自疫情以来雅思口语视频考试被广泛运用，很多同学会问到底是视频测试好还是现场考试更好？本文就从雅思官方研究报告中来告诉同学怎么做选择。
首先视频考试有它的优缺点。优点是不需要当面沟通，一来避免近距离接触，继续做好防疫工作；二来，可以避免一些尴尬。有同学觉得现场见到考官，不知道怎么打招呼，应该是什么表情工作和姿势会比较恰当，视频考试可以减少这些困扰。
但是，也有同学表示视频考试削弱了面对面沟通的感觉，特别是很想表达自己想法时候会觉得距离很远，有一种心有余而力不足的感觉。
上面提到的优缺点都是同学真实的考试感受，多多少少是会影响考生考试状态和现场发挥。而我们参加考试最终目的是考取理想的分数，所以，各位同学还是得优先考虑方式对分数的影响。
我们都知道考试方式对分数的影响很重要，可是大多数人是无法评估这个影响的。考生可能也就经历一两场考试，哪怕是某些考官也不一定会经历非常多视频考试，他们更不会公开讨论这件事情。不过这个问题在一篇名为An investigation into double-marking methods: comparing live, audio and video rating of performance on the IELTS Speaking Test 的官方研究报告中得到解答。
这项研究比较了雅思考官在现场和两个非现场评分条件下使用音频和视频记录评估考生的口语表现时的得分。总共六名经过培训的雅思考官在现场，音频和视频评级条件下评估了36名应试者的表现。在所有评分模式中，要求考官记录为什么要授予他们在每个分析类别中获得的分数。根据考生表现出的积极和消极特征的数量对评论进行了定量分析。
下面是报告中考官对于视频测试里考生的描述。
[...] actually, just there, his eyes went up, and so that’s...it’s not struggling to find the words, I think he’s just...it’s trying to get content, he’s processing things. (S05, Examiner D, Part 3, Video)
Some disfluency here, and you can tell from her face it’s because she doesn’t really understand ‘celebrations’, so as you’re seeing her face and her facial expressions, it’s showing that it’s a lack of comprehension rather than thinking of the ideas. (S04, Examiner E, Part 3, Video)
Some hesitation there, but I think it was because she couldn’t think of the word she wanted, so she paraphrased quite well to get the message across in the end. (S04, Examiner E, Part 3, Video)
Now, see, she’s very willing to give an extended turn, but...yeah, it’s very basic in terms of language, grammatical structures, nearly every word, well, every sentence had a mistake, but she communicated. There were pauses, but again, you could see her eyes searching, she was searching for a word, actually, rather than searching for the content, but yeah, a very willing participant. (S29, Examiner F, Part 3, Video)
I think that she was smiling, she understood it, it wasn’t a look of confusion, she understood the question. (S09, Examiner F, Part 3, Video)
She hasn’t understood from the first part of that. Yes, I mean, that...I heard on the audio that she didn’t understand this bit, but what I didn’t get was that she didn’t understand the question two turns before. (S09, Examiner F, Part 3, Video)
So she doesn’t understand the question at all, here, and she’s just giving one- word answers and her face is saying it all. You can see that she really doesn’t understand, but she’s not asking the examiner to explain, she’s just saying “no” so there’s obviously no fluency there because she just doesn’t understand it. (S09, Examiner E, Part 3, Video)
Her body language is saying, “I don’t know what I’m talking about!” Seeing her on the video, she looks quite uncomfortable and it’s clear that she doesn’t understand a lot of the questions. (S09, Examiner E, Part 3, Video)
从上述考官反馈看，视频方式中每个考官都会观察、打量、分析屏幕里考生的表情和状态。这非常好理解：如果换做我们看对面考官，我们也会好奇他在什么地方，观察他的表情，猜测他心情如何。
说回到上面考官的评论，给我们最重要的信息是：除了考试时候要发问和打分，考官的注意力不会100%放在考生个别发音，语法，或词汇错误上。很多我们常说的“好的考官”甚至会因为看到考生的表情而关心考生。比如：
Now, see, she’s very willing to give an extended turn, but...yeah, it’s very basic in terms of language, grammatical structures, nearly every word, well, every sentence had a mistake, but she communicated. There were pauses, but again, you could see her eyes searching, she was searching for a word, actually, rather than searching for the content, but yeah, a very willing participant. (S29, Examiner F, Part 3, Video)
[...] actually, just there, his eyes went up, and so that’s...it’s not struggling to find the words, I think he’s just...it’s trying to get content, he’s processing things.
这里需要解释的是，这里考官说"it’s not struggling to find the words"的意思是说这个考官允许考生碰到难题时稍做思考（当然不能时间太长），只要不是语言表达困难或障碍，思考问题是不扣分的。
总的来说，视频测试虽然无法比拟当面考试的真实感，但毕竟是可以见到对方的。这给远程交流增加了很多真实的因素，而这些因素也对分数有帮助。
研究结果表明：视频打分和现场面对面打分差不并不大。
而在这项研究中，除了视频和现场打分，另外一种打分方式是纯音频。但是从报告看，纯音频对考生的劣势非常明显。
从上述内容可以看出，纯音频方式中考官无法通过表情肢体动作获取信息从而判断考生的状态，所以容易把有些跟内容有关而和语言表达无关的犹豫（hesitation）认定为低分。这个结论对于复议的同学尤为重要。复议前我们内心肯定充满期待，但复议时候是完全通过音频的。所以复议结果是否如我们所愿，答案可能会让人失望。
显而易见，不论视频方式还是现场测试，都比音频测试对考生要有利。
最后的最后
备考小建议：
根据的口语题库，结合老师分享的表达技巧，有计划有目标地进行练习；
每天都要练口语，不是写，不是看，是大声说，开口练习非常非常重要；
考试没有捷径，保持良好心态，用实力赢取高分！
