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I decided to prepare for IELTS exam. I've been practicing for 1 to 2 hours a day on weekdays and 4 hours a day on weekends but I still hardly notice any significant improvements. I've been doing this for 2 weeks now. This frustrating result makes me think that maybe I need more appropriate drills to improve on my weaknesses. Just like in swimming, you don't get any significant improvements by practice alone; you have to pinpoint your weakness and come up with a specific drill to address it.

In my frustration, I tried to record myself when answering a question that is normally asked in IELTS speaking test but this time, using my native language. The result? The same disappointing talk. I could hardly make a good list of things to discuss about the subject and I too often spend more time thinking and remembering than speaking. My fluency, even in my own language, was really poor just because of the fact that I can't provide a good amount of ideas about the topic. My problem is, I don't have much opinions on too many things. Let alone coming up with precise and descriptive adjectives.

Given my current situation, what's the best way to deal with my weakness?

supertonsky
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    You can use Demosthenes method. – Lucian Sava Jun 18 '17 at 10:07
  • The answer, of course, is to make up stuff and lie about your opinions ("I think cigarettes are good"), facts ("I read online that they can help cure some types of cancer"), and everything. Even if what you say is specious (and your position factually untenable), so long as you can keep talking about it, you'll pass the exam. They can't fail you just because you're being deliberately asinine. –  Jun 18 '17 at 12:58
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about learning English. – Ben Kovitz Jun 18 '17 at 15:15
  • @BenKovitz, why do you think so? Isn't preparing for IELTS speaking a way to learn English? – supertonsky Jun 18 '17 at 16:28
  • @supertonsky Hmmmm, I suppose it could be, if you made it into an English-learning exercise. From the question, though, I gathered that the OP's problem is about spontaneously coming up with things to say about an unfamiliar topic, not how to communicate them in English. There is an improv game called "Expert" that, with some practice, will make you good at generating material about stuff you know nothing about, at conversational speed, but it doesn't seem very specific to English. – Ben Kovitz Jun 18 '17 at 17:44

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