IELTS Speaking Test- Band 6.5

Let's start off by talking about your studies. Do you work or do you study? >> Um yeah, so I study fashion, fashion design and fashion business and um I want to launch my own brand soon. So yeah, that is my current situation. >> What's your favorite part of your studies? >> I have a passion for fashion. So like everything we learn is just for me an eyeopening and getting to know the industry from professionals. It's just amazing for me and I grew up in in a place where it's like all this industry is not so accessible for us. So here it made me see uh on real life how fashion works, how the industry works, how creative works and yeah this is what I like about my studies like touching it. >> Is there anything you don't like about your studies? Um well yeah as I said there's this fun part but there's also um the part where you get to see also the industry negative parts where when you hear about fashion you think it's all glamorous and fun and parties and after parties and fashion shows but it's also the hard work and sometimes it get toxic sometimes it really um occupied your whole life or occupies your whole life. Um so yeah, that was for me like um shocking at first, but I guess that's life. >> And what do you hope to do in the future with your studies? >> Um yeah, so as I said, I want to launch my own brand. So this is uh why I started fashion in the first place because I always dreamed about having my own thing and giving my creativity a space to express itself because I always felt like I have something to give to the world and fashion for me was the way. >> Now let's talk about your lifestyle. What do you like to do in your free time? >> Oh, I like to do a lot of sports. I like to go to the gym and go for long walks and do a lot of pilateses. And um I like to hang out with my friends and I like to do a lot of journals just to like, you know, get the thoughts out. Um yeah, but I'm really passionate about sports. So like I'm always like looking for new sports and training. Do you have a busy social life? >> No, I like to be an introvert. Yeah, I don't like to be everywhere and with a lot of people. It give me anxiety. I feel like chaotic. So, I prefer to be with close people, close circle, people who I know and who knows me and that I feel um the most genuine with. Can you describe your ideal day off? Saturday or Sunday, something like that? >> Oh, I love day offs. So, I just wake up and I mostly go to the beach to take a long long walk and enjoy my coffee there. And I like to listen to a lot of podcasts about topics that I like, whether it's fashion or business or sports or wellness. And then I like to meet my friends for lunch. So we discuss our week and we chitchat. Um yeah, then I like to go home and just reset, take a shower, and put some mask on, watch some movies, serious, and just like, you know, to wind down and to feel like I'm rubbing the week. >> Is there any activities that you would like to start in the future that you haven't started yet? Um, >> just jumping in to give you our free gift. We analyzed hundreds of band seven, eight, and nine speaking performances and we analyzed the vocabulary. We've put all the best words, phrases, idioms into one PDF for you. If you would like that, go to the description, click on the link. It's our gift to you. You can download it 100% for free. >> I wanted to learn how to play battle because it's everywhere here. So, I feel like this pressure of trying this sport, but I'm just um I don't know. I feel it's a little bit um intensive. >> Now, let's talk about podcasts. What are some of your favorite podcasts? >> I like podcasts about two topics mainly. business where founders talk about their businesses and um what are the issues they faced along the way and um how they hire employees based on what and basically their whole journey and the other thing is about girl empowerment. Um because as a girl in this you know word um I find it really empowering to hear other women's talking about their struggles and how they overcome it and um what helps them and how to stay in your femininity in a world full of masculinity and hard things. >> What activity are you normally doing when you're listening to podcasts? Are you doing something or are you just doing nothing and just focusing on the podcast? >> Yeah, so cleaning the dishes or taking a walk. Yeah, that's like whenever I'm cleaning the dishes or the house, I put the podcast or whatever I'm taking a long walk. >> And do you prefer podcasts where there's just one person speaking or multiple people speaking at the same time? >> I don't mind really. um as long as the topic is really interesting to me and um I know that the person is someone I know that it's worth trusting like he has some impact on other people's word. Yeah. >> Do you think that uh podcasts help you improve your English? >> I think a lot. Yeah. Because for me whenever I hear a podcast sometimes I try to um rephrase what they said. So like in my mind I'm trying to like say the words that they said or trying to copy the accent sometimes. So yeah. Yeah, that helped me a lot. >> Now let's talk about uh housework. Do you do the housework at home? >> Yeah, I do. I do. I I really love to clean my place and um do the housework and take care of myself. >> Is there any housework that you refuse to do or you don't like doing? Um, no. I really enjoy it. It's like something I don't know how to explain it, but I I really enjoy it. >> And were you given chores as a child? >> Choice. >> Chores. And so those are little jobs around the house like um picking up doing the dishes or taking out the trash um that parents sometimes give their children. >> Yeah, it was always the dishes. That's where I um developed my love for doing the dishes. People always ask me like how how do you love doing the dishes? But I just can't explain it. It was my job. So now I'm stick to it. Yeah. So I would like to own one luxury item or in general in general anything that is Roberto Cavali um vintage dresses. I'm inspired so much about from Roberto Cavali. Um, and mostly how the dresses is feminine in a way that is unapologetic and it's inspired mostly by animals which feels for me spiritual. So like I love this connection between spirituality and animals and other lives with fashion. And a redesign is really sexy. And the reason I really want to own them is because I think everything vintage is much more powerful for me because I feel it's more authentic. in a way where now luxury houses tend to um you know go with a trend. So I feel like when it is vintage it was to be it used to be the real designer vision and you can see the passion in it and you know not everyone can own them so that's a plus. Every woman wants to be special. So yeah, this is what I like about those dresses. And I can name a few designers more that I write that I like to have their vintage dresses. Um, that's the end of part two. Well done. Okay, so we've been talking about uh luxury items and we're going to continue to talk about expensive items and rich people. Which expensive items do young people want the most? >> Wow. Now it's obvious. The Birkin, the mini Kelly, it's everywhere. It's it's it's the way to say I am the Edgirl in today's world. So I think it's in every girl bucket list for now. Um I think that made the Birkin less special. because it's originally has been made to be this exclusive item that not anybody can has or own it, but now it's just everywhere. So, I think we should move on. >> So, those are the items that young people find attractive. What about expensive things that older people find attractive? Are they the same or are they different? >> That's an interesting question. I think it depends on um how much you want to spend on an item as a young or um an old rich individual. Um but I think for rich people, they tend to more spend on items that are investments more than showing off. So, like I like to think that old people wants to buy more um watches or houses or maybe vintage cars more than what it what bag is trendy. But, uh in terms of women, I still think that old women, they want to feel the young spirit again. They want to to follow the trend sometimes. Yeah. Do you think people are more likely to buy luxury goods for themselves or for their loved ones? >> I think for their loved ones because first is it's a way to describe your love and like it's always also give you more satisfaction in a way because you know you're making the other one or your significant other um happy. Um it's not only about luxury, it's it's all about like anything. I feel like it's always you feel better when you buy someone else something rather than buying to yourself. But we should also spoil ourselves because we deserve it. >> Do you think luxury goods and being rich makes people happy? >> Oh, it's not the main reason, but it makes people's life easier. for example, um when you have that aspect figured out, which is the financial aspect. So now like you have more time to think about the other things, maybe you're not happy, but at least you're comfortable. You can solve your problems in a more comfortable way without feeling like you need to survive. >> That's the end of the speaking test. Did you feel different from the start of the test to the end of the test? >> Yeah, for sure. >> In what way? If you would like your speaking assessed one-on-one, we do offer that as part of our VIP package. To thank you for watching the video, I'll offer you 10% off. All you have to do is just go to the description, click the link, and you can get 10% off today. >> I felt more confident. I felt the flow is like more flowing. Yeah, it's just in terms of confidence and um stress. >> I think you really grew into the test. You were way more confident and fluent and uh and and sure about what you wanted to say. at the end compared to the beginning. At the beginning, you were a little bit unsure, a little bit nervous, you were making more mistakes and then you just gained more and more confidence. The good news is that a good examiner will recognize that and they won't judge you on the first few questions. They'll judge you on the entire performance and they'll really take into consideration a good examiner will notice that you gained in confidence and you your your ability your performance improved as you went through. >> So for someone like you who's a little bit nervous at the start I don't know if I'm scary but some examiners will be scarier than me on test day. Not all examiners will be that way. They're are human beings. Some of them are tired. Some of them are grumpy. Don't let that put you off. So, let me give you some feedback on part one, part two, and part three, and then I'll give you your scores. So, part one, um, as I say, you were a little nervous at at the at the beginning of part one, but you did grow into it. Um, you did get much better as it went through. Most of your answers were quite good, though. Um, you were developing your answers enough, you were answering the questions properly, you were staying on topic. One thing to be careful of is is I think I asked about what you did in your free time or what sports you did and you just listed lots and lots of activities and lots and lots of sports. It's much easier to pick one sport instead of football, Pilates, yoga, basketball, walking. Pick Pilates like why do you like Pilates? Where do you do it? How often do you do it? It's often easier to talk about things in a deeper way than to go wide and just list everything that you can. So if they ask you for example, what's your favorite food? Instead of being like, I like Thai and Chinese and Indian and pizza and pick one. I like Thai because of this reason, this reason. My favorite dish is this. Um I I like this restaurant. It just helps you become a lot more fluent than trying to think of the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> But overall, um part one was really really good. >> I thought you did an excellent job with part two. I really liked the vocabulary that you were like it was just one highlevel uh phrase or word after another. I think you were quite lucky with with the topic that you got. Not everybody will get the topic that they feel passionate about. One thing that you could do is sometimes they will ask you uh they they will give you something that is quite vague like talk about a book that you read. So you're very confident talking about fashion. You could say, "Oh, I I got a book on Chanel or Tom Ford or or something like this." Or even something like talk about a place that you visited. Oh, I went to Dubai because Dubai Mall has >> the best shopping in the world or something like you're kind of you can't do that for every question, but steering it towards things that you feel like you love sports, you love fashion, you love business. When I asked you about the podcast, you were talking about femininity and womanhood and things like that. And when you were talking about topics you were very confident or very familiar with, your answers were much better. >> Yeah. >> When I asked you about things you were not so sure about, you struggled a little bit. And interestingly, >> your grammar and vocabulary was much worse whenever you were talking about things that you were uncomfortable talking about. And it was much better, even your grammar was better when you were talking about topics that you felt comfortable talking about. because the level of English that you're at, you're having to think a lot about what's the right word, what's the right phrase, what's the right tense, um, on top of what content should I be talking about. So, when you're talking about fashion, you you don't really have to think about the content. So, you can focus more your brain subconsciously is focusing there's more power going to that part of your brain. So again, try to steer it towards topics that you're familiar with, but an examiner, a good examiner will notice that and they will throw some topics at you that you're not expecting just to see how you cope with it. >> Um, and they won't judge you just on when you're talking about luxury goods cuz you're you're so good at that. >> They'll judge you on the whole test. So just uh be aware of that. Again, part three, really good development. Um, and I like the the vocabulary that you were using there, like talking about it girl and the fashion business and girls want to be spoiled and want to feel special and all of these different things, which is really really good. Again, it's a topic you seem very confident about talking about. Part three, you won't always get topics like that. So, I would really recommend practicing um different topics and becoming comfortable with that. I think your main enemy is your nerves. it showed at the beginning and maybe getting something that you feel uncomfortable talking about. Um so you just need it just comes through practice and developing that as a as a skill. Let's talk about your um the things that you did well in terms of your scores and things that you need to work on. Your fluency is quite good, but there especially when you're talking about unfamiliar topics, you can tell that your brain is really searching for the next word and the ne the vocabulary. That's not a criticism. That's just how we deal with languages and what that we're learning. Are you translating from Arabic? >> Um, yeah, actually. Yeah. >> Okay. So, that I thought that because >> the part of your brain that deals with translation is different from the part of your brain that deals with producing the actual words. >> Okay. >> So, you are accessing one part of your brain, translating from Arabic and taking it, putting it into another part of your brain and producing that. >> Yeah. If you wanted to get a very high score for fluency, you would have to start thinking in English. It depends on how what kind of score that you're hoping to get. But if you wanted a band eight or a band nine, you would have to stop translating and start thinking in English. Um that would mean that you do a lot more practice of for example listening to a podcast in English completely thinking about it in English and then talking about it or writing about it in English and getting into the habit of doing that. >> Also when you're learning new words and phrases don't use any translation. Don't put the Arabic beside it. Put um the English word >> the meaning in English an example sentence in English. You could use synonyms, collocations, all these different things in. So, it's forcing you to start thinking in English. It's challenging and it's a lot of work. It really depends on your goals. Like if you want to work um like for example, if you wanted to work in the fashion business in New York or London and you needed uh or you wanted to do a master's in fashion or something like that, you might want to consider taking that step. At the minute, you're around about seven for fluency, which is good. it means that you have no problems there. But band eight, band nine is more like native level. If you wanted to do that, you could. At the minute, I for your life goals, I don't really think that you need to. >> Um, probably your biggest strength is vocabulary. So, for example, you're talking about being inspired, feminine, unapologetic, inspired by spiritual, spirituality, designer's vision. It's authentic, excellent vocabulary. You can tell that you've studied luxury goods and fashion. And the good news is is that you have learned so much great vocabulary. But to get one of the higher scores for vocabulary, you would need to to do it at that level for all lots of different topics. >> To get a band eight or a band nine, I would have to ask you about multiple different things. And you can use words at that level for that topic. I would need to test you again on on very unfamiliar topics to see what your real vocabulary level is. It was interesting at the beginning in part one when you were talking about unfamiliar topics, your vocabulary wasn't as good. So, I think that you're around a band seven for vocabulary. If you wanted to get to a band eight or a band nine, you would need to start reading and listening to podcasts and things like that about topics that you're unfamiliar with. It's uncomfortable, but all growth is uncomfortable. So >> um the two areas that you need to work on one more than the other the vast majority of your pronunciation is clear. >> So what an examiner will be thinking about is do I understand every word that she's saying. >> Mhm. >> To get about seven eight or nine every word needs to be 100% clear. 99% of your words are clear. Some some words are not. >> So let me give you some examples. I have something to give to the word. I wanted to learn how to play battle to feel like I'm robbing the weak. >> There's only a few times where I'm like, "Battle? What is battle?" Or word word? What do you mean? World? There's only a few times that that happens, but it's enough that you wouldn't be able to get one of the higher scores. You wouldn't be able to get about seven, eight or nine. Also, um, because your native language is Arabic, the rhythm of your speech, your word stress is, and this is not a criticism, it's just the fact that you're an Arabic speaker is is influenced by your native tongue. If I didn't show you and I just said, "Listen to this person. Are they a native English speaker?" No one would say, "Yes, they're de they'd say they're a very good English learner. They speak English at a very high level, but we can tell you that they're definitely not, you know, a native speaker or at that level just yet. It's not that you have a problem with certain words. It is you have a problem with certain sounds in English. English is made up of several sounds which are different from our Arabic is made up of of lots of different sounds that are different from English. English is made up and every language has different sounds. The sounds that you have a problem with are the ones that are very different from your native tongue from Arabic. So it's not about fixing your entire pronunciation. It is about identifying what are those problem sounds or problem words in English and fixing those. You would need to work with a coach or a teacher to to do that. Or you could just speak into your note takingaking apps in Apple Notes and it will when you say paddle it will say battle. >> Oh. and you know immediately, oh, I've pronounced this incorrectly. >> And a good way if you wanted to improve your vocabulary at the same time would be maybe listen to a podcast and then talk into your phone and kind of summarize the podcast. Be like, I learned this or um and then it will show you the words that you're mispronouncing cuz you know the words in your head, you can notice them, but the >> you need to hear them also. Yeah. >> So, you get a band six for pronunciation. The biggest issue you have is grammar, especially when you're talking about unfamiliar topics. You're missing words sometimes, like >> the industry negative parts. I like to do a lot of journals. I like to be an introvert >> instead of I am introverted. >> Mhm. >> Um, >> oh, I love day offs. >> Instead of I love days off. >> So you So you're mixing up the little Sometimes it's a vocabulary issue, sometimes it's a grammar issue, but you're mixing things up from time to time. You're not doing this in every sentence, but a lot of sentences have small grammar mistakes in them. None of the mistakes are are terrible, as in none of them are major, as in I don't understand you, but they're just too frequent for me to give you one of the high scores. You would get around about six for grammar. That would be the thing that I would work on the most if I was you. But overall, you would get 6.5, which is about the average score for speaking. >> So, how long have you been learning English or speaking English? seriously >> speaking English seriously for um a year. >> A year? >> Yeah, >> you're fine. You're going to be absolutely fine. Um so 6.5 after one year is actually amazing. The fact that you can speak so fluently and so well about topics that you're passionate about, that tells me that in 6 months to a year, you're going to be able to speak about any topic at that level. So, I would be very surprised if we met in in a year's time that your English is still at that level. I think you're going to improve massively because if somebody is speaking at that level so quickly, it it normally means that they're going to continue at a similar pace. So, I would not worry about you at all. You're doing extremely well. Thank you.