Preparation for the part 3:
Task description
Section three is like a role play. The examiner will explain a situation to you and then instruct you to ask questions to find out more information. The examiner will give you a card with around six question prompts to help you make the questions. You should use the question prompts to ask all the questions on the card. Be ready to ask additional questions if the examiner invites you to, or if the examiner looks expectantly at you after you have asked all the prompted ones.
What is being tested is your ability to:
- Use a question form correctly
- Use a variety of question words
- Ask questions politely
- Sample questions
The examiner says:
‘I have just enrolled in a new course. You want to find out about the course. Look at this card carefully and when you’re ready begin to ask your questions.’
Interview card
The interviewer has just enrolled in a course. Ask the interviewer some questions to find out about the course.
- Title of course?
- How long?
- Location?
- Purpose?
- Cost?
Strategies for approaching the task
Before the test, you need to practise making correct questions using a variety of question words appropriate to the situation. You also need to practise making your questions polite. There are two main ways to do this.
1. Use an introductory sentence politely, asking the interviewer to give you the information. For example:
Marianne, I’d like to ask you some questions about your course, if that’s all right.
(Interviewer responds by nodding agreement or saying ‘Certainly. What’s the name of the course?)
2. Use embedded questions. For example:
Could you tell me the name of the course, please?
Notice that with embedded questions we use the statement word order, not:
Could you tell me what is the name of the course?
You will be given a cue card/topic to speak 2-3 minutes about it.
IELTS Speaking... Cue Card
Describe a book that has had a major influence on you.
• What is the name of that book and who is the author?
• How you first heard of it?
• What is that book about?
• Why it played such an important role in your life?
Try to speak spontaneously and give as much information possible about the topic.
Preparation for the part 4:
Task description
Using your CV as a starting point, the interviewer will ask you about your future plans. The interviewer will aim to involve you in a discussion exploring possible problems, your concerns, your expectations, your hopes and possible steps to achieving your goals.
Sample questions
It is not possible to predict what questions will come up at this point in the test except that you know that the topic will be your future. The questions will be drawn from your CV, or from what the examiner has learned about you in the earlier sections of the interview, and most will arise naturally from the discussion and the information you are giving as this section progresses.
What is being tested is your ability to:
- Give in-depth answers to questions about your future
- Use the language of speculation
- Explain and defend your actions, plans, assumptions, predictions, reasons etc.
- Strategies for approaching the task
- Carefully consider your future plans before the test. If you haven’t definitely decided what career path you will follow, then choose one plan to talk about in the interview.
For example, if you haven’t decided whether you want to be an astronaut or a business man, choose one – whichever you think is the easier to talk about – and don’t bother to mention the other at the interview.
Prepare all the vocabulary you will need to discuss that career path, especially the steps you will need to take to reach your desired position and how you would overcome any possible problems. Be prepared to use conditional sentences to discuss, for example, what you will do if you achieve your goal or you cannot achieve your goal; for example:
If I can’t go to an Australian university to study, I will have to work in my parents’ business.
Be prepared to use perfect tenses to explain how you got to the situation you are in now. For example:
Interviewer: How did you decide to become an engineer? Candidate: Well, I’d (or I’ve) always been very good at math, so after finishing high school I …
Be prepared to speculate about the future:
- I hope to …
- I’m hoping to …
- I’d like to …
- If possible I’d like to …
- I plan to …
- I’ve always dreamed of …
- I assume that …
- I’m assuming that …
- I expect that …
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