How to create a favorable impression on your examiner and get a better score
You should not be surprised when I tell you that examiners listen for different things at different times during the interview. Most of the time, they are listening for evidence to help them decide between two bands or to confirm a decision they may have already made.
Thus, the impression you create in the first part will have some bearing on the kinds of things that the examiner listens for in the later parts.
If you create a good impression, the examiner will be looking for more evidence to confirm that good impression. Or, if they are undecided between two bands, they may be looking for evidence that you deserve a higher band rather than a lower band.
Conversely, if you create a bad impression, he/she will be looking for further negative signs to confirm that bad impression or, if they are undecided between two bands, they may listen more for speech that is characteristic of the lower band rather than the higher one.
Another way to look at it is that sometimes an examiner tends to pay more attention to the positive aspects of your speech, and at other times he/she tends to pay more attention to the negative aspects.
Obviously, you would prefer the former. So here are a few things that you can do to help create good impression in the mind of the examiner.
If you study at an English-medium educational institution, have lived in an English-speaking country, or use English as part of your job, you should find an opportunity to say so. This information may make the examiner suspect that you have a good level of English, and they will look for evidence to support that suspicion. Of course, you will have to provide it, and if you don't, you certainly won't get a good score. But the point remains: it's better if the examiner is listening for signs of good English rather than signs of poor English.
Always try your best to give full, thoughtful and interesting questions. It will create the impression in the examiner's mind that you are trying your best even though you might find some questions in Part 1 too easy or uninteresting. On the other hand, if you give very short answers, you might create an impression that you aren't really trying. In that case, the examiner may not be interested in trying to help you to produce your best.
Avoid giving memorized responses. If the examiner thinks you are operating in 'program mode', they may think you lack real conversation skills, and they will look for ways to confirm this suspicion. In particular, if you avoid addressing questions directly or are unable to appropriately develop your response to them (because you are just giving your rehearsed answers) this will negatively impact on your Fluency and Coherence score. IELTS is primarily a test of speaking ability or skill, not of how many sentences you have memorized.
Remember, even though IELTS examiners are well-trained professionals, they are still humans (which is in fact one of the advantages that IELTS has over other tests), and they will naturally focus on some aspects of speech more than others. You should recognize this fact and use it to your advantage.
