Don't memorise answers

 

It's common for interviewees to prepare answers in advance but there are things that you should avoid doing.

Notes

To some extent you can predict the kind of topics that you might be asked to talk about in the IELTS interview. This means that it is quite common for interviewees to prepare answers in advance and learn them by heart. Then, in the interview if the topic comes up they will regurgitate (verb; repeat after memorisation) their answer – whether it answers the question or not. There are several problems with this approach.

Firstly, it is usually very clear that an answer has been memorised as it sounds very unnatural to the examiner. Examiners have a lot of experience interviewing people and they can easily see when something isn’t quite right. If they suspect that the answer has been memorised they will probably interrupt your answer and move on to another question.

Secondly, if you have memorised an answer it is very unlikely that it will actually answer the question directly and this will be another signal to the examiner that something isn’t quite right.

In summary, you should avoid trying to memorise answers, but you can still prepare for the interview by thinking about possible topics and making sure you have the vocabulary and language to talk about the topics in general.

Transcript

Examiner: Would you like to tell me about your hometown?

Candidate: Yes! Woo! Thanks, Internet. Porto, the country’s second largest city, is in itself full of interest, but the district it heads, though largely industrialized, offers the visitor plenty to see. Along the coast, holiday resorts like the cosmopolitan beach of Espinho... splendid seafood or traditional fishing towns... quaint charm of Amarante, with 17th century mansions... famous for a kind of sweet egg pastries called Bellies of Angels.

Examiner: Thank you. What is the most interesting building in your hometown?

Candidate: The church? The old church. It’s big and some kings have been there and are there engraves…

 

Comments

martinkm's picture

i have many doubts regarding the speaking test. what all things that the exam taker has to do to give their best at the exam......

beautyhope's picture

that is good i really want to develope my english and makes it better and better

halibo81's picture

Hi every one here, i m new , i hope i m going to learn more and improve my skills in English.
Thanks a lot for this space for learning.

Mustapha

elahe110's picture

I'm graduated in English magar but I'm not good in four skill

adrianaN's picture

Hi!
This guy is Portuguese right?!
:)

Nastasíc's picture

Very good!

martinkm's picture

Though I am very fond of doing something substantially to improve my both written and oral language, I can't seek help from  a trained hand because of my busy work. Can I improve my language using the space that English learning team provides here?. I want to know whether the language experts help me to avoid grammatical errors from my writing.
Hoping a reply

AdamJK's picture
LearnEnglish
team

Hello,
Yes, you can improve your English here, including your grammar! However, we don't offer individual help to all our users, as we have many thousands of learners here and there simply isn't time.
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team

martinkm's picture

Despite i haven't undergone any training programme for ielts exam, from several friends of mine have undergone such training in kerala i have understood the fact that what most of the institutes do is nothing but  to insist the applicants for the exam to learn by heart answers that they provide..
 

naeemcp's picture

bro, do you have an idea about best institute running ielts traing in calicut ?