So, overall, you did really well.

You probably wouldn't score a band nine.

So, band nine is the full mark.

And this is quite surprising for many native speakers because they think they're going to ace the test.

But one of the difficulties for you, because you finished all your answers quite soon, it just doesn't give the opportunity for the examiner to hear everything they want.

Also, occasionally, you mumble a little bit.

Now, what does the word mumble mean?

Mumble is like when I don't speak clearly.

Exactly.

So, at times, I was really straining to listen to what you were trying to say and I couldn't catch exactly what you wanted to say.

And you might lose half a mark for this one.

So, you probably get a band 8.5 overall.

And you did really well, but because you've never taken the test before, you don't know about it.

And so, if you were to take the test again, just try and elaborate on your answers a little bit more.

Okay.

Overall, well done.

Awesome.

Thank you, Chris.

In the speaking test, it is incredibly important that you develop your ideas and that you speak as much as possible.

In today's video, we're going to be looking at Tom.

And we're going to be joining his speaking test where sometimes he gives a few short answers.

Now, Tom is a native English speaker and this is an example where maybe he would be marked down a little bit because of his short answers.

So, if you're ready to start watching, let's go.

Hello and welcome to this practice exam conducted by IELTS Daily.

My name is Maddie and I'm your practice examiner.

The questions in this test are designed to simulate the IELTS speaking test.

Let's start.

What's your first name, please?

My first name is Tom.

Thanks, Tom.

At the beginning of the IELTS test, you'll be required to provide some ID.

But as this is a practice test, we don't need to do that today.

I want to begin by talking about you.

Where do you live?

I'm from Melbourne, from Yarraville.

All right.

So, Tom answered this question in quite a short way.

I will forgive him in this case because, yes, you could just say, I live in town.

That's okay.

But you could say, I live in Paris and Paris is the capital city of France.

I live in a neighbourhood just to the east of the city centre.

Do you notice how that is a different answer to Tom's, which was very short?

So, just bear that in mind in the test.

I want you to develop your answer a little bit more.

And do you enjoy living there?

Yeah, it's a really nice neighbourhood.

And where do you think you'll live in the future?

I'm not sure where I'll live in the future, but I hope to stay in Australia.

So, he said, I'm not sure where I'll be in the future, but I hope to stay in Australia.

It's quite a short answer.

It is a little bit developed because he has some grammatical complexity.

It's a complex sentence.

But what more could he say?

I'm not too sure.

It depends on my job.

It might mean that I go and work overseas, but I really kind of hope to stay in Australia.

This is where I was born and this is where I was raised.

Most of my family is here.

Do you see how that's a little bit of a longer answer?

And would you like to live in a house or an apartment?

I'm definitely more of a house person.

I've grown up in a house and that's where I want to be in the future.

Again, very short answer.

Explain why.

Why is a house better for you?

Not just because that you've grown up there, but what are the features of a house that you like?

What are the disadvantages of an apartment?

All of those things could be expanded on and he's giving really short, fast answers at this point.

This could be problematic in the test.

It could mean that he loses some marks.

Okay, let's move on to the topic of walking.

Are you a fan of walking?

Yeah, I'd say I'm a pretty fast walker.

Okay, so are you a fan of walking?

He answers, yeah, I'm a pretty fast walker.

Well, the examiner asked about whether he's a fan of walking, which means does he like walking?

Now, in the test, there is no right or wrong answer.

You won't be marked for how accurate your answer is, but I do think this would give you a lot of opportunity to expand more.

Are you a fan of walking?

Yes, I love going to the park during the day walking, or no, I'm not really a fan of walking.

I tend to enjoy sitting in the garden.

Sometimes if I'm bored, I might go for a walk with my friend.

Try to develop the answers because it will give you more opportunities to show grammatical complexity and to really, really give the examiner more meat so that they can mark your vocabulary, your lexical resource.

And do you like it?

Yeah, I like walking.

More than running?

Oh, yeah, I think I've grown to like walking a bit more than running.

And where do you normally walk?

Around the house, but also it's nice to go outside as well.

Where do you normally walk?

Around the house.

Do you think that there would be more opportunities to expand on this answer?

I think there are so many opportunities.

Even if you're not a fan of walking, you could show off to the examiner and say, yeah, I love going for walks with my friends.

We'll often take a stroll.

So, S-T-R-O-L-L, a stroll.

You could say, I often go for a wander with my friends.

We like to spend time together by going for a walk and taking in the sights of the city, getting some fresh air.

All of these pieces of language you could use, you could incorporate into your speech so that you could show the examiner at the moment, Tom's answers are just a little bit too short.

He's not giving the examiner the opportunity to mark his really great language.

Is there a special place you go walking?

I think the most special places are the places that you don't expect to walk.

Somewhere in your neighbourhood that you've just never explored before.

And who do you normally go walking with?

Normally I go walking by myself.

Yeah, but it's nice to go on a walk with mum or dad.

Again, lots and lots of short answers throughout this section.

Try to expand.

If you're taking the test, try to elaborate just a little bit more.

Now, I want to talk about markets.

Do you shop at a market?

Yeah, usually I shop at a supermarket.

My local one is Coles.

Markets.

So much language that Tom could talk about here and he just says, yeah, I like to shop in supermarkets and my local one is...

I feel like he's missing an opportunity to show the examiner just how great he is.

Markets is a really broad topic.

It could be about a local market with fresh produce, it could be a supermarket and you could describe both.

You could talk about the experience.

Now, I'm not really a person that goes to markets, but I do go to supermarkets.

I tend to go twice a week.

I tend to drop in in case I have some groceries that I need to buy.

So many things that you could be saying at this point, but I'm just a little bit disappointed that he's not expanding on his answers very much.

If you listen to some of our other speakers in our other videos, you will notice that they do elaborate and they talk a lot more about their answers.

Why do people shop at markets?

To buy things, groceries, usually a bit of medicine or whatnot as well.

Why do people shop at markets?

Well, let's think about some ideas together now.

People shop at markets because they're preparing food for the week for their family and markets tend to sell fresh produce, fresh produce.

Markets have a wide variety of goods.

You can buy many things at a market.

They tend to be well located or conveniently located in the center of an area.

So, really try to think of many reasons why people would shop at markets.

Why do you shop or why don't you shop at a market?

Giving the examiner an opportunity to mark your speech is vital in the speaking test.

Is food better from a supermarket or a market?

I haven't had much experience shopping at a market, like a farmer's market, and generally I've just bought stuff from a supermarket.

From what I've heard, the markets are, my mum tells me it's a bit fresher at the markets.

Are markets becoming more or less popular?

I'm not sure if I could say the trend is becoming more popular.

I'm just going to pause there.

The answer to this question was just a little bit mumbled and this might affect Tom's pronunciation, Mark.

I have listened to this a couple of times and I really don't quite understand what he's trying to say.

I didn't catch all the words in the middle.

So, clarity of pronunciation might be lost a little bit here.

He'd probably be marked down at this point.

But I've seen more recent times that there's been an upwards trend in the markets I've seen advertised.

I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes.

Before you talk, you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say.

You can make notes if you wish.

Here's a paper and a pencil for making notes.

And here is your topic.

I would like you to describe a teacher you remember.

Now.

OK, thank you.

So, remember, you have one to two minutes for this.

So, don't worry if I stop you.

I'll tell you when the time is up.

Can you start speaking now, please?

No worries.

For my form teacher, we had Mr. Bush.

He was young, about in his late 20s.

I had him for, you know, in form, English, rowing and economics, which was actually really good because he was my favourite teacher.

So, he's always smartly dressed.

He's always in boots.

Wherever you see him, he's not without boots.

He's always with a shirt and he just always has a smile on his face as well.

He's one of the...

everyone's favourite teacher, I think.

So, he likes to talk to his students, every form.

He talks about everything you go around the classroom.

Always talks to every student to catch up and make sure they're doing well.

I was just a very charismatic person and he's done a bit of an unorthodox way with his career.

So, he was in marketing before.

Then he changed careers because he didn't like it so much.

Then he went into teaching.

I think it was a bit of a very brave move and I think it suits his personality a lot more.

He's just very good with people.

That's one of my favourite things.

Before he went into marketing, he did rowing professionally.

He's a great rower.

I remember he was telling us he just missed out on the Australian Olympic team and then I was really disappointed as well because I would have seen him achieve great things.

I was a bit ashamed that he didn't make it.

I don't know if you noticed that in the beginning of his part two, Tom was struggling a little bit to think of ideas and again, he probably could have developed his answers a little bit more.

Be prepared for a topic on teachers or a person and my advice to you, if you can't think of a person, just try to invent somebody.

There are so many stories that you could tell about any person, invented or real, it doesn't really matter.

The point is for part two, you have to speak fluently for over one minute and you have to include as many ideas and opinions and feelings as you can and I just feel that Tom maybe was lacking in expanding his answers.

So a bit of advice for you guys, if you can't think of ideas, just invent something.

Great.

Well, thank you.

Well, now let's talk about education in general.

Should all children be required to stay in school until the age of 18?

I think so.

I think education is a really important part of life.

I think everyone would generally agree with that.

From my experience with people who have dropped out a bit earlier, at the time they think it's right, they feel the need to be more independent to work, to be able to support their family early.

But oftentimes they will look back and they'll want to, they'll regret not finishing high school.

I think just having that foundation of high school, not just for the education but for your social standing as well, not social standing but like social skills, being able to interact and talk with your peers, I think is really important.

Tom had some great language in this part.

To improve your social standing, social standing is a collocation of two words which means to improve your position in society, your social standing.