Headset, microphone and a quiet place to practise

Speaking tasks are recorded and scored by software, so the recording is all that gets judged. A microphone that pops on every "p", a fan humming behind you, or a laptop that picks up the whole kitchen can make your practice sound worse than your English really is. The fix takes about ten minutes, and you only need to do it once.

Choose a headset that matches the real thing

Find out what equipment you will use on the day. If it is supplied, you cannot choose it, but you can practise with something similar so that the real thing feels familiar. For most people that means a headset with the microphone on a short arm, not a laptop's built-in microphone or a pair of earbuds. The short arm keeps the microphone at the same distance from your mouth even when you lean towards the screen.

Wireless earbuds are convenient, but when their microphone is switched on they often drop to a lower sound quality, and the connection can lag. For practice, a wired headset avoids both problems.

Place the microphone at the side of your mouth, about two fingers' width away. Straight in front of your lips it catches every puff of breath.

A ten-minute setup test

Do this once, in the room where you normally practise.

1. One minute: plug in the headset, then open your computer's sound settings and choose it for input as well as output. It is easy to record from the built-in microphone without noticing. Set the volume to something comfortable.
2. Two minutes: record fifteen seconds of silence and play it back. Listen for hum, fan noise, traffic and the fridge. Fix what you can: close the window, switch off the fan, change room.
3. Three minutes: read the three sentences below at the volume you would use in a test, then play them back through the same headset.
4. Two minutes: use the list after the sentences to fix what you heard, then record again to check.
5. Two minutes: check your chair, the screen height, your connection and your notifications.

These sentences are an illustrative sound check. The first has hard p and b sounds, which show up as pops. The second is full of s sounds, which show up as hiss. The third has numbers and "th" sounds, which are easy to mumble.

Expect to be surprised by how your own voice sounds on the first playback. Everyone is. Listen for these problems:

• Pops on p and b: move the microphone off to the side of your mouth, or a little further away.
• A thin or very quiet voice: bring the microphone a finger's width closer, and check that you are not recording from the laptop's own microphone.
• Crackle on louder words: the microphone is too close, or you are too loud. Move back and speak more calmly.
• A steady hum between sentences: something in the room is making it. Fans, fridges and chargers are the usual suspects.
• A hollow, echoing sound: the room is bare. Curtains, cushions and a sofa help. A wardrobe full of coats makes a surprisingly good recording booth, and the coats do not mind.

Before each later session, a one-minute version is enough: record one sentence, play it back, and carry on if it sounds clean. It saves you discovering halfway through a practice test that you have been using the wrong microphone.

Noise, connection and posture

Choose the quietest room at the quietest time and close the door. Now and then, practise with a little noise on purpose, because in a test room other people may be speaking at the same time as you. A radio talking quietly in another room, for one session a week, teaches you to ignore it.

For online practice, a stable connection matters more than a fast one. Sit near the router or use a cable, close other tabs, and ask the household to pause downloads and video during your session. If the connection drops mid-attempt, do not read that attempt's score as a measure of your English.

Sit upright with both feet on the floor and the screen at eye level. It helps you breathe, and breathing helps your voice.

Practising speaking in a shared home

Clear matters. Loud does not. With the microphone near your mouth, a normal conversational voice is enough, and shouting only distorts the recording. Imagine you are talking to someone across a small table, and shape your consonants and word endings a little more than usual.

A few ways to keep the peace:

• Agree a fixed speaking slot with the people you live with, ideally when someone is out, and ask for no loud calls during it.
• Use a room with a door. A bedroom with a duvet beats a kitchen.
• Warn people what it will sound like: the same sentence, repeated many times. That is the practice, not a problem.
• On days when you cannot make any noise, do the silent parts: mark the pauses in a passage, or plan Describe Image answers on paper.

Do the ten-minute test now, then record one Read Aloud passage in the practice tests on this site and listen back with your eyes closed. Next, build a fifteen-minute daily speaking routine around it.