If you are an IELTS aspirant, you must have an idea that the speaking section tests your confidence. You all may know that this is a short and face-to-face interview that determines your ability to speak with confidence. If you get to know about the IELTS score calculation system for this segment, you can prepare it well. Also, after this, you can include many sample online IELTS speaking test to improve it. That is why all needed information will be there in this article, as you move ahead. Students who want to know must read it. First, let us start discussing band descriptors for this section.
What Is IELTS Speaking Band Descriptor?
In the speaking test, you must have heard about the band descriptors. It is commonly used for assessing your speaking abilities. In the score chart, it starts from 0, which is the lowest, and ends with 9, which is the highest. Also, the IELTS score calculation system for Academic and General Training is the same.
Your examiner calculates your ability on four main criteria. There are fluency and coherence, lexical resources, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. To learn the marking system in the speaking test, you have to move ahead and read the next section.
Scoring Criteria for IELTS Speaking Section
As mentioned above, your skills in the speaking test identified four criteria. To understand them, you will get a brief review in the next section. Also, you can clear all your doubts related to the IELTS score calculation system for speaking.
Fluency and Coherence
Your fluency must not be too fast or too slow it should be at a regular speed. If you speak in the usual flow, it will refine your pace and continuity. When it comes to coherence, your sentences must be relevant and logically sequenced. It refers to the connectivity of intent and ideas that you deliver to the examiner. It includes pronouns and conjunctions to clarify the purpose.
Lexical Resources
In the offline or online IELTS speaking test, lexical resources are a band descriptor. It includes various kinds of vocabulary that all candidates need to use. In simple words, it describes how you find the right word to convey your precise ideas and thoughts. The key indicators are a range of words with collocation, content, and ability to paraphrase.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
In the speaking test, one other marking criterion is grammatical range and accuracy. It means how accurately you form the sentences. Also, this is the ability to use the right words in your thoughts and convey them to the examiner. To make a clear review, you must work on sentence structures, precision, and expression.
Pronunciation
Last but not least is the pronunciation, which is the most important part of the speaking section. Your accent affects your English if you work on this, you can produce meaningful ideas. Also, the examiner identifies how you pronounce the spellings and understand the meaning.
With the above details, the IELTS score calculation system for speaking is clear to you. Now, it is time to move on and understand the average scoring process in this section. After this, you will become more familiar with the marking criteria for the speaking test.
How to Calculate Average IELTS Speaking Score?
To calculate your IELTS speaking scores, examiners use arithmetic mean. In this, overall marks are figured as a total of all the band scores and divided by 4. Understand it by an example. If a candidate gets 8, 5, 7, and 6 scores for each criterion, it will be in total 26 (8+5+7+6= 26). After this, you will have to divide it by 4, and the overall score will be 6.5. For more clarity, analyze the table.
| Speaking Assessment Criteria | Band Score |
| Fluency and Coherence | 8 |
| Lexical Resources | 5 |
| Grammatical range and Accuracy | 7 |
| Pronunciation | 6 |
| Total Speaking | 6.5 |
After going through the table, you may understand the scoring system of the IELTS speaking section. If you have taken sample or mock tests before and failed to analyze your marks, this will help you a lot. Other than this, to ease your challenges, the next section covers some tips. Also, you can read it and use it in your practice.
Tips to Get Higher Scores in the IELTS Speaking Section
This is true that every candidate wants to get higher scores in their exams. It does not matter whether you are taking an offline or online IELTS speaking test. Besides, some of you face issues and get stuck to prepare well for the paper. So, let us read tips to sort out your problems.
- Try to learn many tough and easy words to improve your vocabulary skills.
- Always remember to work well on your grammatical issues.
- Also, you can practice with mock tests or sample papers to become familiar with the exam.
- Try to avoid using more and more filler words like um, er, like, okay, etc.
- When you attempt questions of the speaking test, give some examples to elaborate on them.
- Be clear and concise with your ideas and thoughts, and do not confuse the examiner.
- Practice with different types of topics and gain speed and confidence.
- Work on your fluency level by using various resources, like watching English lectures.
Conclusion
To conclude, with the above details, you have got a detailed view of the scoring system of the speaking test. Hopefully, the information is worthy for you, and now you can calculate your marks alone. Many students face issues in identifying their overall scores whenever they rehearse. Whether they are taking writing or IELTS listening test practice, they face issues. But if you have to go through well to the all above sections you will not suffer in calculating your marks. Also, candidates can analyze their performance when they learn to mark their scores. So, what are you waiting for now start your rehearsal and boost your confidence.