I guess my last time failure is due to mistakes I made in Speaking test. I remeber I was nervous and my tension drove me speak quickly. I am thinking if I slow down to speak as fast as an 80 years old man next time, it might help me to diminish mistakes. Because speaking slowly can give me time to think what I am going to say. But I wonder if slow speech would drive the invigilator mad and penalize me with a low mark. Anyway, trying IETLS test in different way might help.

Hi Bob,

I’m not sure that trying to speak like an 80-year-old is advisable but it’s definitely a good idea to slow down a bit in order to give yourself time to think about what you are going to say.

You won’t be penalised for this unless you start taking unnaturally long pauses which then become a strain for the listener, ie the examiner.

Speaking slightly slowly than normal is likely to result in more accurate speech but it’s also a good idea to learn a few phrases which you can use to give yourself more time to think and therefore avoid any uncomfortable silences!

Here are some examples which you can use before giving your own opinion;

Let me think, ...
I don’t know, I think ...
As far as I’m concerned, I think ...
From my point of view, ...
As I see it, ...
For me personally ...

And then of course you can use plenty of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ though don’t overdo it!

Jenny