9 IELTS Speaking Mistakes That Keep You at Band 6.5

Priya Sharma

Priya Sharma writes English learning guides for ESL students. Pune-based language enthusiast.

Visual representation of the voice · not a photographic portrait

Quick answer: Most candidates stuck at band 6.5 are losing fluency marks, not vocabulary marks. The three habits that cost the most are memorising answers, giving one-line replies in Part 1, and running out of things to say after 40 seconds in Part 2. Recording yourself and cutting every pause longer than two seconds is the fastest fix available.↗ Share on X

If your speaking score keeps landing on 6 or 6.5 while your reading and listening go up, the cause is almost never your vocabulary. It is usually one of nine habits: memorising answers, treating Part 1 like a job interview, running out of things to say in Part 2, self-correcting every third word, using "big" words in the wrong place, speaking in one flat tone, answering Part 3 with examples instead of reasons, asking the examiner for help the wrong way, and practising alone without ever recording yourself. Fix the top three and most people move half a band. Here is each one, why it costs you marks, and what to do instead.

How is the speaking test actually scored?

READ ALSOPick the Right English Tense for Daily Life Easily →Use Collocations to Get Higher IELTS Writing Scores Easily →Smart Choices: Picking Ideal IELTS Reading Passages for Practice →

You are marked on four things, each worth the same amount:

Notice what is not on that list: your opinion, your accent, and how clever your ideas are. You can say something completely ordinary and still score band 8, as long as you say it clearly, at length, and with control.

The test itself is short: about 11 to 14 minutes, in three parts. Part 1 is simple questions about you. Part 2 is the long turn, where you get a card, one minute to prepare, and one to two minutes to talk. Part 3 is a discussion of broader questions linked to the Part 2 topic.

Mistake 1: memorising full answers

Examiners hear memorised answers every day, and they are easy to spot: the rhythm changes, your eyes go up, and the language is suddenly two bands above the rest of your speech. Worse, a memorised answer rarely fits the exact question, so you lose marks for relevance as well.

What to do instead: memorise structures, not sentences. Learn how to buy yourself two seconds ("That's an interesting one, I'd say...") and how to extend an answer, then let the content be improvised. Structure is legal. Scripts are not.

Mistake 2: giving one-line answers in Part 1

READ ALSOHow to Self-Assess Your IELTS Speaking Score Using the Official Rubric →How to Use Idioms Correctly in IELTS Speaking for Higher Scores →Clear steps to write IELTS essays with perfect flow →

"Do you like cooking?" — "Yes, I do." That is an accurate sentence and a wasted 15 seconds. Part 1 is where you prove you can produce language without effort, and the examiner cannot give you credit for words you did not say.

Use the same three-step shape every time:

1. Answer directly: "Yes, quite a lot, actually."

2. Reason why: "It's the only part of my day that isn't on a screen."

3. Detail or contrast: "Though on weekdays I usually just reheat whatever I cooked on Sunday."

Three sentences, roughly 20 to 30 seconds. That is the target for every Part 1 question. Do not go to a minute — that is too long here, and the examiner will cut you off.

Mistake 3: running dry after 40 seconds in Part 2

The card asks you to talk for one to two minutes. Most people who lose marks here stop at 40 seconds, look up, and wait. The silence is what gets marked down, not the missing content.

The fix is in the one minute of preparation time, and it is not about writing sentences. Write four or five single words on the paper, one per bullet on the card, plus one extra word for "why it mattered". Then talk to the words.

If you finish the bullets and there is still time, use these three escape routes, in this order:

1. Say what it was like before ("I'd never done anything like that until...").

2. Say what someone else thought ("My brother said I was mad").

3. Say what it changed ("Now I do it every winter").

Practise with a timer until you can reach 1 minute 45 seconds on almost any card. Being cut off by the examiner at two minutes is a good sign, not a bad one.

Mistake 4: correcting yourself constantly

"I go — I went — I have gone there last year." Every repair breaks your fluency, and the examiner hears three attempts instead of one sentence. A single small grammar slip costs almost nothing. Three restarts cost you fluency marks on every sentence you touch.

New rule: if you notice a mistake after the sentence has finished, leave it. Only correct yourself when the meaning is genuinely wrong — for example, if you said the opposite of what you meant.

Mistake 5: reaching for rare words to sound advanced

Lexical resource does not mean unusual words. It means the right word, used naturally, plus the ability to work around a word you cannot remember. Dropping "ubiquitous" into a chat about your hometown sounds rehearsed and often lands in the wrong collocation.

Two things actually move this criterion:

• Collocation: "heavy traffic", "make a decision", "close friend". Getting these right reads as natural English far more than long words do.
• Paraphrase: when the word is gone, say "the thing you use to..." and keep talking. That is a band 7 skill. Freezing in silence is not.

Mistake 6: speaking in one flat line

Pronunciation marks are mostly about being easy to follow, and that comes from stress and pausing, not from sounding British or American. Keep your accent. Change two things: stress the content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and pause between ideas rather than in the middle of them.

Try this out loud: "I lived there for three years, but I never learned the language." Hit the two stressed words hard. That single habit makes speech sound controlled even when the grammar is imperfect.

Mistake 7: answering Part 3 with a story

Part 3 questions are abstract: "Why do people in cities move house more often?" Many candidates answer with a personal story about their cousin. That is a Part 1 answer, and in Part 3 it reads as avoiding the question.

Part 3 wants reasons, comparisons, and speculation. Use this shape:

1. State a position: "I think it comes down to work more than anything."

2. Give the reason: "City jobs change faster, and the commute decides where you live."

3. Add a limit or the other side: "Although for families with school-age children, that's less true."

The phrase "although" and the phrase "it depends on" are worth more marks than any rare noun, because they show you can handle complex ideas.

Mistake 8: saying "sorry, I don't understand"

You are allowed to ask for repetition in Part 1 and Part 3, and it does not cost you marks if you do it in English and do it once. What costs marks is going silent, or guessing at a question you did not hear and answering something else.

Ask properly: "Sorry, do you mean X or Y?" or "Could you repeat that, please?" In Part 2, though, you cannot ask about the card, so read all the bullets during your preparation minute.

Mistake 9: practising without recording yourself

You cannot hear your own pauses while you are speaking. Recording is the only cheap way to find them.

A 20-minute daily routine that works without a partner:

1. Pick one Part 2 card. Prepare for 60 seconds, record for 2 minutes.

2. Listen back once with a pen. Mark every silence longer than 2 seconds and every restart.

3. Record the same card again, aiming only to cut those two things. Do not change the content.

4. Finish with three Part 3 questions on the same topic, 45 seconds each.

Two weeks of that does more than a month of reading vocabulary lists, because it attacks fluency, which is the criterion most 6.5 candidates are actually losing.

Your next step this week

Tonight, record yourself answering three Part 1 questions about your job or studies, then count how many answers were shorter than three sentences. If more than one was, that is your first fix, and it is the fastest half-band available to you.

Then book the same 20 minutes for the next seven days and work through one Part 2 card a day. Bring the recordings to a teacher or a study partner in week two — by then you will know exactly which of the nine mistakes is yours, and the feedback will be about your real gap instead of general advice.

FAQ

Does my accent lower my speaking score?

No. Pronunciation is marked on how easy you are to understand, not on sounding British or American. What matters is stressing the important words and pausing between ideas rather than in the middle of a sentence. A strong accent with clear stress scores better than a neutral accent delivered in a flat line.

Can I ask the examiner to repeat a question?

Yes, in Part 1 and Part 3, and it does not cost you marks if you ask once and ask in English, for example "Could you repeat that, please?" What does cost marks is going silent or answering a different question because you guessed. In Part 2 you cannot ask about the card, so read all the bullets during your preparation minute.

How long should a Part 2 answer be?

Aim for at least 1 minute 45 seconds out of the two minutes allowed. Being stopped by the examiner at the two-minute mark is a good sign. Stopping at 40 seconds and waiting in silence is what pulls the fluency score down.