I'm with Jed from Myanmar.

Hi.

And he's just about to take one of our practice speaking exams.

I'm Maddy and I'll be his practice examiner.

So have you ever taken the test before Jed?

Yeah I have.

I actually did it back in 2017 and I think it was a good run.

And do you enjoy taking the test or is it a bit nerve-wracking?

It was a bit nerve-wracking but I was able to stay calm throughout the speaking test which I think I did pretty well in.

Excellent.

How long have you been living in Australia now for?

A total of about seven years but it was two different blocks so four years before and then three years another time.

And are you enjoying it?

Yeah I love it here in Australia but yeah the plan is to go back though so I'm just enjoying the time I have here.

Great.

Well let's get started.

Perfect.

Do you think that the IELTS speaking test is difficult?

Well I agree with you.

The great news is that we've made some fantastic mock exam videos with a real practice exam with real students and a real practice examiner.

During these videos, I'm going to be looking at what the students do well, how they can improve and also how you guys can use some of their tips, techniques and ideas in your speaking test.

So today's session we're listening to Jed and Jed is from Myanmar.

He's studying at a university in an English-speaking country so his base level of English is really great.

At the end of this test, I'm going to talk about the four criteria related to the band descriptors, the speaking band descriptors and I talk about those all the time.

We're going to look at each band descriptor and I'm going to point out and I'll highlight some of the areas that he does really well and maybe how he could improve, maybe some little mistakes that he makes.

Shall we start?

Right let's go.

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

My name is Jen 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?

Jed.

Jedediah.

That's fine.

Thanks Jed.

At the beginning of the IELTS test, you will 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.

So do you live in a house or an apartment?

I live at a college so it's like a dorm room, it's a studio apartment I would say yeah.

Okay so Jed gave an example of where he lives and did you notice that his language was a little bit higher than some other examples that we might hear in the exam?

So you could say you live in a house or you could say you live in an apartment but did you notice that he said a dorm room.

A dorm room is a dormitory so he lives with other people and it could be halls of residence or it could be university accommodation.

Depending on where you live, just give some language which would show off to the examiner but don't show off too much.

Are there any advantages to living in an apartment?

I think so.

I think there are many advantages.

Primarily you get to interact with people close to you, you get to see more people but yeah there are also disadvantages.

It is quite small and you have to be wary of the amount of noise you make.

Great so Jed talked about the positives of living in a dorm and he also highlighted some of the disadvantages.

So you need to be aware of the noise that you make when you're living with other people.

So you have to be considerate when you're living with other people.

I did notice a very very small grammatical mistake and I think he said there is also disadvantages.

We know that we should say there are also disadvantages.

So just be careful of your grammar.

Is it a good idea to own a house?

I would think so with the current environment and the housing market I think it would be a good time to buy a house.

Why would some people rent a house?

Maybe they can't afford the price of the house upfront so renting a house reduces the amount of money that you pay now so I think that would be a really good reason too.

Jed gave some really good language here.

He used words like upfront so if you pay something upfront that means that you pay it in advance.

My only piece of feedback at the moment is that he could speak a little bit more.

He could give a little bit more example or he could explain a little bit more about what he thinks, how he feels.

At the moment his answers are quite short.

It's not bad because he's showing really great language but I think you guys should just bear that in mind.

Please remember try to expand on your answers as much as possible.

Okay let's move on to the topic of local food.

What is some traditional food from your country?

So I'm from Myanmar so we have a national dish dish called le peto and it is pickled tea leaf salad.

So you've got pickled tea leaves which not many people know you can actually eat and actually taste good and we'll have lots of different nuts.

We'll have sesame seeds and we'll have shrimp and it's really really good and we have many different types of noodles but yeah there's too many to list.

I love them all.

Is homemade food healthier than eating out?

Oh definitely I think so.

Maybe just because my mom cooks really well and I get to see and be part of like the food that's being made and like the cooking process.

I love that but some people could argue that restaurants might have better quality or cleaner food because there are government regulations on whereas there's none at home.

I think Jed was fantastic here.

He gave lots of examples and expanded on his ideas.

Let's have a look at some of his really useful language.

So he said pickled tea leaf salad and that's an adjective.

He's describing it pickled tea leaves.

That was wonderful.

He said not many people know about this.

So he's describing the reality of this may say not many people know about a traditional food from my country.

He'd said many different types of noodles so he started with pickled tea leaf salad and then he gave other examples and I think that's a really useful technique that he has utilized there.

He started with one topic and then talked about something else.

That's totally acceptable during the test so I advise you guys to do that.

He said and oh definitely I think so oh I definitely think so and this is kind of a filler phrase and it's buying him a little bit of time.

Do you think that?

Do you think something?

Oh yes definitely I think so and remember lots of students say I think yes.

That's an incorrect way of answering a question.

We don't say I think yes we always say I think so.

He also said some people could people might think something.

They might have a different opinion.

So he said some people may argue that but actually I think something else.

That was a really great and you can use that in your essay as well when you're thinking about two arguments.

Some people argue one thing but I think another thing.

He said I might have better quality or cleaner food.

Great fluency.

He didn't stop speaking.

I was really impressed with this section.

Well done Jed.

Is eating out expensive where you live?

Yes I currently live in Melbourne so it is quite expensive to eat out and so yeah that's why I prefer eating at home and I since I live in a dorm I can eat with friends so that's a big plus for me.

Is it important to support local restaurants?

Yeah I think so.

So when I go out to eat with my friends, have a night out, we usually pick restaurants that are local and not like big worldwide chains.

I think it is the duty of each and every one of us to support people around us in whatever way we can so yeah.

In this section Jed gave great complexity of structures.

He had lots of complex structures and remember when you want to get above a band 7 you need to have complex sentences and if you don't know about complex sentences I strongly recommend you come and download the IELTS daily app because we have a specific video which focus focuses only on complex sentences.

Well in Jed's case he said since I live in a dorm which means because I live in a dorm and then he explained why and he also said when I go out to eat with friends.

That's a complex sentence because it has a dependent and an independent clause.

Really great language.

He also said worldwide chains.

Think about those collocations.

It's a worldwide chain.

Can you think of any worldwide food chains?

I know there are many.

McDonald's or KFC.

They are worldwide food chains and then he gave his opinion on the topic.

He said it is the duty of people.

Really fantastic work here Jed.

Excellent.

Now I want to talk about social network.

Are you a social person?

I like to think so.

I do well with people that I already know and people that I'm friends with and I do have quite a few friends so I would say yes but it is also often hard for me to meet and talk to new people.

Okay so another way to say yes.

We can just say yes that's okay but did you notice that Jed here said I like to think so.

I like to think so.

So the examiner may say something like are you a nice person and you can say I like to think so.

It's just a different way to say yes.

If we said yes every time it becomes very repetitive.

So you could say I think so.

I like to think so.

Yes.

Sure.

Lots of different ways to say yes.

Try to vary the language that you use and Jed also said I would say so.

I would say so which also means yes.

This is a great example of using a variety of different words and phrases to show the same meaning and this demonstrates flexibility of language.

Part of the lexical resource mark in your band descriptors, if we look at the band descriptors, it says that you need to use language flexibly and appropriately and that means using different words for the same thing.

Jed is doing a great job here.

But I would say yes.

Do you use any social networks?

I do, I do.

I have Facebook, Instagram, all the young people stuff but I also have LinkedIn so yeah trying to pad that out a bit yeah.

And why do people use social networks?

I think it's a lot to do with sharing your experiences with friends and keeping in touch with them.

So a lot of the younger and newer social media platforms that are targeted for younger audiences are more to do with like sharing photos or sharing videos, just what you're getting up to in your daily life.

And so like Facebook is for the, is probably for the older people to keep in touch with family and things like that.

So yeah I think those are the main reasons.

In this section Jed spoke about social networks and did you notice that the examiner moved on to a new topic?

So we started with just something about you, then we spoke about food and now we're talking about social networks.

In part one of the test you might have two or three different topics depending on the amount of answers that you give.

So we've got two main topics here which were food and social networks.

Jed used some extremely high-level language and this might be a little bit too high for you.

He said so trying to pad that out a bit so trying to pad that out a bit.

This is really difficult for me to explain because he talks about a few different social networks and when we say to pad out a bit it just means to fill it.

So he has Facebook, he's got Instagram, he's got Twitter and he might have another social media.

If you want to pad something out a bit it means to add something to make it wider.

So he added LinkedIn and he's trying to pad out his social networks.

Such high-level language, probably a You can learn it, go and study it.

I think that's really really really great of Jed.

Well done.

Okay 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.

We always say that part two of the test is the hard part and I think I tend to agree.

So just be Let's see how Jed gets on in part two.

Here is a pencil and paper for making notes and here is your topic.

I would like you to describe a time when you changed your plans.

Your one minute starts now.

Okay time's up.

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?

Perfect.

So before I came to Australia I had actually decided to go to the US.

So I was at an education consultant that specialized with universities in the US and during an expo one of the colleges said we could we can offer you a scholarship straight up like we promise we'll give you a scholarship if you come to us and so that was a pretty sweet deal for me and I thought that would be really nice.

I'd never been to the US before but then my dad said to me why not explore different options so then we went to another expo where different universities came and this time it was for Australian universities and believe it or not Trinity College was there and the University of Melbourne was there as well and they said to me we can't promise you a scholarship we think we can offer you one but there's no guarantees but we really want you to take like a guaranteed scholarship or maybe scholarship and the decision was hard but what really made me change my plans was I had originally lived in Melbourne before in Australia and it was when my dad did his PhD here and I was here for four years and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay.