6. Improve your memory – write your life history 提高记忆力，写自己的故事

Parts 1 and 2 of the speaking test are personal questions about who you are (part 1) and what you have done (part 2). One reason why some candidates have problems is not the language, but that they can’t think of things to say. The solution is simple – refresh your memory about important events in your life before the test.

Part1 和Part2 主要是关于你自己的一些问题，有些烤鸭的问题不在于用什么语言说，而是他们根本想不到要说什么。。那么就在考试前重温一下、回忆一下你生活中的重要事情吧！

The idea is not so much to practise exam questions (it’s hard to predict those), but to practise speaking about your memories of people, events, places and things. Do that and the exam should be simpler as you have memories you can use. Write down some personal memories and then try speaking about them. Some ideas here are:

这不是要练习考试题目，只是练习说出自己记得的人、事、物、地方。如果你能这样做，考试会容易很多。

Think of important/interesting people in your life: Ask yourself: When did you meet them? How long have you known them? Why are they important/interesting? Can you remember something you did together? What about a conversation you had with them?

想想在你生命中重要或者有趣的人：问问自己：你是什么时候遇到他们的？你认识他们多久啦？为什么他们重要或者有趣？你还记得你们一起做的事情吗？你们之间的谈话呢？

Think of important events in your life: Ask yourself: What it was? Where did it happen? Who were you with at the time? What else was happening in your life then? What one thing stands out in your memory about it? How well do you remember it?

想想你生命中的重大事件：问问自己：是什么？在哪里发生的？那时候你跟谁在一起？后来又发生了什么？哪一件事在记忆中最鲜明？你还记得多少？

Think of places you have been to: Ask yourself: Where it was? How did you get there? In what detail can you describe the place? Can you describe the general area it is in? Would you want to go back there?

想想你去过的地方：问问自己：是哪里？你怎么去的？你还能描述多少细节？你能说出大概方位吗？你还想再次到访吗？

Think of your possessions: Ask yourself: How long have you owned it? Where did you get it? Is it special or something normal? How often do you use it? Do you associate with someone else?

想想你的所有物：问问自己：你拥有它多久了？你在哪得到它的？这是个特别的东西还是很一般的东西？你用了多久了？你还跟谁有联系？

7. Practise saying “I don’t know” 练习说“I don’t know”

Another reason why some candidates go wrong in the exam is that they feel they have to give a complete answer to very question and they think of IELTS as some academic test. It isn’t. It’s simply a test of your language. In parts 1 and 3, you may well be asked questions that you have very little to say about. That’s not a problem, there’s always another question coming. The big mistake is to try and give a full answer when you have nothing to say. What happens is that your language becomes confused and so do you, with the result that things get and worse and worse.

很多考生误以为雅思是学术测试。恰恰相反，这只是语言测试而已，第一和第三部分你可能被问到说不了什么的问题，有什么关系？之后还有问题。千万别在你没话可说的情况下试图整出和完整答案，弄糊涂了考官会让你万劫不复。

All you need to do is say you don’t know and explain why and then wait for the next question. This may take a little practice. You want to build a set of phrases such as:

其实你也没必要说你不知道然后解释理由，你可以模仿下面的例子：

Q. What colour is your favourite room and why did you choose that colour?
A. I’m not sure what to say about that. It’s not a question I’ve ever thought about before. I suppose yellow is just my favourite colour and so I painted my room yellow?

8. Talk to a mirror拿个镜子

This is another strange sounding piece of advice, but it can be very practical – especially if you don’t have a speaking partner. The idea is that when you practise speaking, you should sit in front of a mirror and speak to yourself. It can work because:

这个建议听起来有点奇怪，不过真心实用，特别是在缺少陪练的时候。你可以站在镜子面前自言自语，这个方法超有效，原因如下：

Eye contact is extremely important in all parts of the test. As a former speaking examiner for other exams, I can promise you that examiners are influenced by candidates who make eye contact - even though they may not be aware of this. Typically, the candidate who makes good eye contact gets a more generous mark because they seem to be communicating better as body language is around 70% of all communication.

考试中眼神交流很重要，作为一个前任考官，我负责任地告诉你，就算他们没注意到，但是考生的眼神交流绝对会影响考官评分。懂得眼神交流的考生绝对能得到慷慨的分数大放送，理由就是他们占据整个交流70%的身体语言让他们的交流更流畅。

the other point is that, for most people, sitting and looking at themselves in a mirror is an uncomfortable experience. After that, the exam will seem easy!

还有一点，对大部分人来说，坐在镜子面前看着自己实在窘迫不安，过了这关，考试还不是小菜一碟？

9. Write your own questions写下你自己的问题

This is another activity that I suggest everyone should try at least once. You should of course practise with “real” exam questions too, but there is a lot to be learnt from writing the questions first and then trying to answer them. The way it works is that if you write the question yourself:

这个我建议每个考生至少尝试一次。当然你也是要做真题练习的喽。但是一开始写下自己的问题，然后再尝试回答，也会学到很多。

you are more likely to try and answer it properly and give a full answer because you understand what the question is asking – good practice

你会更愿意去给出完备的答案，因为你非常清楚，这个问题是想要问什么。

you learn to add details to your answers by thinking of more question words. So when you answer the question “Are you a student or do you have a job?”, you are more likely to say “I’m a student at Wuhan University and I have been studying there for the last 3 years” – adding information by thinking of the question “How long” even though you weren’t asked it.

你会打破脑袋想出更多的词汇来增加答案细节。所以呢，比如你要回答，”你是学生还是工作啦？“，你会说，哦，我是武汉大学三年级的学生。虽然问题中没问，但是你加上了念了多久这个信息。

10. Improve your coherence and fluency – easy as 1-2-3 0r 3-2-1 提高你的连贯性和流利度

This is another of my favourite classroom speaking activities. Ideally, you need one or two more people to practise this with, but you can do it by yourself. The idea is that you don’t just practise speaking for 2 minutes. Rather, you start off by speaking for 3 minutes about that topic, then you do the same thing for 2 minutes, then for 1 minute. In the perfect world, you would also speak to a different person each time.

这是也我最爱的练习方法之一。理想状态下，你需要和一到两个或者更多人一起练习，不过你自己一个人也做得到。你不仅仅说2分钟，而是3分钟，以后你再把同样的话说2分钟，然后1分钟。理想状况下，你可以每次对不同的人练习。

How does it work? The first time your answer is probably slightly incoherent and lacks fluency. The next time you speak though, you know what you want to say and, if you have listened to someone else speak, you now have more ideas. The result is that when you speak, you answer becomes more fluent and coherent. Then when you do it for 1 minute, your answer needs to become even more coherent because you now have lots of things to say but not very much time to say it.

这个方法为何有效呢？第一次你的答案可以不那么连贯，也不怎么流利。后一次，你知道你要说什么，如果你听过其他人的，你就有更多的想法啦。结果就是你的答案更加流利连贯。等到你花一分钟来说的时候，你的答案就更连贯啦，因为此刻你有好多好多话要说，而时间却不那么充沛了。

I should add that this activity works best if you have different people to speak to. It works because each time you speak to someone different, it becomes a different conversation – even if you are talking about the same thing.

如果有不同的练习对象，这项练习就会效果更好。每次你都跟不同的人练习，就等于练习了不同的对话，哪怕你只是谈论同一件事情。

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