Long dyed brown hair
What she does
- She gardens in her allotment
- Grows lots of different things during the summer, such as vegetables, fruit and that kind of thing
What she likes
- She loves seeing my little brother and I as much as possible
- She likes to hear how we are doing at school
- She tries to be strict with us, but can’t
- She always tries to have our favourite cakes and biscuits because our mum won’t let us have them
- She dreams of us being the first kids in the family to go to university
Characteristics
- Very generous – she will always make sure her friends are not in trouble and will help as much as possible if they are
- Tends to help people in need – If she sees people collecting money for a charity connected with children, she will always give them something.
- Quite strict – she is very kind to us, but can be quite scary if she finds out we haven’t done our homework
- She will tell you right away, if she doesn’t like something
Making a list like this, shouldn’t take very long and if you have a teacher, try to get them to check or improve your phrases and sentences. The important thing is they are natural, rather than being clever and difficult to remember.
Then this person (in this example, my grandma) can become anyone.
She can become:
Describe a time when you told your friend an important truth
Describe a polite person you know
Describe a time you made a promise to someone
Describe a person who you think wears unusual clothes
Describe a time when you encouraged someone to do something that he/she didn’t want to do
Describe a time when you gave advice to others
Describe an interesting conversation
Describe an old friend that you got in contact with again
Describe an energetic person that you know
Describe a person who often helps others
Describe a conversation topic that you were not interested in
Describe a time when you received good news
Describe a family (not your own) which you like and are happy to know
Describe a person who shows his or her feelings openly
Describe an intelligent person you know
Describe one of your friends.
It doesn’t need to be your grandma, it could be your friend, your brother, your father, your niece, your teacher, but you need to know them well.
This person can be involved in all your answers if you want. They could go with you to a place, take part in an event with you, like the same movies as you and so on.
Doing this and the following exercises will bring much more colour and depth to your answers, which should lead to a higher score without memorising the whole answer.
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The same can be done with places. Personally, I prefer to have an outside place and an inside place.
It is best to use somewhere like a park, a town square or a beach as an outside place. Maybe a cafe, a hotel or restaurant as an inside place.
Think of places you know really well, ones that you can picture in your mind.
Here are mine:
Outside place for IELTS Speaking Part 2 – Central Park
What does it look like?
- Nice park in the middle of the city
- Lots of small paths cuts the place into many different sections
- Some of them are grassy, and perfect to sit in the sun
- But some have lots of trees, so you can sit in the shade.
What can people do there?
- Sit around reading a book
- Have a picnic with friends
- Go on a date / go for a walk with your over / girlfriend / ….
- Go jogging
- Walk your dog
Pros
- It’s a piece of nature in the middle of the city
- Everyone goes there, so you can meet friends or new people
- You can relax and get away from your daily routine
Cons
- There are too many pets and dogs, which can be annoying
- It’s a bit dirty
- It’s a bit crowded
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Inside Place for IELTS Speaking Part 2- A Cafe
What it looks like:
- Basement cafe
- Distressed wooden flooring
- Dim lighting
- A few nondescript pictures hanging on the brick walls
- There’s usually background music playing
- Cheerful staff
- No windows
- Located in the basement
What can people do there?
- Have a light lunch of pasta or something similar
- Have a date
- Hang out with your friends
Pros
- Incredibly comfortable sofas
- But some hard wooden chairs if you like that kind of thing
- Reasonable food
- Relaxing atmosphere
Cons
- Hard to read due to the lighting
- Crowded on weekends
- Prices a bit higher than average
- No vegetarian menu
I’m not going to list the questions they can help you with, because there are so many. Imagine your topic is something like
Describe a time when you shared something with others (or another person) – You could share something with someone in one of your places.
Describe a tall building in your city you like or dislike – You could describe the building from your place looking at the building.
Describe an argument two of your friends had – Your friends had their argument at one of your places.
Others
So, you can add an object, a past event, maybe even a journey, but don’t have too many ingredients or it will become too difficult.
Putting them together
One student of mine had a park as his outside place and a cafe as his inside place.
He used his grandma, not his dad or brother, and in his test talked about how he and his grandma walked along the river in the park, then went to a cafe to relax before going home.
He knew what he could say about his grandma, about the park and about the cafe too.
He had certain vocabulary for each part, so he didn’t need to think of new words when he was speaking.
He practiced so when he didn’t have another answer, he could use one or several of his ingredients to give a good answer about most topics. He got a 7.5 for his speaking.
Conclusion
Doing this alone will not make you get a high score, but having these ‘ingredients’, these ‘chunks’ prepared will make it much easier for you to answer tricky IELTS Speaking Part 2 questions. It will also stop you from memorising whole answers or treating ech question ass something new.
Make use of this useful method to add to your confidence and keep aiming for your target score. Good luck!