Hello IELTS daily friends! Welcome back to this practice mock exam. My name is Chris, and I'm here with Elisha. Elisha, where are you from? I'm from Singapore. Welcome! And in today session, we are going to do a full practice test. Now, Elisha, I think you've taken the test before here at IELTS Daily. How did you do the first time? I think I did pretty okay, I made some minor mistakes in my pronunciation. So, if you want to see whether Elisha has improved or stayed the same or done better, then please come and watch this video. We look forward to seeing you at the end when I will give Elisha some feedback. See you soon. Hello! Do you think you have good pronunciation? Well, in today's mock exam video, we're looking at a mock exam with Elisha. Elisha is a fantastic speaker, and you may have already seen one of her videos. She's come back for a second time to answer some different questions and we're going to evaluate whether she has made the same mistakes as the first time. So if you're ready, I'm ready. Let's go! Hello and welcome to this practice exam conducted by IELTS Daily. My name is Maddy, 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 Elisha. Thanks, Elisha. 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. What is the weather like in the town where you live? I'm currently living in Melbourne, so the weather here is pretty bizarre in the sense that there's always like four seasons in one day. So, it could be sunny one day, one second, and then the next, it could be really cold and windy, and yeah, but back home in Singapore, it's really hot and humid, and it's just constantly summer all year round. So yeah, it's a good change living in Melbourne currently. We'll just pause there for one second and Elisha elaborated; she expanded on her answers really well, gave lots of examples. She talked about the place where she lives now, and the place where she comes from. I almost caught just the pronunciation of good change. She said: goot change. It was probably a little bit soft, the D. I think that would be okay. If she makes many more of those, then maybe she would drop to a band 8. But she's okay for now, she's using great language, lots of complex variety in her grammar, and she's very fluent. So well done, Elisha. Do you prefer hot or cold weather? I would say that I prefer cold weather because I think I was exposed hot weather in summer in Singapore, so it tends to, it tends to be really hot there, and I like to change it up a bit. So coming to Melbourne, I got to experience like winter and all four seasons. But in Singapore, I only really experience summer. Remember that I always tell you to speak as much as possible. Give lots of feelings and thoughts on your answers. Elisha is doing a great job here. Fantastic language, fantastic grammar, no mistakes, really clear, great pronunciation. Good job, so far. What do you normally do if the weather is nice? If the weather's not too cold or too hot, Ok, I'm just gonna pause her there. Did we all hear that really, a common problem for Elisha, she said: col weather. And it's this D sound that sometimes is missing from her word. So it should be cold. D, D, D, D, cold weather. So if we hear many more of those, she will lose a pronunciation mark. I tend to like to go out with my friends or just go out and explore the city And you know, do an activity or like going to the beach or having a nice picnic. So I think, it, yeah, it really depends on the weather, I would say. Okay. Let's move on to the topic of furniture. Do you ever buy furniture? I don't usually buy furniture because currently I'm still student. So, I don't really have to buy my own furniture, but... Should I pause, Elisha there again? I'm still student. I didn't quite hear, you might want to listen back. I'm still A student, so it's this article. She might have slipped it in, I might have missed it. Maybe you can go back and listen again. I heard: I'm still student. I would say: I'm still a student, a student. And most of the time, my parents would just buy the furniture for me. And I'm currently staying in college, so this, pretty much everything provided, like a bed, a desk and everything, all the things that I need, but if I were to move out by myself, I think it would be nice to find me, stop buying furniture for myself and choosing the things that. If I were to finally move out by myself, Great complexity of language, it's an if sentence. Try to use some different forms of grammar, so an if sentence or a when sentence or a subordinate clause, if you don't know what those are, you can Google those. Make sure that you do have a number of different forms of grammar or structures that you could have a wide variety of grammatical structures. I like to keep in my house. How do you like to decorate rooms in your house? So currently, I'm living in a college dorm, so I have a room to myself, and I like to decorate it with all the things that not only just remind me of my hometown back in Singapore, but also the things that really brighten the room out, it makes me really happy. So currently in my room, I have lots of plants and lots of posters, and pictures of my family and my friends back home. And you know, all the polaroids that I've taken so far, since I've come to Melbourne. Okay. You know. You know. Did you hear her use the phrase, "you know" in the middle of the speech? That's absolutely normal, that's great. It's a great filler phrase, "you know", it's a good idea. So lots of students ask me the question, can you say you in the test? Yes, you absolutely can. you should make sure that your speech is natural. Native speakers use the phrases such as: you know or like, during their normal speech. It is absolutely acceptable to use those. Do you prefer traditional or modern style furniture? I would say that I prefer modern only because like, I grew up in the household that really just was more on the modern side. So, yeah. But I do like certain traditional, and traditional set up and decorations as well. But most of the time, I tend to like modern furniture. Now I want to talk about handwriting. Do you have good handwriting? I would say not really, compared to a lot of my family and friends. Only because I tend to write really fast and I don't really pay attention sometimes to the details and my handwriting and the style that I used and... I just want to say how great Elisha's fluency is. I don't know if you agree with me, but all of her sentences are connected together, and they all flow from one idea to another idea. It's not like she's looking for words. She's not struggling or hesitating for language. And actually, she's not really hesitating for content, either. She's doing a really great job in the fluency and coherent section. It also depends on what I'm writing. If I'm writing an essay that I need a hand in on an exam, I would put in more effort to actually have a handwriting that is readable. But if it's just like journaling or writing notes, like maybe the night before an exam, I just tend to just mix, like write down, as much as I can, as fast as I can, so that I can move on to the next topic. Do you think your handwriting has gotten better? Yes, over time, I think it has. I mean, compared to when I was a child, I would say that my handwriting was terrible and well, I couldn't draw or just write anything. Well, but over the years, I think it has improved as I start to write more essays and journals, and yeah. How often do you write by hand? I would say almost every day, So I would say... I've heard Elisha say this phrase a few times, probably two or three other times. Try not to use the same phrase all the time. You could say: I would say, or you could even say: I'd say. And that's even a variety. I would say on, I'd say. From my point of view, as I see it, are other ways that you could use language in that sense. But try not to repeat the same phrases all the time. Cause it really depends, like I write, like all the time. There's never a day that I don't write, and it could be for a diary entry. Just to jot down the things that I need to buy at the supermarket, to assignments, essays and notes. When I am doing my course in uni, and when it's semester time, I tend to write more than I usually do especially during exam times, because I have to write on a lot of things, a lot of notes, yeah. 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 is a paper and pencil making notes, and here is your topic: I would like you to describe a piece of good news you received. The time starts now. Just before we listen to Elisha's speech, A piece of good news, remember that news is uncountable, so you would always have to say a piece of good news, or you could say, some news. You can't say, "a news", so let's see what Elisha has to say. Okay. 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 stop speaking now, please. So, I remember vaguely, a good, really good news that I received was when I was about 7 years old. And at that time, My mom was recently like, diagnosed with cancer, so I was extremely worried and sad. And I was confused and worried about what would happen in the future. So, the news, like, I was really happy when I received that she was, she didn't have any more cancer cells or tumors in her. And I was relieved because it was about a year or so that she had cancer, and it was, if I can recall clearly, it was like stage two cancer. So when I received the news, I was extremely relieved and happy, and yeah, it made me really also appreciate spending time with her more and spending time with the people that I love more. And that made me, that taught me a lot about quality time with your loved ones and all. But that, that is one of the very many, good news that I have received. Again, That was one of the very many good news. So she's fallen into this trap again, of the countable and the uncountable. News is unaccountable, so you can't say, "many good news". You would have to say, "many pieces of good news", or "some good news", or "a lot of good news". And yeah. How did you celebrate? We went out for a nice dinner, and yeah, it was really good because all my family and my friends as well in primary school, they were really supportive and they were also really worried as well, because there was a period of time that she had a relapse, and she was in the hospital for weeks. So I think, when she was finally cured, everyone was just very happy. My dad was really happy, and my siblings as well. Because I had a younger sister, and I was really worried for her, but it's all good now. Alright. Emotional topics in the IELTS test, you are not expected to give as much personal information as you don't want to do. So if you feel like this is something which is a topic which is off-limits, or you don't want to cover, you're absolutely welcome not to cover. Elisha has told a personal story about her mom and some health conditions. If you think that that's not something that you could talk about, talk about something different, and you could invent a story. Only talk about things which you feel comfortable discussing. Well, thank you. Now, let's talk about news. What type of good news do people receive? There are many different types of good news. I would say, it depends on the situation. So, for example: Good news could vary from person to person, and I would say that good news could be like receiving a job that you really want to get into, a course, a university that you wanted to go to. You know, getting like, my example, for example, like, finding out that your loved one isn't sick anymore. And you know, it just really depends on the person and the context, and how you receive it and feel about it. How do people celebrate good news where you live? I would think, it's pretty common when you receive good news is to always celebrate. The first thing to do is celebrate with drinks or cake and throw a party, a small get together. And just, you know, celebrate the person that received good news. Another pronunciation feature here is: throw. You will see below, throw, if you listen back, you will hear that. Alicia pronounces it, "throw", with a "ch. Now, this is very common for people from Malaysia or Singapore. The pronunciation of the "th" sound will often be "ch". Alright. I think the examiner would mark them down on this, because it's not natural. We wouldn't normally say, "chrow", so you have to focus on "th", throw. Like, for example, when my sister also, she just got a job in London, we couldn't be there to celebrate with her, but we, because of the pandemic, but we've like FaceTime with her, and we celebrate it with cake, and you know, send her gift, all those, well and got her nice things to decorate her apartment as well. So, it really depends also on the situation, and yeah. How can the good news of one person affect other people? I think it also depends if, Like, I was really, to me, I was really happy and you know, believed that my sister found a job because she was, she just graduated from uni. And given the whole pandemic, it was really extremely hard to find a job because a lot of people that I knew were losing jobs, and they were, they were not doing so well as well, but... Alright. So, "given the", This is a complex grammar form. Given the pandemic, something happened. So I, remember I told you that you need to have varied complexity of your grammar. We've talked about if sentences, but a given sentence is also a really great type of complex grammar form. So given something, something else happens. I think I was really happy for her. So another situation where I was really happy was when my friend got into her dream university and dream course and I was really proud of her. So it really depends, because I'm pretty sure her close friends and family would be very proud and happy for her. But strangers, probably not. So it depends on how close you are to the person. And if the person's really close to you, they tend to also share the same, similar feelings, and happiness for you as well. Thank you very much. That is the end of the speaking test. Wonderful! Great job, Elisha! I think it's important that you watch Elisha's speech and see how fluent she is. She really developed some of her answers. And talks a lot about her feelings and her experiences. This was a great example. Shall we look at her mark? Well, we've already spoken a little bit about her pronunciation features which were the "d" sound, and also the "th" sound. I think a strict examiner would give her an 8 for pronunciation. Because in the band descriptors, you will see them on the screen now. It says: uses a wide range of pronunciation features. It says: sustains flexible use of features with only occasional lapses. And this is the important feature here, the only occasional lapses. She does make a couple of mistakes occasionally, and I think the examiner
would pick her up on that. Next, with the fluency and coherence part of the mark, she does repeat a few words. So she says, "tends to", quite a lot. And I would say, she says quite a lot. And she says, "it depends" quite a lot. And at a band, 8, it says: Speaks fluently, with only occasional repetition. I'm not sure whether the examiner would pick up on the repetition of ideas and words and phrases. For me, I'm going to be a little bit strict today and give her a band 8. I think she could score a 9 quite easily, but just beyond the cautious side, we will give her an 8 today. Otherwise, her lexical resource and her grammatical range and accuracy, I'm going to score her 9 for both of those, which would give her an overall score of a band 8.5. Remember, if you want to score 9 overall, you have to score 9 in all the sections, which is extremely, extremely difficult. Really well done to Elisha today. We focused on pronunciation, a couple of pronunciation features which were really important, and brought her score down. I don't want you guys to be in the same boat as she. So therefore, make sure you pay attention and focus on pronunciation. I really hope that you enjoyed this video today. I will see you in the future videos. Remember if you are a fan of IELTS Daily, come along and subscribe on Youtube. We have a Bilibili account in China if you like all of your videos to have some Chinese influence. It's really a pleasure to speak to you all. Welcome, and I will see you soon.
