IELTS Speaking Tips

IELTS Speaking Tips: How to Achieve 7.0

Why is it so difficult to get a Band 7 score in IELTS Speaking, even when your IELTS Listening and Reading scores are higher?

Some people lose their confidence after several failed attempts to reach 7.0 in Speaking. As a result, they lack the one thing that really can help to improve their score: a positive attitude.

Or they may worry about the wrong things like tiny features of pronunciation or attempting to sound like a native speaker. Efforts like these can make a small difference, but pronunciation is only 25% of the IELTS Speaking score.

And what percentage of the IELTS Speaking score is based on having an interesting life story and knowing the solutions to all the world’s problems? 0%!

What really helps is to understand the scoring criteria and make a positive effort to demonstrate exactly those skills to the examiner. That’s why I’ve based these IELTS Speaking tips on the public version of the IELTS Speaking assessment criteria. I’ve also written more about how to achieve IELTS Band 7 in a previous post.

IELTS Speaking Tip #1: Keep talking

According to the assessment criteria, an IELTS Band 7 candidate:

Speaks at length without noticeable effort or loss of coherence

In IELTS Speaking, your score goes up when you say more, even if that results in more errors. That’s because IELTS is a test of what you CAN do, not what you can’t. So say as much as you can in response to the question, until you either run out of ideas or start repeating yourself. It’s not a bad thing if the examiner has to stop or interrupt you.

IELTS Speaking Tip #2: Use an idiom or two

According to the assessment criteria, an IELTS Band 7 candidate:


The IELTS examiner is listening for evidence that you can go beyond ‘textbook English’ and start using real, idiomatic English. So impress the examiner by including a few idiomatic phrases like “I’m a bundle of nerves” to mean “I’m nervous”. You can find a good starter list of idioms on Wikipedia and for iOS users there’s even an idioms app.

IELTS Speaking Tip #3: Paraphrase the question

According to the assessment criteria, an IELTS Band 7 candidate:

Uses paraphrase effectively


IELTS Speaking Tip #4: Use linking words to connect your ideas

According to the assessment criteria, an IELTS Band 7 candidate:

Uses a range of connectives and discourse markers with some flexibility

What does this mean in normal English? It means that you use a variety of expressions like ‘in other words’, ‘also’, ‘however’ and ‘on the other hand’ to connect your ideas. The key word is RANGE. The examiner doesn’t want to hear you say ‘on the other hand’ a hundred times! So record yourself speaking and notice if you use a phrase like ‘on the other hand’ too much. If so, consider how you might replace it with another phrase. Now you can start demonstrating a good range of linking words.

IELTS Speaking Tip #5: Don’t be afraid of mistakes

According to the assessment criteria, an IELTS Band 7 candidate:

Frequently produces error-free sentences, though some grammatical mistakes persist

That means it’s possible to make some mistakes and still get IELTS 7.0 or 7.5. However, some candidates score poorly because they worry too much about NOT making mistakes. As a result, they speak too slowly, and their mistakes become MORE obvious! It’s more important to demonstrate fluency (See IELTS Speaking Tip #1) than it is to produce error-free speech. Of course, it’s also good to correct yourself if you do notice a mistake.

Do you have IELTS Band 7 in speaking? Are there any IELTS speaking tips you would like to share with other users of this site? If so, tell us below or on the IELTS Academic Facebook page.

My online IELTS Speaking Practice Test gives you authentic test practice over Skype. In just 30 minutes I will give a detailed explanation of your current IELTS Speaking score along with vital IELTS Speaking tips tailored to your real needs. More details.