Before the Test
The most important suggestion I can give is to practice speaking. You can do this by yourself, with an audio, with a friend or with a teacher but you must actually make yourself speak. Speaking is like golf, you can’t master it by watching videos, you must actually practice it. Before you go into the test, make sure that you have practiced saying some sample answers to yourself or someone else – don’t try and go into the test “cold” – you need to warm up. You also need to practice as if you were actually doing the full test. This means that you should be able to practice speaking on a range of different topics for at least 10 minutes. In fact, practicing every day for a week speaking continuously for 10 minutes at a time will be very helpful for your speaking preparation especially if you do this with a wide range of topics.

During the Test
It’s a good idea to make eye contact with the examiner, relax and smile. Try and enjoy yourself and be friendly and open as this makes a good impression. We all like talking to people who are like this! It’s OK to be nervous but if you don’t say much, frown a lot and speak quietly, then you will give a very different impression. Your examiner will do their best to make you feel more relaxed.

Don’t worry about making the occasional mistake – native speakers make mistakes when they speak but they sound natural and friendly. The examiner will expect some mistakes and is not expecting you to speak absolutely perfect English. The examiner doesn’t note down every mistake you make so the most important thing is to communicate clearly.

You must talk in the test – even if you don’t know much about the topic. You can still speak about something by imagining, or speculating and giving your opinion. Keep to the question asked and answer it as fully as possible. If you have nothing more to say, stop – don’t keep rambling on making things up! You will know more about some topics than others so the length of your answers will vary. When you have finished, the examiner will give you another question.

If the question asks for a yes/no answer – always follow up with Yes, because…. or No, because …. as this will help you to keep speaking on the topic. You will be asked a “why” question anyway so it is a good idea to get into the habit of answering with a reason and then to give examples from your own experience.

After the Test
Thank the examiner and thank yourself for the effort you have put in! Keep practicing your speaking whenever you can as you will lose your ability to speak after time if you do not maintain it.