In today’s post I’m going to share some tips and secrets from a recently-retired IELTS examiner. After you watch her talking about her work as an IELTS examiner, you will understand the examiner’s perspective much better, which will help you become less nervous before and during the test.
Here are a few important points from the video:
Do not make small talk with the examiner
The examiner is not allowed to respond to you. Therefore, you shouldn’t try to talk to the examiner about anything that is not connected with the questions and tasks. Of course, you should always respond to the examiner.
The examiner is also being examined!
The examiner must not show special favour or bias (check the meaning of that word in a dictionary). This means that you should not try to get the examiner’s sympathy in the hope that he/she will give you a higher band. This could negatively affect you, since the examiner’s bosses will listen to the recording and will penalize any examiner who they think has given special favours.
Avoid technical details
The examiner doesn’t share your technical knowledge. If you work in a technical field, for example engineering or IT, be prepared to talk about your work in a way that is clear for everybody and avoid giving technical details.
Ask for clarification if necessary
Make sure that you understand the questions and instructions. The examiner is allowed to repeat the instructions twice, so ask for clarification if you need it. You will not be penalized. The examiner is also allowed to give you a definition or synonym if you don’t understand a word.
This FREE eBook Shows You What Kinds of Tasks and Questions to Expect in the IELTS Speaking Test.
I would like to thank this examiner for making these things clear.
well, me too.. very thankful for this idea and additional information ,this would be very helpful to me for my incoming IELTS test.
Apart from that I would like to acknowledge the examiner for providing information to be expected from the examiner.
this would be very helpful to me, thanks a lot, im pretty sure that i could pass the exam.