Why He Is Stuck at Band 6 (Real IELTS Feedback)

You’ve been practicing for weeks. You have a clear story to tell. You know your grammar well enough. And yet, something keeps pulling your score back to a Band 6.

The problem is often hiding in plain sight — not in your grammar, and not in your fluency. It’s in your word choices. Specifically, the adjectives and collocations you reach for when you’re under pressure. In this guide, I’m going to break down real feedback I gave to Ankit, a Band 6 speaker from Nepal aiming for a 7.5, and show you exactly what’s keeping you stuck and how to fix it fast.

The Real Answer: Ankit’s Part 2 Response

Ankit used the SpeakPrac app to record his answer to an IELTS Speaking Part 2 question. Here is an edited transcript of what he said:

“But today I would like to talk about the time when I was traveling to Mustang with my friends. While traveling we had reached Baglong and there was — we saw the news that the snowing was really high. And so we had to change the plan and stay at Pohora… The coldness was also really high, so we planned to stay at Pohora… it was really fun.”

On the surface, this sounds like a reasonable answer. Ankit has a clear narrative. He explains the original plan, the problem, and the resolution. That structure deserves credit. But one phrase type — repeated multiple times — signals to any examiner that he is translating directly from his native language rather than thinking in English.

Let’s go through each of the four criteria.

Fluency & Coherence: The Good and the Problem

The good news: Ankit has strong coherence. He follows a logical structure:

• Original plan → Problem → Solution → Reflection

That narrative arc is exactly what examiners want to see in Part 2. It keeps the listener engaged and shows organised thinking.

The issue: His rhythm is broken by constant “and… and… and…” fillers throughout the response. This start-stop pattern is exhausting for the listener and directly hurts his Fluency score. Every time a speaker leans on “and” as a bridge, they signal they haven’t yet prepared what comes next — which is the definition of low fluency.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy: Two Errors That Cap the Score

There are two specific grammar mistakes that are holding Ankit at Band 6.

1. Incorrect Tense

❌ “While traveling, we have reached Baglong.”

This should be either the simple past or the past perfect:

✅ “While traveling, we reached Baglong.” ✅ “While traveling, we had reached Baglong before hearing the news.”

At Band 7.5, this type of tense error should be extremely rare — not a pattern.

2. Subject-Verb Agreement

❌ “People around me is really important.”

People is a plural noun. The correct form is:

✅ “People around me are really important.”

Subject-verb agreement is a foundational skill. While one slip is forgiven, patterns like this tell the examiner your grammar hasn’t been fully internalised.

Pronunciation: How Hesitations Create a Chain Reaction

Here is something most test-takers don’t realise: hesitation doesn’t just hurt your fluency score — it hurts your pronunciation score too.

When you pause frequently and say “and… and…” as a crutch, you end up pronouncing each word in isolation. There is no blending, no linking, no connected speech. It sounds choppy:

❌ “Usually… people… think… that… traveling… to new places… is… really important.”

Compare that to a natural, flowing delivery where words blend into phrases:

✅ “Usually, people think that traveling to new places is really important.”

To improve your pronunciation score, you need to stop treating sentences as a list of individual words and start delivering them as chunks of language.

Lexical Resource: The Real Bottleneck (And the Fastest Fix)

This is where I want to spend the most time, because vocabulary is the single biggest reason Ankit is stuck at Band 6.

The “Really” Trap

Count how many times Ankit used the word really in his response:

• “The snowing was really high.”
• “The coldness was really high.”
• “It was really fun.”

Using really as your only intensifier is a red flag for examiners. It signals a limited Lexical Resource — that you don’t have access to more precise, descriptive language. It’s the vocabulary equivalent of drawing with only one colour.

The Collocation Problem

A collocation is a pair or group of words that naturally belong together in English. Native speakers and high-band candidates don’t construct sentences word-by-word — they pull from a library of ready-made phrases.

Here is what Ankit said versus what a Band 7.5+ speaker would say:

Do you see the pattern? Ankit isn’t wrong, exactly — you can understand him — but his phrasing sounds like it was assembled word-by-word rather than produced naturally. Examiners hear this immediately.

A Band 9 Sample Using the Same Ideas

Here is how I would express Ankit’s story using natural collocations, without changing any of his actual content:

“Our original itinerary was ambitious — we planned to trek through Upper Mustang. But upon reaching Baglum, we hit a major snag. The region had been struck by unexpected heavy snowfall, and locals warned us the trails were unsafe. Instead of pushing forward, we pivoted and rerouted to Pokhara. In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise. We traded stress for time together.”

Notice the phrases: original itinerary, hit a major snag, heavy snowfall, pivoted, blessing in disguise. None of these are unusual or advanced — they are just natural. That naturalness is what separates a Band 6 from a Band 7.5.

How to Fix Your Collocation Problem

The good news? Collocations are learnable, and improving them is the fastest route to a higher band score. Here is exactly what I recommend:

Step 1: Stop Using “Really”

Replace really with precise intensifiers and descriptive adjectives. Instead of really good, say exceptional, outstanding, or remarkable. Instead of really bad, say dreadful, disastrous, or appalling.

Step 2: Audit Your Weak Words

Go back through your past recorded practice answers. Find every time you used a vague word like good, bad, big, nice, cold, or fun. These are your “weak vocabulary slots.”

Step 3: Replace with Collocations

For each weak word, find the natural collocation that fits the context. Cold weather → freezing temperatures or bitter cold. Big problem → major setback or significant challenge.

Step 4: Use the SpeakPrac App

When you practice with the SpeakPrac app, you get both your original transcript and an improved version showing the collocations you should have used. This makes the feedback loop immediate and targeted — you can see exactly which phrases need upgrading.

The Key Takeaways

To move from Band 6 to Band 7.5, Ankit — and anyone in the same position — needs to act on these four points:

1. Stop saying really. It’s a crutch that signals a narrow vocabulary range.
2. Stop using generic words like good, bad, fun, cold, or high to describe complex situations.
3. Audit your past recordings. Find your weakest adjectives and nouns.
4. Replace them with precise collocations. Coldness becomes freezing temperatures. Snowing really high becomes heavy snowfall. These upgrades are not complicated — they just need to be learned deliberately.

The examiner isn’t looking for a perfect accent or an exotic vocabulary. They’re listening for naturalness — the sense that you are a fluent user of English, not someone assembling sentences word by word from another language. Collocations are your proof of that naturalness.

Start there, and your score will follow.