What speaking ability does a score of IELTS Band 8 represent?
Watch this Speaking test sample, where Khush from India talks about 'Famous people'. Here's why this performance was given a Band 8:
This test taker speaks fluently and is able to give quite long and detailed responses without any loss of coherence. Hesitation is usually content-related and only occasionally to search for language.
She uses fillers (you know; I mean) to cover this. Linking words and markers are used very naturally (that’s not the case; I’m fine with that).
Her vocabulary resource is wide and it allows her to talk about a range of topics with some flexibility and precision.
There are plenty of examples of stylistically appropriate language (political pressure; into corruption; today’s world; offensive; promote the product; a money-making business) with only occasional inaccuracies (do a meeting; in a right/wrong manner).
She uses a wide range of structures with a high level of accuracy. She makes only occasional minor errors. She uses pronunciation well to reinforce meaning, with rhythm, stress and intonation all used appropriately (at times I do like). There are only occasional lapses in word stress and in the formation of ‘th’.
