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?
