 Hey there, Chris here from IELTS Advantage and in this lesson what we're going to look at is the one thing that you need to consider before booking your test. So if you're thinking of booking your test in the future, watch this video because it's going to help you avoid so many problems and I'm going to reveal to you during this video the one thing that you need to think about before booking your test. The reason why I'm making this video is I was talking to a student today and she has failed 11 times and I told her immediately, just stop booking the test. You are going to continue to fail until you fix this thing, until you think about this thing. And I talked to her about the reasons why she kept booking the test over and over and over and over again and I asked her just one simple question. Were you ready for the test? And she couldn't answer that question and it started to make me think about the reasons why people book the test and the one thing that they need to think about before booking the test and most people just don't do this. And speaking to her, she was in tears because she had spent thousands and thousands of dollars on test fees, on teachers. She was getting a lot of problems from her family who were putting pressure on her. She felt like a failure and she also talked about missing out on the opportunity to move to Canada and get the job that she wanted. So I'm sure that you have felt similar things to her or you might be thinking of these things in the future if you don't think about this one thing that you need to think about. So let's take it over to the board and I'll explain it in a little bit more detail. So when a student comes to me and tells me they failed the test, the first question I ask them is why did you book the test? And often they can't answer that question and then I try and break it down for them and I say okay, was your decision based on emotion or was it based on logic? Let's check out some of the common reasons why people book the test and think about whether they are based on emotion or logic. So common reason number one, my husband, my wife, my father, my mother, my brother, whoever told me that I should book the test or I have to get it done at some date or time in the future. And I booked it. Was that based on emotion or logic? Deadline. So the immigration department or the place where I'm applying for a job told me that I should need to get it done at this time, I had a deadline so I booked it. FOMO, fear of missing out. My friends were doing it, my auntie was doing it, my cousin was doing it, they were all moving to Australia or Canada and having a great life and I didn't want to miss out so I booked the test. Hope. I really knew that I was going to be lucky next time and I hoped that I would get the score that I need. Is that based on emotion or is it based on logic? Frustration. I hate this test. I have no idea what to do. There's so much confusing information out there. I have no idea what's going on. Let's just book the test so that I can end this frustration. Number six, exhaustion. I've been doing this for so long, looking at these boring textbooks, looking at these boring YouTube videos. I'm so exhausted. Let's just book the test. Number seven, the lure of a better life, the attraction of a better life. I see on Facebook all these people have an amazing time after they pass their IELTS test and they're living in this amazing country and earning all this money. I want that so I'm going to book the test. All of these are based on what? They're based on emotion. Basing any decision, especially a life-changing decision like whether to do the IELTS test or not, basing that on emotion is a terrible idea. We want to base it on logic and when we base it on logic, we ask ourselves one question. The one thing and the one thing only that you should be asking yourself is, am I ready for the test? That is a logical question with a logical answer. It will either be yes or no. If you are ready, you should book the test. If you're not ready, you shouldn't book the test. That sounds incredibly simple and straightforward and obvious, but when I speak to students, these are the reasons they give me, 99.999% give me these reasons. So if this is so obvious and so simple and so straightforward, why do students not do it? Well, they'll often ask the question, how will I know? I'm ready. I have no idea whether I will pass or not. Why are you telling me something that I can't answer? I can't answer this question. Well, you can. It's really, really simple. What do you need to do for listening and reading? Are you consistently getting the score you need in practice under exam conditions? So you get, let's say, at least three practice tests. Do them under exam conditions and DIY, do it yourself. You can check your scores, so if you need a seven and you are consistently getting a seven or above in listening and reading, you're ready for the test. If you're not, you're not ready, and you need to fix those little things that will get you up to the score that you need. So that's DIY. Do it yourself. You can check your own scores. You don't need anyone to help you with your listening and reading in terms of that. Speaking and writing, same thing. Are you consistently getting the score you need in practice under exam conditions? Consistently, not that you've got a band seven one time and you're magically going to do that on test day, that at least three or four times you've done both task one and task two under exam conditions and you've got the score that you need. But you need to find an expert for this, a real expert. Not somebody who calls themselves an expert, but somebody who has proven results and has the experience and the qualifications to look at your writing or listen to your speaking and say, yes, you are ready or no, you're not ready. In order to be ready, you need to do X, Y and Z. Again, incredibly simple, incredibly straightforward, but 99.99% of students just do not follow this advice. But if you do this one thing, then you are going to be ready for the test and you're not going to fail over and over and over again and save yourself so much time, so much stress, so much effort. So your next question is probably, I know that I'm not at that level yet. What can I do to get to that level? So you might be at a six or 6.5 and you get a seven or above and you just have no idea how to actually improve. So I'm going to do two things for you. One, I'll give you a free course or free fundamentals course that will show you the absolute fundamental principles of writing, speaking, listening and reading. You can check that out in the description. There's a link there. Just click below and you'll be able to instantly gain access to that for free and that will help you understand exactly what you need to do in order to move up and get the score that you need 100% for free. Or you might have some specific questions. You might know your weaknesses or you might just have no idea what to do and you have a question about that. Check out my email address below and send me an email. We read every single email, either myself or my team responds to every single email and we look forward to hearing from you. And in the comments below, have you based any of your decisions to book the test or anything related to IELTS in relation to emotion? It would be great to hear your stories and put them in the comments below. We reply to every single comment or if you have a question, put it in the comments below or if you just want to say hi or thank you or not tell us that the video is terrible, whatever. Just put it in the comments below and if you've enjoyed this video, this is totally free. All we ask is give it a like if you liked it or if you didn't like it, give it a dislike to let us know that you don't like it. Thanks very much guys and if you want more information about the IELTS test, check out our website IELTSAdvantages.com or if you want to watch more videos, here are a couple somewhere on the screen here. Thanks very much and see you again soon. Bye bye.