 Okay, so this is a very special video that I'm going to make today with one of my students who I'm very, very proud of. Proud of all my students, but even more proud of Crystal because she did the test many, many, many times before she came to me and she showed huge determination to get the score that she needed. So I thought we'd make this video today just for some of you who might be struggling, might have failed the test a few times just to give you some inspiration, some motivation to keep going. So Crystal, thank you very much for doing this today. And can you just give some background information about you so just people can get to know you a little bit? Yeah, sure. Well, I'm working in Hong Kong as a nurse for a government. And recently I'd like to move to a foreign country and work abroad with my husband. So I need to take the IOs. So the reason why I chose IOs but not other occupational English test because it applies to many Western countries, unlike the occupation English test, which is specific to say Australia or Canada. So if I can pass the IOs get the score I need, then I don't need to take two or three tests, which is quite advantageous. So I started, I started to study about the materials of IOs since last year. It was a long time ago. So I first began with some online material. And then I attempt IOs and I, I think I got a six overall, and which is, which is far from what I need. And then I enrolled in a face-to-face course. It was a regular course that includes speaking, listening, writing, and everything. But after course I still couldn't get the score I need. And then I found the, I found the five day challenge. And I was amazed by how simple is the idea. And then I determined to enroll into the course. And can you tell people how many times you did the test before you got the score that you needed? Well, I'm sure I have, I have did the test with British Council for seven times because this is record online. And then two or three times with IDP. So I have experienced eight or nine times of failure. So I'm actually quite experienced in taking IOs. Yeah, you're an IOs expert now. And can you tell people what scores you got on your last attempt? My last attempt I got an overall eight with nine in listening, eight in reading, and then both seven in writing and speaking. Yeah, excellent. And we were really happy that you got that score because you didn't get that score first time. And we were kind of like, why is this we couldn't figure out why and you couldn't get it. But we figured it out. And we helped you get the score that you needed. So if you were to give someone some advice or someone in a similar situation to you, someone who wants to move to a different country and has maybe done the test a few times and failed, what advice would you give them? Well, from my experience, I think you really need to know your strengths and weaknesses. So like me, I know I have no problem with listening and reading. Then I focus on writing and speaking. So for writing, I think the writing correction service is really good. And once you submit your essay, you know, your weakness is in past achievement or grammar vocabulary, and then you focus in correcting it. For my case, sometimes I misunderstand the question. So I really need to understand exactly what to answer. And then I also improve my grammar and minimize my mistakes. And also, I try to remember as many as synonyms and top peg relative vocabulary so that you can achieve seven in every criteria. Oh, Crystal, I think we've we've lost you there. Hopefully you'll come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're back. Okay, cool. So that's great advice for for writing anything for speaking, because I know that we worked a lot on your speaking. And you know a lot about the speaking test. But what would you suggest to someone who is maybe where you were, you were getting 6.5 for speaking, and you needed to seven? What advice would you give someone there? Yes. Well, actually, there is a real gap between 6.5 and seven. So if you need a seven in speaking, you really need to work on every aspect so that you achieve like pronunciation seven, and grammar seven, and then you can get over seven. So for my case, I, I studied all the materials in the course in Greece's course. And so I am familiarized with the format. And I know, like the content is not important. And so that I can focus on and keep talking and elaborating my answer. And but that is not not enough. That is actually the basic. You really need to speak and talk if you want to improve, because listening or reading is not equivalent to speaking. So what you need is to really speak. So previously I talked to speaking partner, but then he became quite busy. And so we can't talk really frequently. And then I, I enrolled in other other plan and I talked to a native English speaker every day, 30 minutes during my lunchtime. So, but, but it, it, it takes time. So the miracle will not happen in a day. But as you long as you keep talking, you try to mimic their intonation and your, their word stress. And they try, you try to speed in a more native way. And you, you learn some phrasal verbs and idioms from them. And keep, keep, keep improving your grammar. Because I found that I made a lot of mistakes on tenses and sometimes the agreements on nouns and verbs. And just do your best. And one day I believe you'll be there. I mean, I mean, just, just listening to you, your grammar is excellent, but you're still, you still are making little small mistakes. And I think that's something that people need to realize that in order to get a band seven for speaking, your grammar doesn't need to be perfect. Your vocabulary doesn't need to be perfect. Your fluency doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be at the standard where it needs to be. As I think people put a lot of pressure on themselves in the speaking test that, you know, every sentence needs to be exactly correct when that really doesn't help you because you put yourself under too much pressure and then that can affect your fluency, affect your confidence and then, you know, everything can kind of spin out of control. Would you agree with that? Yeah, yeah. So see, my English is not perfect, but I think I can communicate with, with native English speakers like you and you gave me so much confidence. So, so just, just keep talking and do it. I mean, that's really, really good advice. And you talked about that you used a different service than mine to find a native English speaker so that you could talk to them every, every day. What was that? Just if anybody wanted to use that, or do you have a range of different services that you tried? Okay. Well, actually, so remember you posted on your, your wall of Facebook, and you asked if anyone use other online resources that is useful. And so one of our, our buddies talked about Cambly, the AMBLY, and well, it provides a platform to talk with a native English speaker in case if you don't have anyone to talk with. Yeah, yeah, I've heard of Cambly before and I've heard it's really good. I know there's a number of different things, but one of the, the big requests that we get from people is just like, I live in a non-English speaking country. Where do I find people to talk to? So there are so many different resources these days that you can find on the internet. But yeah, that, that's great advice. So Crystal, you got a, was it a perfect band line in listening and I listening? So people will probably be wanting me to ask you any tips for listening because if you're getting a nine, you're obviously doing something right. So anything that you could suggest to people for listening? Well, in my usual time, I used to switch to English channel. So I, I haven't listened to Cantonese news for a long time since I started preparing for IELTS. So I try to listen to everything and the TV channel English. And one tips during the test is to write down what you listen, but without changing any words. So if you hear there is S at the end, remember to put an S. So just write down exactly what you hear in the test. And actually, I think British council's listening is, is more straightforward because, so this time when I got a nine in the listening, I found that I only need to fill in sometimes one or the maximum three words in filling the blanks, which is quite easy compared to IDP. I'm sorry. I'm comparing the two tests because you know, I'm quite experienced. Yeah, I don't have any experience with IDP. I've only worked for the British council. So you would know more about that than me, to be honest. Yeah, it's okay. And, and so if you have more vocabulary in your mind, and then it'll be easier for you, because I think some people are struggling with listening because they haven't heard of the vocabulary before. Yeah. So we expand your vocabulary and keep listening to English. And yeah, just keep practicing and remember to check your grammar at the end. Excellent. Good advice. A lot of people think that they have a listening problem or a reading problem, when in reality they have a vocabulary problem. Because a lot of the answers to the reading questions and the listening questions will be synonyms or require you to know the meaning of the word. So vocabulary is a huge part of preparing for the reading test, listening test, speaking test, writing test. It's all a lot about vocabulary. So if you were to give people some quick advice about how to improve the vocabulary, what would you suggest? Well, I think vocabulary cannot be improved suddenly magically. So, so you pay attention to the words that you don't know in your real life. And then you check everywhere you don't know. And if there is some, some interesting word or some useful word, just drop it down. So for writing. So actually, I almost write an essay every day. And after I compare with the model essay you gave it to me. And then I learned the new vocabularies from your essay. And then I will categorize it and write the, write the synonyms together in a Google document. And then one day when I think, when I have more synonyms to the same word, and then I search it, and then I can refresh my memory. Excellent. You should send me that Google document. I'll be interested to see all of the different words and everything that you picked up. I'll be really interested to see. So Crystal, thank you very much for sharing that information. That's great. Just what happens now in your future now? What, what difference is I also going to make to your future now? Well, after I got the score I need, and I plan to start my registration in, in several countries to see which one was first, and then I will work abroad. So in the meantime, I will start my study in Canada the next year. And I will study a bridging course that helped me to get my nursing license. So basically, I'm one step forward. And I'm quite relaxed for a few days because I don't need to focus on writing and listening anymore. You never have to worry about silly testing. This is great. And you gave me some excellent nursing advice about my son, which is really nice of you too. So there we go. Thank you very much, Crystal. Thank you. That should be of great help to a lot of people. And if you need anything in the future, just let me know. Yeah, sure, sure. Hope it can help other people as well. Thank you for your, thank you for your hard work in helping other people. Thank you very much, Crystal. See you again. Bye-bye.