How can I get 8.5 in IELTS speaking?

The IELTS Speaking test assesses your ability to communicate in English. The examiner awards band scores for your spoken English-language skills. The Speaking test will take place in a face-to-face interview with a qualified IELTS examiner in a quiet room.

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How can I get overall 8.5 in IELTS?
Is it hard to score 8.5 IELTS?
Is IELTS speaking 8.5 good?
Is it easy to get 8 in IELTS speaking?

IELTS Speaking tests are conducted by trained and certified IELTS examiners. They must hold a relevant teaching qualification and have extensive teaching experience to become an IELTS examiner. When assessing your performance, they work with clearly defined criteria to assess your Speaking test.

Examiners assess your performance against 4 criteria. Fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. Your Speaking results are given as band scores which range from a band 0 to a band 9. Each whole and half band score corresponds to a level of English-language competence.

To find out more about the assessment criteria used by IELTS examiners, search online for the IELTS Speaking public band descriptors.

If you would like the same help and feedback that Lilia received, you can sign up for the waiting list for my VIP course by CLICKING HERE.

The course is currently full, but we will be in touch as soon as a place is available.

It’s no secret that I always say ‘keep it simple’. Here is proof that it works.

Our VIP student, Lilia, jumped from a 6.5 to an 8.5 in Speaking by focusing on the question and keeping her language simple.

Lilia told me about her IELTS experience and shared some excellent advice for other students. Check it out in the video below.

A lot of candidates who take IELTS Speaking test find this section the hardest one because it involves face-to-face communication. But in fact, IELTS Speaking is the easiest section of IELTS to improve your score. You may think, “But how? Interviews are so spontaneous! I just won’t have enough time to plan a good answer. Moreover, I’ll be worrying…”.

It’s true, speaking interviews are spontaneous. But all test-takers are worrying and don’t have much time to plan their answers. And examiners are used to that, so they don’t expect you to speak like an orator. They don’t even expect you to give very logical and structured answers! You’re only tested on your ability to:

speak fluently and without hesitation,
use various vocabulary,
avoid grammar mistakes,
pronounce words well.

You can learn more about how IELTS Speaking is scored.

So you can band 8 and more on IELTS Speaking by practising and learning vocabulary.

But you can also increase your score by following these simple IELTS Speaking tips and tricks. Here we’ve gathered top 10 IELTS Speaking tips to increase your IELTS Speaking score:

Be fluent and liberated
Speak fluently and spontaneously. You will gain more points. Don't worry too much about using clever vocabulary, it's more important to be fluent. But also don't speak too quick and mind your grammar. You should find a "healthy balance" between speaking too quickly and making long pauses.
Practise answering sample questions
Typically, you will be asked about everyday topics, such as work, studies, sport, family and so on. So you should try answering IELTS Speaking questions before the exam. You will be surprised how simple they are! You just need to learn appropriate vocabulary and understand what answers you will give.
Ask the question again if you need to
Don't be shy, if you want to clarify something. You will not lose points for asking the examiner.

Be emotional!
Speak with emotions. Nothing separates the experienced speaker from beginners as tone of the speech. Express your feelings like you would do using your native language.
Extend your speech
Try to speak at least more than the examiner. If you are asked a question using one sentence, respond with two or more. And never give short, uncommunicative replies:
Examiner: Do you do any sport?
You: No, I don't like sports... [Don't stop there!] I'm not a very active person and I've never liked P.E. in school. But I like playing intellectual games instead. For example, I find chess very interesting.

Be coherent
Use linking words and structures. Words and phrases like however, nevertheless, all in all, moreover will enrich your speech.
Give yourself time to think
If you are unsure how to answer the question, you can give yourself a bit more time to think by using this tip. First of all, you can say: "That's a tricky question...", "I've never thought about that before..." or "That's an interesting question...". This way you'll have some extra time to plan your answer.
You can also reformulate the question:
Examiner: What was your favourite book in the childhood?
You: What book did I like as a child? Let me see...
Made a mistake? Don't panic!
If you made a mistake - don't panic! Try to correct yourself as smoothly as possible. And if you can't - just continue speaking, you won't lose many points for a few mistakes.

Make a good first impression
Look good, smell good and feel good. Be confident. Although it may not seem very important, a strong first impression will go a long way.
Don't learn answers by heart
Examiners are able to determine whether you speak freely or you memorized the answer before your interview. Learning full scripts is a bad idea. Instead, it is much better to learn separate words and collocations and adopt them in your speech.

How can I get overall 8.5 in IELTS?

My 3 Step Tips for IELTS Band Score 8.5 – Go through the test format. – Spend some time and understand the question patterns in each segment. – Keep in mind the time limit for every segment. – Do an initial sample test (download from IELTS official website) just to see where you stand.

Is it hard to score 8.5 IELTS?

Overall 8.5 in IELTS is a score of native speakers actually. Candidates with this score have a long experience of English. They usually write, communicate and share ideas in their daily life using English. They can think in and use the language with no problem or mere problems at times.

Is IELTS speaking 8.5 good?

A decent overall score you can achieve in the IELTS exam is a score of 6 and higher. A band of 6.0 is considered competent, 7.0 is good and 8.0 and 9.0 of a very good and expert user respectively.

Is it easy to get 8 in IELTS speaking?

Oh Yes. Very few IELTS candidates score an overall 8.0 in the IELTS test. It means that in both IELTS listening and IELTS reading you score at least 36 correct answers out of 40 and in speaking and writing your English is practically error-free.