How to Radically Raise Your IELTS Part 2 Score

Today you’ll learn 5 ways to raise your IELTS Part 2 score, directly connected to the IELTS scoring system. Visit ielts.allearsenglish.com for the simplest and most effective IELTS strategies. Part 2 is daunting. You have to speak fluently and cohesively for two full minutes. How you use these two minutes has a large impact on your IELTS Speaking score. This is your opportunity to really shine, to really show the examiner that you deserve a 7 or higher. 1. Don’t focus on bullet points If you rely on these, your answer sounds choppy and disorganized, leading to lower Fluency and Coherence scores. When students depend on the bullet points while they are talking, they interrupt themselves and often run out of things to say. 2. Describe the topic Instead of focusing on the bullet points, focus on the topic. This sentence, at the top of your Part 2 prompt, usually starts with the word “describe”. This is what you must do! To describe means to give a lot of details. This leads to higher Fluency scores, as well as Vocabulary scores, as you will be using more specific vocabulary. For instance, if asked to talk about a story, give detailed descriptions of the characters and the plot. If you have to describe a place, talk about what it looks like from the outside. Then, when describing the inside, talk about what you see on the walls, the tables, what the people are doing, the atmosphere, etc. Our strategy in Part 2 is to tell a story. This is easy to organize and allows you to provide a lot of details. 3. Use linking words/phrases For higher Coherence scores, you must use phrases to link your ideas. In a story, you will use time markers such as initially, and after a while. When adding points, you can use phrases such as “So, I can also say that…” or “To give you more of an idea…”. 4. Make the examiner stop you You want to keep talking until the examiner stops you. This shows fluency! 5. Don’t sound bored! For higher Pronunciation scores, you have to be emotive. Above all, don’t sound bored, rehearsed or robotic. In our online IELTS course, 3 Keys IELTS, we give you all the strategies and practice you need to score highly on all parts of the IELTS exam. Check out our online course now, the only one with a guaranteed score increase, at allearsenglish.com/keys.