How to prepare notes in IELTS Speaking Cue Card (Part 2)
In IELTS Speaking part 2 the student should prepare some notes in order to make the things go in flow. Some students find difficult to plan and write the notes so today we will give you some tips on How to prepare notes in IELTS Speaking Cue Card (Part 2). So let’s start with an example.
Describe your favourite leisure activity. You should say:
– what it is
– how often you do it
– when you first started doing it.
You should also say why it is important to you.
Using the preparation time
In the speaking cue card the examiner will hand give you a piece of paper and a pen or pencil to prepare some notes before you start speaking. You will have one minute to prepare about what you are going to say. There are a number of common errors that candidates make in this preparation time, as shown below.
1 – telling the examiner you are ready to begin
The examiner will intimate you when your preparation time of 1 minute is up – you should not tell the examiner you are ready until he says that your time is over. By telling of your own you are wasting valuable time that you could utilize the time in thinking of relevant points or vocabulary, and most students that start early do not finish the full two minutes of speaking.
2 – writing sentences
The given one minute preparation time should be used to gain ideas and make notes and don’t write complete sentences. If you start writing full sentences it is not possible to complete the task in only 60 seconds.
3 – making no notes
There are some candidates who spend the whole 60 seconds just reading the topic and thinking about what they are going to say, and they don’t make any notes at all. The problem of this practice is that as soon as you begin to start speaking or if you become a little nervous, the good ideas that you had memorized will disappear, and you will have no backup left.
4 – not pacing the notes
As you know that the topic card has four sections – three bullet points and one final sentence. You are required to speak for two minutes, so it’s a good idea to divide the time by the number of ‘sections’ on the topic card and you have 30 seconds per part. While preparing notes, try to get something for every part and you should not go on to the next part until you think you have spoken for 30 seconds or you have nothing left to say about.
5 – reading from your notes
Don’t attempt to ‘read’ your answer directly from the note paper, and this can have an impact on your pronunciation as your fluency and natural pitch can suffer. Keep eye contact with your examiner most of the time, and only glance down to scan your notes.
6 – not being flexible with your notes
Don’t get sticked to the notes and if you decide to change a little of what you have planned it is much better to keep the conversation natural than stick rigidly to something that you are not so comfortable with. In addition, remember that the IELTS test is a communication test – it is not a memory test. If there is a fact you cannot remember, then tell the interviewer. You can show your English ability just as well by explaining that you do not know something. For example: ‘I’m not really sure when I began doing this, but I’m sure I was very young’ is just as good an answer as giving a date.
For more tips for speaking cue card click here
