First time I scored 6.5 in speaking.I was really stupid to read the book for IELTS speaking by MAT clark who was ex IELTs examiner. He focused on remembering proper structures,this made me really nervous as I tried to learn those structures to make the answers coherent and cohesive in unnatural way. As a result I was nervous in exams& giving unclear answers.In the second test I referred to ,a classical way to score higher marks in IELTS.He focuses on appearing the speaking and ielts both in a very natural way.I followed his strategies and without remember any structures or answers I scored 8.5 in speaking section.I would recommend you to follow all the strategies,atleast those which are suitable for you and use it in exams. My examiner was really impressed by speaking interview.
remember the key is speaking in natural way and giving clear and logically correct and sensible answers.

IELTS Academic