 You've just found the ultimate IELTS preparation resource. This is the longest, most detailed, most comprehensive IELTS preparation course on YouTube. It's going to help you be successful by giving you real Band 8 and 9 samples, free practice tests, and complete courses on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. So IELTS success is just around the corner for you. All you have to do is watch this video and be successful. In this video I'm going to share with you 100 real Band 7, 8 and 9 essays. These essays have been marked by real X IELTS examiners and the students that wrote them all went on to get either a Band 7, 8 or 9 in the real test. But our goal is not to just give you a bunch of essays, our goal is to help you improve your writing score. So on top of giving you these essays, what we're going to do is do two more things that are going to help you improve your writing scores using these essays. So we're going to first show you what not to do when using these sample essays. Number two, most students are unaware of great strategies and techniques that they can use. So we're going to share with you 10 strategies that you can use that will help you use these samples to improve your writing skills and improve your writing score. To make sure that we're only helping the students that want help and want to improve, you will only get access to these essays by watching the whole video. There is no special link to click, and we're going to show you in the whole video how to access these sample essays. So let's start off with five don'ts. These are five things that you should not do when using any IELTS sample essays. Number one is the most common one, which is don't use fake sample essays. I'd say that more than 95% of the supposed Band 9 essays that you'll find online are not anywhere near Band 9. And if you are reading and copying people that have never even got close to the score that you're hoping to get, then you're learning lots of bad habits. But don't worry, we've solved that for you by giving you these real sample essays. We'll show you how to get those in the rest of the video. Number two, don't just pick up the essay, read it, and think that you will magically, through osmosis, become better at writing. You cannot read an essay and become better at writing by just passively reading it. I think a lot of people have been convinced that all you have to do is read the essay and some magic thing will happen in your brain and you will improve. That is simply not going to happen. If you don't believe me, think back to last month when the World Cup was on. I think something like more than a billion people watched the World Cup final. Were any of those people better at football after the World Cup final after watching two of the greatest footballers that have ever lived? No, you would think that that's ridiculous, but thousands of students every single month fail the test because they believe all they have to do is just read lots and lots of sample essays. It is not going to help you, but the good news is we're going to give you these 10 strategies, these 10 techniques that will actually help you in the rest of this video. Another thing that you should not do is look at the essays and try and figure out why you're better than these students in some way or why these students are not good or these students are not high level. Let me tell you a little story about a trick that I used to play on my students in the British Council. So on the first day of a new IELTS class with new students, what I would do is I would give them banned six essays, banned seven essays, banned eight essays and banned nine essays and I wouldn't tell them which were which and I would put them around the room and I'd ask the students to go and look at these essays and give them a score and every single time and this is like hundreds and hundreds of students, every single time they thought the ban six was banned nine and they thought the ban nine was banned six. You are a student, you are not an IELTS examiner. If you had the knowledge of an IELTS examiner, you wouldn't be watching this video. Most students look at a ban six essay, which normally has lots of complicated words and complex language and think that it is very, very high level. Most students look at ban nine essays and think that they are low level. Ban nine essays are actually quite simple and easy to understand and very, very clear. Most students look at ban seven essays and think there's lots of grammar mistakes. There's lots of vocabulary mistakes. This must be a really low level student. Ban seven essays have mistakes in them. Please do not waste your time and your energy trying to find out why you think these are not good. If you were an expert, you wouldn't be watching this video. The fourth thing that you should not do is look for things that you can copy from these essays and there's a very simple reason for that. Number one, you are not doing a memorization test. I know many of you come from educational backgrounds where the emphasis in your education system is just on memorizing things and that's how they test intelligence. This is not a memorization test. This is a writing in English test. This is a can you communicate clearly in English test? You cannot memorize words and phrases and chunks of essays and hope to just put those in on test day and get a higher score. That is not how it works. You can use these to improve your grammar in your vocabulary and we'll show you how to do that in the rest of the video but don't just memorize them. It is not going to help you. Number five, this might sound really silly but a lot of students do this. Do not copy the entire essay and put it in to your response on test day. A lot of students believe that if they copy a high level essay and then just put it in no matter what the question is that they're magically going to get a high score. I don't know why students do this but they do. Please do not do this. I don't want to be responsible for students failing the test so please, please, please do not do those five things. It is a waste of your time and it is a waste of money. These days the IELTS test costs a lot of money. Don't throw it away by using these incorrectly but there are now 10 ways that we're going to show you that you can use them correctly to improve your writing skills and improve your writing score. So this is how to find the 100 sample essays on our website. I've purposely hidden them so that only students that are serious about getting the scores that they need will find them. First thing you want to do is go to Google and type in IELTS writing task two. It will bring up a list of different websites and what you want to do is find the IELTS advantage one. It might be number one. It might be somewhere on this page. Just click on the IELTS advantage one. That should bring you to this page on our website IELTS writing task two in 2023. That's step one. Now I continue to watch the video and I'll show you in step two how to find the essays. So I'm going to give you these 10 things that you can do, these 10 techniques, but you don't have to use all 10 of them. What I would recommend doing is watching them all and picking the one that you think is your biggest weakness. That's what you should always start with, not just for writing but for all areas of the test. Don't work on things that you're already comfortable doing. Don't work on your strengths, work on your weaknesses. I know that's tough and I know as human beings we don't like to do difficult things but this is the best way for you to pass the test as quickly as possible and then move on with your life and you never have to think about this silly test again. So I'm going to go through these 10 now, watch them all and then pick the ones that you think are most difficult for you or you think that you need to work the most on. So the first thing that we're going to teach you is how to use sample essays for improving your idea generation. A lot of students really struggle with this area and once you start to see what real Band 7, 8 and 9 ideas look like, it removes a lot of the stress because what you will notice is most of them are a lot simpler than you think. You don't get extra marks for coming up with complex ideas. You get extra marks for thinking of ideas that answer the question that are relevant to the question and most of the time these are going to be simple ideas. So the first thing that you can do to improve your idea generation is don't look at the answer to the question. Don't look at the actual essay. Take each one and cover up the actual essay and just look at the question and what we've done here is we've limited the number of questions. We're giving you like a hundred essays but I think there are only like 10 questions and so that will mean that you see a wide variety of different ideas. So what you're going to do is you're going to look at the questions and think of ideas yourself. So what I would recommend doing is not brainstorming. What I would recommend doing is simply look at the question and think what is the simplest idea that answers this question? What is the most obvious idea? The most straightforward idea? If I asked a hundred people this question, what would be the most popular answer? And if you write down a few of them and then look at the answer, identify the main ideas. They will normally be in the introduction and they will be in the main body paragraph and they will be normally in the conclusion. Identify those main ideas and then compare with your ideas. If you're getting similar ideas to these students that got band seven, eight and nine, then you're probably on the right track. If you have different ideas, that doesn't mean that you're wrong. It doesn't mean that your ideas aren't relevant but think about whether they are relevant or not. Are you getting different ideas because they're just different relevant ideas or think about whether your ideas are relevant or not? If you think about them and you compare them and you're like, actually, my ideas are completely irrelevant, that might mean that you didn't understand the questions you have to work on that more or it could mean that you're just complicating everything and making your ideas way more complicated than they need to be. So that's technique one. The second thing that you can work on would be idea development. So this is taking ideas and developing them into main body paragraphs. So step one, look at the question, understand the question and then identify the main ideas. So for this person, focus on their careers. Idea number one and have more time for themselves. Idea number two. So there's two benefits, two advantages here. And then what you do is you do not look at the main body. So you just identify those two main ideas and then what you could do on this blank piece of paper, you could pick one. So for example, you could write an explanation, you could write an example and then you could compare that with what the student has done in this essay. So here, focus on the careers. This is because they have less responsibility and distractions in their lives compared to the couples that have a child. So if it's the same, then you're probably on the right track, but you could also make this better. You might think, well, I could maybe explain this a little bit more. Again, you're not looking for exact matches. What you're doing is thinking about what they have done and what you have done. And this is just one essay. You might look at five, six, seven other essays for this question and then look at all of the explanations and compare those with your explanations, compare those with your examples, and then that's going to help you develop your own. The next thing you can work on is structure. So what you can do is read the question, read the whole essay, and then think about the structure that they used. So for example, this is their introduction. This is their main body paragraph one. This is their main body paragraph two. And this is their conclusion. So what we're going to do here is discuss both views and give your own opinion. This is the type of question that we're talking about here. So they're using this four paragraph structure. But then within each paragraph, what are they doing? So here in the first sentence, what they have done is they have paraphrased the question. They have given their opinion here. They've talked about the first point here. And they've given the reason for the latter point here. So what you could do is look for more discussable views, essays, for example, this one, and you could compare them. So are they using a similar structure here? Well, it seems like they actually are. They've paraphrased the question in the first sentence here. They've given their opinion. And they've said why they believe that here. They are slightly different. But again, if you look at seven, eight, nine, 10 of those, you'll be able to see similar structures. And then that is going to help you write your own structure. So what you could do is actually go through them all, if you wanted, analyze the structures and then look at all of the differences between the different types of essays. So you could go and look at, for example, here we have a causes and solutions essay. Where do they put the causes? Where do they put the solutions? What do they put in their conclusion? Are there any similarities between the different students answering this same question? And you'll start to learn the different structures and then use them yourself. It's a great way to actually learn structures rather than just looking at them. Because if you give students just a bunch of structures, they tend not to be able to use them on test day. But if you do it this way, it kind of internalizes it a lot better. And they're able to use them rather than memorize them. Okay. So when you're on this page, what you want to do is scroll down. There's a lot of information on this page. So keep scrolling, keep scrolling until you get to hear sample essays. Now we have a lot of different options here. Continue to watch the video. And I'm going to show you which one to click in step three. The next thing you could do is work on your coherence and cohesion by identifying linking words or cohesive devices. Some people call them cohesive devices. Some people call them linking words. So for example, with this one, you could identify that there are only really four linking words or cohesive devices here. In other words, for example, for instance, and in conclusion, if you were to look at another 10 band seven, eight, nine real essays, and you only seen linking words are used very sparingly, there are not that many, then that would be a clear indication that that's what you should do. Most of these essays are not going to have lots and lots and lots of linking words in them, because lots and lots and lots of linking words actually lower your score. They don't increase it. Another thing that you could do is think about why they used each cohesive device. So for example, why did they use that? Well, they were giving an example. Did they use it correctly? Well, in this instance, they seem to have that is helping you understand, okay, if I'm giving an example, that's what I should use. Or you might identify some linking words that they used incorrectly, that is going to help you improve because identifying other people's mistakes is helping you improve your knowledge and your use of linking words as well. Remember, these are real essays, which means that they have mistakes in them. They are not perfect. Perfect essays are not actually going to help you as much as real students that are at your level and have got the scores that you need. And that brings us on to number five, which is identify grammar mistakes. As I've just said, one of the best ways to improve is to identify other people's mistakes. So what you would do is you would go through and highlight any mistakes that they have made. So for example, this one, you could write here, this is an article mistake. Here's another article mistake. So by identifying these mistakes and correcting them, you can think about the rules of articles and your knowledge and your ability to use them correctly will improve, not just articles, but any mistakes. So identify the mistakes and then think about why those mistakes were made or categorize the mistakes into is it a preposition mistake, an article mistake, a punctuation mistake, and then you will improve too. The sick thing you can do is also related to grammar and thinking about the different grammatical structures and tenses that were used in the essay and why they were used. So for example, if we take this essay, obtaining this type of information in most cases means breaking the law. Why did they use obtaining ING and breaking ING? Rather than furthermore to obtain this information in most cases means to break the law. And this will force you to think about whether this is correct or incorrect. If you think that it is incorrect, what is a better way to use it and why do you think that? Or if it's correct, why did they use that? Here's another one. However, not only are paparazzi hired to invade properties belonging to politicians to take photos without their permission, but also, not only, but also, what does that not only but also grammatical structure allow this student to do? Why did they choose this grammatical structure? What were they able to do? Is it correct? Could you use this grammatical structure in your essay? Again, not copying it, not blindly copying this and inserting it into your essay, but adding tools to your toolbox. The more tools that you have in your toolbox grammatically and for vocabulary, then the better able you are able to build your essay on test day yourself. Number eight is vocabulary and improving the range of your vocabulary. And you can do that simply by reading the question, reading the essay and identifying any unknown vocabulary or vocabulary or collocations or phrases that you're unsure about. You're not 100% sure what they mean or how to use them in a sentence. So for example, you might see the collocation discover their talents. What does that mean to discover their talents? Here's another one, potential talents. What's the difference between discovering your talent and a potential talent? What does potential mean? What does potential talent as a collocation actually mean? So you would note down those words or phrases or collocations and then you would guess the meaning from the context. So you would read the whole sentence, read the whole paragraph and try and guess what that word means. That is going to help with your reading skills. It's going to help you identify and understand unknown words in the reading test. And it will also help you improve vocabulary because you can take those new words or phrases, put them into a vocabulary book, add all the new information like the meaning, the synonyms, the example sentences. And then after a while, if you do this, you're going to have a massive bank of new words and new phrases. And then if you review those and use those in your own essays, then you're improving your ability to write essays. Another thing you could do with vocabulary, number nine, is identify any vocabulary errors. So for example, in this essay, if we look at this sentence, recently the pictures of a famous politician of Milan, while playing football with local children were published in many newspapers and he instantly became famous. So there's a problem here because it's saying a famous person became famous. Well, they were already famous. So either there is a meaning error here with this word or we need to change this word to something different. Another thing that you could do is look for repetition. Are there words that are maybe repeated a few many times and then you could try and change it to a synonym that means the same thing but has a different, you know, a different word that means the same thing. And last but not least, number 10, what you can do is look at the question, write the whole essay, and then compare your essays, compare everything with what the students have done. But I wouldn't recommend doing that right away. What I would recommend doing is use one or two of the other nine techniques, work on your weaknesses, and then once you are more confident, then you can write the whole essay and then compare it with what the other students have done. But please, please, please, don't think that if your essay is different that it's wrong. There are hundreds of different ways that you can write a band seven or a band eight essay. It is not mathematics, it is not, you know, there's only one answer to the question. So don't look at these essays and think that you're on the wrong track just because yours are different. What you're looking for is are the main things like the ideas, are they relevant? Is the structure similar? Did you develop your ideas in a similar way? If you focus on those big things, then your essays will be fine and you will really, really improve. Okay, so you should be here. The one that you want is this one, how to use task two sample essays. If you click on that, you will get access to 100 band seven, eight, and nine IELTS writing task two essay samples. It will introduce them, it will tell you how to use them, and then it will give you all of these samples. So thank you very much for watching the video and I hope that you enjoy using these samples and they help you improve your score. So now you know how to find those samples and how to use them to improve your writing, but you need to know how to write an introduction, a main body paragraph, and a conclusion. But don't worry, what I've done is I have added to this video a full IELTS writing course. Not only are we going to teach you how to write those paragraphs, we're also going to give you homework tasks and feedback for free. So coming up is IELTS essay builder. It's going to teach you exactly how to write a band seven, eight or nine essay and build your essay up sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. Enjoy IELTS essay builder. In this lesson, we're going to look at the first building block of your essay, which is how to build an introduction. But before we look at the detail of this lesson, let me just tell you what we're going to do in this course. So there are seven steps to this course. The first one is today. It's an introduction lesson. So it is not an introductory lesson. It is a lesson all about how to write introductions. Then the second lesson, I'm going to give you global feedback on introductions. So we're going to look at some common problems, some common successes, so that you can compare your introduction with some really, really good introductions and some introductions that need a little bit of work. And then the third step is we're going to look at how to write our main body paragraphs. The first step, giving you feedback on your main body paragraphs, fifth conclusion lesson and writing a whole essay. And then we're going to give you global feedback on conclusions and give you some sample essays to look at so you can learn from them. And then finally, we'll be looking at how you can take it to the next level. If you need more help or you need help with other types of essays or with anything else at all, we will be helping you take things to the next level if you choose to do so. Okay. So what are we going to look at today? Today, we're going to look at a quick outline of what is happening this week. So we've already done that. Then we're going to look at the question, the type of questions that we're going to be looking at this week. Then we're going to look at how to write an introduction. So we're going to look at how to analyze the question, plan, generate ideas, paraphrase and the essential elements that you should include in your introduction. So you're going to learn everything you need to know about how to write an introduction. And then you're going to be set a homework task and do the task. Now guys, I know many of you are busy and IELTS is not the most exciting topic in the world. But imagine the difference that it's going to make to your life when you get this score. I work with students every day and so many students come to me and say, you know, I failed this test five, six, seven, eight times. I'm wasting so much money. I'm wasting so much time. And it's stopping me starting my future life, my life in a different country with a better job and different prospects for me and my family. You will hear me a lot talking about this because it really does mean something to me. It's the reason why we do these things. It's the reason why we help people with this. One of the main ways that you will improve is by doing the things that we teach you this week. So please do look at the homework tasks, complete the homework tasks. They'll only take you 10 or 15 minutes and then look at the feedback and improve because all I want guys is for you guys to improve and get the scores that you need. Okay, so this week, we won't be focusing on every single type of task to essay. There's a very obvious reason for that is a, we don't have time to look at every single type of essay. If we did that, it would be this lesson would be, you know, five or six hours long. And I don't think many of you have that amount of time and I certainly don't have time to be creating lessons that long. And also, if we try to do everything in like, if I tried to show you how to write introductions for every single type of question in 45 minutes, I wouldn't be able to really teach you properly. So what we're doing is we're going to focus on one type of question to really dive deep into that type of question. Because that's how I teach. I don't teach people on a surface level. I teach people how to do things properly or not at all. So there are five different types of tasks to question opinion questions, discussion questions, causes and solutions or problems and solutions questions. There are different types of advantages and disadvantages questions. And there are double questions, double questions are in one task, there are two direct questions. And that's what we're going to focus on this week. We're going to only look at double questions. But don't worry too much guys, the reason why I chose double questions is they translate very well to the other types of questions. So you'll hear me talking a lot about double questions. And you'll hear me talking a lot about this is only for double questions, etc, etc. But a lot of the things that we'll be doing this week will be applicable to all of the different types of questions. For example, in this lesson, we're going to be looking at paraphrasing. You can use that for any different type of question. But what I will do throughout the course is highlight when this is only for double questions. And you need to look at other stuff that you need to go deeper on the other types of questions if that's applicable. Okay, so what are double or direct questions? So these are normally two questions in one task. So you'll get a background statement and then you'll be asked two different questions in the one task. And normally these are both direct questions, they are asking you directly what you think about something. And as I've already mentioned, these questions translate very well to the other types of task two question. So here's an example of a double question. So we have the background statement here. Nowadays, more tasks at home and work are being performed by robots. So this is just giving you the background information. And then these are your two direct questions. Why do you think this is happening? Is it a positive or negative development? So we have to answer both of these questions in one essay. And these questions are, I've noticed that they are becoming increasingly more common. I'm not suggesting that you won't get another type of question, you very well might get a discussion question, advantages and disadvantages, opinion question. But I've noticed these is getting a little bit more popular. And but this doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get this, please do not think that all you have to do is just study double questions, and then you can go and do the test. It's not like that. But they are becoming more popular. Okay, so just to give you an overview, before we look at the introduction, before we get into the detail of the introduction, let's look at the overall paragraph structure of double questions. So there are four paragraphs. Introduction is your first paragraph, then your second paragraph, which is your first main body paragraph, is you're going to answer the first question, then your second main body paragraph, surprise, surprise, answer the second question. And then your last paragraph is going to be your conclusion. So keeping everything as simple and straightforward as possible, guys, this is something that is really a hallmark of my teaching, or something that I'm known for something that my VIP students experience a lot is we take a subject that is seems very complicated, seems very complex. And what we do is we simplify it as much as we can. We can't simplify it into, you know, baby steps, one, two, three, ABC. But one of the goals with this course is to show you that much, many of your issues are related to you over complicating things. Or maybe you have a teacher who doesn't know how to simplify these things as much as I do. I'm not saying I'm the best teacher in the world or anything like that. But one thing that I am good at is simplifying things. So this means that you will find it easy to understand and easy to do on test day. Okay, so here's what the structure would look like introduction. So the introduction is basically, let's break it down into simple language, the introduction is saying to the reader saying to the examiner, this is what this essay is about, this is what I'm going to talk about. Then your first main body paragraph, here's the answer to the first question. Second main body paragraph, here's the answer to the second question. And then your conclusion is, here's a summary of what I just talked about. So introduction, here's what I'm going to talk about, main body. Here are, here's what I think about these two questions. Conclusion, here's a summary of what I just talked about. And if you break things down in that way and make them simple and easy to understand, they're simpler to do on test day. And that's my goal for you guys this week. Okay, so let's now break down the introduction. Let's think about the different stages of writing an introduction. So the first stage is thinking about the question, analyzing the question, understanding the question. It's impossible to answer a question if you don't understand it. That sounds very, very obvious and very simple, but it's so true. I, you know, I look at 20, 30, 40, 50 essays some days. And I've been doing that for years. And one of the main problems is not that students don't know how to write, although that is a problem sometimes. But many of your problems stem from the fact that either you don't take enough time to understand the question, or you don't spend enough time or you don't follow the steps to analyze the question and fully understand it. So once you've done that, then you need to decide your answers. So before you start writing, you need to really have it clear in your mind what you are doing before you start writing. Because if you don't, your essay is going to be a bit of a mess. Then we're going to think of ideas. So we're going to develop our ideas. And you'll notice that these three stages, these are stages without you having a pen or a pencil in your hand, you know, you can't have a pen or a pencil in your hand and making little notes. But really, this is all just mental process. This is you really just thinking, this is the thinking stage, a stage that many of you neglect because you feel that you're under pressure, you feel that you don't have time, but it's an absolutely crucial essential stage. Then we start picking up our pencil or pen and start planning. We start writing things down. So we use the structure, we use the paragraph structure, we use the sentence by sentence structure for each part of the essay to take our ideas, the things that we have been thinking about and putting them down on paper into a plan. And then once we have done that, once we have developed a roadmap for our essay, then we can start writing our introduction. So steps one to four are before we start writing our essay. And then steps step five, once we have a plan, then we can start writing. Okay, so the first stage is question analysis, thinking about the question. The writing test is not just a writing test, it is a thinking and writing test. If you immediately open your paper and start writing immediately because you think that you're going to run out of time, you are going to get in a lot of trouble. You need to dedicate some time at the beginning to think about the question, plan your answer and then start writing. Think about it this way, if you were going to New York City tomorrow, you're going for a job interview in New York City and you're playing lands, you get to the airport, would you find your destination quicker with Google Maps or without Google Maps? Imagine if you just left the airport and started running towards New York City, would you get lost pretty quickly? But if you had Google Maps or you had Uber, for example, they'd be able to take you directly to where you need to go pretty quickly. This is the same as someone who doesn't think and doesn't plan versus somebody who does think and does plan. Thinking and planning is like having Google Maps for your IELTS essay. It might sound like a silly analogy, but my students seem to really like that analogy and it does make sense. So the first stage is understanding what the question is about. That might sound very, very simple, but just think about what the topic is and then go a little bit deeper and think about what the specific things they want you to talk about within that topic. So for example, you might get a question about the environment. So the topic would be the environment, but then once you look at it deeper, they don't want you to just talk generally about the environment. They might want you to talk about a specific thing related to air pollution, for example. So air pollution would be different from water pollution, for example. So thinking about what the general topic is and then looking a little bit deeper what the specific content is, what they want you to write about. And then looking at the instruction words. What is it that they want you to do? Do they want you to give your opinion? Do they want you to discuss the advantages and disadvantages? Do they want you to talk about problems and solutions? You must do what they ask you to do. So let's look at this question to analyze this question. So if I was analyzing this question, the first thing I would think about is, okay, what topic is this about? Okay, robots working. Okay, so it's generally about technology, but I just don't write everything I know about technology. What I do is I have a look at it. Okay, what are the more specific keywords? Okay, so it's about robotics. Okay, so it's about robotics doing work for humans, basically. So that's what the specific things they want us to talk about. Okay, so I've understood this. Now I need to think about the instruction words. What do they want me to do with this statement? Well, there's two things they want you to do. They want you to answer this question. Why do you think this is happening? So you have to clearly state why you think this is happening. But it doesn't stop there. They want you then to say if you think it's a positive or negative development. So once we've understood the question and we've understood what they want us to do, the first thing that I always get my students to do is to make a decision on their answer. Make a decision about how they're going to answer this question. So how do we do that? So make a decision early on. This will mean you think and you plan clearly. One of the worst things that you can do, guys, is start your essay without having a clear idea about how you're going to answer it. Many of you, many of the students that I work with, they email me after their test and they say, I changed my answer halfway through. Like, is that okay? Will I be okay? Like, no, you've probably failed because you didn't decide early on. You didn't make a concrete plan. You should never start your essay without knowing what to do. It's like, you know, running into New York City without having any idea where you're going. You're going to get pretty lost. And a writing is a reflection of your thinking. So I stole this quote from somebody called Tim Ferriss who I follow online and he's a writer and he said this and it really resonated with me because the students that I work with who are very confused about what they think about a question always write a very confusing essay. Students who think clearly about what they're going to write write a very clear, easy to understand essay. A huge part of your overall mark is coherence and cohesion and answering the question clearly. And so that's very, very important. Here's some things that you should consider when deciding how you should answer. Keep it simple, guys. Do not over complicate things. Do not, as I say, your writing is a reflection of your thinking. If you over complicate everything and your thoughts are very, very complex, then you're going to write an overly complicated, confusing essay. The simplest, most straightforward answer is the best. One of the things that I find very difficult to convince students of when we start working together is that the simpler you make your essay, the clearer it becomes, the better it becomes, the higher marks you're going to get. Many of my students find that very difficult to accept because when you fail something or when you get a low score, you automatically assume that you need to complicate things or make things more advanced or make things more complex. When the opposite is really true, and I guarantee many of you right now are thinking, that doesn't make any sense. How could making something simpler get me a higher mark? Guys, I wouldn't lie to you. I gave this advice to my wife when she was doing IELTS test. I give this advice to all of my VIP students. This really does work. Many of you won't believe me, that's fine. But once you start realizing this, then it is really powerful. It's more powerful than anything else. And also, when you're deciding your answer, write about the things that you can write about. Remember that you're going to have to take these ideas and explain them, support them with examples. Don't try and think of a really complex idea if you can't explain that idea. So if I was deciding my answer for this one, what I would do is I would think, why do you think this is happening? And I would try and think of an idea right now for this one. That's not the one that we really need to worry about. For this one, is it a positive or negative development? This is the one that we really need to decide our answer on pretty quickly. Because if you go into the essay thinking, oh, I don't know if it's positive or negative, or some of it's positive, some of it, you're going to get very confused pretty quickly. For this, is it a positive or negative development? Just pick one. Just pick one. This is positive or this is negative. If you do that, you're making your life so much easier and so much simpler. So pick one side and go with it and just pick the side that you would find easiest to write about. That's all you have to do. So for me, for example, I think this is positive and I have a really good idea about why I think this is positive and I'm able to support that idea, I would go with that one. Okay, so now we've analyzed the question and we've decided our idea. Now we need to think of ideas. You've already primed your brain to think of ideas in a logical way that will lead to clear ideas. So by deciding what you think about these things, by deciding your answer, you've already started on the path to thinking about a clear idea. However, many of you mess up when you get to this stage, because you've been taught a technique for thinking of ideas that is completely wrong and is the worst thing that you could ever do. This area is taught incorrectly by 95% of IELTS teachers. Again, I'm not saying I'm the best IELTS teacher in the world, but when I see something in a textbook, I don't take that thing and just automatically teach it to my students. If I see something in a textbook or in a book or a blog or anywhere, I think about it and think, is this actually effective? Is this actually a good way to teach students? The best example of that is brainstorming. Brainstorming is the worst thing that you could do. Why do most teachers teach brainstorming? Because they just look at a textbook or they just google how to think of ideas and 95% of the stuff out there just says brainstorming. Why is brainstorming so bad? Complete waste of time. Brainstorming, you write the thing in the middle of the page and then you draw a bubble around it and then you draw arrows and you don't have time to do that. You don't have time to think of 16 different ideas. Even if you do think of all of these different ideas, most of them are not specific. They don't answer the question. They're not specific. They're not relevant. So what happens at the end of a brainstorm session is you've got a bunch of ideas that are not specific to the question, not relevant to the question. You just wasted a huge amount of time and then you have to waste even more time going through all of these ideas. Stop it. Stop doing brainstorming. It's really, really bad idea. Instead, we should just keep it simple. The most obvious ideas are normally the best ones. The simplest, most straightforward ideas are the easiest to understand and the easiest to write about. There are no extra marks for amazing ideas. Many of you think that there are two or three ideas for each question that get you a band nine or a band eight. It doesn't work like that. It's not like the examiner has a list of ideas and if they follow those ideas, you know, they'll automatically get a high score. It doesn't work like that. It works by are your ideas relevant to the question? Do they answer the question? And how well do you develop and use those ideas? So how can we think of simple, straightforward ideas that we can use in our essay? The answer is the direct method. Ask yourself direct, specific questions about the question being asked. This will generate specific relevant ideas in a very short amount of time. The first ideas you think of are normally the best. So many of you are very intelligent people like doctors, engineers, lawyers, and throughout your life, throughout your studies, you have had to think of complex, complicated ideas your whole life. So when you do the IELTS test, you tend to do the same thing. Other people have been taught by teachers that, you know, complex, high level ideas are a good idea. Many of you just assume that you would get more marks if you think of more complicated ideas. The opposite is true. So what is a good idea? A good idea is easy to understand, it's relevant to the question, answers the specific question and it's easy to explain. It's easy for you to take that idea, bring it into your main body paragraphs and develop that idea. So many of you are probably thinking, what is this direct method? How do we use it? So let's look at a question. Nowadays, more tasks at home and work are being performed by robots. So the direct method is where you take the question and you ask yourself a direct question to develop an idea. So why do you think this is happening? How would you think of an idea for this in the most obvious way is you would just think, why is this happening? You would ask yourself that question. So instead of, you know, drawing bubbles and arrows and all of these different mind maps and all of these different things, it's not hard when you just ask yourself the question. For this one, is it a positive or negative development? So let's say we decide that it's positive. How would you use the direct method? You'd very simply say, why is this positive? And instantaneously, your brain should be able to help you think of an idea. If it doesn't, you know, think about it a little bit more, this really does work. And when students start using this, like, why did I waste so much time brainstorming? And why did I why did I do that for so long? This is just one example. And you can apply this, you know, keep it simple mentalities, keep it simple methodology to pretty much everything on the IELTS test. And, you know, reading, listening, speaking, writing, when you stop over complicating everything, then everything becomes much, much, much easier. I keep saying that IELTS is an easy test over complicated by students. And that's really, really true. So let's just recap what we've done so far. You understand the question first, you've decided how you're going to answer it. And you've thought of relevant main ideas. So as mentioned before, this is just the thinking stage. All right. So it's taken, you know, 30 minutes to get to explain all of this. But you should be doing this in the real test in one or two minutes. This should be really, really easy for you to do once you practice doing it. You can't just take all this information and automatically start doing it. It's like any skill, you have to practice it. But once you practice doing it in this way, it becomes automatic, just like riding a bike or tying your shoelaces. It was difficult in the beginning. You had to think about it a lot. But then comes automatic. So let me do a quick demo of those three stages with this question. So nowadays, more tasks at home and work are being performed by robots. So I would look at this, I would understand it. The words that I've highlighted in red here are the specific keywords. Okay, I know what this is about. Then I'd look at the first question. And what I would do with the first question is understand what it's asking me. I would think about it, I would decide it. And then I would ask myself a direct question. And I would think of an idea. My idea is advancements in technology. Second question, is it a positive or negative development? I decide, okay, it's positive. Why is it positive? Because it reduces the amount of work we have to do. So I did that in one minute. In the real test, that would take me 30 seconds to do that. You won't be able to do it in 30 seconds. But many of my students can do that consistently in less than a minute, in less than two minutes. Some of them take a bit longer. But I hope that you can see how effective that would be. Imagine opening your paper on exam day, and being able to do that in one minute. And then you can start your planning. So now let's look at what is an introduction. Okay, so an introduction tells the reader what to expect. Alright, always think of the reader. So an introduction is just helping the reader understand what the essay or whatever you're writing, that could be a journal or dissertation or anything like that. The introduction just helps the reader understand what you're going to write about. It helps the reader follow the rest of your essay. Again, always think of the reader. Many of you, when you're doing the IELTS test, you're not thinking of the reader at all. You're thinking, how many fancy words can I put in here? How many fancy grammar structures can I put in here? Without really thinking, am I clearly communicating with the reader? Because the main reason why you write anything is to communicate. You communicate with the person reading. And it also helps you get your thoughts in order. So think of it as a mini plan that will help you write a better essay. So people who write very, very clear introductions normally write very, very clear main body paragraphs and conclusions. If I see an introduction, I can pretty much predict what the rest of the essay is going to look like. A very good introduction is a good indicator of what the rest of the essay is going to be like. Don't worry. Examiners don't just look at the introduction. They'll always look at everything. But people who write bad introductions normally write bad main body paragraphs and conclusions. People who write very, very good introductions write very good main body paragraphs because it's kind of like a mini plan. They know exactly what they're going to write about. Also, what is an introduction? Not. So it's not a chance to show the examiner how amazing your language is. Do not insert lots of fancy words and memorized phrases and all of these different things. If you can use high level language, be my guest, use it. But if you don't know how to use it, don't stick it into your introduction because you're starting your essay off in a way that makes it impossible to read because the examiner has no idea what you're talking about because the collocations are wrong. The meaning of the word is wrong. The grammar is all wrong. Focus on clarity. It's also not a chance to hook the reader. You do not have to hook the reader. The reader is an IELTS examiner who's being paid to look at your writing. Believe me, they do not need to be hooked. So don't be writing any hooks. It's also not a chance for you to use memorized phrases or proverbs or quotes or anything like that. If you have a teacher who is telling you to memorize proverbs or quotes to put into your introduction or any part of your Task 2 essay, run very, very, very far away from them because they do not know what they're talking about. So three elements to a double question introduction. This is something that is specific to double question introductions. If you want help with other introductions, obviously, you need to go a little bit farther. This only applies to double question introductions. So number one, paraphrase the question statement. And then number two, briefly answer question one. Number three, briefly answer question two. So there are not three separate paragraphs. There are three elements. So for a double question, if you do those three things and write them clearly so that it's easy to understand so it helps the reader, you're off to a great start with your essay. So let's start off with the harder paraphrase, and then we'll look in more detail at how to briefly answer both questions. So paraphrasing. So paraphrase is you state the same ideas but using different words. So how would you say it in your own words? So when you paraphrase something, it must mean the same, but you're using different words to express the same meaning. And we can do that in many, many, many different ways. I'm going to show you two ways. I'm not going to show you six or seven different ways because we've already been talking for about 35 minutes or something like that. And that would take way too long. So I'm going to show you the two most effective ways or the two most common ways. The number one way is to use synonyms. So synonyms are words that mean the same but different words. Or we can use this by changing the structure of a sentence. We can flip the clauses around or both. I'm going to show you how you can combine both to paraphrase effectively. But let's look at some common errors. These are really, really, really, really important. Most of you are not paraphrasing effectively because you're doing things that maybe you've been taught incorrectly or maybe you just have a wrong idea about what paraphrasing is and what it isn't and the different rules and requirements for IELTS. So the most common problem is people trying to change every single word. Sometimes there will be some words that either are impossible to change. For example, a date. You can't change a date or a place name or a person's name. You simply can't change those words. Or sometimes you'll get a word that you don't know how to change. So if you see a word and you don't know how to change it, you can either just guess and try your best and 99% sure you're going to make a mistake or you can repeat that word. There is a huge stigma, incorrect stigma about repeating words. I don't know where this comes from. But many, many teachers teach their students that you can never repeat a word. Let's think about how ridiculous that statement is. Think about articles and prepositions. Think about the word and or the or of. Some teachers teach their students that you can't repeat those words. That's ridiculous. Think, look at any good writing and there will be several words that are repeated maybe even in the first sentence. Also, as we've just mentioned, there are some words, for example, dates, times, place names, company names, people's names, you know, many, many nouns that you just cannot change. You should vary your language as much as you can to demonstrate to the examiner that you have a wide ranging vocabulary. That's absolutely true. But many of you actually fail the test because you are so afraid of repeat repeating a word. Many, many, many times students have argued with me about this and say, oh, you don't know what you're doing. You repeated a word. Yeah, that's totally normal to repeat a word. The rule is vary your language as much as you can, but not to the detriment of your overall score. Changing words incorrectly. So this comes from people fearing repeating words. So they try and change words as many times as possible. And most of the time when they're doing that, they're doing it incorrectly. So the meaning could be wrong. The collocations could be wrong. Spelling could be wrong. The grammar could be wrong. Don't change a word unless you know how to change it properly. Because all of those mistakes add up. If you're making mistakes in most of your sentences, it's impossible to get a seven or above. Impossible. If you look at the marking criteria. Also, not thinking about grammar. When you change words, it changes the grammar within the sentence and you need to be aware of that. Again, if most of your sentences have grammar errors in them, it's impossible to get a seven or above. To get a seven or above, most of your sentences need to be error free. No errors in them at all. Think about that for a second. Think about your writing. Do you think that you can produce an essay where the majority of your sentences have no errors in them at all? That's the standard you need to get to. For many of you, it's not that you have problems with vocabulary and grammar. It's because you have been taught silly rules like you cannot ever repeat a word. And that's causing you to get a low score because you're making so many mistakes as a result. So let's think about synonyms. Be very careful here. Your synonyms must match and make sense. Just because they are synonyms does not mean you could automatically use them. So one of the biggest problems when people paraphrase is when they're practicing especially, they'll see a word and what they'll do is they'll Google that word or look that word up in an online thesaurus and when you do that it will show you, you know, 20 or 50 different synonyms. Like some of those synonyms you can use, most of them you will not be able to use. Just because a word is a synonym doesn't automatically mean that you can use it when you're paraphrasing. Let's look at an example. So imagine you seeing in a question rich country. So if you Google rich and look up the synonyms of rich, you might see decadent as a synonym of rich and it is rich and decadent or synonyms. Do they mean the same thing? No, not at all. Someone can be very rich, but they can't be they're not decadent at the same time. Look up the meaning of those two words and you'll see it means different things. Country and kingdom. So a country, yes, country and kingdom are synonyms. Can you use them when you're paraphrasing? No. Some countries are kingdoms. Most of them aren't. All right. So this is to show you that you can't just look something up and automatically use it as a synonym. Also, when you're just when you're in the test and you're thinking of synonyms, don't just write down the very first thing you think of that loosely relates to that word. A more accurate way would be to use synonyms that actually mean the same thing. Rich and wealthy mean the same thing. Country and nation mean the same thing. They're synonyms. They are close synonyms. They're not loose synonyms like these ones. And you can use those to be very, very careful. Other thing when you're paraphrasing is you can change the structure a little bit. So most of the time what you'll do is there will be two or three clauses in the background statement. And what you'll do is you'll just flip the clauses around. So the last clause becomes the first clause and the first clause becomes the last clause. But when you do this, be very careful that your new sentence makes sense grammatically. All right. Let's look at an example. So many developed nations have opened their doors to refugees recently. So if we wanted to change the structure, what we'd do is we just take the second part of this and open their doors to refugees, put this at the beginning, and then many developed nations put this at the end. But when you do this, you have to be aware of grammar, because when you change words around the grammar changes and you need to be very careful. So I had one student on my VIP course, and when they tried to do this, this is what they wrote, recently refugees go to develop nations who open their doors. And I said to them, okay, think about the meaning of this sentence, think about the grammar, and then try to fix it, fix your problems. And they changed it to recently refugees have been taken in by many developed nations. So when they became aware of the grammar and became aware of meaning, they changed it so that it means that it's grammatically correct. Okay, so an effective way to paraphrase is to use synonyms and combine that with changing the structure slightly. You don't always have to use this. But it is an effective method. Again, there are four or five other ways that you could do this, and four or five other ways that you can paraphrase, and we don't have time to go into those right now. But let's look at how to do this. So you can combine these two techniques to paraphrase effectively. So let's take this question. And I took a real student example from a student who I'm working with at the moment, and let's show you what she wrote. In recent years, refugees have been taken in by many countries in the developed world. So the reason why I've highlighted these two is I want to highlight something for you. So when she first sent me this, she made a big error here. She used a different word. She actually used the word fugitive, and I said, okay, so why did you use fugitive? And she said, I looked it up on Google, and I googled it, and fugitive is a synonym of refugee, and I didn't know any other way to write it. And I said, okay, so you don't know any other way to write it. Fugitive is wrong, so you've just lowered your score. Why not just repeat the word? And she said, oh, you can't repeat the word, you're not allowed to do that. My old teacher told me not to do that. I said, it's fine. You don't have to change every single word when you're paraphrasing. If there's just one word that you can't change, keep it. You know, it's better to keep it and repeat it than it is to make a big, big error, because fugitive just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Also, what she did here, she made a mistake here, and I said to her again, why did you make this mistake? And she said, oh, again, I don't want to repeat the word developed. And I said, well, you're not actually repeating it. If you changed it to developed world, you're changing developed nations. So if you think of developed nations as a collocation, as a unit of language, you've changed that collocation to a different collocation, two words that work together. So you've repeated the word developed, but you've not actually repeated it because you've combined it with correctly combined it with world. So that is fine to do that because you've actually demonstrated to the examiner that you know that developed nations and developed world are the same thing and they go together and they collocate well together. So in recent years, refugees have been taken in by many countries in the developed world. If we put that together, does it mean the same thing as this? Yes. Is it grammatically correct? Yes. Is it varied as much as we can vary it? Yes. So that's a very, very good paraphrase that she produced. So let's look at this question. Nowadays, more tasks at home and work are being performed by robots. So here are two different ways that you could paraphrase this. Robotics increasingly play a role both in the home and the workplace and robotics increasingly carry out jobs both in the home and in the workplace. So again, asking yourself these questions, does this mean the same as this? Yes. Are they grammatically correct? Yes. Have they varied them as much as they can? Yes. Are there some words that they have repeated? Yes. Home. Home. That's fine. Obviously, that is an article. And you know, we can't change and you know, it's fine just to repeat these words, but we have varied it as much as we can. So if a student wrote this, I'd be very, very happy with this. So next, we need to briefly answer each question. So why do you think this is happening? Advancements in technology? Is it a positive or negative development? It's positive because it reduces the amount of work. So this would be the plan. We would be looking at our plan and then we can write a sentence like this. This is due to advancements in technology and it should be seen as a positive development because it reduces a person's workload. So we've taken our plan and we've converted our plan into a sentence and then we can put this all together into a nice introduction. So this is our introduction. The part in red is our paraphrase and then the part in blue is our us answering both of those questions. So this is something you should probably pause, have a look at, think about it, think about how all the different stages, all the different steps that we took brought us to this paragraph and then think about how easy it would be to start the rest of our essay by following what is in this introduction. So and think about how easy it would be for the reader and for yourself to understand what you are going to write and then what you write in the rest of your essay is going to be very clear and easy to understand. So let's summarize what we did in this lesson. We analyzed the question, we planned our answer, we paraphrased, we briefly answered both questions and then we put it all together. This is your task. So pause the video and write this down or pause the video and take a screenshot or whatever. Look at this question, follow the steps outlined in this lesson and write an introduction. Do not write a full essay, just write an introduction. We looked at lesson one and this is the feedback on lesson one. So if you have not completed lesson one, go and do that and complete your introduction because if you haven't completed your introduction, this video will not make sense at all. So what we're going to do in this video is we're going to give you feedback on your work. So we're going to look at some checklists that you can use to help you improve your own introductions. I'm going to give you some samples that need improvement and I'll talk about why they need improvement so you can learn from them. And then we'll look at some good samples from students that have produced good samples and then we'll look at some VIP samples from my VIP group. Okay, so first of all, it's amazing to see so many of you taking action to improve your lives. The only way that you're going to improve your IELTS scores is by taking action, by learning what to do, by doing that thing and by getting feedback on your work. So well done for doing that. And if you didn't get the work done, don't feel guilty and give up, like things happen, you know, life gets in the way, go back and complete it and then you'll be able to make progress. So first of all, I want to talk about criticism. So I'm going to give three feedback lessons in this course and most of it will be criticism. It will be mostly me saying, this isn't good, you need to do this to improve. And the only way you will improve is to seek criticism and to use it to improve. And we only actually work with students that have this attitude because it's so key. You cannot improve your scores unless you have a very positive attitude to negative criticism. And none of the things we say are a criticism of you as a person. They're just designed to help you improve your writing so you can improve your life. So that's our main goal is just to help you get the scores you need and then you can move on and improve your life in whatever way IELTS scores will help you do that. So is feedback important? Yes, it's the most important thing. The lessons and tasks are just the first steps. However, they are a complete waste of time if you did not take action on your feedback. So many people, when we've done courses like this before, what they'll do is they'll just look at the content videos. They won't actually do the tasks and they especially won't look at the feedback videos because they think that they're not that important. But let's look at how important it actually is. So the first thing you need to do is you need to look and think. It is essential that you understand the feedback provided and think deeply about how it applies to your work. So we cannot give individual feedback on this course. We do that on other courses, but not on this course because it's just it's a free course and there's so many people. But what you can do instead of getting individual feedback is you can understand the general global feedback we're giving today and think about how it applies to your own work. Then you can apply that as I've just said. Honestly, apply what you've learned to your own work and think about how it might apply to your work in the future. And then finally, adapt your work in accordance with the feedback and improve it and repeat that cycle. And if you repeat that cycle, then you're going to improve. So here was your homework task and what I asked you to do was complete an introduction. So there were three things that you needed to do. You needed to understand the question. You needed to paraphrase the question and you needed to briefly answer both questions. So here's a little paraphrasing checklist. Well, look at the first thing that you needed to do. You practically needed to do first. So first thing you need to do was does the sentence mean the same as the question? Are there any vocabulary errors? And is the sentence grammatically correct? So if you can answer affirmatively to those questions, if you can say yes, it does mean exactly the same as the question. No, there aren't any vocabulary errors. My vocabulary is good. And yes, the sentence is grammatically correct. Then there's no problem with your paraphrasing. So let's look at each of these. Does it mean the same thing? So the question said, nowadays, artificial intelligence is being used to drive cars. And this one, this was a student sample. Nowadays, automobile industries are growing rapidly in these competitive markets with advanced technologies and artificial intelligence. Now, the question doesn't say anything about automobile industries or about them growing rapidly or about competitive markets. So this doesn't mean the same because they've included things that just aren't included in the question. Do not include things that are not included in the question. Let's look at this one. Doesn't mean the same. Due to our rapid life movement, the complexity of our life and the high technology that we face nowadays. So the question doesn't say anything about your life. It doesn't say anything about complex life or fast paced life or any of those things. So why would you include this? This is just them showing off or copying someone else's answer, which is not the thing that you need to do. Does this mean the same? So the automotive industry is rapidly developing for the last decade. Nope. And one of their latest inventions is utilizing artificial intelligence for car driving in order to make it safer and more convenient for people to travel. So does it say anything about safer or more convenient in the question? No. So why would you include it in your paraphrase? Does this mean the same thing? Artificial intelligence is the fruit of human beings' much-toiled work. No, it's nothing to do with it. You might think that I've went and picked some really, really bad examples. These are very, very common examples. These are not extreme. These are not things that you don't see that often. You see these things over and over and over and over again. The other thing that you need to do is you need to change your sentence enough. A lot of the things that we see are people taking words and phrases from the question and putting them into their paraphrase. Now, you can include some things, but more than 50% of the sentence is directly copied from the question. If you copy one or two words, that's fine, but overall, you shouldn't copy more than 50% of the question. Also, let's look at vocabulary. Artificial intelligence has expanded its plethora and utility vehicles nowadays. Now, what this student has done is they've memorized a list of vocabulary. Often, you'll get websites and you'll see it on YouTube and Facebook and places like this where someone will say, you know, if you memorize these words and use these words, you'll get a high score. This is not true. You need to use these words effectively. You need to use these words appropriately. Just putting them into a sentence doesn't mean that you're doing anything correctly. Artificial intelligence to drive vehicles is getting more trendy in the world of advancement. So, again, they're trying to use this word trendy. Trendy is not really appropriate. You use the word trendy to talk about fashion or to talk about trends in the world. You wouldn't really talk about it in this context. So, these are examples of words that students are using because they think that it will impress the examiner, but they don't know enough about these words. They don't know the meaning. They don't know the context. They don't know the use. They don't know the collocations. They don't know how to use them in a sentence, basically. Don't use words you don't understand. Recently, automobiles are driven by robotics. So, robotics kind of related to artificial intelligence. You can have a robot that has artificial intelligence, but most robots don't have artificial intelligence. Robotics is not really precise enough in this context. So, don't think about what word kind of means the same. You need to use words that mean exactly the same. Cars are driven with man-made techniques or functions. Again, this isn't really that accurate. You need or that appropriate. Again, four-wheelers. Four-wheelers, all right. I know what you mean. I know you mean a car, but you would never call a car a four-wheeler. Like, I would never say I'm thinking of getting a new four-wheeler. You would say a car. A car is a car. Like, keep it simple. In modern life, self-driving cars are popular to transportation. So, you'll see a lot of people trying to change the wording and change the vocabulary, but you need to remember that the grammar needs to be correct as well. Grammar is 25% of your total mark. Motorized cars controlled by artificial intelligence can be seen in modern days. Again, just small grammar errors can add up if every single one of your sentences or most of your sentences have small grammar errors. And even though you think they're just small ones, like, you know, punctuation mistakes or article mistakes or preposition mistakes, these add up and these can lower your score. Again, have a look at this. The artificial intelligence based on car driving is getting increased popularity in many countries these days. Again, just small grammar errors, but they will add up. Same with this person. This person needs to work on articles to make a computer software way as the intelligent humans. But the really great thing about this person is their main problem is just articles. So, your main problem could just be one area of grammar or maybe two areas of grammar, maybe like punctuation and verb tenses or prepositions and articles. So, this is great for this person because they know what to focus on and they know that they can improve that area by giving it their time and their focus. So, let's look again at the paraphrasing checklist. Does the sentence mean the same as the question? Are there any vocabulary errors and is the sentence grammatically correct? So, apply that to your own sample that you have posted and correct it and it will help you. So, let's look at some good student examples. In recent times, it is not uncommon to see automobiles being driven by artificial intelligence. So, does it mean the same? Yes. Are there any grammar errors or vocabulary errors? No. Good. Doesn't need to be fancy. Doesn't need to be showing off how amazing you are. Just needs to be effective. So, now you need to write your outline. So, here's a checklist for your outline. Did you clearly answer both questions? Are your ideas relevant and specific? And are there any linguistic errors? So, let's have a look at this and tell me what the problem is. So, have a look at it, pause the video and think about what the problem is with this one. So, the problem with this one is there's just way too much detail. You don't need to give this much detail. You need to be getting to the point. You put the detail in your main body paragraph. Introduction is really just introducing them to what is going on. You're not adding in all this detail. So, again, have a look at this one and tell me what you think the main problem is. So, pause the video and have a look and think about the main problem. So, the main problem is there's way too many ideas. There should be two paragraphs, two main body paragraphs. Each paragraph is going to have one main idea, so you're going to have two main ideas, not more than that. So, again, have a look what's the problem. Again, too many ideas. Your introduction needs to match up with the rest of your essay. So, you can't have three, four, five main ideas in your introduction and then only two in your main body. That's the way it should be. So, the main problem here is it's difficult to understand. Remember the purpose of writing. The purpose of writing is to convey a message to the reader. The person reading it needs to understand it. If they can't understand it, then there was no point in writing it in the first place. What's the problem here? Pause the video and think about it. So, the problem here is this way too vague. You do need two specific ideas. The purpose of the outline sentence is to give two ideas, so they should be specific. So, let's look at a good student example. This is done in order to reduce costs associated with employees in the transport sector. So, very specific, clear, easy to understand idea and should certainly be seen as a negative development as it will reduce jobs available for the population. So, again, clear, easy to understand two main ideas that are clear. It's not perfect. It is a student example, but it's much better than, you know, 90% of all their answers. Here's another one. Artificial intelligence increasingly plays a role in driving vehicles. Good pyrophrase. This is due to advancement in technology and it should be seen as a positive development because it reduces the chances of road traffic accidents. Again, not perfect but very, very, very good. Let's have a look at one of our VIP students who I was teaching and they provided this one. Recently, self-driving cars have become increasingly common. This is because AI has reached a point where it can safely control a vehicle and this should be viewed positively due to the reduction in traffic accidents. So, the good thing to remember here is this student was in the exact same position as you were. They didn't know how to pyrophrase. They didn't know how to use vocabulary and grammar effectively. They didn't know how to outline anything. They didn't know anything and we were able to take them through, show them exactly what to do and this just proves that anybody can learn this. So, apply that to your own work. Apply what you've learned today and you will really, really see an improvement and then move on to video three which is showing you how to write a main body paragraph. So, welcome to lesson two of IELTS essay builder. So, lesson one, we looked at how to write an introduction and now we're going to look at the next building block of your essay, how to build your main body paragraph. So, what are we going to look at today? We're going to look at how to use our introduction as the foundation for the rest of your essay. So, as I said on Monday, the introduction serves as kind of like a mini plan for you. So, we're going to talk about that and how you can use your introduction to start writing your main body paragraphs and then we're going to get into main body paragraphs. We're going to look at the essential elements. We're going to look at topic sentences, explanations, examples. We're going to look at how you write these, show you examples of how to write these and then we're going to finish off with our homework task. So, just a reminder guys, we're focusing on just one type of task two essay. Please just remember this. You can't just look at all of the stuff that we've done this week and then hope that you're lucky on test day and that you'll get a double question. It doesn't work like that. Also, as I already said, the double questions, a lot of the stuff does translate to these other types of questions but I would look into these. You have to study these properly. Many of you have been emailing me and messaging me and saying, can you just give us some quick tips or quick structures for the other types of essay? That's kind of like saying, at the end of your driving test, can you give me some quick tips on how to ride a motorbike or how to fly a plane or how to drive a train? Quick tips and shortcuts don't work. You need to go into things on a very, very deep level which is what we're doing with double questions this week. Okay, so let's remind ourselves about the four paragraph structure for double questions. Introduction, which we've already done. Then our first main body paragraph, which is going to answer the first question. Then our second main body paragraph, which is going to answer our second question and then our conclusion. So let's review lesson one a little bit. Let's look at the introduction and the question that we wrote because this is very, very important that we understand how we use the introduction to then write our main body paragraph. So this was the question that we were using. Nowadays, more tasks at home and work are being performed by robots. Why do you think this is happening? Is it a positive or negative development? So the introduction that I showed you was robotics increasingly play a role both in the home and the workplace. This is due to advancements in technology and it should be seen as a positive development because it reduces a person's workload. So this is the question that we're going to use today. And this is the introduction that we're going to use today and we're going to use this introduction as like a mini plan that's going to help us write our main body paragraphs. So how does that work? So if we break it down, the bit in red here is our paraphrase. And then the two bits here, these are our two main ideas. So this is going to be paragraph number one, main body paragraph number one due to advancements in technology. And then paragraph number two is going to be about this one. So as you can see, our main body one is going to be our first main idea. This is occurring because of advancements in technology. And main body two is going to be about this idea. And it should be seen as a positive development because it reduces a person's workload. So this acts as both a help to the reader because the reader knows exactly what is coming up in the main body. They know exactly what this essay is about. You've introduced them to these topics. And then you're going to take these ideas and you're going to develop them in your main body. Okay, so let's look at what is a main body paragraph because it became very clear during Monday's lesson that many of you didn't really understand what an introduction was and what it was supposed to be. Many of you have huge misconceptions about the test, especially the writing test. So much of this course is really just removing those misconceptions and teaching you exactly what you're supposed to be doing and the principles, the fundamentals of what you're supposed to be doing. So this is the most important part of your essay. Think of it as the meat in the hamburger. Imagine getting a hamburger and going into McDonald's and getting a hamburger and only the bread or the bun comes out. You wouldn't be very happy. That actually happened to me in Vietnam, in McDonald's in Vietnam before. And I certainly wasn't very happy. And this doesn't mean that the introduction and the conclusion are not important, but the main body paragraph is the most important part. This is where you'll make your detailed argument. This is where you will prove your point. So before I was an English teacher, I used to be a lawyer and what we would do is we would go to court and we would argue. And an argument, a legal argument, is not like an argument where two people are shouting at each other. It's two people, two lawyers, trying to prove their case, trying to prove their point. So think of your main body paragraphs is where you will do this. It's where you will explain why your points are valid and support those points with examples to help you prove what you are trying to write apart or what you're trying to say in your essay. So this is where you set out your main points and develop them fully. All right? One of the hallmarks, one of the ways that the examiners will know if you know what you're doing or whether you should get one of the high marks, one of the sevens, the eights and the nines is whether you fully developed your points. So you haven't just listed as many different ideas as you can. What you've done is you've taken relevant specific ideas and you fully developed these out. So how do you do that? So there are three elements of a main body paragraph, not three sentences, three elements. All right? Three things that need to be in your main body paragraph. First thing is a topic sentence. Second thing is an explanation. And a third thing is an example. Every single main body paragraph you should write should have a topic sentence, should have an explanation, and should have an example. If you do that, you're going to write a much, much better main body paragraph than somebody who like many of you what you do when your main body paragraphs is you include like three different ideas and no explanations, no examples, no topic sentences. And it's just like I call it a shopping list main body paragraph. It's just a list of ideas. It's not actually a real paragraph. So now let's look at each of these elements. Because once you understand how to write each of these elements, then you can put them together in a main body paragraph. So topic sentence. This tells the reader what the paragraph is about. So very much like your introduction, in your introduction, what an introduction does, why do we write an introduction to help the reader? Why do we write a conclusion to help the reader? Why do we write a topic sentence to help the reader? Why are we helping the reader so much? Because the main purpose of writing, think of the main purpose of writing, is the main purpose of writing to show how many big words you know, is the main purpose of writing to show how many different grammar structures and tenses you know, or is the main purpose of writing to clearly communicate with the reader. The more that you help the reader, the more that you clearly communicate with the reader, your better your writing becomes. Once you start to realize that, then you become a better writer. It's essential for task response. Task response is basically, did you answer the question? Task response is 25% of your total mark. Did you answer the question? A topic sentence helps you make it very clear to the examiner, I've understood the question, and here is my answer. Here is how I'm answering the question. But it's also important for coherence and cohesion. So coherence and cohesion, another 25% of your total mark. Coherence, is it clear and easy to understand? Topic sentences make your main body paragraphs clear and easy to understand. Topic sentences should be short and simple. They do not need to be long, complex sentences. Just short and simple, this is what the paragraph is about. Many people worry about repetition here. This is a huge problem. A huge problem is that I don't know where this came from, and it's particularly prevalent in certain countries. I'm not going to name the countries because I don't want you to think that I'm picking on certain countries, but in certain countries, for some reason, it's a very, very popular idea amongst IELTS teachers, or so-called IELTS teachers, that repetition, you cannot repeat anything. So that means that you cannot repeat anything that is in your introduction in your main body paragraph, and you can't repeat anything that's in your introduction or your main body paragraph in your conclusion. Think about that for a minute. If you couldn't do that, then your introduction, your main body paragraph, and your conclusion would be three completely different things, about three completely different topics, ideas, whatever. That would be a completely incoherent answer that lacked any sort of cohesion and would mean that you get yourself in all sorts of trouble. Where does this come from? This comes from people teaching IELTS that don't really know what they're doing. They haven't put the time in to understand their craft. They haven't put the time in to understand what they're really, what this is really about. And what they do is they see that you should avoid repetition in the IELTS essay. You lose marks for repeating words or phrases too many times, but not ideas. Ideas should be consistent throughout your whole essay. So the ideas in your introduction should be consistent with the ideas in your main body paragraphs, should be consistent with the ideas in your conclusion. If you do not believe me, go and look at a real academic journal. So an academic journal, go into, you can google this on, you know, and find it in any university or go into any university library and look at quality academic journals produced by very high level academics. Look at the introduction, look at the main body paragraphs and look at the conclusion. And you'll see that the introduction says, this is what we're going to talk about. These are the ideas that we're going to talk about. And then they develop those same ideas in the main body. And then what they do is they summarize those same ideas in the conclusion. If you want to listen to your local IELTS teacher who is pretending to know what they, they, that they're pretending to know what they're doing for a living, you want to believe them rather than me, every single examiner who works on my team, every, every high quality IELTS teacher I've ever spoken to. If you still believe that, stop the video and go back to your local IELTS teacher. If you want to get the scores that you need, keep watching. So what, how are you going to vary your language? So you should, shouldn't be using the same words and phrases over and over and over and over again, but you have to use the same ideas. And how you do that is you paraphrase again. Now, when I tell students this, they say, Oh, but I can't paraphrase, I don't know how to paraphrase, I don't know how to vary my language. And to get a seven or above, which is what most of you want, you have to be able to paraphrase multiple times throughout the essay. Basically, if you're saying, I can't do that, you're saying, I'm not ready to get a seven yet. That's basically what you're saying, because that is what is required. So topic sentence, let's look at my topic sentence. So this in purple, this is the question in blue in purple. This is what I wrote in my introduction. So what all I do is just take this, and then paraphrase it, say it in different words, so that it means the same thing. And this is going to become my topic sentence. So this is my topic sentence in red. People rely on machines because of the latest developments in machine learning. Okay, so what I've done is I've just taken this, and I put it into my own words. Again, you're going to have to do this. If you want a seven or above, you have to learn how to paraphrase, you have to have a wide vocabulary, you have to have your grammar needs to be good enough. Does that mean that you'll never get there? No, I've helped, you know, thousands of students get the scores that they need. But you need to change your mindset from I just need to memorize lots of words and phrases and insert them into my essay to, okay, I actually need to learn how to write properly. I actually need to learn how to use grammar and vocabulary properly. And when you change your mindset, then it becomes your progression, you will progress very, very quickly and get the scores that you need. So now we're going to look at explanations. So explanations are very, very important. And I'd say that out of all the elements in your essay, most, you know, there's none that are unimportant. I don't want you to assume that some things are not important. But explanations, I would say, are the most important thing. And because only good students can clearly explain what they mean. It's a skill that is very hard to acquire. And you probably are not even good at this in your native language. And it's not saying I'm not criticizing you in any way, but in general, people are not very good at taking ideas that are in their head, and clearly explaining them on paper. And it's something that is quite difficult to do because it's something that many of you just never practice using. But it's something that is quite easy to learn. And we're going to talk about this briefly here. So never assume that the reader knows what your topic sentence means, or that they know how it answers the question. So bad communication, most bad communication, and this happens, I do this sometimes when I'm talking to my team, my team does this sometimes when they're communicating with me. And the reason why they might send me an email or a message, and it's not very clear is they assume that I know what is in their head. They assume that I know exactly what they are thinking. And so they don't explain fully what the problem is, or what they need help with, or what the context of the message. The reader can't ask you any follow up questions. So you must explain everything. So think about the difference between speaking to someone and writing to someone. And I don't mean writing on WhatsApp or, you know, sending text messages or even emails. Think about writing a book, or think about writing a academic journal. Think about writing an IELTS essay. The person reading that cannot ask you any follow up questions. So the skill that you need to learn is to anticipate what they might be thinking and what they might need you to explain and explaining that to them. Pretend you're explaining it to someone who knows nothing about the topic. A very common error that I see is students say to me, Oh, well, the examiner knows about this, or the examiner knows everything, or the examiner is really intelligent. Okay, so you cannot assume that you and your that will lead to very poor communication, because you always will assume that the person knows what you're talking about explanations help you communicate clearly. And you need to explain it in a way that you assume that the person knows nothing about what you're talking about. One really good way of writing explanations is what my old English teacher and my old science teacher as well. And when we would be writing in school, my old English teacher, my old science teacher, he would walk around the classroom and he would look over your shoulder, and they would say, so what, so what, so they would look at your sentence that you were writing, and they would say, so what, what does that mean? Give me more. In other words, they were saying, develop it, explain it. What does that actually mean? So a number of the successful students that I've had, and what they when we do success stories with with our students, and we post them online, we post the videos online. A lot of them will say that when they were doing the test, they were imagining me saying, so what, so what, develop your answer, explain what you mean. And that seems to really work. Another way of thinking about explanations is, how would you explain this to someone who knows nothing about the topic? So imagine you were explaining this to a 10 year old boy, a 10 year old boy who knows nothing about this, how would you explain that to them? Another way is, how would you say or what would you say to an alien from a different planet, somebody who knows nothing about our planet, imagine aliens come down, how would you explain this thing to them? And that will help you develop your answer and fully explain what you mean. So this is my topic sentence. People rely on machines because of the latest developments in machine learning. Now, if I just write this, it's not very good, because there's, I'm not explaining anything, what it means, how it answers the question. So if someone was reading this, what questions would they be asking themselves? Or let's imagine that I am speaking to someone in a normal one on one conversation and I say this, what would they be thinking or what follow up questions would they be asking me? Well, they probably say, what is machine learning? What developments? How have those developments allowed this to happen? Why? What's the result? What are the consequences? So you're not going to be writing about what is machine learning and then write about what is the developments and then write about this and then why and then result in it. That's not how you're going to do it. What you're going to be doing is you're going to be preempting what the person reading this might be asking themselves or might be asking you if they were to be able to speak to you. And these are not who, what, why, where, how. When I say that to some students, what they do is they write one sentence about who, then one sentence about what, and then one sentence, no, these are just to give you ideas so that you can think about how you would clearly explain this and then you can write your explanations. So this is my explanation. So this is my topic sentence at the top here. And then this is my explanation. This is because big data and the fact that we are all connected via the internet means that algorithms can learn basic tasks. As a result, software does not need to be programmed but can learn from millions of other devices around the world. For example, and we're going to look at the example in a moment. But what hopefully what you've been able to see here is what I've done is take this sentence and fully develop it, answer all those questions that somebody might ask me about it and develop it in a way that clearly helps to answer the question. It helps me to prove my point. And then once you've done that, then you can move on to the example. So examples. The examiners want you to demonstrate that you know how to use examples. The examiners don't want you to demonstrate that you have a, you know, an unbelievable memory and you can memorize lots and lots and lots of different news stories and facts and figures and stuff like that. All they want you to do is to demonstrate that you know how to use an example. Why? Because that's a very useful skill to have. Imagine you are a doctor or a nurse or an engineer or a lawyer and you move to a new job in London or Toronto or New York City. And part of your job will be writing to someone or speaking to someone. You should be able to use basic examples to help you prove your point, to help you prove what you are saying. It's a very, very basic skill to have. And if you're not able to do that, then you really, really are going to struggle in the workplace. And you're definitely going to struggle if you're a university student because you're going to have to do this all the time when you're writing essays and things. The examples must support or prove your main point. So the example must be directly linked to your main point. The purpose of an example is to prove your main point. So what you do is you look at your main point and think, how can I use an example to prove this? Think about when you're arguing with someone and you use an example to help win the argument. And you probably do this all the time. Imagine you're fighting with your siblings or your husband or your wife. Like let's say for example, my wife says to me, you left the ice cream out last night and it melted all over the place. I'd say, well, so what? So then she would explain to me why that's a problem. Well, you just wasted lots of money and there's ice cream all over the floor and I have to clean it up and I don't have time to do that. And it's not nice to have ice cream all over the floor. Then I would say, really, did that happen? Yeah, like you did that last night. I had to clean it up this morning. Look at the floor. That's her example. She's proven her point. That's a very simplistic example of like a husband and wife having an argument, but you can probably think of hundreds of debates or arguments that you've had with people in the past and using an example is very, very, very strong because it just, it blows people out of the water. They can't argue back if you have a concrete example that proves your point. So it's really, really important you know how to do this. And it's very useful for arguing with people. Someone like me who constantly post stuff online, you know, 5% of the comments will always be people arguing with me. And all I have to do is just go, well, here's an example that proves my point. Thank you. So it is very, very useful. Okay, so examples do not need, in the context of the IELTS test, IELTS writing test, examples do not need to be true, but they must make sense. So you're not expected to have like an encyclopedic knowledge of, you know, data and research and all of these different things that you need to do. And it's not like that. And you don't, it's not a lie detector test. It's not a truth test. You can make things up to fit in and help you prove your points, but they must make sense. They must be believable. You can't just make stuff up, you know, out of thin air and it sounds totally implausible. So two ways that you can easily create examples. So there are, there are hundreds, not hundreds, actually, there are, you know, 10 or 20 different ways that I teach people how to write examples on my course. But let's just show you two, two very, very simple ones that you could use in your writing. So the first one is recent research concluded that plus what you're trying to prove, or a recent study found that plus what you're trying to prove. Now, for your purposes, don't worry about percentages and data and all of those different things. Just put a recent research concluded that plus what you're trying to do or a recent study found that plus what you're trying to do, what you're trying to prove. So let's look at that, what those would look like. You could also use newspapers, magazine stories, a clip you saw on YouTube or a news story or something like that. Personal experiences, personal examples are okay, but you need to be very, very careful. I would avoid personal examples, personal circumstances. I'm not going to get into why or why not, because it just takes too much time to explain. They're okay, but I would generally not use them. Again, think about explaining it to somebody who knows nothing. What would you use to help illustrate this to an alien from a different planet? So before we get into look at the full main body paragraphs and I'm going to show you full examples and all of those different things, many of you might be a little bit overwhelmed at the moment. Do not worry. If this is not making complete sense right now, many of you have a mindset where you want to just get some quick tips, some shortcuts and understand things immediately and then get the score you need. That's not going to happen. It will take further implementation, further practice for you to fully understand and be able to do these things. Imagine wanting to learn how to drive a car in one day or wanting to learn how to ride a bike in one hour. You can learn how to ride a bike pretty quickly. You can learn how to drive a car pretty quickly, but not in an unreasonable amount of time. You need further implementation. You need further practice. You need further feedback. This is just the first stage of your preparation. Don't worry if this is, you're going like, how am I going to do this? This seems very, very complicated. You will get it. You do not worry about this. For example, in my VIP group, we do a whole module on examples. Plus we look at each of the different five essay types individually for all of these different things. We also have Facebook live videos on examples in the VIP Facebook group. We constantly give people work to do. They do them. They practice them. We give them feedback on them. That's how they learn and that's how they get it. If you're not fully understanding all of this or you get your feedback later on tomorrow and you're not perfect yet, you don't need to be perfect. It is a process and you will get there eventually. Let's look at our paragraph. This is because big data and the fact that we are all connected via the internet means that algorithms can learn basic tasks. This is our explanation. I haven't put the topic sentence in here. As a result, software does not need to be programmed, but can learn from millions of other devices around the world. The bit in purple, that is my explanation. Here is my example. For example, Tesla cars now come with autopilot, which drives the car itself and shares the data with all other Tesla vehicles. This is a perfect example because it's a real car that actually drives itself. If you know of an example that perfectly supports your main idea, then that's great. Use that. I really love Tesla cars. I read about them quite a bit, but you don't need to use a Tesla car as an example. It fits perfectly here, but there are 100 different other examples that you could use. This is the full paragraph. You can pause the video and you can have a read of this, but let's just talk about it briefly for a moment. We have the topic sentence in the first sentence here. What does the topic sentence do? It says, hello, Mr. Reader, hello, Mrs. Reader, whoever is reading. This is what I'm going to talk about. Then the next two sentences, and it doesn't have to be two sentences. Your explanations could be one sentence, three sentences, four sentences. Do not worry about number of sentences or number of words really focus on the actual quality of your work rather than how short or how long it is. What this does is it explains fully what I think about my main point, how it answers the question and approves my main point. Then the example helps support my main point. Think about this as an argument. If I was to make this argument, it's very, very strong. It's very clear. It's easy to understand. The reader knows exactly what I'm talking about. Paragraph two, is it a positive or negative development? This is the second question. This is going to be our second main body paragraph. Main idea, because it reduces workload. Explanation. This would be my plan. Explanation, AI does boring repetitive tasks, freeing up time to do other things. Examples, Google Home, Amazon Alexa. I don't know whether you've heard of those before. Pretty big in the UK and the US. They're basically smart devices. They're devices that you have in your home and you can talk to them and they use AI to answer questions and do tasks for you in the home. Uber uses AI within its app. Netflix uses AI to learn your viewing preferences and many, many, many, many, many thousands of other examples. Am I going to use all these examples in my essay? No. This is to show you what I would write if I were planning this out. I would quickly just jot down some examples. I would write very brief explanations. My main idea would be very, very clear. Then what I do, how easy is it going to be to write a main body paragraph when you have thought clearly about this? You've all planned out. Don't worry about time, guys. This will save you time. If I was just starting to start writing a main body paragraph, it could take me, let's say if I'm an average student, it could take me 10 minutes or 15 minutes, let's say 15 minutes to write a main body paragraph. But if I spend two minutes or one minute writing all this out, it reduces that time from 15 minutes to five to six, seven minutes, something like that. Putting in the effort to plan things out really does make a huge difference when you're starting to write your main body paragraphs. Let's have a look at this. Automation should be welcomed because it frees people from the drudgery of everyday duty. This is my topic sentence. It's saying it's a good thing because it means we do less work. That's basically what it's saying. Then I have to explain this point. Our day-to-day lives are dominated by menial, repetitive chores that take up much of our time. Automating these is possible and technological solutions allow us to focus on more meaningful activities. Then I need to explain this. For example, there is now a robot that both cuts grass and hoovers carpets and the manufacturers estimate that this will save the average person three weeks per year. What I've done is I've said, it saves you time. Here's how it saves you time. Here's an example of it saving you time. Then what I've done is I put a little further explanation onto the end here just to show you that what a lot of students do is they think that there's only one way. When I teach them how to do anything, they're like, okay, I'll stick exactly to that. Some other students say, well, can we write three explanation sentences? Can we write one at the end? Can we write that? You can pretty much do what you want, guys. And this is to show you that if you wanted to add a little bit of explanation at the end to really solidify it, you can do that also. Owners are free to choose what to do with these extra hours instead of being forced to carry out routine work. It's just a further explanation. It's not a conclusion statement or anything like that. It's just a further explanation. Don't overcomplicate this and be like, do I have to do that? Do I not have to do that? As long as you have the three essential elements, the topic sentence, which always be first because it's a topic sentence, then you have your explanations, then you have your examples, that is going to help you write a clear main body paragraph that will help you prove your point, help you demonstrate that you know what you're doing. Okay, so now you're going to do the same thing for this question. So you're going to look at the question below and follow the steps outlined in this lesson to write a main body paragraph. So take a screenshot of this or write it down, whatever you have to do and pause the video and you can have a look at this. You already have your introduction. So what I would suggest you do is if you're very happy with your introduction, use that. If I highlighted some things in the feedback yesterday, that means that you need to redo your introduction, redo your introduction, and then use your introduction as kind of a mini plan that will help you write the rest of your essay. So let's look at some checklists, some things that you guys didn't do so well, how you can improve and we'll look at some VIP samples as well. You probably have noticed that I'm a little different from your average teacher if you're looking at these lessons and looking at the feedback that I give you. One of our main principles in our company, so we have 10 key principles is that we treat everyone how we would want our loved ones to be treated. So if my wife was doing the IELTS test or my son was doing the IELTS test, how would we treat them? That's one of the reasons why we've been so successful. We're not just putting stuff out there and not really caring about it. We deeply care about you guys and about the stuff that we put out there and we really care that you get the scores that you need. So would I want a teacher to lie to my son or lie to my wife? No. So some of you have said that you're very negative when you're always criticizing us and you're always telling us that we're not good enough. I don't want to lie to you guys. I don't want to tell you that you're doing a good job and then you go and do the test and fail. I'd rather be very, very honest with you and point out your mistakes and point out your weaknesses so that you can improve. However, would I want a teacher to be negative all the time? No. I don't think that I should be negative all the time and I'm not negative all the time, especially when you work with me on a daily basis or work with me more closely, but do realize that I have to be a little bit negative during these feedback sessions. I believe in being compassionate, so caring about the person that you're teaching, but many of you need the truth and looking at your work, many of you are going to fail. There's no, and I'd say that the vast majority of you, if you continue down the road that you're going on and do not improve, then you're going to fail. I'm just being honest with you because I care about you and I don't want you to fail and I want you to start taking action. But you will pass, you will get the score you need if you change, but if you do the same things, you will get the same result. If you just keep doing the same things over and over and over again, you're going to get the same result. Fail, fail, fail, fail. You're going to have to make some big changes, guys, and you're going to have to start doing things in a different way. But if you do those, there is light at the end of the tunnel. So let's look at all of the common mistakes that I picked up from looking at all of the writing that you guys submitted. And what I want you to do is think about your own writing and if any of these things apply to your own writing and then you can go back and apply that and improve. So many of you just did not follow the basic structure. So for example, with this one, so no real topic sentence, putting the example straight in there, not clear where topic sentences, the explanation and the example. As I said yesterday in the feedback, it's totally up to you how you structure your own essay. You're an adult. It's totally up to you how you want to do that. I'm just telling you based on years and years and years of experience, helping people get the scores they need, that the structure that I suggest is does work. And it is very simple and easy to understand. So I would strongly recommend that you follow that. If you don't want to do that, that's fine. But I would strongly recommend doing it. Same with this one. So let's have a look at this one. The benefits are numerous and it enhances the transportation system of the country thereby reducing road accidents and ensures proper conditions of cars. Okay, so I kind of know what you're saying here. But where are your explanations? Where are your examples? Where is the topic sentences? Again, you might say, oh, but this just does the job, right? And this says what I want to say. But you have to give the examiners what they want. All right, so you have to understand what the examiners are looking for, and then give the examiners what they are looking for. If you don't do that, you're going to really, really struggle. A lot of you just didn't have any paragraphing whatsoever. This is a real these are really easy marks to throw away. And the simplest marks you're going to get are showing paragraphs. And it doesn't matter if you skip a line or you indented or you skip multiple lines, all you have to do is just show the examiner. Here's where one paragraph ends, and here's where the next paragraph begins. That's all you have to do. And there are multiple ways that you can do that. But what you've done here is you've said to the person reading this, your time is not as important as my time. I didn't have the time to put in a paragraph. I don't care about you. My time is more important than your time. So I want you to spend the time trying to figure out where one paragraph ends and where the next one begins. You're throwing away easy marks, and you're making it more difficult for the reader. If you follow just one rule, make it easy for the reader, make it easy for the reader to understand your main points and how they answer the questions and your structure and all of those different things, that's what good writing is. It's making your message very clear to the person reading it. Again, no paragraphing here whatsoever. There are multiple ones like that. Some of you just copied my sample. So let's talk about copying for a minute. The IELTS test is not a memorization test. You cannot look at lots and lots and lots of sample answers, which many of you have asked me for. Many of you have been asking, can you give me lots of samples? And what you're really saying is, can you give me lots of samples so that I can copy them so that I can copy what you do and put it into an essay? Now, IELTS know that you're doing this. So they haven't made the test a memorization test. They've made the test a writing test. They've made the test a thinking test. They need you to do things like analyze and evaluate your own work and to create ideas and explain those ideas and respond to the specific question being asked. You won't be able to do that if you're memorizing stuff. And that also includes memorizing vocabulary, memorizing grammar structures, all of those different things. You have to start to operate individually and independently. A lot of you just didn't have a position. So position, what I mean by position is that you just didn't state what you think about it. So let's have a look at this one. The world has experienced a huge unprecedented advancement in technology in recent years, particularly in the automation industry. So this really isn't a topic sentence. What this is is just a paraphrase of the actual question. There's no position here. There's no opinion here. There's no main idea here. Vehicles are manufactured with the technology of AI for self-drive. Again, just repeating the question. No position whatsoever. Taking an example of Vorge cars which are made in China, they have devices that are able to be remote controlled and hence self-driven. Due to this, they are best selling cars in China. Okay, so this is a very, very common mistake. And I think it comes from in a lot of cultures, because I've taught in many countries where this is the case and I have students from all over the world. In many cultures, it's not taught that you should take a very strong position on something. It's not within, you know, in the education system, children are just not taught to take a very strong position. You kind of dance around things rather than being direct. You are very indirect. And this is what can happen. So what this person has done is they've just wrote everything they know about automated AI cars. The task being set is not write everything you know about the topic. The task is respond to the specific question being asked to show how you understand the question and how you can clearly convey what you mean in a piece of writing. So that should be your goal, not write everything you know about the topic. Also, there were many of you, and this is very, very common, a very common mistake, massive focus on vocabulary. So your vocabulary mark is important, but it's 25% of your total mark. What the person who wrote this thinks that vocabulary is the most important thing. Driverless vehicle, technological lift, automation sector, computer manageable programs, interpret human like sensitivity, invest in further control, like all of these things, they're they're showing off. They're trying to impress the examiner rather than just answer the question. And a lot of this vocabulary is wrong. So what's happening here is A, you haven't answered the question. So you've got a low mark for task achievement. B, your answer is not clear. So you get a low mark for coherence and cohesion. And C, you have made lots of vocabulary errors. So you get a low mark for vocabulary. And also D, you might make lots of grammar errors because you don't know how these words operate in a sentence. So this is, many people will look at this and think, wow, this person knows big words, they must be really good. Actually, it's one of the worst ones that we saw. Be very, very careful about showing off how amazing your language is. Again, this is not your fault. This is related to the fact that many of you have gone to IELTS schools or have IELTS teachers that tell you all you have to do is, you know, insert lots of big words and you'll get a high score. Now, if that were true, then all of you would get a really high score, because that's what a lot of you do. Most of you don't get a high score. Why do you think that is? Do you think it's a good idea to keep doing these things that all of your teachers and websites and YouTube videos tell you to do? Or do you think that you should maybe change the way you do things and start doing things effectively? A lot of you had a lack of cohesion in your samples. So some of you wrote your introduction and included your introduction with your main body paragraph, which was great to see because one of the things that examiners will be looking for is do that your ideas, your outline of your main ideas in your introduction match your main body paragraph. So this person has said this is due to the advancements in technology. Okay, so that's fine. No problems there. However, that needs to be in your main body. So their main idea here is manufacture more efficient cars than in the past. That's two different things. So what you've said is to the reader, you've said, I'm going to talk about advancements in technology. So they're expecting that and then you talk about something else. So it's kind of like going into a restaurant and the waiter saying, yeah, our special today is steak. Would you like a steak? You're like, yeah, you're sitting there, you're expecting a steak and then they bring out a bowl of ice cream. It's like there's no cohesion there. There's no congruence there. Why do we write an introduction? We write an introduction to tell the reader what's going to happen. That needs to match up with the main body. So be very careful there that they all match up. Also, a lot of you had very, very vague topic sentences. For example, it is a refutable fact that a human has made a huge progress in technology, very vague background statements. Don't write a background statement. Write a topic sentence. There's a massive difference between topic sentences and background statements. Background statements will always have words like nowadays, improving day by day in modern life, in the modern world. They very, very rarely actually state your main idea. Topic sentences are simple. Just write, this is my main idea and write that down. Also, a lot of you had explanations not answering the question. So if you have a look at this one, you'll see why. So if we have a look at the explanation here, the cars with this technology have automatic brake in case of crash danger, automatic temperature adjustment and self-driving by driver choice. Now that's telling me everything this person knows about what they know about an AI controlled car, but the question wasn't what is an AI controlled car. If the person, if the question was what is an AI controlled car, then this would be great. But the question is not what is an AI controlled car. So you have to answer the question that is actually being asked. Another common problem was example not proving main point. So let's have a look at this. So this person is talking about Cristiano Ronaldo. So what? So just because Cristiano Ronaldo drives an electric car, an AI controlled car, what has that got to do with your main point? What has that got to do with the question? Make sure that your examples actually prove your main point. If they don't prove your main point, then why did you write them in the first place? There was also other examples of poor examples. Let's have a look at this one. For example, my uncle owns a self-driving car and he is amazed by the precision and accuracy of these automated systems adding to the mental rest of not driving when the road is really congested. So just because your uncle drives a car, that doesn't mean anything. That's just one person. So be very, very careful with using personal examples. Like, I could say something like, my grandfather smoked 20 cigarettes a day and he lived until he was 100. Therefore, smoking doesn't cause cancer. Would that be true? So yes, it's true that my grandfather smoked 20 cigarettes a day, but that doesn't prove that smoking isn't harmful to your health because it's just one person. So don't use one person to prove a general point because there are always anomalies. So be very, very careful with those personal examples. Let's have a look at this example. For instance, recent news update has it that one of the richest man in Africa was seen in a sophisticated software install car. Okay, again, one guy. One guy does not prove anything. You need to use something that proves the general point, that proves the overall point. Not one guy. Okay, so what do you do now? Do you say, oh no, I'm going to fail? Like, just because you made a mistake doesn't mean that you're going to fail. If you continue to make these mistakes, you will fail. But what you need to do is look at these common mistakes and then honestly evaluate your own writing and look at it and then correct it and work on it and continue to think about these common mistakes. If you do that, you're going to improve. If you don't do that, you won't improve. It's very, very simple. You'll hear me saying this a lot. Like, keep it simple. It's very simple. I try and think of things in as simple terms as possible. Now let's look at some of the samples from our VIP students. So I asked them to create some samples for you guys so that you can see the difference and so that you can see an effective main body paragraph. Okay, here is a VIP sample. What I want you to do is just look at each sentence and think about what that sentence does. So let's look at the first sentence. Artificial intelligence is being introduced to many vehicles to reduce the number of road traffic accidents. So do you know what this person thinks about the question? Absolutely. It is very clear and easy to understand. If you read this main body paragraph, would you find it easy to understand it from the first sentence? Absolutely. So it's very clear what their main idea is. Their next job is they need to explain how this main idea answers the question. Next sentence. This is because thousands of people are killed on our roads every year and AI can control cars better than human beings. So what this is doing here is imagine they're explaining this to somebody who knows nothing about the topic, like a 10-year-old boy who knows nothing about AI or cars or anything like that. The 10-year-old boy would say, well, how is AI going to reduce the number of road traffic accidents? Here it is. Okay, this is how it does it. Then the 10-year-old boy might say, well, how does it do that? The software scans oncoming threats using a variety of sensors and can even anticipate collisions before they happen. Oh, really? Okay. I totally understand why that is. I understand why AI is being introduced and I understand exactly what's going on. But can you give me some evidence to help that? Okay. For example, Google has developed a driverless car and after testing it on public roads, it has only had one accident while driving millions of miles. The same number of miles driven by humans would have resulted in many more serious injuries and fatalities. Oh, okay. I know exactly what you mean then. Also, look at the vocabulary. It is high level without showing off. They're not inserting words randomly. They're using vocabulary effectively and appropriately. Look at the grammar. They're using a mix of complex and simple sentences. They are using a range of different range of grammar and all of it is correct. There's no grammar errors in it. This is the level that you want to get to. So this is one student. Let's have a look at another student. This should be seen as a negative development because of the number of jobs that will be lost. So this is a different student answering the second question. So do you understand whether they think it's negative or positive? Yes. Do you understand why they think it is? Yes, because of the number of jobs that will be lost. Well, what question would that 10-year-old boy be thinking now? How will AI cause jobs to be lost? Let's see if they've answered that question. Automation will always be more attractive to companies and consumers because it is much cheaper than human labor. Drivers account for a large proportion of the workforce in any economy and removing them will result in mass unemployment because they will be replaced by machines. Oh, okay. So it's cheaper to have machines so people are going to lose their jobs. I understand that. Do you have any evidence for that? For instance, Uber is developing new driverless taxis that will not require a person to operate them and it is estimated that this could lead to around 300,000 taxi and Uber drivers losing their livelihoods in the UK alone. So this was a newspaper article that was in the Times, I believe, not so long ago. One of the things we do with our students is we encourage them to be reading the news every day. And then that's where a lot of you were asking yesterday, what happens if I know nothing about the topic? Well, you shouldn't know nothing about the topic because you should be reading in English every single day. So let's have a look now at a checklist. Here are some things that you should have in your main body paragraph, some things you should be thinking about. So does my main point match what I stated in the introduction? It should. Is my topic sentence clear? Does my explanation actually explain how my main point answers the question? It should. Does my example make sense? It should. Does my example directly support my main point? Why would you write it if it doesn't? Number six, have I used vocabulary in a way that makes my writing easier to understand, not more difficult to understand? Is my vocabulary accurate? In other words, do you understand how to use the words and do you understand the meaning and the collocations and everything about that word before you put it into your writing? Is my grammar accurate? Can I understand what I've just produced? If you can't understand it, nobody else is going to be able to understand it. Is it clear where one paragraph ends and the other begins? Paragraphing. And if you can answer those, and I've just made it really, really simple for you guys, it's so easy to understand this now. And like literally, you just need to apply this to your own writing and you will get better. So today we're going to look at what is a conclusion. And we're going to look at how to write a conclusion. Then we're going to look at proofreading and checking. These are two slightly different things. We're going to give you a checklist of things that you need to have done in your essay. And you can do this at the end of your test. And we're also going to look at time management a little bit. We're going to look at a demo, going to show you what to do. And then it will be your turn to write your full essay. So we're going to give you a completely different question to do, a double question, but on a different topic, so that you can apply all of the different things that you have learned this week, and that you can activate that knowledge, do the thing. And then I'll give you feedback later today. Okay, so what have we achieved so far this week? We've looked at how to write an effective introduction. We've looked at how to write effective main body paragraphs. And now we're going to complete our essay with how to write a conclusion and check our essay at the end. So let's have a look at the question. Nowadays, more tasks at home and work are being performed by robots. Why do you think this is happening? Is it positive? Is it a positive or negative development? And this was the introduction that I showed you. Just to clear something up, many of you said, why did you use robotics when you told us that robotics was not allowed? You couldn't change AI to robotics? I'm not changing AI. I'm changing robots to robotics. So again, guys, be very careful to understand the actual question and read the question before jumping to conclusions. All right, so what is a conclusion? This is where we state our opinion. So before we move on, many of you might be like, what, opinion? We're not doing opinion essays. What is he talking about? Don't worry, we'll discuss that. This is where we summarize our main ideas. So the two things, the two primary things that a conclusion is, is it's a summary of your main ideas. And it's a clear statement of what you think about the question, your opinion, or another way to say your position. So the conclusion is your position plus a summary of your main ideas. Read any academic paper, any academic journal, and you'll be able to find the main points in the introduction and the conclusion. The best advice that I ever received from a teacher was from my old high school science teacher. And he used to give us, he was an amazing teacher, and he was always pushing us to go further and to learn more. And he's a very inspirational guy and taught me a lot about science and about teaching. And he used to give us university level, academic, scientific, academic journals. And we would look at them and say, like, oh, these are like thousands and thousands of words long. How will we ever learn this? His name was Mr. Rafferty. And he said, easy. What you do is you read the introduction, then skip everything else, and then just read the conclusion. By reading the introduction and the conclusion, you will understand everything in that journal article, because that is where everything is summarized and stated, and everything is very clear and easy to understand, and you don't need to read the rest of it. And that was the best advice I ever got, because it meant that I did really well in university, because when I looked at journal articles, I would just read the introduction, read the conclusion, and it was very easy for me to understand everything in it. This is why you need to write a good introduction and conclusion, because that's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to, the introduction is, hello, Mr. Reader, Mrs. Reader, this is what we're going to discuss, conclusion, hello, Mrs. Reader, Mr. Reader, this is what I just discussed, a summary of everything. But there's no opinion, so many of you might be asking, like we didn't do opinion questions, we just did double questions. So if you think about it, every single question on the IELTS Reading Task 2 paper is asking for your opinion, asking for your position on something. Let's think about this for a second. Imagine you get a question that says, what are the advantages and disadvantages? What they're asking you is asking you, what do you think, what do you think the advantages are, what do you think the disadvantages are? In other words, what is your opinion on the advantages and disadvantages? If they ask you, what are the problems and solutions? What they're asking you is, what do you think are the problems? What do you think are the solutions? So every single question might not be asking you for your opinion, so asking you, in my opinion, I think this, by stating what you think the advantages and disadvantages, problems and solutions, answering the double questions, you're stating what you think about something, and that's what you need to do in your conclusion. If you got a double question like this, why is this? That's asking for your opinion. Is it a positive or negative development? That's asking for your opinion. It's asking for your position on, do you think this is a positive or negative development? So once you start to understand that, the questions become much easier and more straightforward. So there's three elements to a good conclusion. A cohesive device, which is a linking word, your opinion, in other words, your position, what you think about the question or questions, and a summary of your main ideas. That's all it is. Okay, so let's look at each of these elements in more detail. Cohesive device. You're only going to write one conclusion in your IELTS writing test. So learn just one way to start your conclusion. Some students that I work with say, can you give me 10 different ways to start a conclusion? It's like, why? Why? That would be a complete waste of your time and waste of, your brain can only store a certain amount of information. You're only going to write one conclusion. So just learn one or two ways to start your conclusion. And those are in conclusion to conclude. You don't get any extra marks for writing anything fancier than that. So why would you learn 10 or 12 different ways to write, you know, in conclusion? Also, don't ask me in the comments, how about this way? Or how about this way? Or can we do it this way? Can we do it that way? The reason why I'm saying don't do that is you only have a certain amount of time before you start writing your test. The clock is ticking between now and you doing your test. Don't waste time on things that don't matter. The other 10 ways that you can start your conclusion do not matter. Just focus on what actually matters and ignore all the things that do not matter. And that will mean that you're spending all your time focusing on things that will actually improve your score. And you're not wasting your time on anything else. Now you're going to reiterate your opinion. Reiterate means state again, because you've already stated your position or your opinion in the introduction. Now you're going to state it again. Number one, do not worry about repetition. Many of you have been saying to me over and over and over again, my teacher says you can't repeat anything. My teacher says you can't repeat anything. Okay, if they say that to you, number one, say why does Chris get all these really, really high marks? Are they fake? Is he lying to us? Or maybe you have not understood the official marking criteria. This is the official marking criteria. This is what the examiners use in every single country in every single sentence or center, sorry. And what does it say here? Presents a clear position throughout the response, throughout. Presents a clear position in other words, opinion throughout the response. So not just in one place throughout the response. So maybe your teacher is correct and I'm wrong and the official IELTS marking criteria is wrong. I'll let you decide which one is who is correct and who's not correct. So paraphrasing, do not worry about repeating your main ideas again, but this does not mean that you can copy the same word. So you have already stated your position in the introduction. If you don't understand this, go back and look at the introduction module, the introduction video. So we take our main ideas from the introduction and we paraphrase them. This makes it extremely simple to write a conclusion and ensures that your position is clear throughout the whole essay. And again, some of you might be saying, but I don't know how to paraphrase. If you don't know how to paraphrase yet, you're not ready to get the score that you really want yet. You will get there eventually. But saying, you know, I want a high IELTS score, but I don't want to paraphrase. You know, it's like me saying I want to buy a Ferrari, but I don't want to spend any money. You know, what you want and the price that you have to pay, you have to pay a price for everything you want. That price could be money. Like if I want a Ferrari, I have to pay money. For you guys, what you want is a high IELTS score. The price that you have to pay is work and effort and sometimes money by seeking out someone who can show you exactly what to do. There's a price to be paid for everything. Summary of main ideas. Someone should be able to read your conclusion only and tell you what your main ideas are. So somebody should be able to look at your writing, your essay, ignore the introduction, ignore the main body paragraphs and just focus on the conclusion and tell you exactly what you just wrote about. Exactly what your main points are. Exactly what your whole essay is about. Again, don't worry about repeating your main ideas, but you just paraphrase. You must paraphrase. This will make the conclusion easy to write and ensure you summarize your main ideas. So here's a demonstration of that. Okay, so here is my introduction. Robotics increasingly play a role both in the home and the workplace. So that was the question being paraphrased. Okay, that was the very first sentence. This is occurring because of advancements in technology. So that is my opinion plus my main idea. This is occurring because of advancements in technology. That's my position on the first question. And that's my main idea also. And it should be seen as a positive development. That is my opinion, because it reduces a person's workload. That's my main idea. So what the question is about my position on it, my main ideas are all in the introduction. Now we need to just take this and we need to create a conclusion. Let's see how we've done this. In conclusion, machines carry out tasks for us due to the fact that engineers and computer scientists are pushing the boundaries of science and engineering. And these innovations should be welcomed because they emancipate humankind from routine toil. I used a lot of really high level vocabulary in there, guys, because many of you were asking for this and saying that the stuff that I was writing was too simple. The reason why another reason why I don't use like really, really, really high level vocabulary is it makes it really difficult for you guys to understand it. Many of you might be looking at this and going like routine toil emancipate. What does that mean? I mean, this is way beyond a bad line. You do not need to use vocabulary at this level. But for you guys that are complaining that my work is too simple, there you go. Always check the question again. So you should be going back to the question. You should be thinking about the question. You should be thinking about your introduction. Does it match up? Does it answer the question? Then your conclusion, okay, does it match up with the question? Does it match up with the introduction? Does it mean the same thing? And then you're done. Remember, the examiner should be able to look at your conclusion only and understand that you've understood the question, that you have a clear position and what your main ideas are to support that position. Do that and you'll write an excellent conclusion. But that's not the end of your journey. You need to proofread. Why do you need to proofread? Number one, everyone makes mistakes, guys. Everyone. I, every single time I write an essay, I make mistakes. Every single time I do a lesson like this one, I make mistakes. I have to proofread it. Every single person on planet Earth has to proofread. So if, you know, if Oxford professors or Cambridge professors need to proofread, then you probably need to do that too. I make crucial errors every single time I write something. You make multiple crucial errors in multiple sentences every time you write. This is not a, oh, I'll do this if I have time. This is not an option. It's an absolute necessity. You need to do this if you're going to get a high score. So how to proofread? You should proofread three times. Once at the end of each sentence, then once again at the end of each paragraph, and then once again at the end of each essay. So when you write your sentence, full stop, read it, is it grammatically correct? Is the vocabulary correct? That's what you should be asking yourself. We're going to talk about all the other things you need to worry about at the end. That's what you should be thinking about. Then once you finish your paragraph, skip a line and look back at your paragraph. How is my grammar? How is my vocabulary? Does it make sense? Then at the end of your whole essay, read it all again, check it all again. So many of you might be thinking, I don't have time to do this, Chris. I barely get, you said that I have to plan everything, then write everything, then check everything, then proofread at the end. I just don't have time to do this. Unless you have time to do this, you won't be able to get the score you need. You're not going to be able to do this through time management tips or time management techniques or anything like that. Have a look at this. Look at the guys behind you saying Bolt. Look at how bad these guys are at time management. So do these guys need time management tips or do they need to run a bit faster? This is exactly like, this is someone getting a band nine and this is everybody getting six, six point five. You do not need to work on your time management. You need to work on your grammar, your vocabulary, your task response, your coherency, your cohesion. You need to work on task one, you need to work on task two, you need to work on introductions, main body paragraphs, conclusions, planning, proofreading, all of these things. Once you master all of these things, you'll be like Usain Bolt. Until you master all those things, you'll be like these guys, struggling to catch up. Is this impossible? No, it's not impossible. As you've seen all the results that I just showed you, every single one of those people that are celebrating today, because they got the results that they needed, all of those people were in exactly the same position as you are today. They had the same fears, they had the same doubts, but the difference between them and all of the people today who failed is they actually took action and improved themselves. So how are you going to proofread? As with everything I teach, you should be thinking of one thing and one thing only. What does the examiner want? You should only be looking for mistakes that the examiner will pick up on. As with everything I teach, you should also be thinking strategically, focus on your areas of weakness and get proper feedback on your work. So we've had lots of students over the years and every student is different. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Some students might really need work on articles, another on prepositions, another on tenses, another on vocabulary collocations, another on spelling, another on introductions, and any combination of those things. Becoming aware of the main reasons why you are getting 6 or 6.5 and not getting the score that you need is the most important first step to proofreading your essay. Because if you don't understand those things, you don't really know what you're looking for. If you have an expert giving you feedback on your writing, you know the things because they'll constantly, like when I send back essays to our VIP students, it's just a sea of red. They just see red everywhere, you know, fix this, do this, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. And that's not me being overly critical, it's just to be honest with them and open with them and show them these are the things you need to improve. And then when they're in the real exam, they'll be looking out for those things. So here are some of the things that you should be looking at when you're proofreading. Did you go over the word count? Did you answer the question? Is your message clear? How you answered the question? What you think about the question? Your position? Is it clear? Are your points consistent? In other words, does your introduction, main body, paragraphs, and conclusions, do they match up? Is your position clear throughout the essay? Did you develop your main ideas or do you just have lots of ideas that are undeveloped? How's your grammar range and accuracy? How's your vocabulary range and accuracy? How did you use cohesive devices? How's your paragraphing? These are just some of the things that you should be thinking about. These things should be at the top of your mind. So what you're actually thinking about when you're preparing, when you're practicing, when you're planning, when you're writing, when you're proofreading. So it's not proofreading starts, you know, months before you even think about booking your test, because you want to minimize the amount of proofreading you have to do. And you do that by starting today, by preparing properly. And then when you're practicing, think about your weaknesses. When you're planning on exam day, think about the things that you need to do. When you're writing, think about what, how do I give the examiner exactly what he or she wants? And then when you're proofreading, your proofreading is easy, guys, because you're just looking at it and going, okay, just checking off of I know that I prepared properly and I practiced and I've got feedback on my work. And I know exactly what to do. And yeah, good, I'm going to get the score that I need, move on with my life and forget about this, forget about Chris Pell and IELTS and all this silly stuff, so that you can just, you know, move on with your life and get over this obstacle and leave me to worry about IELTS. All right, guys, so this is your turn to put into practice everything you've learned this week. Artificial Intelligence will soon replace teachers in the classroom. Do you agree with this statement? What is an alternative to traditional face-to-face teaching? Write the whole essay using everything you've learned to write a band seven essay. Hello and welcome to the final lesson of IELTS essay builder. Well done for making it this far. And what we're going to do is give you your final feedback and do this through a live demo. So what we're going to do is I'm going to do a full demo lesson. So what I'll do is I'll share my screen and I will do the question myself. And what I'll do is I will take you through how I would think about the question, how I would think about writing it and write it live on the screen for you. So this will bring together all of the things that we have learned throughout this course and so that you can learn from it and compare your own writing and compare your own thinking. Also, what we'll do is we'll talk about how to take things to the next level. We do have a very small number of places available on our VIP course and I'll tell you a little bit about that at the end of this video. Okay, so hopefully you can see this. This is a document on Google Docs. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to look at the question that you have already attempted and I haven't looked at it. I haven't prepared an answer or anything like that. And I'm going to just do it as if I was a student and doing the test. Obviously, I have to talk you through it and because you can't read my thoughts. But I'll try and talk as much as I can about how I'm thinking about the question and as I write it. Now, because I'm doing it live, I will make small mistakes and that's all part of the process and I'll go and edit it at the end and as you would do in the real exam. Now, let's start. So the first thing we need to do is we need to understand the question. So artificial intelligence will soon replace teachers in the classroom. So artificial intelligence, AI, deep learning, computer learning, whatever way you want to put it, will replace teachers in the classroom. So this is going to understand this. I need to think about teachers and education. So what we're going to have is we're not going to have teachers. Instead, we're going to have artificial intelligence. So students will be learning by looking at computers or speaking to an AI robot or something like that. And it will be in the classroom. So I understand that and that's going to be in the near future. So it hasn't happened yet, but it will be in the near future. So in the test, the first thing I would do is just sit calmly and I'm not trying to think of any ideas or not trying to think of how to answer the question at all. Do one thing at a time and just think about what this means. Because if you don't understand what it means, then you're not going to be able to answer the question. Next thing I do is I would look at the type of question it is. So we have two clear questions here. So it's a double question. So I understand what that one is. So what I would do now is I would just separate this side. Most people are not good at multitasking. And what you want to do is give each question just total focus. So I'm going to ignore this question for the time being. And I'm just going to look at this one. So do you agree with this statement? So there's only two possible answers to this. Again, as I always say, keep it simple. There's only two possible answers. Yes, artificial intelligence will soon replace teachers in the classroom or no, they won't. Now, you could give your personal opinion. But the best way to answer this is just which one can I easily write about? Which one is the easiest to think of an idea, explain that idea, and to support with an argument and support with evidence. And I think the easiest one, because it's the near future, you're not talking about 100 years. No, I don't think that they will replace teachers. The reason for that is I can think of, you know, immediately two or three really good reasons why they won't. And I can think I can explain that and I can support that with evidence. So I'm going to think no for this one. So what I need to do now is think of an idea. So I would just think, if I imagine I'm sitting with a friend, and they said to me, do you think that artificial intelligence will soon replace teachers in the classroom? No, so why would I think that? What would what would be the first reason to pop into my head? Another way to think about it would be if this question was asked, if 100 people were asked this question, just randomly, what would be the most common reason? And I'd say them, there'd be two most common reasons would be teachers are needed for support. So that's things like feedback, discipline, things like that. So a computer can't really provide feedback, can't really get control children, especially young children. So that would be idea one. An alternative idea would be AI is not advanced enough. AI just isn't smart enough yet to really teach children or teach anybody. It's not just children. So I was talking about the classroom, but I'd alter in the classroom too, so it wouldn't just hone in on children. So what I'd do here is kind of put these together and put AI is not advanced enough to provide to educate. And I'll just put some ideas here, because remember, it's just the ideas phase. We haven't begun writing yet. And obviously, you wouldn't take this amount of time. I'm explaining this and talking through it. And in the real test, I would do this in one or two minutes. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to keep that one. How would I explain this? So a teacher needs to give feedback and support and discipline. Again, just very basic notes. I know that that's not grammatically correct or anything like that. It's just just doing quick notes. I think example I would use for this would be Google Translate. So if you look at Google Translate, it has two major flaws. The first major flaw would be it's not very good at translating language, demonstrating that AI is not advanced enough. The other thing is that a program like Google Translate obviously can't identify strengths and weaknesses, provide practice, things like that. So this is a very an example of AI, an example of a computer program that is a tool that is involved in education, but it's just not there yet. Maybe in 20 years it will be, but not there. So we already have the bones of the structure of an argument here. You wouldn't go into too much detail, just very brief notes. And then what you would do is just stop thinking about this one and move on to the next one. And again, it's taken me, I don't know how long to do that, but in the real test it would be a minute or two just to note down these things. So what is an alternative to traditional face-to-face teaching? So the idea that will pop into my head would be an online course, because I run an online course, but online course, a teacher can remotely do all of the things that a regular teacher can also do, also access to the best teachers in the world. In your local area you might not have access to really good teachers, but if you're using an online course normally you could have access to literally the best teacher in the world, and they could be on the other side of the planet. Example, so a lot of the best universities in the world have online courses now, where they record the lectures and they put them online and then they provide individual classes and practice activities and all of these different things. So already I have, this is my paragraph. So to check back, always check back to the question. So this is good. Do you agree? No I don't. Here's my reason. What is an alternative? Here's my alternative. Here's an explanation about why, you know, why is it a good alternative? And then an example here. I could use my own course, but I'm not going to. Okay so this is my argument. Now what you could do now is you could do a full, let me just, obviously you won't be able to color code in the real test, but just, it'll make it easier for you to understand this. Main body paragraph one, let's put soft, I'm not going to get into an argument about what soft skills are, but just for the sake of in the test, if I know, if just to encapsulate what that is. And let's put the main body to my courses. That could be two separate ideas and two separate explanations. What I tend to do when I'm planning stuff out is I don't really delete stuff. If I have a couple of ideas or a couple of explanations or a few different examples, I normally just keep them in here so that that gives me the freedom when I'm just in case I do use that, because when you start writing ideas pop into your head and you can go in different directions. So it's good to just have a few different options here. Conclusion, summary of above. So what this does, so now we have our complete plan. And what this does in the real test is, it allows us to be certain about what we're doing. Because if you don't have a plan, you don't know where you're going. Like, and there's a quote, I think it's Warren Buffett said, who was the richest man in the world, an idiot with a plan can outperform a genius without a plan. And the same is true for this. Like someone with a very, very high level of English who just starts writing without any plan might not do as well as someone who is more organized and has the plan down. Because what happens is you start to write without a plan and then you change direction and you get lost and then you have to start again and time is running out and you're in all sorts of trouble. So doing something like this. And again, in the real test, this would take me, you know, just a few minutes, but it is an investment of time. We know exactly what to do now. Okay, so now we're ready to start. When you are paraphrasing, always have this with you. So normally, you wouldn't just abbreviate words, like I've shortened artificial intelligence to AI, you know, let's say, FBI, everyone knows that that's the Federal Bureau of Investigation CIA, everyone knows that's the Central Intelligence Agency. If it's commonly known, everybody knows that AI means artificial intelligence. So if it's a common thing, then that's no problem. But you couldn't, you know, replace, replace teachers with RT, like that's not commonly known, BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, you know, you can do that. And so just be careful with shortening stuff. But for this, for the purposes of this, this is fine. So AI could so AI artificial intelligence could take the place of will soon replace could take the place of teachers, I'm going to keep teachers. Because in the test, what might happen is when you're paraphrasing, you might be like, teachers, teachers, teachers, I can't think of anything. Oh, I can't think of it. And then you're wasting time and then you panic, like if you have to replace one word, or you can't replace one word, that's no problem. They're not going to mark you down for that in the near future will soon replace will soon in the near future. So that's fine. I'm happy enough with that. Also, students get so obsessed with not repeating words. For key words that have no that have no or very limited ways of changing them. It is fine if you do repeat them, you should change them as much as possible. But only as much as possible, there's just there's a limited number of ways that you can change teachers, teachers, you could have educators, education, you know, people that teach things like that. And we'll try and do that as much as possible. But remember the purpose of the test, the purpose of the test is to assess whether you can clearly communicate in English through writing an essay. If you repeat a few words, that's not going to be a big, big problem. The big problem is the big, the bigger things involved in like the accuracy of your vocabulary, the propercy of your vocabulary, your grammar, your coherence and cohesion, your task achievement. So let's remind ourselves of the question. Do you agree with this statement? So this essay. This agrees with this statement. Because computers, which is kind of a catch all term for AI are not advanced enough yet. And second question. Always refer back as students can effectively use online courses. So what you want to do is you want to instead of immediately jumping into the next paragraph, read this and make sure that it makes sense. There's no mistakes. You're going to make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. I'm doing this live. I will probably make a series of mistakes. AI could take the place of teachers in the near future. Many believe that this essay disagrees with this statement because computers are not advanced enough yet. Students can effectively use online courses instead of attending class. Very clear. If you gave that to someone, they would know exactly what I thought about that. Two very clear reasons. Okay, so computer learning is not at the stage where it can do the job of an effective educator. Okay, so I'm saying that they're not advanced enough yet. Exactly what I said up here. And this is so we need to explain that this is because students require is because students require many things that a computer cannot provide, such as feedback, emotional support, and assessment. These soft skills the teachers have are absolutely essential for the proper education of a child or adult. There is no computer program that can compete with human beings. And there is no computer program that can compete with human beings at this level. Let's read this. Computer learning is not at the stage yet where it can do the job of an effective educator. This is because students require many things that a computer cannot provide such as feedback, emotional support, and assessment. These soft skills are absolutely essential for proper education of a child or adult. And there is no computer program that compete with human beings in these areas. Okay, for example, so I'm not going to use, I know up here we put translate, but just as I was writing, I was thinking of a better example that is linked to this because we want to link all this together with the example. And that's Grammarly. Grammarly, you can check it out. It's a tool that checks your English checks your grammar. But it has some major weaknesses. So that's so it's perfect for this. For example, Grammarly is a program, an application that can check for grammar errors, but it falls short for English learners because it cannot tell someone what their main weaknesses are or explain why the mistake was made or how it can be fixed. So for example, Grammarly is an application that can check for grammar errors, but it falls short for English learners because it cannot tell someone what their main weaknesses are or explain why the mistake was made or how it can be fixed. Okay. So I'm happy enough with that and we can move on to the next one. Alternative. Check back here. However, online courses can be used by teachers to improve lessons. Okay, so just explaining how to do online courses make education better. So compare IELTS is a really good example. Compare your local IELTS teacher who maybe doesn't know much about IELTS, but is working out of their local school and compare that with the very best in their fields who can record lessons and through things like Skype, provide interactive feedback or through online course platforms, provide practice activities and it just enhances the whole experience. For example, the very best universities in the world and I offer online learning platforms that allow anyone in the world to learn to enjoy their courses for free and also have the option of having feedback sessions with their tutors through Skype. Okay, let's have a read of this. However, online courses can be used by teachers to improve lessons. That is to say that they can enhance their ability to teach by using technology. This allows the very best in their field to reach anyone in the world to record their lessons and provide interactive feedback. For instance, the very best universities in the world named IELTS for online learning platforms that allow anyone to enjoy their courses for free and also have the option to of having feedback sessions with their tutors through Skype. I want to link it back to the question a little bit. This does not replace the teacher but makes them even effective and available to pupils. So I'm happy enough for that and I can do the conclusion. So the conclusion what I'm going to do is look up here at the introduction and I'm just going to paraphrase this. Although Neural they've not reached the point where they can educate on effective level due to lacking pedagogical is a fancy word for education. So although Neural Networks have made great strides in the past number of years they have not reached the point where they can educate at an effective level due to lacking however teachers I know I've repeated teachers many times I'll explain this in a second however teachers can never probably repeated technology as well don't be freaking out don't be like many people do teachers can use technology. Okay so I mentioned vocabulary there and repeating words so what I find with both students and myself is often you'll get to the end or even in the beginning or it doesn't matter where but particularly at the end you'll get and you'll be like oh I've used this word so many times or I've used this word so many times and it actually stops you thinking and writing and what you need to do is you need to write you need to think you need to get the answer on the paper. So a lot of people think that it is a vocabulary test instead of a writing test so it's better to repeat some words and then what you can do is you can go back and look and see you know have I repeated these words is there any way that I can vary them at the end because it's very very difficult to think of vocabulary writing ideas all of these different things at the same time um it's better just to focus on one thing at a time so I need to read this although neural networks have made great strides in the past number of years they have not reached the point where they can educate on an effective level due to lacking pedagogical skills however teachers can use these tools particularly online courses to enhance their teaching and help even more people learn so now what I need to do is I need to read the whole thing again to check grammar to check vocabulary to check all of these different things so let's read that many believe that AI could take the place of teachers in the near future this essay disagrees with this statement because computers are not advanced enough yet students can effectively use online courses okay computer learning is not at the stage yet where it can do the job but of an effective educator this is because students require many things that a computer cannot provide such as feedback emotional support and assessment these soft skills are absolutely essential for the proper education of a child or adult and there's no computer program that can compete with human beings in these areas for example grammarly is an application that can check grammar is but a fall short for English learners because it cannot tell someone what their main weaknesses are or explain why the mistake was made or how it can be fixed however online courses can be used by teachers to improve lessons that is to say that they can enhance their ability to teach by using technology but this technology because we're referring to online courses this allows the very best in their field to reach anyone in the world record their lessons and provide interactive feedback for example the very best universities in the world let me hover now for online learning platforms allow anyone to join their courses for free let's say lectures and also have the option of having feedback sessions with their tutors through skype this does not replace the teacher but makes them even more effective and available to a wider audience although neural networks have made great strides in the past number of years they have not reached the point where they can educate on an effective level due to lacking pedagogical skills however teachers can use okay so now what you can do is you can go through and see if there are any ways that you can improve the vocabulary a little bit so what you do is just check see if there are any words so teachers change that one to lecture because we're talking about universities teacher and you're not going to have time to really spend an hour thinking about different ways to write teachers instructors just to keep to keep the vocabulary Nazis happy online courses we did put a let's put distance learning and there's no other way of saying that there's no without getting really contrived so here we have computer computer one thing is to remember that you shouldn't just look and see computer computer you've you should look at the collocation so computer learning computer program that wouldn't be considered repeating that so don't worry computers plural form of it you know so don't worry about that you can drive yourself crazy with this and really mess your whole essay up by changing things in a way that's just wrong feedback feedback sessions change that to evaluation changes to comfort so i'm happy enough with that and and if you had time you would give it one last check you know for any little grammar errors or anything like that and but what you would do is use that checklist and that i gave you in the previous lesson to think about your own essay don't look at your own essay and be like oh i can never use grammar or i can never use vocabulary the way chris does or anything i'm a native english speaker i was lucky enough to be born in an english speaking country and it's also my job to teach english so you know don't think that you because your vocabulary is not as advanced as mine don't think you're going to fail you only probably need a band seven and which is much lower than on the level of this essay and so don't worry about compare don't make too many comparisons and also don't worry if your ideas weren't exactly the same you can use different ideas what you want to be doing is thinking about the core things so did you paraphrase effectively is your introduction effective is your main body paragraph effective if your is your other one effective is your conclusion effective is your grammar as accurate as it can be is your vocabulary as accurate as it can be it are your main ideas clear i'm well developed i have you clearly answered the question and if you can answer those those questions and then you'll be absolutely fine and way above what most people are and but you probably need a little bit of extra help and let's talk about that now so taking things to the next level so if you need help with more help with writing help with task one test help with the other types of questions you need help with speaking reading listening anything you need is included in the most successful online or offline course in the world we have helped more students get the scores they need than anyone else in the world whether that's an offline or online course does it actually work well let me show you something so no other course in the world has this number of successful students we are not saying that we are the best in the world what we do is just ask people to judge us on our results and more importantly our student results as you can see here this is just one person after the other all out of seven or above you know if you if you look at these in detail you'll see that it's all life changing stuff here and it's just one happy person after the other and if you consider that we only work with a very very very small number of people the number of happy students is unbelievable and then if you also look here you know a lot of other schools have testimonials no other school has one-on-one interviews with their past students every single one of these videos is a one-on-one interview with a past student all of them talking about how happy they are and how life changing it was to join IELTS VIP so if you're ready to take things to the next level you need to be aware of a few things we only allow a very very small number of people to join our course it's a VIP course we're going to give you VIP treatment we cannot give that VIP treatment to everybody because it's just impossible to do that so we only work with a very small number of people and we have to keep numbers low to keep standards high and you've seen this week what happens when we don't so what's the difference between this like mini course this essay builder course and the VIP course so this essay builder course was good it's kind of like a tuk-tuk it'll get you to where you're going but it's not obviously a Rolls Royce VIP course is the Rolls Royce of IELTS courses it's going to take you by the hand and show you exactly what you need to do in order to get the scores that you need so what now so you can join here we have a few places available that you can join immediately but you can only join at this link this is a special link just for you if you go to other links you will not be able to join it's closed to the general public so if you go to IELTSadvantage.com slash VIP Academy you will be able to get in today if you have any questions you can email me Chris at IELTSAdvantage.com and either myself or one of my team will get back to you but go and have a look at this link we'll also email it to you there's a video telling you everything you need to know about what's included and how to join and pricing and all of those different things go to that link and then if you have any questions feel free to email me so now you know how to improve your task to writing and we're going to move on to speaking and help you with that but one of the biggest challenges that students have when it comes to speaking is where to find real genuine questions and how to use those questions at home for free to improve their speaking that's exactly what we're going to give you we're going to give you more than a thousand real IELTS speaking practice questions and show you how to improve your speaking at home for free without paying for a course or a teacher so without further ado here's how to find those questions I'm going to give you hundreds of real IELTS speaking questions but I'm not just going to do that I want to improve your scores not just give you a bunch of questions band nine speaking students and we work with hundreds of them use questions very differently from students who struggle with the test so we're going to give you three things on top of giving you all of these questions number one I'm going to show you what band nine students do not do with speaking questions there are some key differences between what they do and what they don't do so first of all we're going to go through the don'ts then we're going to show you how students actually do use these speaking questions to practice and improve and get the score that they need then finally I'm going to share a VIP strategy with you this is a strategy that we give our VIP students that uses AI to allow them to practice their speaking questions at home and actually get feedback for free so you can not only use these real questions practice and get feedback all of this is 100% free but we're not just going to give you a link so that you can go and look at the questions because that is not going to help you improve your scores you have to watch the whole video to get access to the questions so without further ado let's get into it let's start off with the don'ts these are things that you should not do and these are things that band seven eight and nine students do not do when they're using IELTS speaking questions number one don't get overwhelmed sometimes when we give students hundreds and hundreds of questions they get completely overwhelmed and they think that their job is to analyze and look at and practice every single question and they need to be aware of all the different questions you do not need to do that don't look at hundreds of questions and think that you must have an answer for all of them or be aware of all of them just use them in the way that we're going to show you in this video so important don't get overwhelmed number two don't worry if you see a topic in there that you're not an expert in remember that it is a speaking test it is not a knowledge test or an intelligence test number three you should not try to prepare answers and memorize them and try to improve your speaking score in that way IELTS examiners are trained to spot this and they can easily spot it and what they will do is they will ask you other questions that you are not prepared for and they will base your score on those unprepared questions because IELTS is not a test of memorization because it is testing communication you don't use memorization when you're communicating with people in any language so don't try to prepare answers for any of them number four don't try and anticipate the different topics that come up if you go through all of these you will see that there are no common topics you could be asked about anything so you'll see lots of things online uh by you know youtube videos saying these are the common topics that might come up or here are the predicted topics that might come up this is just to get you to click on those videos none of those are actually real so don't try and do that this is a big one don't compare your performance with so-called band nine students that you find on youtube this is going to damage your confidence and it is also highly misleading now not to bash any other channels and not doing that or not going to mention specific channels but just looking at those you know band nine mock speaking tests or band eight or whatever they are the vast majority of them either are not actually band nine or band eight or the people giving feedback are not real teachers those videos are incredibly popular so what's happening is companies are hiring fake teachers and then hiring models and actresses to make IELTS videos about speaking but none of them are accurate so if you're comparing yourself to those people it's not a fair comparison and if you're watching too many of those videos you might be getting bad advice from unqualified teachers and the last don't is something that a lot of students don't really think about don't take these questions and look constantly for feedback so some students what they do is they'll look at the questions and then they'll ask their teachers or some online services to just constantly do mock speaking tests and constantly do feedback tests with them and give them lots and lots of feedback those things are important you should be practicing you should be getting feedback but the real improvement comes after you get feedback so if a teacher gives you feedback for example on pronunciation or fluency or grammar or vocabulary doing another mock speaking test is not actually going to improve those things at all there is such a thing as too much feedback so don't take these and just do lots and lots and lots of feedback sessions work on improving the things that you need to work on and you're going to see far more improvement if you work on your weaknesses okay let's get into the things that Band 7, 8 and 9 students do when they are using these practice questions okay so Chris here this is how you find the article with all of the practice questions in it I'm going to show you how to access them in three steps so step one what you're going to do is you're going to go to google and you're going to type in IELTS speaking once you have IELTS speaking up in google you're going to scroll through all the different websites and go to IELTS advantage so it might be on the first page it might be on the second page probably be in and around the middle of the first page you're just going to click on IELTS speaking how to get a band 7 or above IELTS advantage you're going to click on that that's step one one of the big things successful students do is they treat each part of the speaking test separately so part one part two and part three are very very different different types of questions different types of answers and the examiners are thinking about different things when they are assessing you so what you should not do is just take some part one questions a part two question some part three questions and then try and answer them all in the same way band seven eight and nine students don't do that keep watching this video but at the end of the video I'll give you some links so that you can understand the differences between the different parts it's very very important number two band eight and nine students understand the marking criteria it is far more important that you use these questions to understand the marking criteria then just to go through all of these questions use the questions to test yourself to practice to think about your performance and think about how are you doing in relation to the marking criteria that's the only thing that matters because that's the only thing that the examiners are thinking about on test day and we'll show you how to do that when we give you the VIP technique at the end number three get your speaking checked at least once by a real IELTS professional now I'm not saying that because I want you to buy our services we're normally completely sold out I'm saying this because it is so easy to spot if you're a real IELTS professional an ex examiner it's so easy to spot little things that the student is doing that will lead to failure and it's so easy to fix these things now many of you don't want to spend any money on this but it is a lot lot cheaper than failing your test and the difference between failing your test and doing a mock speaking test with a real professional is the real test costs a lot more and you get no feedback if you do a mock speaking test with a real professional it's much much cheaper and they are going to give you real actionable feedback you're going to know what's going on what your weaknesses are what your score is and how to improve your score but please be careful most people calling themselves ex examiners are not really ex examiners and your local IELTS teacher who has very little experience and has never been an examiner probably will not give you very good feedback it is better to find a source that you trust that you know that they're real ex examiners and they really know what they're talking about in general the more expensive ones are going to be more reliable the cheaper ones are going to be unreliable we do provide that service but we're normally sold out if you want more information get in touch with us but before you say oh my god he's only making this video to try and make money from us I'm going to show you how you can get real feedback accurate feedback for free at home at zero cost this is the same technique we give our VIP students it is extremely effective but you're going to need a few things so we're going to go through it step by step step two it should bring you to this page on our website IELTS speaking in 2023 this page has a lot of information on it what you're going to do is you're going to scroll down and you're going to keep scrolling you're going to keep scrolling you're going to keep scrolling until you get to IELTS speaking topics now let's go back to the video and I'll show you how to click on the article you need in step three first of all you're going to need practice questions real practice questions we're going to show you how to access those at the end of the video so you've got those the next thing is you're going to need either a phone or a laptop you're going to need some kind of electronic device that will record your voice most laptops most phones will be able to do this please don't ask should you use a laptop or should you use a phone it doesn't matter just pick something that you have that you can use to record your voice the next thing you need to do is download some kind of recording app or program to your phone or to your laptop now all you have to do is go into your app store or google I'm not going to name specific apps because they change all the time and it's so easy for you to just find this yourself the next thing you want to do is sign up for a service that automatically transcribes your voice so let me give you some examples but again these change over time do your own research so on an apple phone in the notes function you can just press the transcribe button and it will transcribe what you say there's also a service that you can use on your computer called otter.ai they have a free version of that software that will record your voice and transcribe it but as I said before do your own research find a tool and you'll be able to get this done but you do need one to record your voice so you can listen back and one to transcribe it there might be some apps out there that do both if there are put it in the comments let people know what you find and help each other okay so that's all the tech setup done next what you're going to do is you're going to pick one part of the test either part one part two or part three don't do a full test just pick one part and focus on one thing at a time so for part one you're going to use about nine questions part two you're only going to use one question and for part three you're going to pick three or four questions make sure that you don't study these questions we want to recreate the real test as much as possible don't look at easy questions and try and prepare answers all right just pick questions from the list don't look at them don't study them just pick them look at each question and answer it as if an examiner is asking you that question so read each question and answer it as if you are in the real test if you mess up don't worry about it this is just practice next i want you to download the official marking criteria i'll put a link below but if you just google speaking marking criteria it should come up on google as well what you're going to do is you're going to listen back and you're going to think about your performance you're going to read the marking criteria and think about which band you should get based on your own performance if you don't understand the marking criteria you don't understand the bands i'll put a link at the end of the video that will show you in more detail what the bands mean as you're listening back think about your biggest weaknesses so if you were you couldn't really answer the questions fluency is an issue if you can't understand anything that you say pronunciation is probably an issue or if you're making lots of vocabulary mistakes or grammar mistakes that's your biggest issue the great thing about this technique is when you're in the real test you're unaware of the mistakes that you are making but when you're listening back and just focusing on your mistakes and focusing on your performance you'll be able to pick out things that you were completely unaware of and you'll be able to fix those things and that takes us on to our next point you're going to look at the transcription whatever service you used that will write out your answers and you're going to analyze that in more detail so the first thing you're going to analyze is did you actually answer the question look at the question look at the transcription did you actually answer the question and did you develop your answer enough you can also analyze your fluency if there are lots of ums and as and pauses in the transcription if you're jumping around a lot then fluency might be an issue for you if the transcription cannot understand most of the words like the words are completely different then that is a pronunciation issue you can also analyze your vocabulary did you repeat too many words are you trying to use words that you don't really understand did you struggle with that topic because of a limited vocabulary and then with grammar what you can do is you can put that transcript into something like Grammarly for example or there are lots of other options and it will highlight all of the grammar mistakes that you made and you'll be able to identify your key grammar mistakes for example if you are using the wrong article before every nine you need to work on articles so this technique is not actually about improving your speaking yet this technique is to give you feedback as I said before feedback doesn't improve your speaking instantly but what you do after does so for example if you look at the transcript and you messed up every article being aware of that is just the first step you're not going to magically improve your speaking by just being aware of that but you will magically improve if you work on those things and some of you watching right now might be thinking well that's a lot of work yes it is but it's a lot less work than going and watching a bunch of tips and tricks videos believing that they're going to help you and then failing the test over and over again and not knowing why that is a lot of work this is actually a lot less stressful because you will be in control and you can do it all for free at home at your own pace again we're here to give you things that are actually going to improve your score not tips and tricks that make you happy so step three you should be here i'll speaking topics you're going to scroll down and you will see a link i'll speaking topics the ultimate guide click on that and it will give you access to all of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of questions that you will need for your speaking practice so now you know where to find all of those practice questions and you know how to practice at home and practice intelligently and strategically and constantly improve while you're practicing your speaking but what is really helpful for students is to understand the difference between the three different parts of the speaking test because each part is asking completely different questions and requires a different strategy so what we've done is we've created a speaking challenge a full speaking course for you and it covers strategies for part one part two and part three and it also shows you how to improve your speaking skills as well not only that we also give you the opportunity to send us your speaking and we will give you free feedback on it so without further ado enjoy the speaking challenge welcome to our speaking challenge over the next three lessons what we intend to do is help you improve your speaking ability to a band seven eight or even nine so let's get going what are we going to do in this challenge so there are three videos and we're going to make it really really simple what we're going to do in video one is focus on part one of the speaking test video two part two of the speaking test and video three part three of the speaking test the examiner is going to be judging your whole performance the totality of your performance so you can't just focus on one part you need to become proficient and be aware of all of the things that you need to do in each part and the thing about IELTS is each part is different they're testing different things different types of questions so we're going to look at each of these individually and then at the end of each video we're going to set you a challenge so there's no point in sitting looking at a video you could look at every single video that's related to IELTS in the world there are thousands and thousands of videos online and on youtube and they're just really the first step you need to do these things so we're going to set you a challenge at the end of these videos to get you to do the things that you have learned in the video and then you're going to improve but not only that we're going to get you to send us your challenges send us your tasks and then we'll give you feedback and you'll be able to improve even more our mission at IELTS Advantage is to help people improve their IELTS scores and we will do everything we can in this short three day or three video challenge to help you improve your speaking scores but if you need anything else if you need help with writing, reading, listening always feel free to just hit reply to any of our emails we respond to every single email that you send us and we'll help you out as much as we can if you have any questions or need help with preparation or anything okay so part one what are we going to do in this lesson we're going to look at what part one is it's really really important that you understand the types of questions being asked what the examiners are going to be thinking about what not to worry about all right in the speaking test it's really important that you only focus on the things that actually matter because if you go into the speaking test and you're worried about all the things that don't matter then that's going to affect your performance it's going to definitely affect your fluency but it could also affect your grammar your vocabulary even your pronunciation so we just want you worrying about the things that you actually need to worry about well look at common mistakes if you can avoid these common mistakes then you're going to do much much better and then we're also going to look at a real student who got a band eight in her her speaking test and show you some good answers and answers that could be improved to really demonstrate what needs to be done and finally we're going to give you that challenge okay so what is part one the most important thing to remember about part one is it is about you they're not going to be asking you questions about general knowledge or abstract ideas they're just going to be asking you questions like your hometown whether you study whether what your job is your likes and dislikes what you do in your free time so the best way to think about this is imagine you started a new job or started a new English class and you met a person for the first time just small talk every day chit chat just getting to know someone and that is all they're going to ask you about now they might throw in a few more unusual questions like I've asked people about their favorite hat or their favorite color and you may have been like what does that got to do with anything they will throw a few strange topics at you to test your ability but I wouldn't worry about that remember that every answer is you talking about you so the important thing is you can't get it wrong it's impossible to get any part one questions wrong because they are asking about you and you know more about you than anybody else this part will last about four to five minutes and they start off with quite easy questions like tell me about your your weekend or what you do in your free time or what your job is or where do you live your neighborhood and these are quite easy questions because they don't want to immediately start with really difficult questions because they want you to warm up and ease into this now that doesn't mean that these questions are not important remember you're being judged on all of your answers in total and so don't think that you can you know ignore these questions or not practice them they are very very important and but it will only last about four to five minutes and the examiner will ask you a range of questions so they definitely will ask you about either your hometown or your job or your studies or your home and then they might ask you a few other questions but remember they're just about you okay so do not worry so think about your brain as a computer so a computer has a cpu it has memory it has ram and what happens when you open up too many tabs or too many programs at the same time your computer slows down it doesn't perform very well your brain is exactly the same if you're going into the test and you're worrying about 20 different things and you're thinking about 20 different things at the same time then your brain is going to slow down your brain powers your mouth which is going to produce the sound produce the words produce the sentences if your brain is not working optimally because there are too many things going on you're not going to perform very well i have worked with students who should have got a band eight should have got a band nine but because their teacher was teaching them lots of things to worry about that they didn't actually have to worry about they only got about 6.5 because they were really it was suffering when it came to their fluency their pronunciation their grammar their vocabulary so here are things not to worry about this might sound really silly you don't have to worry about your clothes i've seen so many um articles online talking about what clothes you should wear what shoes you should wear it doesn't matter they're judging your speaking not your shoes um shoes greetings and the most popular speaking video related to aisles on youtube is how to greet the examiner it has millions and millions of views and it doesn't matter you are not being judged on whether you shake their their hand or what you say to them the the actual test that does not start until the questions begin okay so don't worry about greeting the examiner it doesn't matter what you say to them they don't care they it's like talking to someone at mcdonald's all right all they want to do is serve you and move on to the next person don't worry about the examiner don't worry if the examiner is not friendly it is not their job to be your friend it is not their job to make you happy it is their job to listen to you and to give you an accurate band score some examiners will be friendly some examiners will be very professional not too friendly but not angry with you or not they don't look upset some examiners will look upset or they will look angry it doesn't mean they are angry with you or they are upset with you they maybe just had a long day they are human beings or maybe they're just focusing on your pronunciation your fluency your grammar your vocabulary so often students will students that we work with on our VIP course we work with them very very closely and they would email us after their speaking test and they would say oh god chris i failed my examiner looked very angry it's like don't worry about that it doesn't that doesn't mean anything related to your actual score so talk to the examiner no matter whether they look happy or sad as if you're talking to a friend or a family member just put yourself in that sort of frame of mind hand gestures i use hand gestures all the time some people don't use hand gestures at all it doesn't matter you are not being judged on whether you use your hands or not and so don't worry about that at all eye contact it doesn't matter if you stare at the examiner all the time or you look at your feet it doesn't matter it's the words that come out of your mouth now the examiner is a human being you're a human being so just talk to them like they are a normal human being how would you use eye contact normally how would you use hand gestures normally how would you use body language normally you don't get a score for body language eye contact or hand gestures and any teacher that tells you that you do please just show them the official marking criteria and ask them where it says anything related to these it's nonsense but just use these as you would normally use them so these are things that you do not need to worry about but imagine going into the test and this happens a lot thinking about what body language should i use or my eye contact my hand gestures i hope that the examiner is happy to see me i hope that i greeted them the right way did i say that thing that that girl on youtube told me to say and hire my clothes and my shoes i hope that they are respecting the examiner none of that matters if you're thinking about that you're not going to do very well the only four things that you need to think about are pronunciation fluency and coherence grammar and vocabulary why do you need to only worry about these things because these are the only four things that the examiners are thinking about that's the only thing they are thinking about pronunciation fluency and coherence vocabulary and grammar so if you are totally focused on these things you're going to do really really well if you're focused on any of these things you're wasting your time so most of the things that we will be talking about in this challenge will be related to these four things this is how we teach people we don't look at tips and tricks and hacks and things that don't work we just teach you to give the examiners exactly what they're looking for okay so common mistakes these are things that you need to avoid and if you avoid these in part one you're going to improve your score so this is the most frustrating part not too short not too long i'm sure you're thinking oh like that's really horrible advice not too short not too long why don't you just tell me an exact number of words or an exact number of sentences some teachers will do that but i think that's quite bad advice and because we don't want you to go into the test thinking i need to use three sentences or i need to use four sentences because you're making it more difficult to speak naturally and you should be speaking as naturally as possible now you don't want to give a very short answer because you're not giving the examiner enough to really go on here's an example of a really really short answer oh i'm a student on what subject i'm studying msc marketing so as you can see rashmi didn't give a very long answer and that wasn't incorrect the grammar was fine the vocabulary was fine or pronunciation was fine but you're not giving the examiner enough to judge your performance on like if they said to me what what's your job and i say teacher that's correct i am a teacher but it is not giving the examiner enough to really judge you on for part one you don't want your answer to be too long either why is that well it's the examiner's job to ask you a range of different questions they're going to ask you between like nine and 12 questions so if and they only have like four five minutes to do that and they've got a queue of people outside waiting to come in and do the test and they have to get through all of those people so if your every answer is like two or three minutes long they're going to keep stopping you and stopping you and stopping you and the problem with that is you're going to feel like you've done something wrong you're going to feel a little bit stressed out by that and then that can affect the rest of your performance so again not too short not too long what does that mean don't think about number of sentences just answer the question and then give some extra detail for them to understand your your answer so instead of saying i'm a teacher if they asked me what my job was i would say i'm a teacher and i specialize in teaching IELTS to students online and i do that from my office here in northern Ireland so as you can see I just elaborated a little bit I added a little bit more detail you could add detail you could add an explanation you could add an example just a little bit more to go on don't think of number of sentences just think of answer the question and add a little bit more to help the examiner understand what you're talking about robotic delivery what do I mean by robotic delivery so think about how you speak naturally think about talking to one of your best friends how do you speak to them you imagine they say hey what did you do last weekend I went to the cinema I saw this great movie it was amazing very relaxed very natural delivery you wouldn't say imagine your friend said what did you do last weekend you wouldn't say I went to this cinema I watched a movie it was good you would never do that your would be like are you a robot what what happened to you what this happens all the time and I think it's because students respect the test and maybe respect the examiner and the formality of the situation a little bit and they speak to the examiner like a robot in a very slow robotic way that is not how you would speak to a normal person so why would you speak to an examiner like that so again imagine you were speaking to a friend a colleague a family member how would you talk to them that is going to help you improve your fluency but also it can freeze up your brain and you're you're more relaxed and you can avoid grammar mistakes avoid vocabulary mistakes and your pronunciation will be much smoother as well you'll be easier to understand memorized answers it's very very tempting for part one to try and anticipate some common topics and think okay they're going to ask me about my hometown they're going to ask me about my job they're going to maybe ask me about my home or my hobbies and to write out a very detailed answer with lots of idioms and lots of phrasal verbs and you know some amazing vocabulary and amazing grammar don't do that it is tempting to do that I know why you want to do that but the examiners are trained to spot that they know that you were doing that so if you give like often it will happen where you will ask a student to talk about their hometown and they give this amazing answer where they're talking about the architecture and the history of their town and famous people that used to live there and their favorite place there and it's it's all amazing and the examiners are trained to ignore that answer because they know it's a memorized answer and what they'll do is they will then ask you a more difficult question related to that topic so if they they said tell me about your hometown and you give a memorized answer they'll say things like is it a good place to bring up children and or they'll say what are the transportation links like to the rest of the country from your hometown and it'll be like I wasn't expecting that they're not judging you on your memorized answer they'll judge you on your I wasn't expecting that because that is your real ability it is not a memorization test it is a speaking test so next trying to impress the examiner this doesn't relate just to part one this relates to every single part the examiners are not stupid they are trained professionals who have been trained to spot when you are trying to impress them or trying to show off examples of this are memorizing fancy vocabulary memorizing fancy idioms memorizing fancy grammar memorizing anything in general and trying to regurgitate in the test they're not judging you on what the fancy things that you have memorized they're judging you on your ability to actually speak why do we do the IELTS test we do the IELTS test to test when we move to an English speaking country when we move to Canada or move to Australia or move to America or move to the UK and we meet someone can we talk to them in your job can you talk to them and when you meet them socially can you speak to people normally not trying to impress people with things that you have memorized they're judging you on your ability to naturally speak at your natural level and they are they know how to do that so memorizing things and trying to show off is a complete waste of time they're not judging you on that they're judging you on your ability to talk naturally so part one best practices these are things that you need to focus on these are things that you need to be aware of that you need to practice that you need feedback on and if you do all of these things you will really really improve and you will perform to the best of your ability okay so next one part one best practices natural all right we've already talked about this you're not in a memorization contest just speak to the examiner like they're a friend they're a colleague and speak as naturally as possible give reasons or give explanations or give examples or give extra detail that is going to help you develop your answer so instead of saying what do you do at the weekend I went to the cinema which which cinema did you go to why did you go there which movie did you see what did you think of that movie what was the character like who did you go with you don't have to answer all of those questions but those are just some examples that you could use to help you develop your answer by giving reasons by giving extra detail so you're not being judged just on fluency you're also being judged on coherence so what does coherence mean well for the purposes of the speaking test coherence means did you actually answer the question so if they asked you about what did you do last weekend tell them what you did last weekend not what you're going to do next weekend or what you had for dinner last night like you need to actually answer the question that might sound really obvious and really straightforward and Chris why are you telling us that you would not believe the number of students who memorize a bunch of answers and then try and fit their answer that they have memorized to suit the question don't do that just answer the question that they've asked how do you do that literally answer the question and then develop your answer you'll always answer the question if you follow that if already talked about this develop your answer by giving explanations giving examples giving extra detail and talk about things specifically all right when they ask you about a specific thing don't talk generally about that topic actually answer the question that they're talking about so if they ask you for example but your hometown is it a good place to bring up children don't talk about you know oh the architecture from 1789 and the history and the founding father that's not what they asked you all right they asked you the specific question answer the specific question and the questions in part one are not difficult so that should be pretty easy to do but people don't do that because they prepare memorized answers give examples and that is going to help you be as fluent as possible and you will become fluent if you practice and you are not worried about all of these things that you don't have to worry about we'll also talk a lot more about fluency in lessons two and three and grammar don't try and use every single tense in the known language and every single grammar structure use the grammar and the tenses that is that are appropriate to use in the circumstances so if they ask you what did you do last weekend you're going to use mostly past simple if they say how has your hometown changed in the last 20 years probably going to be using a mixture of present perfect and past simple if they're asking you how do you think your hometown will change in the future you're going to use will or it is going to if they ask you where's the best place to go to eat in your hometown you're going to use comparatives and superlatives so you shouldn't go in thinking i'm going to use the past progressive find like you don't go in thinking i'm going to use all of these different tenses and all of these different grammar structures just use the grammar that's appropriate to use in those circumstances don't overthink it and don't try and think i need to avoid every single grammar mistake possible even people who get a band nine make small grammar mistakes everybody does it native english speakers do it i probably have done it in this video when you are talking your brain is working so hard that you will make small little grammar mistakes but what you want to avoid is overthinking grammar and that is going to affect your fluency because if you think i don't want what is the correct grammar and is it is or are and first of the agreement and which 10 you're going to really overthink it and you won't actually answer the question the more you think about grammar the lower your fluency is going to be the less you think about grammar the higher your fluency is going to be and you'll probably make the exact same number of grammar mistakes avoid as many mistakes as you can but don't overthink so a really easy way to answer part one questions is answer the question give an explanation and give an example you don't have to answer every single question like that and in fact i would encourage you not to answer a hundred percent of questions like that because some of them you won't be able to think of an example or some of them won't need an explanation but if you practice using that most of your answers you will be able to answer them in that way so for example if someone asked me about my degree i studied law why did you study law so what did you study i studied law at university because i wanted to be a lawyer so that's my explanation and then i would give an example so when i left i became a lawyer and i worked in the city of london as a commercial lawyer for about three years and then decided to become an aisles teacher which is a true story okay so that's how you answer a question but you don't have to stick to that but it'll help you if you practice that way okay now i want you to listen to a student who got a band eight and listen to some of her answers some of them are really really good answers some of them could do with a little bit of improvement but i just want you to listen to them and think about her answers and how she has answered these questions so now let's talk about travel and do you like to travel yes i do and what do you hope to do with that degree after you finish oh i hope to work as a data scientist in the future yeah and where would you like to travel to in the future oh there are still a lot of places in india that i haven't seen so i might go there as well and i like i really like bali so bali and greece yes is traveling abroad very popular in your country oh yes it is it is quite popular so people mostly go travel during the summer but it's always summer in india so yeah i think movies have a huge role to play in it because they show all these destinations where there's snow covered mountains and all and that's very fascinating for us because we don't really get at least not where i come from so hopefully you are able to see rashmi and her performance and some things that she could have improved and some things she did really really well but hopefully by understanding this whole lesson and seeing what rashmi did and rashmi went on to get a band eight which is amazing in her speaking test and to show you exactly what you need to do but watching this video is just the first step the second step is completing the challenge so let's jump into my computer and we will show you exactly what to do for your challenge okay guys now comes the fun part where you are going to record your speaking and then send it to us so your task and this is really really really important if you don't do this then it is a complete waste of time and you're not going to improve and you're going to miss out on the chance to get better and get feedback on your work okay so it is a really really simple four-step process that you are going to follow in order to record your voice and send it to us and so the first step step one download a free voice recorder app for your phone so if you are an apple person if you have an apple phone go to the app store if you have an android phone go to the google play store and on both of those stores you're going to find hundreds and hundreds of free voice recorder apps that just make it really really simple for you to hit a button and it automatically record your voice don't ask me which one to choose there are too many to choose from just pick the one that you want to choose it's not that difficult so step two in the four-step process answer these questions and record your voice so you should have a phone you should have a app on your phone that record your voice you're going to look at these questions and don't pre-prepare the questions don't research the questions just pretend that you are in the actual exam and you are reading the questions just like the same way that the examiner would be asking you those questions so look at the question answer it second question answer third question answer it that's all you have to do all right so i'm going to show you the questions for part one okay so here are six questions look at each of them and then all you have to do is just hit record on your recording app and that's all you have to do step three send it to us via email so this is super simple to do you can do this on your phone or you can do this on your desktop so you will have my email address because i will have emailed you multiple times so all you have to do is this so imagine you are on gmail and you could be on yahoo hotmail whatever and just click the email that i sent you and click reply and then attach the audio file to your email and just hit send if you have any problems whatsoever then my email address is chris at ialtadvantage.com all right this is my email address chris at ialtadvantage.com but you will have received it many many many times before okay so now that you have sent us your recording what i want you to do is just wait have a look at your email inbox and we will send you your feedback video right to your inbox and then it's really really important that you look at this feedback that we send to you so that you can really learn what to do and really really improve and welcome to speaking lesson two so let's have a look at what we're going to do in this challenge so think about it as three steps step one we're going to look at part one that was the video before this today we're going to look at part two and then step three the next video the next lesson we're going to look at part three as i already said it's really important that you watch all three of these and do the tasks do the challenges for all three of them so that you can give your best performance on test day okay so part two of the speaking test what are we going to look at in this lesson we're going to look at what the goal is what is your overall mission what your overall goal is and if you focus on that it's going to completely change the way that you think about your performance in part two of course we're going to look at common problems and how to avoid those common problems common strategies you'll find a lot of strategies online on youtube maybe your teacher has taught you a few strategies and if you're watching this video those strategies probably don't work for you and i have a much much better strategy that actually does work and has repeatedly week after week after week for years and years and years got scores of a band seven eight and nine for my students and i'm going to share this with you today so what is the goal so the goal is to speak fluently and coherently for up to two minutes about the topic let's look at that again speak fluently and coherently for up to two minutes about the topic so for two minutes you have to speak fluently fluently doesn't mean now no pauses or no hesitations whatsoever it means speaking without unnatural pauses and hesitations coherently so stick to the topic and talk about the topic and only the topic for two minutes and that might sound quite easy but as you know it is quite difficult to talk about one thing in a foreign language that you are not a hundred percent sure about fluently for two minutes so it's a big challenge but it's not a challenge that you can't overcome in this lesson we'll show you how to overcome that but you should focus on the end goal focus on this and nothing else and you'll do really really well the examiner should be able to understand what i'm saying okay and kind of a sub goal should be always the examiner should be able to understand what i'm saying for pronunciation grammar and vocabulary pronunciation if you want a seven or above the examiner should be able to understand a hundred percent of what you're saying if they cannot understand a hundred percent of what you're saying you're going to get a six or a five hopefully none of you will get a four for pronunciation and grammar and vocabulary use grammar and vocabulary as tools to help you communicate clearly with the examiner the examiner is not looking for your ability to show off how amazing your grammar is or show off how amazing your vocabulary is or show how amazing your pronunciation is what they're looking for is are you able to use these things to help you clearly communicate with them so can the examiner understand what you're saying you're not using grammar vocabulary and pronunciation as tricks you're using them as tools to help you with that and we'll talk more about that and what that actually means later okay so let's look at common problems for part two and there's really only one common problem there are some problems that are related to that but there really is only one thing unable to speak fluently and coherently for two minutes that is the goal if you can't complete the goal you're not going to do very well there so we need to think about why people struggle to speak fluently and coherently for two minutes so one thing would be a lack of development they're not developing their ideas they're not talking at length about the points and why is this so they're not developing the points because they're looking at the bullet points so there's normally four bullet points and they'll talk about the first one for about five seconds then the next one for about ten seconds and then the next one for about six seconds and then the next one for about ten seconds again and they look at their watch and they've only been talking for 30 seconds they've still 90 seconds to go and they're what do I do there so you need to be able to take points related to the main topic and fully develop them and if you do that you'll have no problem speaking for the two minutes and that's where our strategy comes in we'll show you exactly what to do it's a little bit more complicated than just develop each point but don't worry we'll cover that in this lesson then what happens a lot is people will run into things to say and then they'll go back to their previous points and they'll just start repeating themselves that is not fluent that is not coherent so that's a big problem you want to avoid repeating the same idea so they'll say things like the topic could be talk about your favorite book and they'll say the favorite book is the bible I really like the bible because it's about god and then they'll run into things to say and they'll say and yeah it's it's about god and I really like it and that's why I like it and yeah it's a really good book I enjoy it so just repeating the same thing over and over and over again rather than speaking fluently and coherently lack of knowledge so many people believe that they're going to get a topic that they know nothing about or some of the bullet points will be on things that they're not sure about and so they they see that thing and they just freeze or they see the general topic and they they're just oh I'm not an expert in this thing I don't know how to talk about that so I do think that the bullet point issue not being able to talk about certain bullet points is a real problem and that's what we're going to address in the strategy the problem that most people fear is they're going to see the topic and they know nothing about that topic I don't think that's a real fear because where does this come from it comes from students looking at fake questions most websites most places are that produce questions are not they don't really know what they're doing and everybody thinks that they are an aisles expert these days you've got a huge number of people creating their own questions and because they don't know what they're doing they assume that all questions are really difficult and therefore they give people really difficult topics if you look at the real questions that you get on the real test they are about normal everyday things that 90% of the world could actually talk about that's how they design them believe me I have talked to many people who actually write the questions for Cambridge and what they do is they think how could we come up with a topic that most people will be able to talk about not how can we think of a topic that will trick lots of people they are trying to make your job easy for you trying to give you the best opportunity to do your best work and to be able to speak to the best of your ability so if you think what if what if I get a topic I know nothing about it's like saying I don't want to go on holiday because I don't want to get on a plane because what if the plane crashes is it possible yes is it likely no it is highly unlikely is it possible that you will get a cue card and speaking part two that you know nothing about possible highly highly highly unlikely always remember they are testing your speaking ability not your knowledge of a topic and the topics are a normal everyday things look at the official question and that those fears will go away okay so we're going to teach you now how to speak fluently for two minutes so what happens when you get the cue card so you get the cue card and this is the main topic okay this is the thing that you need to talk about for up to two minutes so for this one describe something you own which is very important to you so the goal is to speak fluently and coherently about something you own which is very important to you for two minutes in a way that the examiner can clearly understand what you're saying these are the bullet points so this is bullet point number one this is bullet point number two this is bullet point number three and this is bullet point number four these are important but not as important as you think and we'll talk about that in a second okay so before we get into my strategy I want to talk about two common strategies that are very widely taught you'll see them a lot on the internet and we have a team of examiners and working for us that help our VIP students and we see these every single day students come in and they're like I'm going to use this strategy and this technique is like okay go and use it and they mess it up and so let's talk about those two very very quickly so that you understand why they don't work so that you can avoid them um so common strategy number one is talk about each bullet point in order all right so common strategy number one is you look at this bullet point and you talk about it you look at this bullet point and you talk about it then you look at this bullet point and then you talk about it and then you look at this bullet point and you talk about it the big problem with that strategy is you're going to run out of things to talk about very very quickly Also, there might be one of the bullet points, let's say what you use it for, and you don't know what to say. So you're going to be like, you talk about this one, then you talk about this one, and then this one, you don't know what to say, so you get in trouble. So you're going to run into things to say, and it's also a very unnatural way of talking to someone. Remember, the goal is to talk to the examiner as if they're a friend or a colleague. You don't normally talk to a friend by saying, hmm, let me look at a bullet point, and then let me look at another bullet point. It's not going to help you speak fluently and coherently. It is kind of the worst thing that you can do. I've also seen teachers tell people, speak about this one for 30 seconds, and then this one for 30 seconds, and then this one for 30 seconds, and then this one. I couldn't do that, all right, and I do this every day for a living. That's impossible. You're actually making it more difficult if you do that. The second popular strategy, which you will see a lot, it's been around for years and years and years. I first saw this nearly 10 years ago in a book, which is to talk about the past, then talk about the present, and then talk about the future. So what you would do is you would look at these, and then you would think about something about the past, and talk about this, and then talk about the present, and then talk about the future. Not so good. All right, why is it not so good? It's very, very rigid. It is not giving you enough freedom. So there are lots and lots and lots of other things that you can talk about that have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do with the present, and nothing to do with the future. And the best performances from students, especially band seven, eight, and nine, come from people who don't really think, hmm, I'm going to talk about this, and then I'm going to talk about this, and they just talk naturally. So it's far too rigid. It might work for people who need a band five or a band six, but not for a band seven, eight, or nine. And you will soon run out of ideas. You'll talk about the past first, okay, and then the present, and then the future. Okay, what do I talk about next? So again, you can't speak for up to two minutes. It's also a very, very unnatural way. Again, imagine talking to a friend and they ask you, what did you get up to at the weekend? Okay, let me think about the past. You just would never do that. Okay, let's look at the strategy in a little bit more detail. I'm going to take you through it step by step. So if it looks a little strange or it's different from what you have experienced before or have been taught before, don't worry. Okay, number one, establish main topic. You're going to have to talk about the main topic. It's really, really important. You have to stick to that for two minutes, so establish what it is. So number one, what is the main topic? Take time to understand what it is. Because if you don't understand what it is and you just start talking, you're going to go off on a tangent and you're not going to actually stick to what the actual topic is. Number two, think about each bullet point, all right? So look at the different bullet points. And what you're trying to do here is establish which ones you actually want to talk about. All right, so describe something you own which is very important to you, where you got it from, okay, no problem, I can talk about that. How long you have had it, yeah, no problem. What you use it for, yeah, no problem. Explain why it is important to you. I can't really think why it's important to me, okay? So here we go. We're going to delete that, okay? So we've understood the main topic and we've thought about the bullet points and we've deleted the ones that we don't want to talk about and we've thought about these ones that we do want to talk about. The next one, add any others that will help. So we're going to add more things in that will help us think about the topic and talk about the topic. So let's think about some things that we could add in here. We could add in our opinion. We could add in, we could introduce the topic. We could describe it. We could talk about the past. We could talk about the future. And there are many, many, many other things that you could talk about. And then just describe something you own which is very important to you, related to that. Who got it for you? How often do you use it? So you could quickly think about these things and then, again, just delete the ones that you want to leave out. So maybe I can't really think about this one. It'd be easy to introduce it and easy to describe it. Past, no, future. Yeah, who got it for me? How often? You had no problem. So now you've gone from four bullet points to four, five, six, seven, eight. All right, would it be easy for you to fully develop each one of these and talk for the two minutes? No problem whatsoever. Add any others that will help. Think about what you want to say. All right, so don't spend the whole minute just thinking about bullet points. Actually compose yourself and think about what you want to say. Now, you might be thinking, Chris, there's no way that I can do this in one minute. That's where practice comes in. You cannot use this strategy and immediately get better and immediately start to speak fluently for two minutes. Like anything, you need to practice it. But I guarantee, if you practice this, it'll become second nature and you will just be able to do it so quickly on exam day. Number five, speak naturally with or speak naturally until the examiner stops you. The examiner will stop you when you get to the two minutes. Believe me, they've got stuff to do. They don't want you in the room any longer than you have to be there. Just keep talking and the examiner will stop you. So why is this strategy so effective? Because it gives you freedom. It gives you freedom to talk about whatever you want related to the main topic and you only talk about the things that you are comfortable talking about and you're never going to run out of things to say. Remember the biggest problem is people run out of things to say then they lose their fluency, they lose their coherence, they start repeating ideas, they start to panic. This gives you so much freedom and most of the people who we work with they don't even get to most of the bullet points but they're just there waiting for them in case they need to talk about them. Alright? So again, the most important thing you need to do here is practice this strategy. So in order to practice it, there's a few things you need to do. Get real practice questions. You will get them from Cambridge, you'll get them from the British Council or you'll get them from IDP. Those are the only three sources where you will get real, aisle-speaking questions. Everything else is fake. Alright, so get some real ones. Use the strategy and record yourself. Get your mobile phone. Everyone watching this will have a mobile phone. Everyone can record themselves, alright? So get a question, hit record on your mobile phone, answer the question for two minutes and record yourself and then listen and critique your own work. And think about fluency, think about coherence, think about grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. I get my VIP students to do this all the time. Even though we do one-on-ones with them and we critique them, we get examiners to sit with them and tell them their scores. Even though we do provide that service, we get them to do this too because have you ever listened to yourself speaking? You're like, oh, I can't believe I sound like that. If you're speaking in a different language, you'll pick up so many little mistakes that you're making and if you do this and practice this enough, you will be able to produce an amazing part two response that will blow the examiner away because most people, they're going bullet point one, two, three, four, what do I say? You'll be able to just talk to them like they're talking to a friend or a colleague and they'll be really, really impressed with your answer if you practice this. But if you don't practice it, you won't get better. So before I set you your challenge, summary, start with the end goal in mind. All right, always focus on that end goal. Avoid common problems and strategies that don't work. Try a strategy that focuses on the end goal and practice and then critique yourself and do this challenge as well. But before that, I want to show you Rashmi again who got a band-aid and to show you the way that she used this strategy and the way that she was able to flexibly use it in order to improve her performance. All right? Okay, Rashmi, when you're ready. I don't think I have too many expensive things I'm not materialistic at all. So I don't tend to spend too much. But if education comes, then I think the most expensive thing I've ever bought is an education at Queens. I paid 25,000 pounds to be here. That does not include the plane ticket. But yes, till that would be the most expensive thing. Where I bought it? Well, I live in India. So I came here at Queens and I came here in the UK to study at Queens. Education has become really expensive but I think this is by far the most expensive ever. But it was worth it because I learnt a lot. They have really good infrastructure and the quality of the teaching staff is really good. I met the students from all over the world here. So the cultural exchange was really good. I learnt a lot not just from being in the classroom but from outside of the classroom as well and just talking to people on the streets or volunteering. It gave me a lot of experience which I don't think I could have gotten just being in a classroom. So I did pay for education here to study marketing and analytics but I came out learning a lot more than just that. Why I bought it? Because I really wanted to study analytics like I mentioned before but besides that, Queens is a really good brand and it has a really good image in India and I think all over the world. It's in the Russell's group. So an education at Queens is going, I knew that if I invested in it, it was going to pay off. So as you can see Rashmi used our strategy to talk fluently and coherently for two minutes with ease and before that she really struggled with that and she was running out of ideas. We gave her that strategy. She was able to practice it and she was able to do that and get a band aid. Okay, so your challenge is, let me jump into my computer again and show you what your challenge is and how to send it to us. Okay guys, now comes the fun part where you are going to record your speaking and then send it to us. So your task and this is really, really, really important. If you don't do this, then it is a complete waste of time and you're not going to improve and you're going to miss out on the chance to get better and get feedback on your work. Okay, so it is a really, really simple four step process that you are going to follow in order to record your voice and send it to us. So the first step, step one, download a free voice recorder app for your phone. So if you are an Apple person, if you have an Apple phone, go to the App Store. If you have an Android phone, go to the Google Play Store and in both of those stores, you're going to find hundreds and hundreds of free voice recorder apps that just make it really, really simple for you to hit a button and it automatically records your voice. Don't ask me which one to choose. There are too many to choose from. Just pick the one that you want to choose. It's not that difficult. So step two in the four step process, answer these questions and record your voice. So you should have a phone, you should have a app on your phone that records your voice. You're going to look at these questions and don't pre-prepare the questions, don't research the questions, just pretend that you are in the actual exam and you are reading the questions just like the same way that the examiner would be asking you those questions. So look at the question, answer it. Second question, answer it. Third question, answer it. That's all you have to do. Okay, so this is part two. So what you should do is look at this, plan out your answer for one minute and then speak into your phone, record your voice for up to two minutes. All right, so might be a good idea to get like a stopwatch on your phone or use your watch to give you a guide on how long you're speaking for. You don't have to speak for exactly two minutes but just try and speak for around two minutes and then stop yourself because you were looking at the phone. In the real exam, the examiner will be stopping you but try and replicate the exam as much as possible, okay? So look at this, prepare for one minute, speak up for up to two minutes. Step three, send it to us via email. So this is super simple to do. You can do this on your phone or you can do this on your desktop. So you will have my email address because I will have emailed you multiple times. So all you have to do is this. So imagine you are on Gmail, you could be on Yahoo, Hotmail, whatever. Just click the email that I sent you, click reply and then attach the audio file to your email and just hit send. If you have any problems whatsoever, then my email address is chrisatisaltadvantage.com, all right? This is my email address chrisatisaltadvantage.com but you will have received it many, many, many times before. Next is this, okay? So now that you have sent us your recording, what I want you to do is just wait, have a look at your email inbox and we will send you your feedback video right to your inbox and then it's really, really important that you look at this feedback that we send to you so that you can really learn what to do and really, really improve. Welcome to lesson three. So as you know, this course is part of a three-part project. So if you have not watched video one or video two, just go back and watch them and complete the challenges before we do this one. Okay, so let's have a look at what we're gonna do today. So here's the agenda. We're gonna look at the difference between the question types because it's really important that you understand the type of questions that you're gonna be asked in part three and the differences between part one, part two, and part three but especially part one and part three because they're very, very different questions and if you're answering them in the same way, you're gonna be in trouble. Common problems, as always, so we can avoid them. Some solutions for these common problems so we can help avoid them on test day and then I'm gonna give you two different strategies that you can use to answer and practice, most importantly, practice question or part three questions and then we're gonna give you a couple of demos. I'm gonna demonstrate how I would answer some of these questions. We'll get a student to demonstrate this for you and then we'll give you your final challenge. Okay, so I want you to have a look at these two questions. This is a typical part one question and this is a typical part three question. I just want you to have a look at these and think about what the main difference is between these two questions. So, oh, I've missed my question mark, I deleted it. So what did you do last weekend versus why do many people spend their free time shopping? So both of these are about your free time, your leisure time, or what you do at the weekend. The topic is the same but what's the difference in the type of question? So if we look at this one, this one is about you. It is asking about what did you do last weekend? So you're not talking generally about free time, you're not talking generally about what people do at the weekends. You're just telling them, you know, I watched football, I went out to dinner, I went shopping, whatever. Part three, very, very different. Same topic, but why do many people spend their free time shopping? So this is not about you, okay? This is not about you at all. You can talk about you, that's fine, but it is asking you an abstract question about the world in general. The best way to describe part three questions is they're kind of like a task two writing question, like an academic style question where they want you to really get into the topic and fully develop it. Not just say, I don't go shopping on the weekends. That wouldn't be a very good answer. Or if you say, I don't know, I don't go shopping. They don't care whether you go shopping or you love shopping or you hate shopping. It's not about you, it is about the abstract idea. Let's have a look at another example. Most common question in part one is, do you work or study? All right, so I work, here's my job, or I study, I'm at university and I study this thing. Let's have a look at part three. They would never ask that in part three. More young people are going to university. Do you think this is a good thing? Okay, so you could talk about when you were at university, but they're not really asking about you. They're asking you about this abstract idea of more and more young people are going to university these days. Do you think this is a positive thing or do you think this is a negative thing? Or why do some people think it's positive and why do some people think it's negative? And really getting into the detail of this. Don't worry if you don't understand how to answer this question right now. By the end of this lesson, you will understand a bit more. Okay, so let's have a look at some part three speaking problems and worries. Things that people really worry about and problems that we see every day. The biggest problem, the number one problem, let's put this in red, is a lack of development. The examiner is really listening out for and looking for your ability to fully develop your ideas. So for part one, what's your job? You just need to add a little bit more detail, maybe an explanation, maybe an example. But for part three, they want you to talk at length. They want you to talk and get really in depth on that idea and fully explain things. Give example, show different sides. I'm gonna show you how to do that in the strategy. But if you're just giving one or two sentence answers for part three, that's not good enough. Again, I'm not gonna tell you the number of sentences because it will differ from question to question. So you shouldn't go in thinking about number of sentences, but you should go in thinking, have I fully developed this answer? Doesn't mean that you need to talk for 30 minutes about one question, but we'll show you how to do this in a second. A worry that students have is I won't have any ideas. It is not an idea's test. So worrying about ideas is, I understand why students are worried about this because in order to develop your ideas, you need to have ideas in the first place, but it's not something you really need to worry about that much because the examiner is not judging you on your ideas, the examiner is judging you on your pronunciation, your grammar, your vocabulary and your fluency and coherence. So I wouldn't worry too much about these ideas. You're not being judged on them so much, but we'll talk about that more later in the lesson. Listing, so one thing students do a lot of is they will list every idea that comes into their head. So for example, why do more people go shopping at the weekend? People go shopping because they like shopping, they have more money, they want to buy new clothes, there are lots of restaurants and shopping centers, it's a safe place, they wanna spend time with their family. So all of those ideas are fine. Many, many students who worry about ideas have actually no problem thinking of ideas and they just list idea after idea after idea after idea. You're not gonna do that. What you're going to do is you're gonna take one of those ideas or maybe two of those ideas and fully develop them, fully explain them, give examples of them. So I think I listed like six or seven ideas there. What you should be doing is taking one of them. So for example, I said, people have more money, why do people have more money? Why are they spending it on clothes or what are they spending it on? Can you give me an example of this? So you're going really in depth on one or two ideas rather than listing lots of ideas. Again, many people worry about vocabulary that these topics are things that they don't really understand or they're difficult questions and they worry that their vocabulary is not good enough. You are being judged on your vocabulary but remember you're being judged on the accuracy of your vocabulary and the range of your vocabulary. So what happens is what students try and do is they try and insert lots of high level words or lots of idioms or whatever you wanna call them, golden words, diamond words I've heard people call them and they're not really answering the question. If you just try and answer the question and fully develop it and use the vocabulary that you have, you will naturally use a wide range of vocabulary and then you will avoid mistakes because you're using vocabulary that you're comfortable using. But if you try and push yourself too much, then you're going to get in trouble because you're going to make lots of mistakes. Your fluency is going to suffer because you are having to think about the vocabulary very hard. So what my suggestion would be for vocabulary, use the vocabulary that you have. Before the test, try and improve it every single day. But during the test, just use the vocabulary that you have. You've no other choice. The other choice is try and use vocabulary you don't know how to use and then you're going to make lots of mistakes. This is another common thing where we see in part three is people just not attempting the answer at all or saying I don't know or saying that's an interesting question and then not saying anything or I've never thought about that before and then saying nothing. The questions will get more difficult and more difficult and more difficult because the examiner is testing you, is trying to stretch your linguistic ability. If you get difficult questions, that means that the examiner thinks that you're good. If you don't get any difficult questions in part three, they don't think you're good. There's no point in trying to test you too much. But what they're looking for is you to attempt the answer. If you don't attempt, then they can't give you any score for that answer whatsoever and you're going to drop down. But even if you know nothing about that topic or you don't really know anything about it, at least try and make an attempt because that is what the examiner is looking for. And if you are overthinking your ideas and you're trying to think of really impressive ideas and you're trying to think of really impressive vocabulary and you're thinking about it too much, overthinking is going to cause fluency problems. As people see these questions, they're like, oh, I've never thought of it that before. It's not a test of your knowledge. It's not a test of your IQ. It's a test of your speaking. All they want you to do is attempt an answer and show how good your fluency, your pronunciation, your grammar and vocabulary are. And people worry again about not enough knowledge. It's not a knowledge test. It is a speaking test. So always remember that. So let's look at just some solutions. Purpose, what is the purpose of the speaking test? Is it to show off your ideas? No, is it to show off how much grammar and vocabulary you've memorized? No, it is a speaking test. Can you clearly communicate with someone in an English-speaking country or non-English-speaking country if they are an English speaker? They are testing the purpose, which is a speaking test. So don't worry too much about ideas. Don't worry too much about trying to use fancy vocabulary and grammar. Just focus on speaking, all right? Don't overthink it. Just focus on clearly communicating naturally with the examiner. And you can practice doing that. It is about practice. Once you start to get in the habit of practicing this, the way that we're showing it to you, it becomes very, very natural. Solution number two, it is a discussion. I can't speak, I'm teaching speaking. It is a discussion of ideas, all right? It's not about you. It is a discussion of ideas. In the same way, kind of like an essay response, like an academic task to essay response. If you're watching this video, you know what academic writing task two is and how you kind of structure an answer and how you would put an answer on paper. That's what you're looking for. So for example, you would answer the question, explain, give example, show the other side, state another point. This discussion of ideas, and we'll show you more about this, but that's the best way to think about part three. And solution number three, accept that it will get harder. Attempt an answer and you're not being judged on one question. It is going to get harder and harder and harder and harder. And if it does, you should think, yes, this is great because the examiner has a range of questions for part three, easy ones, middle ones and hard ones. If they think that you're good, they will ask you more and more difficult questions. So if you get a difficult question, you say yes and attempt the answer at least, even if you have no idea. So if you have no idea, say, I really have never thought about that, I have no idea, but if I had to give an answer, this is what I would say and just attempt an answer. And you're not, if you get one question that you really, really struggle with, remember you are being judged on the totality all of your answers, not one answer. It's not like your band seven, band seven, band seven, band seven and then you get a difficult question and you drop down to a five. That's not how it works. Attempt the answer, try your best, leave it and move on to the next one and don't get really stressed out because often people get a question they don't understand and then they'll get a little bit stressed out and then it'll affect their fluency, their grammar and vocabulary. Just do your best, that's all you can do. Okay, so strategy one. Very, very simply answer the question, explain and then give an example, okay? So remember we asked you, we showed you these questions here, so question here was, why do many people spend their free time shopping? Okay, so answer the question, think of an idea, explain that and give an example. So many people like to spend time shopping, especially on the weekend because there's not only shops and many shopping centers, there's a variety of things, such as cinemas and restaurants. So the reason why people love this is they can go to just one place and they can go there with their family and there's so much choice that they can do a little bit of shopping and they can get something to eat and then they can bring their kids to the cinema or if they're on a date or something like that, then they can go and go to the cinema as well or the bowling alley, there's a lot of leisure activities as well. For example, in the city near where I live, there's a place called Victoria Square, it's all under one roof and they have designer shops, they have a great movie house, they have a range of restaurants such as like Wagamama and Burger King and Pizza Hut and we love to go there at the weekend just so that we can get a variety of different leisure activities. So we're not only doing shopping, we're doing all the other things in the shopping center and that's what most shopping centers are doing in the UK because they know that people want a variety of choices. So you can see what I did there. All I did was simply answer the question, then I explained it and then I give an example. All right, you can do that for pretty much any question. Don't go into the test though and think very rigidly, like I'm going to answer every single question in this way but it's a good way to think and a good way to practice your questions but allow yourself that flexibility. Strategy number two is, where is strategy number two? Here we go. Strategy number two is, it's three parts, part one, part two and part three. So some people think this, explain why they think it and give an example, others think this, explain why and give an example and I think this, all right. So let's have a look at the other question that we had for an example. More young people are going to university. Do you think this is a good thing? Okay, so some people would think this is a really, really positive development because it means that there are more poor people going into university and this reduces the gap between rich and poor which is very, very important for society, for equality. For example, in the UK in the last 20 years they have really pushed free university places for poor students and now more than 50% of students go to university. However, many people think that this is not a good thing, that this is actually a negative development because there are lots of young people who are not suited to academics. They are not academically inclined. They would be better at getting a job in the trades. So for example, many people who want to become carpenters or mechanics or even software engineers, for example, who don't need to go to university they can learn that in an apprenticeship and they'd be much happier doing that and if they are forced to go to university it is a huge waste of money. I think it should be based on the individual student if they want to study something that can only be covered in university like medicine or law they should go there. But if not, they should go into a trade and there's no need for them to get all that student debt. So you can see what I did there. What I did was some people think this so I didn't say what I think. Some people think this, others think this and then this is what I think. So that allowed me to talk and fully, fully develop my answers. So a demo. What I'm going to do now is show you a student who got a band nine, Rashmi and you'll be able to see how she fully developed her answers. So now I want to talk about money and society in general. Can money buy happiness? This seems like a philosophical question but for me personally I don't think so. Money is not everything. I do volunteer at a lot of places so I know that I do that because mostly I'm an introvert, I don't really talk much but when I'm volunteering with people I gain valuable experience and that's how I learn that money is not everything. To some people, yes, money can make them less miserable as long as you are not like homeless or desperate for food, putting food on the table. And as long as you have a shelter, a roof over your head and food on the table at night that's all you need for me personally. So it depends on people, what money means to them but to me I don't think it can buy happiness. Okay guys, so now it's your turn. So what we're going to do is I'm going to jump into my computer, share my screen with you and show you what your challenge is for today. Okay guys, now comes the fun part where you are going to record your speaking and then send it to us. So your task, and this is really, really, really important. If you don't do this, then it is a complete waste of time and you're not going to improve and you're going to miss out on the chance to get better and get feedback on your work. Okay, so it is a really, really simple four-step process that you are going to follow in order to record your voice and send it to us. So the first step, step one, download a free voice recorder app for your phone. So if you are an Apple person, if you have an Apple phone, go to the App Store. If you have an Android phone, go to the Google Play Store and in both of those stores you're going to find hundreds and hundreds of free voice recorder apps that just make it really, really simple for you to hit a button and it automatically records your voice Don't ask me which one to choose. There are too many to choose from. Just pick the one that you want to choose. It's not that difficult. So step two in the four-step process, answer these questions and record your voice. So you should have a phone. You should have an app on your phone that records your voice. You're going to look at these questions and don't pre-prepare the questions. Don't research the questions. Just pretend that you are in the actual exam and you are reading the questions just like the same way that the examiner would be asking you those questions. So look at the question, answer it. Second question, answer it. Third question, answer it. That's all you have to do. Okay guys, so now we're going to look at four part three questions. You should look at each question and attempt to answer each of these questions. Don't worry if one of the or two of the questions are like really difficult or you've never thought about that before. You need to attempt an answer. So get your phone, look at each question, hit record, record your voice and answer the questions. Step three, send it to us via email. So this is super simple to do. You can do this on your phone or you can do this on your desktop. So you will have my email address because I will have emailed you multiple times. So all you have to do is this. So imagine you are on Gmail, you could be on Yahoo, Hopmail, whatever. Just click the email that I sent you. Click reply and then attach the audio file to your email and just hit send. If you have any problems whatsoever, then my email address is chrisatisaltadvantage.com. All right, this is my email address chrisatisaltadvantage.com but you will have received it many, many, many times before. Next is this. Okay, so now that you have sent us your recording, what I want you to do is just wait, have a look at your email inbox and we will send you your feedback video right to your inbox. And then it's really, really important that you look at this feedback that we send to you so that you can really learn what to do and really, really improve. So hopefully you enjoyed the speaking challenge. Now let's move on to reading. One of the biggest challenges that students face when it comes to reading is where to find real, genuine practice tests. And there are only a few sources out there. So what I've done is I've put together a video that shows you where to find those practice tests for free and then gives you the most effective technique that we know that has helped thousands of students get a band seven, eight and nine. And not only is this a highly effective strategy, it is totally free and it's gonna guarantee that as you practice you are constantly improving and you know exactly when that you are ready for the test. So without further ado, let's show you where you can find that. We've helped thousands of students get a band nine in reading and listening over the years and there are three key things that separate band nine students from the rest of you. And it's all to do with how they use these practice tests. Practice actually makes most students worse, not better. But if you wanna join the 1% of students that get a band nine in reading and listening, all you have to do is just learn the three key differences that separate band nine from everyone else. They understand where to find real practice tests and how to use them. They understand these key practice principles and they use practice tests completely differently. Every single minute a band nine student is using practice tests, they are improving. And I'm gonna show you using these real practice tests exactly what they do in this video. Okay, so point number one, they know where to find real practice tests and they know where to find them for free. There are only five places in the world where you can find real, reliable practice tests. They are Cambridge.org, IELTS.org, IDP, the British Council and these Cambridge books. Now for the first four, all you have to do is just go on to Google, put in IELTS practice tests and then put in Cambridge, IELTS.org, IDP or British Council into the search bar and Google will take you directly to those free practice tests. All of these are real and reliable. The Cambridge books are not free but I would actually consider them to be free. So which is more expensive? $200 or $20. $200 is the average cost that you will waste if you fail the test. You're never getting that money back but if you invest $20 in this, you're far more likely to get the score that you need. So which is more expensive? $200 or $20. When you think about that, they pretty much are free or an investment but don't be a naughty boy or girl and go online and try and find the free soft copies of the free PDFs. Most of the PDFs, the vast majority of them are not actually the real tests, they are fake and highly misleading and will lead to failure, so don't do that. So now that they've got their practice tests, what they do is they don't just go and practice as much as possible, they follow these five key practice principles. Number one, practice does not make perfect. Let me illustrate this by telling you a little story, a true story about a friend that I went to school with. He lived on a farm and his dad bought him an old car when he was like 10 years old and he drove around the farm every day in this car. When it came time to doing our driving test when we were 17, all of the other friends that I had that were doing the test did about six weeks of practice. He had seven years of daily practice. Six weeks, 90% of them passed first time. The guy who drove for seven years, practiced every day, he failed multiple, multiple times. This is because he developed bad habits and every time that he drove that car, he was making these bad habits worse. This is exactly the same what I see with IELTS students. They have bad habits, they're doing things wrong and by doing lots and lots of practice tests, they are getting worse, not better and they're wasting their time. But don't worry, we're gonna show you a technique in this video that guarantees that every second you are practicing, you are constantly improving. Number two, most practice tests are fake. As I said, these are the only five sources that are trustworthy, more than 90%, probably closer to 95% of tests that you find online are produced by people who don't know what they're doing which means that they are one, fake and number two, they are unreliable. Because these people don't know what they're doing, they either produce tests that are way too easy or way too difficult. If they're too easy, you will be overconfident, you will go and do the test thinking that you are going to get a high score and you will fail. If they are too difficult, you will give up too early. You will just think these are way too difficult, you'll get very, very stressed and most students just give up in that scenario. So it doesn't matter if the website is called real IELTS practice tests, we promise they are real, we are experts.com. Doesn't mean that they are. These are the only five sources that you need. Bound 9 students also understand that improvement comes after practice. So I want you to imagine you're going to the gym and you're trying to build your muscle. When you are lifting weights in the gym, do your muscles instantly increase in size? No, your muscles don't increase in the gym. Your muscles increase after you leave the gym. This is a concept that IELTS Bound 9 students understand about practice. You are not improving while you are practicing. In fact, to go back to the gym analogy, if you lift weights too much, your muscles will get smaller, not bigger. We get hundreds of emails a week saying, I've done every single practice test in the world and I'm not improving. Sick, yes, because practice does not make you better. It is what you do after practice that makes you better. And that's what we'll show you in the rest of this video. Because Bound 9 students understand the real purpose, the real goal of practice is not to get better, it is to establish weaknesses. So once you do imagine you are sick, you go to the doctor. What does the doctor do? Does the doctor immediately treat you? No, they normally diagnose your problem. They will run tests. But once they establish what the problem is, they don't just keep giving you tests until you get better. They treat the problem. This is exactly the same approach that Bound 9 students use. They do practice tests in order to establish what their key weaknesses are and then they can improve those key weaknesses. This is where the real improvement comes. After practice, outside of practice, they turn those weaknesses into strengths and then they are constantly improving. And they only do practice tests again to establish if they improved and what their new weaknesses are. And we're gonna show you exactly what students do, showing you real tests in this video. Number five, Bound 9 students understand the difference between slow practice and fast practice. So when you are doing your driving test, in lesson one, does the driving instructor take you on to the main road and tell you to drive at 100 miles an hour? No, you would both die if that happened. This is exactly the same principle that we apply to our VIP students. When they are learning new strategies, you are going to use these and go very, very slowly. So for example, let's say you are trying to improve true, false, not given and you're using a strategy, a step-by-step strategy and don't worry if you need those, I'll give those to you in a video at the end. When you're learning that strategy, you might take 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, just to do these seven questions because your goal is learning the strategy. Your goal is not to do everything as quickly as possible and then you will speed up bit by bit by bit. But when you are establishing your weaknesses, when you're trying to get where you are, you're going to practice fast under exam conditions and that's what we're gonna show you now. So here's exactly what our bar nine students do when they are doing fast practice. Number one, don't cheat, all right? Make sure that you have never seen these questions before. Don't use questions that you have used in class or you've practiced like 10 times. Don't get the books and just flick through them and see what questions are going to come up. We want to recreate the real test as much as possible. So don't cheat and look at the test before you do them. Number two, do it under exam conditions. Go into a room that is quiet, where you will not be distracted and time yourself using the exact same time that you would use on test day and don't cheat, don't go 30 seconds over. Number three, honest correction. If you spelt the answer wrong, it is wrong. Don't give yourself, oh, I'll do it better on test day. If it is wrong, it is wrong. Now the fourth thing you're gonna do is you're going to establish what your score actually is. So you're going to go to the book, you're going to go to the back, you're going to count how many you got correct and you're going to establish your band score. I'll put a link below the video where you can check your band score, but it's pretty easy to use Google, what does 35 out of 40 equal in band scores? Now the rule that we give our VIP students is if you are half a band more than the score that you need and you can do that three times in a row, you are ready to do the test. So let's say for example, you need a band eight. If you are getting 8.5 or over three times in a row, you are ready to do the test. But let's say you need a band eight and you get 7.5 and then you get eight and then 7.5 again. It's highly likely you're going to get seven or 7.5 in the real test because most people don't perform better in the real test not because the tests are more difficult but because it's just a very stressful environment. Now you might think that that's a lot of work. It is, but it's not as much work as failing the test two, three times in a row. It is much cheaper and more cost effective to actually improve before you even book the test. More than 99% of the students that we work with that don't get the score that they need, the number one reason that they fail is they book the test before they're ready. But if you are consistently getting these scores that you need before you book the test, then you're pretty much guaranteed to get the score that you need. So you might be thinking now, well, how do I improve? How do I work on my weaknesses? That's what we're going to work on next. So really what you're doing now is you're doing real tests under exam conditions. In order to establish your weaknesses. So what you're going to do is you're going to go to the answer key at the back of the book and you're going to honestly evaluate and give yourself a real score. If it's wrong, put an X beside it. If it is right, put a tick beside it. And then what you're going to do is you're going to look at each of these mistakes and establish why you made each of these mistakes. So let's go through each of the five key mistakes, the most common ones, how you find them in both the reading and listening test and then how to improve them. So the first one is very straightforward spelling. Don't cheat and correct the spelling or anything. If you're consistently spelling words incorrectly, you are going to fail. You're going to get a lower score than you're hoping for and you need to address that. But that is very, very easy. Just look at exactly what you wrote and then look at the spelling, compare the spelling and the answer key. If it is different even by one letter, it is wrong. Market is wrong. You're not aiming to get the score that you need right away. You're establishing weaknesses. So be totally 100% honest. Number two is not reading instructions. So for example, if you go and look at some questions that say write a letter and instead you write the word like this example here, then that is going to be wrong in the real test because not because the Cambridge people are horrible people or the tests are unfair. Don't blame the test, blame yourself. It is quite easy to read the instructions. You decided not to do that or you just don't have the skill yet. You will, we're going to show you how to improve it but you haven't established or you haven't improved that skill and it is a cognitive skill, reading things carefully. Number three could be reading skills or listening skills. For reading, this might be skimming or scanning but the most likely skill that you're lacking in will be reading for detail. So if we look at a true, false, not given question for example, one of the key skills that it is testing is can you find the location of the correct answer by scanning? If you really struggle with finding the location then that is probably a scanning issue. If you find the location but you find it very difficult to find the correct answer within that paragraph then that is a weakness on reading for detail. Listening could be the same. Maybe you find it difficult to listen to multiple people speaking at the same time or maybe you really struggle with focusing for long periods of time on one person talking about an academic subject for example. Those are all skills that you need to improve and by thinking about why you got that question wrong that will establish what skills you need to work on. You'll also be able to look at the video that I'll show you at the end of the lesson that gives you strategies for all the different types of questions and what you can do is go through those strategies and think where you messed up. So if it says skim and you didn't do that or you find that difficult that could be a skimming issue. If it says scan or read for detail or whatever they're telling you to do and you're not good at that thing, that's a skills issue. Now number four is a big one, vocabulary. If you are reading things and you're thinking I don't understand this or this is difficult or the text is difficult or I'm getting lost or when you're listening, you're getting lost or you think that people are speaking too quickly or you can't keep up with what they're saying that is probably a vocabulary issue. You simply do not understand the words. There is no magic fix for this. There aren't any common words that you can memorize. You just have to improve your vocabulary. Huge difference between a band nine student and a band seven student is the range of the vocabulary that they understand. But don't worry, we'll give you a link to a vocabulary improvement plan below the video. The last one is particular question types. So let's say for example, you're looking at the answer key and you notice that most if not all the yes, no, not given questions that you get and you do two or three different tests every time these questions come up you're getting them wrong. That is not a vocabulary issue or a reading skills issue or a spelling issue. That is you're just not comfortable with those questions yet. What you need to do in that scenario is you need to familiarize yourself with a strategy, practice that strategy slowly, learn the strategy, become more comfortable and then you will improve. So as I said at the beginning of the video what band nine students do is every minute that they are practicing, they are constantly improving because they are establishing their weaknesses and then they're working on those weaknesses. So let's say for example, you need help with spelling. I'll put a video at the end that'll help you with that. Not reading instructions. This is just about being more careful and actually just practicing, reading the instructions. You cannot magically tell yourself, read the instructions and then you'll do it in a stressful situation like an IELTS test. You need to practice that multiple times, always read the question, reading and listening skills. I'll give you a free course. I'll put it below in the description that will help you with that. I'll put a vocabulary improvement plan and I'll give you access to that video with all of the different strategies. You actually do need to sit down and practice those strategies if that is a weakness. Finally, I would recommend focusing on your biggest weakness first. I know that's difficult, but it is far easier to tackle your biggest weakness first, get that out of the way and then everything becomes much, much easier. Next up, we have our free reading course or IELTS reading challenge. It's gonna give you strategies for all the different types of questions and show you how to improve your reading skills as well. So enjoy the reading challenge. Welcome to our IELTS reading course. Thank you very much for joining me. My name is Chris Pell. You might know me, you might not know me, but I'm the founder of IELTS Advantage and we've helped thousands of students over the years with their IELTS reading scores and particularly helping students who need a seven or above. So what we decided to do with this whole course that we're gonna give you today is we decided just to put it all into a mini course, just the essentials, just the most important things so that you can improve your reading scores in the fastest time possible. So there are three lessons. Today's lesson is number one and without further ado, let's get going. So what are we gonna do today? So lesson one today, what we're gonna look at are the real reasons why you struggle and vocabulary. So it's really, really important that you understand what works and what doesn't work because there's a huge amount of confusing and conflicting information out there and if you're listening to the wrong people or doing the wrong things or have the wrong mindset, the wrong attitude, then you're going down the wrong path and you're going to consistently fail over and over and over again. So it's really important that you understand those warning signs and understand why you might be failing or why you might fail in the future. We'll talk a lot about vocabulary in this lesson and talk about why it's so important and give you a step-by-step vocabulary improvement plan that I actually share with my VIP students and has helped thousands of them get the scores they need and improve their vocabulary and this is going to improve not only your reading scores but your speaking, your writing, your listening, absolutely everything. Lesson two is going to be about improving your reading skills, things like skimming, things like scanning but also other skills that you might not be aware of, how to use them, strategies, all of these different things and then lesson three we're going to look at using a strategic approach, having a step-by-step strategy for all of the different types of questions, how valuable that is and we're going to demo that and show you exactly how to do that in these lessons. So just three lessons and I would definitely encourage you to watch all three of them in their entirety. All three of them are really, really important. So why are you struggling? So to answer this question I'm going to show you this diagram. If you're watching this video you're either struggling with the reading test or you're worried about the reading test. So the number one reason why I'd say 90% of students are struggling with reading is not because of their reading skills, it's not because of their English ability, it's because of this. They're looking for tips. They're looking for, in other words, shortcuts or hacks or tricks to pass the reading test. And a lot of the stuff that you'll see online, a lot of the YouTube videos and Facebook videos and blog posts and things like that, they're all focused on giving you tips and shortcuts and hacks and tricks. Why is that? Because basically they're giving you what you want. Normally they're giving you that so that you'll join their school or you'll buy their course or something like that. But basically they're being smart. They're giving you exactly what you want. So one of the reasons why we have helped more students and get the scores they need than any other course or school in the world is we don't tell you what you want to hear. We just tell you the facts. We just tell you the truth. We give you the things that actually work. So what you're ignoring are the things that actually matter. The things that will actually determine your score. Let's look at these. So the first one here, very, very important, is mindset. So in other words, how you think about the reading test and what your attitude is to preparation will determine your score more than anything else. This is the most important thing. What does that mean? Well, we'll be talking a lot about that throughout the course, but one very quick example of a good mindset versus a bad mindset, a good mindset, they know that shortcuts and hacks and tricks don't work. Name one thing in another area of life. Like can you hack your way to losing weight? Can you eat some pill and then magically lose 50 pounds? Can you shortcut your way to becoming stronger or shortcut your way to becoming smarter or more successful or make more money? No, you can't. All of these things just don't work. They sound good. They sound really tempting. Everybody wants to hear that get rich quick scheme that you hear over and over again or everyone wants to look fitter or slimmer or whatever by doing something really easy. But in reality, the people who are successful are the people who have the opposite mindset to that. The people who know that success or results only come from hard work and doing the work. Now I'm not saying that you have to work 12 hours a day for the next 10 years or anything like that, but you do have to do a lot more work than just looking at top 10 tips to improve your reading. If you are looking for top 10 tips, stop this video and go somewhere else because you're not going to get that. We're only going to give you the things that actually will improve your score. The second most important thing is vocabulary. We're going to talk a lot about this today. So when I say this in class, a lot of students will say vocabulary, well, it's a reading test. It's not a vocabulary test. What I normally do then is just show them the reading texts and the real questions. Say, do you understand all these words? How about the questions? Are the words here directly matching with the words in the text or are they synonyms? Okay, so that is a vocabulary test as much as a reading test. So improving your vocabulary, you're not going to get a band seven unless your vocabulary is at that level. You're not going to get a band eight until your vocabulary is at that level. And in today's lesson, we'll show you a vocabulary improvement plan that will get you there and help you with your vocabulary. The third most important thing or things are your reading skills. Now, what a lot of people will talk about is skimming and scanning. You just have to skim and then you scan and then you find the correct answer. Well, if that were true, you wouldn't be watching this video. That is very simplistic. A lot of people don't understand what skimming is, what scanning is. They are not aware at all of the other reading skills they need to be aware of and they don't know how to practice these skills. Same as like playing cricket or playing basketball or playing football, those are skills you need to practice them. And there are good ways to practice them and there are bad ways to practice them. So we'll be talking a lot about in lesson two, I believe, lesson two or lesson three about all of these skills and how to perfect them. And in lesson three, the last lesson, we are going to look at strategy. So what we try and do is take a strategic approach to absolutely everything we do, not only in our company, but when we're helping students prepare and a strategic way to do the test. I don't want to say that I want to turn you into like a reading robot or anything like that, but that's kind of what we do with our students. We teach them strategies for all the different types of questions so that on test day, they just look at the question and they know exactly what to do. How refreshing would that be for you if you could apply those strategies and just get the correct answers and do that on test day? And that's what we want to do. That's what we show you in the rest of this video in lesson three. So these are the reasons why you're struggling. You're looking for these things and you're ignoring all of this, which is more important and this course is going to teach you all about these. So without further ado, let's get into vocabulary. So is vocabulary important? Well, here's three reasons why it is because even though we've talked a little bit about why vocabulary is important, I need to talk about it again because you will not do the work to improve your vocabulary until you believe how important it actually is. So let's have a look. So number one helps you understand the text. So when you're reading, are you able to understand enough of those words? Now you will never be able to understand 100% of every single word in the reading text and in the questions. That's not what we're trying to do. What we're trying to do is to make it as easy as possible for you by allowing you to understand as much of that as you can. The more you're able to understand, the faster you'll be able to read, the faster you'll be able to understand it, the faster you'll be able to locate the correct answer, the faster you'll be able to decide the correct answer. And it's not just about speed, it's about efficiency and it's about effectiveness. If you have one person who has like a band five level of vocabulary and one who has a band seven level of vocabulary, who is going to be able to decide and find the correct answer and understand the text better? The person with band seven vocabulary. Number two, helps you locate the location of the correct answer. A lot of the strategy that we'll be talking about in lesson three will be showing you that you don't just read and then magically find the correct answer. A lot of the strategies are about locating the location, the part of the text where the correct answer is and then you can read it more closely and find the correct answer. This is a lot to do with synonyms. So the synonyms are two words that mean the same thing. So two different words that mean the same thing like woman, female, two different words but they mean the same thing. So often the question will be talking about one word but the location of the area where it is in the text will be a synonym of that word. So it might be talking about men and then in the text it might be talking about males. So if you were looking for a man, man, man, man, man you wouldn't find it but if you know all the synonyms of that word and you're aware of that then it helps you find the location much quicker. Number three helps you decide the correct answer. So you're often going to get for example multiple choice questions where you'll have three answers and they all kind of look the same and you have to decide the different. The answer to the question will be determined by you understanding the difference in meaning between those words or in the text there might be two areas or two parts of the text that are similar in meaning and you need to understand what those words mean. So it's really again a vocabulary test that is going to and it's going to help you get the score that you need. I can't emphasize this enough. That's why I'm repeating myself but it is very, very important that you understand that. So how not to improve your vocabulary? So if you go to a lot of IELTS schools and inverted commas or speak to a lot of IELTS teachers teachers and inverted commas there are some great IELTS schools. There are some great IELTS teachers. I'm not knocking them off but there are lots of terrible ones too pretending to know what they're doing when they don't really know what they're doing. So a lot of schools, a lot of teachers their solution to the vocabulary problem is give you lots and lots of lists of vocabulary. This is another example of a shortcut. It's another example of a hack. They do not work. Let's look at why they do not work. So it's impossible to predict which words are going to come up on the reading test and which words are going to be important. The English language is just way, way, way, way too broad for you to be able to predict that. So you would literally have to read the dictionary and I don't think anyone wants to do that. Number two, it doesn't teach you the word 100%. So it doesn't teach you the synonyms of that. It doesn't teach you collocations. It doesn't teach you anything other than the word and a translation or the word and the meaning. You should never have just a list of words with translations or meanings because you're not going to be able to understand that word or use that word. Remember you're going to have to do your reading or your writing test as well as your reading test. So wouldn't it be great to be able to use those words in a sentence? Also the speaking test needs to be considered as well. Number three, it doesn't improve reading skills. So by using lists of vocabulary, you are not improving your reading skills at all. Wouldn't it be great if you could improve your vocabulary and your reading at the same time? That would be the perfect solution and that's the solution we're going to give you. So the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read. So this is not just my opinion even though I've helped thousands of students with this method and this is the method that has helped all of my students improve over and over and over again, but there have been a huge number of studies done on how to learn and retain vocabulary and use vocabulary and all of them conclude that the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read. Listening is pretty good too, but since it's a reading course and we want to improve our reading skills at the same time, we're going to use reading and reading is better than listening to be honest. So however, just reading is not the answer. All right, so if you think that all you have to do is just read a book every day and your vocabulary will magically improve, you're wrong, it's not going to improve. It might improve a little bit, but remember this is a test situation, your date is coming up, you want to get it done as quickly as possible so we need to think a little bit more strategically. You need to be a little bit more strategic. So what I'm going to show you now is my vocabulary improvement plan. Normally I only share this with my VIP students, but I'm going to share it with you today and it has helped so many students to get the scores that they need, improve the vocabulary. And not only is this going to help you improve your vocabulary and improve your IELTS scores, but a wider vocabulary is going to help you improve your life in your new English speaking country because you're going to be able to engage people in conversation, understand what they say and be able to communicate with people far more effectively. So I would recommend not only doing this up until you get the score you need, but to continue to do this after because it really does work and it really doesn't take that much work. It's all about being consistent. So part one, number one, pick something you enjoy reading, all right? Do not pick boring IELTS books, all right? Don't pick the guide to vocabulary, IELTS or whatever. Like it's going to be really, really boring and don't just go into the library and pick the first English book that you see. You have the internet, there's loads of ways that you can access books now. You have a huge choice, pick something you enjoy reading because you are going to have to read regularly and consistently. This is not a method that you can do the day before your test or the week before your test. This is something that you should be doing every day, consistently making it a habit. So if you're trying to make something a habit, you're trying to do something consistently, wouldn't it be a good idea to do something that you enjoy doing? So pick a topic or a book or a newspaper or whatever, anything. It could be on cricket or gardening or cooking or celebrity gossip, it doesn't matter. What matters is you do it regularly and consistently. So please don't ask me which book to read. That's up to you, whatever you want. Number three, while you're reading, underline new words and phrases. So you don't have to read for eight hours a day. You know, if you're doing this consistently, 10, 20, 30 minutes a day is more than enough. What you're aiming for is about 10 new words. Could be eight, could be 10, could be 12, could be 15, could be 20, but every day try and get at least about 10 new words. That's your aim. And what you're doing is while you're reading it, you're gonna underline the new words or it could be an idiom, it could be, you know, phrasal verb, whatever. Number four, this is really, really important. Guess meaning from context, what does that mean? That means that when you underline your new word, do not immediately Google that new word. Do not immediately reach for the dictionary and look up the meaning. What you're gonna do is you're gonna guess what that word means from the context of the words around it, the paragraph, the title, whatever information you have. So I'm not making it purposely more difficult for you. It's a skill in itself. Number one, you're going to have to do this on test day because there will be words that you don't understand on test day. I guarantee it on the IELTS test. And then when you move to, you know, the UK or Canada or Australia or wherever you wanna go, you're going to constantly see new words that you don't understand. And do you want to be like talking to someone and, you know, looking at your phone, Googling words or walking around with a dictionary? No, so guess the meaning from context. Then at the end, once you've finished reading, compare what you thought the meaning was with the dictionary meaning. This is going to help you remember it far more effectively than just looking up the word and translating it. Do not translate, all right? Start operating in English. If you need a seven or above, stop thinking and using your own language. That might sound crazy, but if you are saying that you want to be a high level learner of English, but you want to keep using your own language and using your own language all the time, when you're studying and when you're learning English, use only English and that's really gonna help you. So the next part is you're going to record that vocabulary and you can do it in like a book like this. I carry this book everywhere with me and I keep my notes in it. So anything I'm thinking about, I just put this in my daily plan and all those things, but I could easily just record new vocabulary here. Doesn't have to be like an expensive book like this. It can be a $1 school book that you have or you could use your phone and you could record it. Doesn't matter what you put it in. What matters is you have a central place to record your new words, phrases, idioms, whatever they are so that you can go back and review later and you record in a special way. You do not write the word and the meaning or the word and the translation. You can write the meaning, but you're gonna write a lot of other stuff too. So just look at this for an example. So acquiesce, really nice word. Let's say I was reading and I was like, oh, what does that mean? I'm unsure about what that means. I would underline it, guess what it means and then look it up. And then I'm gonna record all this information that I need to remember it. So the pronunciation is gonna help you remember it. The word form, the definition, synonyms, collocations, antonyms, example sentences, whatever helps you remember it. But make sure that you have all this information in your book or your app or whatever it is. Because what you're gonna do then is you are going to review those words. So imagine you do this for 20 minutes a day for two weeks. Let's say you get 10 words a day. That means you're gonna have 140 new words in your book. So your book is gonna just gonna fill up and fill up and fill up. But if you don't review them, it's kind of a waste of time. So what you're gonna do is regularly review these. I'd say do it once a week. Once a week or twice a week and you're gonna review all of that new vocabulary. And how you're gonna review it is you're gonna do something with the vocabulary. All right, you're gonna produce the vocabulary. And you can do this in a lot of ways. For example, you could try and tell a story and include that vocabulary. Or you could write an essay or you could write anything, a letter to someone, or you could play a game in some way. There's a lot of ways that you can review vocabulary. But the key is to produce the vocabulary, to produce full sentences with that in it. You could even record yourself. Sorry for the ambience outside. But the key is to do this regularly and to produce something. And if you do that consistently, imagine you did that a year ago. Like imagine you watched this video a year ago and you were doing that for 365 days. And imagine you learned 20 new words a day. That's a lot of words. How brilliant would your vocabulary be if that was the case? And how great would your reading skills be? And your overall general level of English be? And you can start with just five minutes a day. But if you watch this video and you do nothing, nothing will change. So please don't be one of those students that watches a video like this and is like, oh, this is amazing, I'm gonna do it. And then you don't do it. And then time creeps on and then you fail your test over and over and over again. Because you have a choice. You can spend time on this or you can spend time failing the test. You don't have a choice. That's your choice. Spend time doing something that will lead to a great IELTS score or spend time wasting time and then failing the test over and over and over again. So to talk about mindset a little bit, many of you will be like, why is he not giving us tips? And that vocabulary improvement plan, that's going to take ages. Okay, so that vocabulary improvement plan, if you are thinking that's gonna take a really long time, your mindset is wrong, you're going to fail over and over and over again. But if you're like, oh, I only need to do that for like 10, 20, 30 minutes a day. I should get going now and I should make it a habit and schedule it every day. And in time, I'll really improve. Then you're gonna get the score you need. There's no other way of doing it. So that's everything you need to know about how to improve your vocabulary and a little bit about mindset. So in lesson two, what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at reading skills. So we're gonna look at skimming, scanning and close reading. Many of you might not have even heard of this one and we're gonna look at the real problem. The real reason why people don't develop their skills, why people don't use these skills effectively on test day, don't practice properly. We're gonna look at all of that in lesson two. So make sure you tune in for lesson two and I'll see you then. Hopefully you find this lesson useful and get going with your vocabulary improvement plan. Hello there and welcome to lesson two of our IELTS reading course. So if you watched lesson one, well done. If you haven't watched lesson one, please go back and watch it. There's some really essential information in there that you need in order to improve your IELTS reading scores to a seven or above. So what are we gonna do today? So we're gonna look at reading skills mostly. We're gonna look at scanning and skimming like every course does, but we're going to look at them in a lot more detail and think about what they actually are and how to use them because one of the main problems is students talk about skimming and scanning. A lot of teachers talk about skimming and scanning without really knowing what they are and how to use them. We're also gonna look at close reading which is another skill in itself as well as a couple of other reading skills that most students just aren't aware of or don't talk about or don't know about. We're gonna talk about the real problem, the real reason why you are struggling with reading skills and we're also gonna give you a couple of exercises that you can do at home to help you improve your reading skills. Okay, so what we need to do is we need to find out what these are. What are these skills? How do we use them? So a very good analogy is Google Maps. So bear with me, this will all make sense in a second. So I'm here, I'm in Northern Ireland and I need to answer this question. How many angels are there outside Rockefeller Center in Manhattan in New York? So imagine this is kind of like a reading question and we're going to be using the same skills to answer this question as you would during your reading test. But we're not going to be reading a text, we're going to be looking at a map. So to answer this question, I'm in Ireland here and I know that Rockefeller Center is in New York City. So what would I do in order to find this quickly and efficiently and effectively? Would I go into every single country in Europe or Africa and South America and try and find it there? No, I would scan for the United States really, really quickly and I would find it there. So using that scanning skill has helped me find it, the location of it really, really quickly. But have I find the correct answer? No, I haven't find the correct answer yet. So what I need to do is look at things in a little bit more detail. So look for New York, so scanning again, New York. Okay, so let's click on that one. Let's go into here. So New York is divided into five boroughs. We've Staten Island, we have Queens, where my sister lives, we have Brooklyn and we have the Bronx and Manhattan. So by skimming this, by looking at it quickly, I can understand that, yes, I'm in the right area. I know where I am, I know I'm in New York, I'm in the right place. So by just looking at it quickly, by skimming it, I'm kind of orientating myself and I know exactly what's going on. But I need to scan again, so switching skills to find Manhattan where Rockefeller Center is. So if we go into Manhattan, so Manhattan's like a big, long island and I need to find Rockefeller Center. It is a landmark, so it will probably be one of these things that is highlighted. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna scan again. Hopefully it comes up, Rockefeller Center. Okay, so we did a little bit of scanning, a little bit of skimming to help us find it and then scanning again, but has that allowed us to find the correct answer? Well, this kind of looks like an angel. So could we look quickly at it and then get the score or get the correct answer? No, we wouldn't be looking at it in enough detail. Now we need to look at it in detail, no skimming, no scanning, looking at it in detail to find the correct answer. So let's have a look again. So there's some pictures here. So if we click into the pictures, okay, angels, here we go. If you've never been here at Christmas time, it is beautiful, the tree and the angels and everything. So can we skim this, which means look at it really, really quickly to get like a general meaning to get the correct answer? No, we can't do that. Can we scan to find the location? No, we've already done that. We need to look at it in more detail. So we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, if you look down there. So the answer to the question is 12. So we were using many different skills to help us locate the correct area that we were going to to understand generally where we were. We were skimming and then to look in detail, close reading to understand exactly what the correct answer was. And that's exactly what you're gonna do on test day. You're going to be using different skills in order to help you understand what is going on, locate the location of the correct answer, and then to understand exactly what you're doing. That example, my students normally like it because it kind of takes them out of the IELTS test. Normally when you've been studying IELTS for a long time, you're just like, oh, another IELTS test, another reading test, another, and so it's just kind of normalizing the situation for you and helping you understand that these are skills that you already use in your native language. Let me show you another example. Newspapers are very, very good. I've covered this one up on purpose. So newspapers are a very good example of when you use skimming, scanning, and close reading. So imagine I want to find a movie review. So let's say my little boy wants to go see the latest Disney movie, which is Mary Poppins. At this moment, Mary Poppins is in the cinema. So being a selfish dad, I want to know is it any good? Because I don't want to go and see a movie if it's not good. So let's use those skills again to help us find it. So again, if I wanted to find out the movie review, would I read every single story here on the front page? No, what I would do is I would open the newspaper and I would scan very quickly for some keywords, which would be Mary Poppins and a review or some kind of synonym of the word review. And I would come across this. So here is the title, Mary Poppins Returns Review. So I found it by scanning, okay? So now I need to understand is it any good? So let's have a look at the title. A truck full of sugar can't make this uplift go down. Unsure, all right, might be good, might be bad. Unsure from the title. We need to look at it in a little bit more detail. So what skills could we use? Let's say I'm in a rush. I need to find the correct answer quickly. What skills could we use to help us understand this? So let's try skimming. Skimming means that we are reading the text quickly. It doesn't mean reading the first line and the last line, that's not what skimming means. It means reading it all pretty quickly to understand the general meaning. So let's try that. So let's have a look and read this. And in the comments below, just by skimming, tell me if you think that it's positive or negative. Okay, so reading it pretty quickly, I'm still not 100% sure. Remember that my little boy wants to go see it. I don't want to waste my time. So I need to know 100% the answer to this question. Is it any good? So another skill that we could use would be scanning. What would we scan for? What would we scan for positive adjectives or negative adjectives? Like if it says good, it's probably good. If it says bad, it's probably bad. But we'd need to be aware of all the different synonyms and the different vocabulary that might be used. So let's try that. Okay, so here we are. Largely charmless. Might have created something memorable. Okay. So does this help us understand the correct answer? No, because we just find the location. So here we change colors. So here is the sentence where we've located some adjectives. They seem to be negative adjectives, but if we just did this, just looked for negative adjectives, we don't know 100% sure whether they're talking about the movie or they could be talking about the original movie made in the 60s. Like we don't know. So we need to use a different skill, which is close reading. So let's look at this in more detail. Let's read this sentence properly and think about it deeply. Suddenly it becomes clear that the people who made this largely charmless venture, charmless means that there's no charm to it. With its hard smiling nanny might have created something memorable, even good and hummable if they had turned it over to Miranda. So when we're looking at this in detail, it becomes quite clear, even without looking at the rest of the review, that they don't think it is very good. All right, it's not going to be a positive review. So you can see that the different skills that we use there to help us find the correct answer. Again, you're going to be using these in the test, but it's not as simple as skimming, scanning, close reading. You need to understand what those are and more importantly, how and when to use them and how to practice them, how to get better at them because they are skills, just like any other skills. So not only are we going to be looking at these ones, which you mentioned, to that are really misunderstood or not talked about enough are these two. Understanding the question, you could argue that this isn't a skill, but I'm including this here because it is so important. And deciding the answer, drawing a conclusion. So let's take one at a time. Understanding the question, if you don't understand the question, you will not be able to find the answer. All right, it's as simple as that. If you don't understand the question, you won't be able to find the answer. What a lot of students do is they immediately go in, skim the text, scan the text, look for the answer, but don't really pay enough attention to the different options. It is a reading test. You should be spending most of your time reading, but this is a skill in itself. Also, you need to be aware of synonyms. So it might talk about the movie in the questions, but in the text, it talks about a film. Movie, film, they are or a picture. They are pictures like an old fashioned word for a movie or a film, but they're all synonyms of each other. So by looking at the question and thinking about which synonyms might be coming up, then it's going to help you with especially scanning. Skimming, we've already talked about that. Reading quickly to understand the general meaning. You're going to use this for some types of questions, other types of questions. You're not, we'll look at that in a little bit more detail. Scanning is just a tool to help you find the location. It's not a tool to help you find the correct answer. What you should use is scanning to help you find the location and then close reading, looking at things in detail and that is going to help you decide the answer. And I would separate these out. This is more reading and thinking up deeply about what the text says. Then you need to decide the answer and come to a conclusion. It's kind of a separate thought process. It's going to happen very, very quickly, one after the other, but really separating them out and this drawing a conclusion, deciding the answer is key, I think. So you're going to have to be aware of what these are, but more importantly, when to use them and how to practice them. So let's look at what most students do. What most students do, skim, scan, find the answer. So you're missing out understanding the question. You're missing out synonyms, so two words that mean the same thing and you're also missing out finding the actual answer and drawing a conclusion. So be aware of how these act and be aware that they're not linear, okay? It's not like one, two, three, four, five. You always start here and then here and then here and then here and then here. It's not like that. Sometimes you might not skim at all. Sometimes you might not scan at all. Sometimes you might use scanning first and then skimming after that. Sometimes you might flip between the two. So thinking about it in a very, very simplistic, overly simplistic way is going to lead to a lot of trouble. Let me show you an example of two questions. So here we have two very common IELTS reading questions. One is matching headings and the other one is true, false, not given. So for matching headings, you're starting off by skimming the text, all right? So one of the skills that they are testing with matching headings is can you quickly understand the general meaning of the paragraphs? That's what they're principally testing. So you're going to be using that first and foremost. Then you're going to be answering the questions. So you're not really looking at the questions at all until you skim the text first. So if you did it the other way around, it's going to be less efficient and it could cause some confusion. Then you're going to use close reading and then you're going to decide the answer, no scanning. True, false, not given on the other hand is the other way around. So you're going to be understanding the question and then scanning, not skimming at all, close reading and deciding the answer. So you can see the difference between these two questions and this is one of the reasons why you will hear a lot of people complaining about these questions and say like, I hate matching headings and I hate true, false, not given. Most of the students that I work with, when they say that, I say, well, what's your strategy for each of the questions? What they'll normally say in return, they will say, what do you mean? There's a different strategy? Is it not the same? Is it not just skim, scan, find the answer? Like no, there are two different questions. They are testing different skills and testing different things. They have been constructed in different ways. Therefore, you need a different strategy. And this is a very simplified version of the strategies that I share with my VIP students. This is not the complete strategy yet. So what we're going to look at now is how to improve these. So these are skills just like archery or basketball or football or whatever you want to do. Every skill requires you to learn how to do it and then to practice it. And if you don't practice it, what happens? If you don't practice anything like driving a car or riding a bike, they say you never forget how to ride a bike, but it would be a very good idea if you are a keen cyclist to cycle regularly to keep up that skill. And some skills are perishable and some skills are not so perishable. But a perishable skill, something like shooting or archery means that if you don't do it for a long time, your skill diminishes very, very quickly. Exactly the same with these. So it's not only important that you practice these regularly, you have to practice them out. Like a lot of people just don't practice them at all. And if you are able to do these effectively on test day, you're going to get everything done much more efficiently and quicker and you're going to be able to find the correct answers more effectively. So if you want to improve your scores basically, learn these. So what I'm going to do is give you some exercises for the three main skills. So most of these are best to do with a partner but if you don't have a partner, you can adapt them and do them by yourself. So improving scanning exercise, number one, find an article. Could be a newspaper article, could be an academic article. You can find something online, it doesn't matter as long as it's in English. That's the only thing you need. Identify some important words. So underline some words that you think are crucial to understanding this text. Number three, change some of those words to synonyms. So what you're going to do is take those important words and change them to synonyms. So you could write these out on little individual pieces of paper if you were doing this with a partner. Then what you would do is you would swap them with a partner and their job is to match the synonyms with the word that you underlined in the text. So you would obviously like delete the underlined so it wouldn't be too easy for your partner. You could do this on your own by creating this and then leaving it using it as a review game after a week or a month and to help you with that. But if you do it with a partner, it will really, really help. So that's just a really simple game. It's not the only game that you can use to help you improve scanning. If you're on your own, what you can do is let's say you can try and find some specific information in a newspaper really, really quickly like cinema times or stock prices or what's going on in politics that day or the scores of a cricket match or a football match. Like just try and find that really, really quickly and that will help you with your scanning. Moving on to skimming. Number one, find an article, exactly the same as before. And number two, create a title for each paragraph. So let's say you find a newspaper article and it has eight paragraphs. What you're gonna do is you're gonna look at the paragraph, skim it, read it quite quickly and then create your own title. So again, if you're doing this with a partner, write it down on a little piece of paper and have them for your partner. And then what you would do is your partner would be doing the same thing and then you swap. So you have your partner's article and all these little pieces of paper with their titles on them for each paragraph. What you would do is you would try and match it with and the person who gets the most within a time limit because remember it's skimming so you're gonna do it on the clock so you could do it in one minute or two minutes, whatever you need to do. And that's gonna force you to skim your partner's text very, very quickly and try and match them up. Again, you could do this by yourself by creating your own titles and then leaving them and using them to review. Or you could do this yourself by if you have a newspaper, every single paragraph that you see read it quite quickly, like 20 seconds, 10 seconds. Time yourself, try and get faster and create your own title for each one and that will really, really help you. Improving close reading, again, find an article and do this with a partner, write one comprehension question. A comprehension question means something that you're gonna ask someone and the answer will demonstrate that they understand the meaning, the general meaning of the paragraph or something specific within that paragraph. Basically, you're forcing the person or forcing yourself, if you're doing this by yourself, to look at it in detail. You can't skim it, you can't scan it, you have to really think about it and read every single word and really think about the meaning and what's going on in that paragraph. And again, just swap with a partner, set a time limit, do it with points. You could do this by yourself by creating your own questions and then leaving them until you forget about them and then coming back like a week later. Or if you're doing this by yourself like you're reading a newspaper article, think about what, try and create your own questions anyway and that will force you to think about the detail of the paragraph. You don't have to give those questions to anybody but just creating the questions forces you to really read it in detail and think about it that way. So these are all just examples of active reading. You are reading for a purpose. You are doing something while you're reading. Compare that with how most students learn which is just like reading an article or reading a newspaper. You're not really doing anything. Your brain isn't being activated in any way. You're just bored. Your brain is bored. But if you're doing those things then you are doing something with the intention of improving something specific. You can do it with vocabulary as well. So how to improve your reading skills. Number one, understand the difference between the five reading skills, the five reading skills. Number two, practice thoughtfully and regularly. Do something while you're practicing and do it. You know, if you really need to improve your reading skills you should be doing this every single day. Don't be one of those silly people who complains about not being good at something but doesn't do anything to improve it. That's crazy. Number three, have a step-by-step strategy for all question types. We're gonna look at this in lesson three. So to look at our little pyramid here again we talked about vocabulary in lesson one. Today we talked about skills. Okay. And then tomorrow what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at strategy and that will complete our pyramid and that will complete your, raise your awareness about what will actually help you improve your scores. And tomorrow we're gonna look at a step-by-step strategy for matching headings to show you how effective that strategy is and to convince you how important it is to have a strategy. And but to just circle back to mindset again, thinking about skills. You do have to practice them. You have to put in the work. Someone with a bad mindset will be like can you not just tell me how to improve skills? Can you tell me how to improve my cricket skills or football skills or archery skills or swimming skills? No, there's no book on like how to become a better swimmer. You have to get in the pool and swim in order to do that. I can't give you like top 10 tips on how to improve your skimming or how to improve your scanning. I could, but it's much, much better if you actually put in the work and do it yourself. So again, mindset is absolutely crucial not only for vocabulary, but for skills as well. Hopefully you find that interesting and tomorrow we're gonna put it all together into lesson three and we're gonna give you a step-by-step strategy and show you how to implement it. Hello and welcome to lesson three of our reading mini course. So let's get going with lesson three. So let's just summarize what we've done so far. So that we know where we are. So in lesson one, we looked at the key factors that will get you a seven or above on the reading test. And we also looked at how important vocabulary was and we gave you that vocabulary improvement plan. I hope all of you have begun your vocabulary improvement plan. And in lesson two, we looked at the skills, what those are, why they are important and we showed you some practice activities. So hopefully you've got going with those practice activities. And today we're gonna round it all off by showing you everything you need to know about strategy, what strategies are, why they are effective, how they are effective. And we're gonna give you a step-by-step strategy for one of the questions so that you can see how powerful it is. And we're gonna make this lesson as interactive as possible just so that you can activate your brain cells a little bit instead of just sitting back and watching a video. So this is the most important thing throughout the whole course. Everybody is focusing on this and ignoring all of this. We talked a lot about vocabulary and skills already. We're gonna talk a lot about strategy today and at the end, we're gonna bring it all together by bringing it back to the most important thing which is mindset. Okay, so why strategy? Well, this quote will tell you what I think about strategy. What does strategy mean? Well, if we read this quote first, a fool with a plan is better off than a genius without a plan. So being strategic when it comes to your preparation, when it comes to doing the test and doing the questions means that you go in there with a very, very solid idea about exactly what to do. So being strategic about your preparation is knowing exactly what to study and planning it all out and actually doing it. Same with when it comes to the reading questions. You know exactly what to do and you do that on test day. I really like this quote, another quote that I really like is an idea without a plan is just a dream. I think that is very applicable to IELTS because lots of people have the idea of getting a band seven or getting a band eight or getting a band nine but it's just a dream. Until you put together a strategic plan of action, it will remain a dream but those that are a bit more strategic about things and plan things out, they're the ones that get the scores. So we're gonna help you with that today. So another reason why you should be aware of strategies and why they are so important for reading is these are just some of the different types of questions that might come up on the reading test. So if true false not given, matching headings, multiple choice questions, summary completion, matching sentences, diagrams, matching names, short answer and on and on and on and on. Now, why do they do this? Why do IELTS have so many different types of reading question? Why isn't it like when you were back in primary school or high school and it was just multiple choice questions or just comprehension questions? Well, what these questions do is they simulate what it will be like when you move to London or Toronto or Chicago or Sydney or whatever you're moving to. When you are there, you're not going to be just using one skill. You're going to be tested in a multiple different ways when you are in your new country. You're not just reading one thing. You're going to be reading multiple things in multiple different ways. So these questions simulate what it's like to be in an English speaking environment. And the key thing to remember about these when we go back to strategy is they're all testing different skills, different sub skills and different orders. They're all structured in different ways. Therefore, you need a different strategy for each different type of question. Each of these different types of question, you need a step-by-step strategy that is unique to them. So when students join my VIP course, one of the things that we do with them is we give them a step-by-step strategy for every different type of question. And we tell them you need to learn these because you can't go in with just one strategy and hope that it helps you with all of the different types of questions because it won't. So how do step-by-step strategies help? Well, number one, it's a proven framework. They are proven to work. So I didn't just wake up one day and be like, oh, I'll put together some strategies. No, these have been tested over years and years and years of teaching and students doing the test. So we spent like hundreds of hours putting these together and testing them and working with students, and these are the strategies that actually do work. Also, very importantly, they allow you to practice in a very standardized way. So this is important because if you practice in a standardized way, then you're taking one variable out of your practice. So by applying the same strategy to the same type of question over and over and over again, you know that the strategy is signed because we've proven it. So if you're getting the questions wrong, it's nothing to do with the strategy. It's either your reading skills or your vocabulary or timing or you just find that question difficult for some reason, but it allows you to practice in the same way over and over and over again. And then on test day, what are you going to be doing? You're going to be doing the exact same thing that you did on test day. So just one less thing to worry about on test day. So next point, you know exactly what to do on test day. And then the final point, it saves you a huge amount of time on test day as well. One of the worries of the typical IELTS student is I'm going to run out of time and most do run out of time on the reading test. Strategies save you a huge amount of time because I don't like to say robotic because that's kind of a negative thing to say, but it kind of does turn you into like an IELTS reading robot. You know exactly what to do when you're just like step one, do this, step two, do this, step three, do this. And obviously you're going to be freely thinking and thinking about the different things that are in the text and in the questions, but that strategy is going to be very structured and it's the same over and over and over again. So this is a strategy for matching headings. Please note that this strategy is for matching headings. It is not for true false not given or yes or not given or multiple choice questions or any other type of questions. It's just for matching headings. It's a unique strategy for every different type of question. Sorry for repeating myself, but it's really important. So let's go through this one and this is kind of a simplified version for the purposes of this lesson. The one that we have on our courses is more complicated than this and this is more of a simplified version so just be aware of that. So let's talk about each step and why we do that. Do each step, why it's there. So number one, skim text first and create your own heading for each. So you're looking at the text first. Okay, you are not, that shouldn't be like that. Let's get rid of that. You need to change our into this. Okay, so you're looking at the text first. The reason why you're looking at the text first is what they're testing is for you to be able to look at a text and quickly understand the general meaning of that and to be able to match headings with the text, with each paragraph of the text. So if you look at the questions first, that is gonna slow you down and it's going to mean that you get a little bit confused and it can also lead to some false conclusions and can lead to some false answers. So it's really, really important that you look at the text first. Other questions, you'll look at the questions first. For this one, you're gonna look at the text first and create your own heading for each. So why do we get students to do this? So this is just something that I discovered in class when I was working with students. I set this up as like a little game for students and discovered by accident that it was really, really, really effective because what it does is it forces you to understand the general meaning quickly and then by putting your heading beside each paragraph without looking at the questions first, a very, very special thing happens after that. When you read the headings, so the difference in headings and text, you're looking at the headings, some of them will become very, very obvious. Some of them, which we will show you in a second, will be so obvious that you can match them pretty much immediately. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Step two, you're gonna read the headings, understand and highlight any keywords that are gonna help you with that. So you're looking at the text first, then you're looking at the headings and you're just focusing on one thing at a time. You're focusing on the text, then you're focusing on the headings. That's really important that you understand them because if you don't understand them, you won't be able to match them. Number three, match obvious headings, okay? So you might have a text with, let's say, few paragraphs and you have your little heading here and then you look at the possible headings here and this one matches this one directly. It's like nearly exactly the same. So that means that you can match them really, really quickly. Now, does that mean you'll be able to match 100% of them? No, but you will see if you use this method, you should be able to, it differs from question to question, but normally about half of them, you'll be able to match really, really quickly. So let's say three out of the six, you're able to match immediately. That leaves you with three out of the six to really, really focus on. So again, you're being strategic. You're really thinking about things and doing things in a very, very strategic way. As you can see, this took a long time to figure out, but it really does work. And then you're gonna write the possible headings beside the remaining paragraphs. So there will be some remaining paragraphs that you haven't been able to match. You're going to then focus on them. Instead of focusing on all of them, you're just focusing on the ones that you do not know, that you're unsure about. So again, being really, really strategic, you can focus all of your attention, all of your focus onto those that you're unsure about. And then you come to a conclusion, okay? So that's the first time you've seen this probably. So let's look at what it might look like on test day. So here I have a paragraph from the Mary Poppins review from the New York Times. What I want you to do is I want you to read this quickly, so I'm gonna give you less than one minute. And what I want you to do is on a piece of paper or you can type it out, write your own heading. If you had to create a heading for this paragraph, what would you write? Okay, so pause the video, do it in less than one minute and write your own heading. Go. I'll get out of the way, so you can pause the video now. There you go, okay? So now you should have your own heading for this one. Really, really important that you do that. If you didn't, go back and do it. Okay, now let's look at another one. Same thing, what I want you to do, pause the video for about one minute, read it quickly, come up with your heading. Okay, so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at a list of headings. So here are a list of headings and both of them should be, you should be able to kind of get a good idea of what they are already, but at least one of them will be very, very, very obvious. Okay, because you've created your own title. So what you can do now is think about your title for this one. So most students are able to match the first one with this one, okay? There's a review of the soundtrack. If you had a read, looked at this really, quickly it talks about songs. It talks about a lot of songs and song titles. So if you read that quickly, words like melodic and lyrical and all of these things, you would have wrote something like soundtrack or songs or something like that. And then it would have been very easy to match it up with this one. Now, that leaves us with three options, okay? How the movie compares to the original performance of the actors and the screenplay is pretty written. So now what we can do, instead of wasting any more time with this one, we're not gonna waste any more time because we've already got the answer. We can really read this carefully, okay? And a lot of these you could just discard. So does it talk anything about the screenplay? Read it carefully, think about that. Does it talk about the actors, the performances? Read it carefully? Or does it talk about how the movie compares to the original? So what I'd like you to do is read this more carefully and decide which one of those one, so is it one, one, two, or four, which do you think? So again, pause the video and think about it and have a go at picking it. And hopefully, because you are able to pick up that it's nothing to do with these, nothing to do with these, but it was talking about comparing it to the original. So hopefully you can see by using a strategy like this, you're just making everything so much easier for yourself. So matching headings are one of those types of questions that students hate. They're just like, oh, I absolutely hate this question. I can never get the answer. So imagine going from someone who just doesn't know anything and hates those questions, to someone who can just apply this strategy and hopefully get the answers. Now, are you going to get 100% of the answers all the time? Probably not unless you're like a band nine student or you're hoping to get a band nine, but you are just increasing your chances massively of increasing your score. And that's what we want to do. So finally today, let's go back to here. So hopefully you've been able to see that tips and tricks are not going to help you by improving your vocabulary, improving your reading skills and employing a strategy for all the different types of questions. You're able to ignore this completely because tips just do not work. But as I said at the beginning of the week, the most important thing is mindset. So what do I mean by that? Well, you could get two students. Imagine you have two identical twins, all right? They're the same language level, the same everything. Uniquely, they have access to exactly the same information. So every student in the world now has access to the same information online, all right? Or imagine they went to the exact same school and got given the exact same books and the exact same lessons. But one of them is getting a seven or above. The other one is getting below a seven. So this is why he is not very happy and he is. So exactly the same, same information, same teaching, same everything. Why is one getting over a seven and one is getting below a seven? And we see this every single day, every single day. There's one thing that is the crucial factor in this equation. So let's look at the difference between happy student who's getting the score they need and unhappy student. Well, unhappy student, all they wanna do is just learn tips and tricks and shortcuts. Happy student, what they wanna do is they actually want to learn and improve. They want to improve their vocabulary. They want to improve their reading skills. They want to improve their general level of English. They want to improve their scores. This attitude means all the difference in the world. The guy who failed, he wants it now. He might have like six months ago, he started studying and he said, I want it today. I want it right now. I just want shortcuts and tips and tricks. Whereas this guy said, okay, I need to, it's gonna take time, it's gonna take effort, it's gonna take hard work, but I'll get there. I'm not there now, but I'll get there in the future. And that is the difference between getting the score you need and not. This guy is totally clueless. He doesn't know what is going on. He's not aware of any of his problems. A lot of these guys actually think that they are entitled to getting a really high score. These are the guys that blame everybody else. They blame their teachers, they blame the British Council, they blame IDP, they blame everybody because they deserve a high score. Whereas this guy is aware that in order to get a high score, you need to do a few things. You need to put the work in. You need to learn a few things. So this guy is a lot more humble. This guy is a lot more arrogant. This guy is very strategic in his preparation and in what he does on test day. This guy, luck and hope are his two favorite words. How many times have you heard this? Next time I'll be lucky. Oh, I hope that I'm lucky next time. Luck is going to be a factor in my preparation. It's not, all right? I don't care about other areas of your life where you believe in luck and you believe in hope. Don't apply that to the IELTS test. Luck and hope are the two most dangerous words that you can believe in. Finally, this guy sees mistakes and learns from those mistakes. He actually likes mistakes. He loves mistakes because they are an opportunity to improve. This guy, first mistake he makes or the first time he gets a low score in a practice test or something like that, he just quits, all right? So this, the missing ingredient is attitude. This is all just attitude. And you can change any of this immediately. Doesn't actually require any effort or any work. It's just about changing your attitude, changing your mindset. And let's finish up this course by talking about one thing that we do on our VIP course. If you only learn one thing from this whole experience, this whole mini course, pay attention to this. We've helped more students get the scores they need than any other course in the world. Why is that? It's because we're the best teachers in the world or the most intelligent or the most hardworking or anything like that. No, it really just comes down to our methodology and how we think about the test and how we think about preparation. So there's a few things that need to happen in order for you to improve. You need to learn what to do, okay? So if you have bad materials or if your lessons are bad, if you've bad input, then you're not going to learn what to do. But you need to learn what to do first. But that's just the first step. Then you need to do those things, okay? So you need to practice, you need to put in the effort to do those things. But if you just do them without any feedback, you've just wasted your time. So you need feedback on your work, okay? Then from that feedback, you're going to learn. So it just goes around in this positive feedback loop and you're going to improve if you do this. Let's look at a real example. Let's say you don't know how to write an introduction for a task two essay. You need to learn how to do that first. Someone needs to teach you what to do. Then what are you going to do? You're going to write an introduction. But you're probably not going to do it perfectly. So you need to get feedback. These are the things you did well. These are the things you need to fix. You're going to learn from that. You're going to do it again and get more feedback until you are able to do it at the level you need to do it at. This is simple methodology is where you need to get to. But most students are nowhere near this because they're listening to people who don't know what they do or they are using materials that are just unreliable. Then there are some students who have a really great teacher but they're actually not doing anything. If you just sit back and listen to a teacher or just watch videos, you're not going to learn anything. You need to do those things. There are a lot of students who do have a good teacher who are doing those things but they're not getting any feedback on their work. So they don't know where they're going right. They don't know where they're going wrong. So you need to do all of these things in order to move up and get the score that you need. And we believe that anybody can do that. We believe that anyone can help. We can help anybody get the scores they need as long as they're prepared to put in the work and have a really good mindset. And that's it. Hopefully you enjoyed this course and there will be a few spots available for people who want to continue to work with us. We only work with a very, very small number of students on a more intimate basis. But if you want to be one of those students, there'll be some information about that. We'll send you an email. As I said, there's only a few places available but if you want to continue on your journey with us and get the scores you need and then you can forget about this silly test and move on with your life and move to the country of your dreams, we'd love to help you do that. So if you do need extra help, feel free to get in touch. So I hope you enjoyed that reading challenge. If you need help with listening, I've included this video that is the fundamentals of IELTS listening. It is going to really help you understand exactly what is happening during the listening test and what you need to do to improve your score to a band eight or even nine in listening. So enjoy the fundamentals of IELTS listening and after that, I have something very, very special for you. And in today's lesson, we're going to focus on the fundamentals of IELTS listening. So what are we going to do today? So we're going to look at an overview of a listening test. Many of you will be aware of this but it's good to just quickly go over it so you know exactly what's going to happen. 10 reasons why you are failing and 10 solutions to those problems. So the IELTS test is, the listening test is quite difficult to teach online. The reason why it's quite difficult to teach online is obviously you need to be listening to things and you need to be looking at the questions. It's really easy to teach when you're working one-on-one with a student but online, it's a little bit more difficult. So I thought about what would be the best way for me to structure this lesson so that you could get the most out of it and so that you can improve your listening and improve your strategy. So what we're going to do is look at, I've identified the 10 most common reasons why students don't get the score they need in the listening test and then five or 10, sorry, 10 simple solutions to those problems. And what we're also going to do is I'm going to demo how to use step-by-step strategies for any type of listening question. Listening is probably the area that students need the least help with. But some students do struggle with it and it can also just help boost your overall score. And it's also just a good idea to have complete confidence and the least number of worries on test day. So what we want to do with this is give you complete confidence that no matter what happens in the listening test, your score is going to be guaranteed. You're definitely going to get the score that you need if you follow these steps. Obviously we can't guarantee that everybody will get a band nine or a band eight, but moving towards getting the score that you need and being very, very confident through practice and through these strategies that you'll get the score that you need. Okay, so let's look at an overview of the listening test first. So it's four sections and there are 10 questions in each section. The questions get more difficult as the test progresses. It's really important that you know that because what happens is a lot of students find it very difficult to cope with the last questions and they really focus on those questions. So they get really stressed out and they're like, I really don't know how to do any of the last questions. I would kind of flip that around and I would say make sure that you're getting 100% in the first section and 100% in the second section and as close to 100% in the third section and do as well as you can in the fourth section and that will really ensure that you get the score that you need. If you spend a huge amount of time stressing out and worrying about a few questions at the end that you probably aren't going to get anyway because they're really designed for the people who need a band eight or a band nine and you're sabotaging your progress. The test lasts for approximately 30 minutes. That might not sound like a long time but the thing that you need to think about with that is how many times have you focused completely on listening to English and really focused? So I'm not talking about listening to songs or watching a movie or watching a TV program or a podcast or anything like that. I'm talking about complete focus and concentration for 30 minutes. That is actually a very long time in a foreign language. So be aware of that that that is a big, big challenge. Each recording is played only once. One of the big things that students get used to when they're learning English, when you're with a normal English teacher, what they do is when they're practicing listening, they will repeat things, they'll repeat the recording many, many, many times until you get it correct. The other thing that a lot of English teachers do is they will speak to you in a very slow way and they will make sure that you understand every single word they say. Not a very natural way to speak. In real life and in the IELTS test, you will hear things just once. So you have to get used to that. And you'll have 10 minutes at the end to transfer your answers. So that's just good to know from a strategic point of view. So section one, you'll hear a conversation between two people within a social or everyday context. Section two, one person speaking in a social or everyday context. Section three, a conversation between two or more people within an education context. And section four, a lecture, normally on an academic subject. So it's good to be aware of these, but it's also good to be aware that these test different listening skills. Listening and reading, you can break those down into different sub skills. And whenever I deal with students in my VIP course, we talk about that a lot, that reading is not just reading. Listening is not just listening. There's lots of little sub skills that you need to be aware of. For example, listening to a lecture requires different skills to listening to multiple people talking at the same time. Because they're just two different styles of speaking and they require different skills. Also the different contexts that you'll be listening to, normal everyday social situations. If you are used to listening to podcasts and listening to TV programs and YouTube clips and things like that, where lots of people are talking within a social context, that might not be a problem for you. Or if you live in an English speaking country, that might not be a problem for you. But if you just are not used to listening to people in these everyday social contexts, that might be a problem for you. Section three and section four, more academic type context, if you are listening to lots of TED talks, for example, that will not be a problem for you. Or if you're attending university and you're listening to academic lectures, that might not be a problem for you. But if you never do that, that might be a bit of a difficulty for you. So it's good to be aware of the different contexts and the different situations that you'll have to listen to. So problem number one, here's a lot of reasons why you're not getting the scores that you need. This sounds really, really obvious. And you might be like, Chris, why are you even wasting my time with this? The main reason why people don't do very well in the listening test is they don't do any listening. This is pretty obvious, but probably the number one reason. So when I deal with my students, when I sit down with them one-on-one, if they have a problem with the listening test and they're consistently getting low scores on the listening test, first question I ask them is, how often do you listen in English? And most of the time, if they're being honest with me, they'll say, oh, I listen to a little bit of music or I listen to, you know, when I'm out, I sometimes hear a little bit of English, but when do you actually sit down and listen to a movie or a YouTube clip or a TED talk or a lecture? Probably not very often. If you want to improve your listening, listen. Sounds very, very simple, but extremely effective. Reason number two, you listen passively and not actively. So some students who are getting, you know, six or 6.5 in the listening test and they say to me, but Chris, I'm always practicing my listening. I listen to movies, I listen to songs, I listen to YouTube all the time in English. And I say, well, you're not really listening. You're listening passively. You're not listening actively. The test requires you to do specific things while you are listening. Therefore, listening passively will not help you as much as doing something while you are listening. For example, if you have a problem with vocabulary and you're just watching lots of YouTube clips and not really thinking about any of the new vocabulary that's coming up, and then you compare that with a student who is really focusing on synonyms, really focusing on paraphrasing, really focusing on guessing the meaning of new words from the context and they're actively doing that when they're watching TV or watching movies, compare those two students. The student who's sitting with popcorn in the movies and, you know, just thinking about it very passively or the student that's sitting there and taking notes on the new words and guessing the meaning of new words, they're two completely different students. So if you want to fix things within your repertoire of listening skills or your vocabulary or your grammar or whatever it is you need to focus on, actively focus on those things and it's really, really going to help you. Obviously, that requires extra work and you have to put away your popcorn. I'm sorry about that. After you get the IELTS test, you can go back to chilling out and watching Netflix or movies or whatever you want to do. But until that time, you're going to have to do a little bit of work. Reason number three, your spelling is wrong. If you don't spell the word correctly, your whole answer is wrong. So students get really upset about this and upset with me in class for some reason, but I don't make the rules. So I think that a lot of students think that this is a little bit petty. They're like, okay, I got the question correct. I know what it is. But I just misspelled the word. Can I not just, can they not just give that to me? I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. If you have a spelling mistake, even if it's the correct word, it's wrong. So if you are a really good thing to do is go and analyze the reasons why you got some questions wrong. So what I would suggest you do is do some listening tests and then correct them exactly how they are corrected in the real test. So look at the answers and if you're making spelling mistakes, mark it wrong. If you're consistently getting things wrong because of spelling mistakes, then you really do need to work on your spelling and not your listening. So establish if that is a problem, if it is a problem, you need to work on that. Reason number four, you don't read the instructions carefully. Again, this is something that a lot of you are going to be like, of course, I read the instructions properly. I always do that. This looks like a really simple reason and something you would never do, but everybody, even the best students that I've ever dealt with, even the students who are very meticulous and very hardworking and very careful, sometimes they get things wrong because they didn't read the instructions properly. You must do this. Again, go back and analyze your mistakes. Do some practice tests under exam conditions and analyze why you made the mistakes. Did you make the mistakes because you just didn't read the instructions carefully? If that's the case and you're getting multiple questions wrong because you just didn't read the instructions carefully, you should be very, very, very happy because it means that you can boost your score almost immediately by focusing on understanding the questions and reading the questions carefully, following the instructions and doing what they say. So see these mistakes that you're making as opportunities to improve. Reason number five, your vocabulary is just not wide enough yet. Your vocabulary can improve, but if you are struggling to maybe go from a 66.5 to a 77.5 or an eight, could be vocabulary, very, very common. The listening test is as much a vocabulary test as it is a listening test. The listening test is actually a listening test, a reading test, a writing test, a vocabulary test all at the same time, but vocabulary is a huge, huge component of it. If you don't understand the meaning of some words or you don't get used to being able to accurately guess the meaning of some words from the context, you're really gonna struggle. If you are completely unaware of synonyms and paraphrasing, you don't know that one word is a synonym of another, you're really gonna struggle. So for many people with the listening and the reading test, they don't need to work on their listening skills or their reading skills, they need to work on their vocabulary. If you want help with your vocabulary, go and check out the video and the bonus video that I've given you in this course all about how to improve your vocabulary and you could actually combine your reading practice and your listening practice with improving your vocabulary. Reason number six, you don't listen just once. So this is not your fault. This is because most English teachers, when they're practicing listening, they will let everybody listen three, four, five times. In real life, people are not going to repeat themselves three times. If you're listening to a lecture and your professor says something once, it's not like you can put your hand up and say, sorry, can you please repeat yourself because my English teacher always played things three times for us. You will have to do this in the real test and in real life, so get used to it. Do not give, make your, how would I put this? Do not make your preparation too easy. There is always a temptation to make things a little bit too easy for yourself when you're doing your practice. When you're doing your practice, you're listening to things many times, you're getting a high score and then you make it so easy for yourself that on the real test, you fail. Most cultures have the saying and that probably comes from the army of like do the hard training before the war and then the war is easy. It's the same with IELTS. If you think about it that way, do all the difficult things, do all the hard work before the test and then the test will be easy. If you do it the other way around, you're gonna get into trouble. Reason number seven, you can't predict. So a lot of the listening test is predicting what is going to happen, what is going to come up. So based on what you read in the question, you have to predict what is happening. This is a skill that you need to develop. If you do not develop this skill, same as like a golfer or a footballer or a boxer, there are certain skills that you need to develop. If you don't practice them, you're not gonna do very well in the overall competition. Many of the questions require you to predict the answer before it comes up. Get used to dealing with this. You could do this when you're watching a TED Talk or a YouTube clip or a movie. Think about what they're going to say next based on what they've said already or you can definitely do it by doing practice IELTS test because the IELTS listening test is just full of prediction. Reason number eight, you can't hear the words. So very, very simply, if you don't understand what the person is saying, you're not going to be able to answer the question. Native English speakers do not speak like robots. They connect words together and you have to get used to this. So for example, if you're listening to an elementary or pre-intermediate or intermediate, if you're in an English class, the teacher might talk to you like this or the recording. If you're listening to recording, people speak very, very slowly and very, very clearly. Now you might think that that is helping you but it's actually doing the opposite. It's harming you because when you move to an English speaking country, people do not talk like that. So instead of saying, do you want to go to the cinema, they'll say, do you want to go to the cinema? Do you want to go to the cinema? They link all the words together. It's called connected speech. And a way that you can overcome that is something I call micro listening. So what I would do with my students is I would play them one sentence like, do you want to go to the cinema? And I would say, okay, listen to this multiple times and try and break down what they're saying. Try and write out the sentence and try to identify the links in what they're saying and how they connect to speech and then try to mimic that. Connected speech is part of pronunciation for the speaking test. So you can improve your pronunciation and you can improve your listening by focusing on connected speech and trying to improve your connected speech through micro listening and mimicking. And that's a really advanced technique that really, really helps. But what a lot of students will do is they will just say, I have no idea what they're saying and I'm not going to try. I mean, if that's your attitude, you're never going to become a very advanced English learner. Other students are like, okay, I have no idea what they've just said but I know that if I really try and focus on it and really work hard to try and understand them through micro listening, that's, I'm eventually going to be able to both understand what they're saying and sound more like a native English speaker by connecting words together. Reason number nine, you don't pay attention to signposting. So what's signposting? Everyone does this through signposting language, intonation, or even sent in stress. So especially like a lot of students complain that they don't know how to deal with a question with a map on it, like labeling a map. And throughout that talk, often you'll get a question where for example, it'll be someone giving you a tour of a university or giving you a tour of a library or something like that. And what they'll constantly do is through signposting language, intonation and sent in stresses, they will show you where they're going with the conversation or with the talk through this signposting language. And so if they might say something like following on from there means that they are ended one part of the talk and they're going to start another part of the talk. And if you analyze the IELTS speaking test for these types of questions, or sorry, the listening test, I'm getting my tests mixed up again, what you'll find is a lot of this signposting language and intonation and sent in stress and just helping the listener understand where they're going with the talk or with the conversation. So being aware of that, especially for labeling maps and things like that, is really, really helpful. Final one, the reason why you're not getting the score you need is you treat all questions in the same way and we're going to get into this in far more detail in the rest of this lesson. There are many different types of listening question. There are many different types of reading question. If you approach every single one of those questions and in the exact same way, you're going to get into a lot of trouble. So each of the different types of question requires a different set of skills. It's a different situation. So if you are applying the same strategy to every single question and they're all different, you're going to get in a lot of trouble. So there are several different types of question and they all require a different set of skills, therefore a unique strategy. So with all of my students, what I do is I give them a separate strategy for each different type of listening question and each different type of reading question and all they have to do is learn that strategy, apply it, practice it and then in the real test, they use that strategy to help them through the questions. So all I'm trying to do is just make it easier for them and give them a system that works, that I've tested over years with students and I've got them all down exactly the way that students need to do them for each different type of question. So let's look at one. We obviously can't look at every single type of listening question and give you a strategy for every single type of listening question because the video would be 10 hours long. So what I've done is I've just shown, just to show you how this works and then you could maybe try and do this yourself for free or you could just try and figure it out yourself if you want. What I'm going to show you is a popular question on the listening test, something that students have asked about and I'm going to show you how the step-by-step strategies work for this type of question. So here I've took this from the official IELTS website. So here's a typical multiple choice question. Choose the correct letter. The type of insurance is economy standard premium. Customer wants goods delivered to Port Home Depot. Many of you maybe have done this question before. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you this question and then show you how I would help a student with this question. So what I often do with students is I say, go and do some practice tests and analyze the questions and tell me which questions you're very, very strong in. So which questions are no problem for you at all. And then also tell me which questions are you getting like all of them wrong or most of them wrong. And that's how we strategically approach things. And what we do is we target those problem questions. So there's no point in working on questions that you get right every time. Just work on the questions that you really need help with. So this is the advice that I would give my students for multiple choice questions. So this does not apply to the other types of questions. This is just for multiple choice questions. Obviously read the instructions. Well, I say that this is unique to multiple choice and then the first one applies to them all. Sorry. Every single question, read the instructions carefully. Move to this question as soon as possible. So in the different sections, if you see this question, move to it quickly because there's going to have to deal with it and there's going to be a lot of thinking that you're going to have to do. So move to this question as soon as you can. Do not sabotage the rest of your test by focusing on one question that you're not sure of. In a test with lots and lots and lots and lots of questions, if the fifth question is causing you a lot of problems and you spend the whole test worrying about that question, that means you're sabotaging the rest of your test. So if you have a problem question, just guess it or leave it and move on. Move on to the keep moving on, keep moving through the listening test. Then you need to look at the differentiating keywords. So what does that mean? So if we look at these different choices, what we need to do is think about the differences. So economy, standard, premium. So economy and standard, they're both kind of synonyms of each other. So if we think about that, there's a big difference between economy, standard and premium. Premium means you get more service, you get cost more money, it's more like a VIP type of service. Economy and standard are kind of the lowest standard if you're given a choice of different services and they cost the least amount of money. So it's really important that you think about the difference between the meaning of these different ones, all right? Same with here, Port Home Depot, all right? These mean three completely different things. Port is going to be somewhere beside a river or beside the sea or beside an ocean where ships come in and deliver things. Your home is your home where you live. A depot is a central building, like a central warehouse building where companies like amazon.com or whatever big company you have that delivers things in your country where they keep a centralized place where they keep lots of goods and then they deliver them out there. So being aware of the different types of answers here, but most importantly, being aware of how they are different from each other is really, really going to help you. And this will only take one second, three seconds. Just look at these and understand them rather than trying to understand them in the middle of everything. Okay, so look for differentiating keywords if you're not sure, move on, okay? So if you get a listening question and okay, so this is question number nine. So there are a huge number of questions that are going to come. And if you spend your whole time just going, was it economy or was it standard? Was it economy or was it standard? Oh no, I'm going to fail my test. Oh, I better get this one. What happens is you're so worried about that one and you don't move on that you get questions 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and on wrong because you just run out of time and you get mixed up. It would be better if you just said, okay, it's either economy or standard, I'll just guess that one and then move on. So what you're doing is you're giving yourself a better chance with the questions that come next. All right, so don't focus too much on one question. Remember that you get a score for the whole test and one question is not going to make a huge lot of difference. So guess if you have to and move on. We've already talked about that. Remember synonyms and paraphrasing, all right? So remember that, let's look at this. Premium, so the person might be talking about VIP or the highest level service or first class. So like first class, the highest level, the most expensive, these are synonyms and paraphrases of premium, all right? So the person might not say premium, the person might say VIP or first class or the most expensive one or they might just be talking about different levels, the highest level. You have to be aware of this. If you're just thinking, premium, premium, premium, premium, I'm looking for premium, I'm listening for premium and premium doesn't come up, you're gonna be completely lost. So again, always be aware of those different things. Get used to reading and listening at the same time. This is a skill that you need to develop. You need to develop the ability to read and listen at the same time. If you are not able to do that, you're really, really going to struggle. How do you do that? Practice tests, listening and reading at the same time, practicing those skills is really going to help you and developing those skills is something that is absolutely crucial to do before your test, not doing it for the first time in the test. And start slow and build up. And this might be a little bit overwhelming for you right now. And you might be thinking, God, look at the number of things that he wants me to do, like and the number of, now he's going to start talking about strategies. And this is just one question. Like, how am I ever going to do that? And remember how you learned how to ride a bike or learn how to drive a car. You didn't learn how to drive a car by going on to the motorway and driving at 100 miles an hour immediately. You weren't with your driving instructor and they just said, okay, right, now we're going to drive at 100 miles an hour. No, you started off in a car park with no people around you so you didn't cause any accidents. And you took everything very slowly and slowly build up your confidence. That's what you need to do, not just in the listening test, but every single part of the test. And if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, but I want a band eight next week and you have done the test 17 times and you keep getting a six, but you're saying, I want to do the test and I want to get it eight next week. You're being very, very unreasonable and you're being very, very unrealistic. And you might think that that is a silly thing to say, like someone failing 17 times. I've dealt with students who have come to me and said, I failed my test 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 times, but I want to do the test next week and get a band eight. Maybe it might be better instead of doing the test another 15 times to take some time and slowly build up your confidence and learn the things properly and then get the score that you need. Okay, so here's a strategy. Again, not for all listening questions, just for multiple choice questions. Number one, read the instructions. Number two, read and understand the questions. Number three, highlight the keywords and think about differentiation. Number four, think of synonyms and paraphrasing. Number five, predict if you can. Sometimes you'll be able to predict, sometimes you won't. Listen to the whole section, all right? Listen to everything they say. Put a tick beside the one that you think might be correct. Number eight, keep moving on. So all of this might seem like, yeah, I know all that or I do all that, but what you want to do is you put that into a system, put that into a strategy, just like when you're learning how to drive a car, what you do is you put your seatbelt in first, then you check your mirrors, then you check this, then you check that. So it's a system, it's a strategy that you follow each and every time. So if we look back at this question, so you'd read the instructions, okay, so I just choose letter A, B, or C, okay? So I'm not going to give the answer. So if the answer was economy and it says choose the correct letter and you write economy, you're wrong, all right? So that's an example of you just not reading instructions. So read the instructions, know what you have to do. Okay, so I have to pick A, B, or C. So next thing I have to do is I have to read it and understand it. Huge number of students do not read or understand anything. So type of insurance chosen, okay, I know what economy means, I know what standard means, I know what premium means. If you don't know what those mean, guess them. Okay, any differentiation between these, okay? So economy and standard mean the same thing. Premium means something completely different. It's kind of the opposite to these. Okay, I understand the differences in meaning of these. All right, so what's the next step? All right, synonyms and paraphrasing. So premium could be first class, could be VIP, could be this, could be that. Economy, what are some synonyms and paraphrasing of that? Prediction, can I predict what they're talking about? Okay, so I can't predict this, but what I can predict is they're going to be talking about insurance and they're going to be talking about different levels of insurance, the quality of the policy. So I'm thinking and I'm predicting and that makes it much, much, much, much easier for you to identify your answer when it comes up. Okay, so then you've got to this stage where you're listening to the whole section, put a tick beside the one you might think might be correct. Remember, listening is different from reading in that you will be given time at the end to move your answers over. So you don't need to decide then, you can just put a tick beside the answer. And then what you do is you keep moving on. So if you were really stuck on this question and you were not sure between economy and standard, just put a tick beside both of them. You're not sure and then move on to this one. Time is your enemy. The recording is not going to stop. It's just going to keep going on and on and on and on so you have to get used to that. So hopefully that helped you understand the fundamentals of IELTS listening. And the next stage is doing a practice test. So what we've done is we've created a full practice test for you and all you have to do is just click the download button below and you'll be able to download a PDF document with step-by-step instructions on how to do the test and how to send it to us. So do the test under exam conditions and you'll be able to do it in the same way that you'll do it on test day and then you'll be able to send us your results and we'll be able to give you the answers and allow you to get some feedback on your listening because there's no point in learning the fundamentals and learning the principles if you don't actually put that knowledge into action. So do it under exam conditions and you'll get to know where you are, get to know what your score is and get some feedback on your listening performance. Look forward to seeing it, bye-bye. So now I have something very special for you that is not available to anyone else but the people watching this video. It is a little thank you for watching the whole video. So there is a saying, success leaves clues and what this means is that if you can spot successful people and multiple successful people doing something, there will normally be clues as to how they did it. Now the VIP course is the most successful IELTS course in the world and what we did was we took the most successful the cream of the crop and we interviewed those students and asked them how they did it. So in this video, I'm going to include lots of success stories and you'll be able to watch them and you'll be able to pick out what they did and then copy those people. And I'll put timestamps for each of these success stories and show you what they focus on because different people talk about different things. Some talk about writing, some talk about reading, some talk about speaking. So without further ado, here are the best IELTS success stories you will find on the internet and I hope that you enjoy them. I interviewed four students who were struggling with IELTS reading and eventually got a band nine so that you can learn exactly how they did it. Interestingly, all four band nine students said the same four things and that's exactly what we're going to teach you in this video. So you can go from struggling with IELTS reading to getting the score that you need more easily. Let's start off with Valentin who went from a band six in reading to a band nine. Let's hear what he has to say about strategy. I had a big struggle with destruction. I could be easily distracted by a true false, not given questions and I really hated all the questions related to topics. So when you should place topics for different parts of the text, I really hate them. So what Valentin said there was that he found certain question types distracting and he talked about hating true false, not given and hating matching headings questions. And this is very, very common for students who deserve a very high score like they deserve a band eight or a band nine but they're getting a low score. They're getting a five or a six and the reason is that they hate certain questions which means that they go into the test and when they see the question, they're very distracted as Valentin said and that wastes a lot of time and leads to lower scores. So in terms of overall strategy, what we did with Valentin was give him a step-by-step strategy for true false, not given and for matching headings. And this removed all of the fear and ensured that he got all of those questions correct which improved his overall score. And don't worry, we will give you those strategies at the end of this video and the other students that got band nine will show you what they did for those questions as well. But overall, we want to remove any distractions or any fear from the test so that we can perform to our best ability on test day. Now let's check out what Priyanka said about strategy. So she went from band 7.5 to a band nine. Each type of question has a trick. Like for filling the blanks or just answering the question, you can skim the paragraph. You should not read a whole paragraph but like for the true and false and match the heading, questions like that, you have to read the paragraph. So you should focus your time over there instead of the matching or filling the blanks. So what Priyanka said was each question has a trick. Now I corrected her on that and said, what you really mean is a strategy. So there are no tricks that you can employ but you can employ step-by-step strategies for each different type of question. And this is something that every single band nine student that we interview, they all say the same thing. You must have a strategy for each of the different types of question. You learn that strategy, you apply it on test day and then you're able to do what Valentin and Priyanka did which was go from band six to a band nine or 7.5 to a band nine. And don't worry, she's going to go into more detail on the matching heading strategy later in this video. But let's check out what Jaswant said in the video. And he went from a band 6.5 to a band nine, a huge increase. You don't have to have in a good knowledge on vocabulary, especially for the reading part. So the main skills you needed are skimming and scanning and understanding different formats of the exam. You can learn different question types. And as you can see, he agrees with Priyanka. What he says is that each different type of question is testing different things. They are different. Therefore, you need a unique strategy for each of the different question types. This is a huge difference between students who get like a band 5.5, 6.5 and the students that get band eight and nine. Generally the lower level students will have one strategy for all of the different types of questions. Whereas band eight and nine students will understand that each question is different and they will learn and apply a unique strategy to each of the different question types. And we're going to give you all of those at the end of this video. Finally, let's check out Shorbani. Shorbani went from a band 6.5 to a band nine. And what she says in this clip, blindly follow the strategies. Totally, I would say that all the strategies that I learned from IELTS Advantage, I just blindly followed the strategies. I used to be hardly confused and used to take so much of my time thinking that where is the answer. But when I got the strategies and I blindly just followed the strategies and that was really helpful. So band nine students don't just look at strategies. They don't look at a few YouTube videos or read a couple of books and look at the strategies. They memorize the strategies. They practice the strategies so that on test day, they can blindly follow them. They are not deviating at all from exactly what the strategy does. You might think that this is a lot of work, but it's all about putting in the work before your test so that your test is easy. When Shorbani talks about blindly following the strategies, what she is really saying is that she didn't even have to think about the strategies. She had practiced them so many times that when she saw each question, she automatically, without even thinking, applied those strategies. This makes test day much, much easier because you are not thinking about what to do on the test. You're automatically applying everything, which reduces stress, reduces cognitive load and not only improves your reading, but also means you have far more energy to apply to the other three skills you will be doing on test day. Now let's look at what the students say more specifically about the two most difficult, the two most challenging question types, matching headings and true, false, not given. So what Priyanka says about matching headings is this. I always used to do is like, I always read the questions and all the headings which question is asking us to do, but we should not do that. We should just straight away go to the passage and read the passage and with each passage, we should give a particular idea of that passage or write somewhere that idea, so that in the last you can match it. What's your idea and what's given in question? So this advice shows you how important strategy is. If you were not following the strategy, you would be getting lost because what most students do is they look at the headings, the questions first and then they read the passage. That means that they're going to waste a lot of time and they're going to be looking for things that are not there and they're going to get highly confused, not know what to do. We do exactly the opposite. We taught Priyanka to look at each of the question paragraphs first and actually create their own headings for each paragraph and then you'd look at the list of headings and it's much, much, much easier because all you have to do then is match your headings with the list of headings in the question there. Now let's check out what Jaswant has to say about matching headings. I love your tips, Chris. Before I used to start just going through the paragraphs and I used to do all that, but then you told me that you don't see the headings before even starting the paragraphs, right? So that's the one key important that helped me to score the perfect nine in the reading exam. So exactly the same advice, exactly the same strategy and when you see successful people doing the same thing, there's a quote, success leaves clues. Whenever you see successful people in any walk of life doing the same things, you should copy them. Now let's check out what Shrabani has to say about matching headings. When it comes to matching headings, we have to read the passage first, make our own headings and then match those headings with the headings given. So, you know, practicing these strategies and remembering those strategies, this takes couple of, sometimes need a lot of slow practice. So not only did Shrabani give advice exactly the same as the other two Band 9 students, she also gave advice about how she learned the strategies because Band 9 students, as I said before, don't look at a strategy once they memorize it and she talked about slow practice. Slow practice is when you get some real practice tests and you don't try and do them as quickly as possible. You don't do them under exam conditions. You open up the book, you find the question type that you want to work on and you work on learning the strategy. Not on getting all the questions correct. It doesn't matter at that stage. That is why we call it slow practice. You might take 20 minutes for one question or one hour for one question because your focus is on learning. Your focus is not on getting up to exam speed. So very, very good advice from another Band 9 student there. So I'll give you that matching heading strategy in a lot more detail at the end of the video for free, but let's see what they have to say about true, false, not given because it is completely different. So let's check out what Shrabani has to say about true, false, not given. For true, false are not given. For example, I used to read the passage first and for not given questions, I used to be highly confused and used to take so much of my time thinking that where is the answer. But when I got the strategies and I blindly just followed the strategies and that was really helpful. So as you heard there, Shrabani would read the text first for true, false, not given and this would lead to a huge amount of confusion and this has knock-on effects on the rest of your test because if you think about it, if you get lost with one type of question, it wastes a lot of time and it also really increases stress. So a lot of students that we work with deserve a Band 8, 8.59 but because they mess up one part of the test, that means that the rest of the test is messed up as well because you're running out of time, you're very stressed, when you're stressed, your brain is not working optimally. So it is really, really important that you establish what your weaknesses are and have a strategy for each of the different question types. So let's check out what Priyanka has to say about true, false, not given and the differences between what is true, what is false and what is not given. If you have read the paragraph first and then you are reading the question, then it's really easy to know that it's not given in the paragraph, so you should mark it not given. So what she's saying there is not that she read the text, the paragraph first and then read the questions, she's talking about comparing the paragraph that you think contains the correct information and the question statement. And if you can't find any information in there, then it's not given and really what Band 9 students say over and over again is you must develop the confidence to write not given because searching a paragraph for something that is not there is like me telling you to go into the next room and find something that is not there. It's gonna take you a huge amount of time and you're going to get lost and you're going to get confused. By practicing the strategy that will give you at the end of the video, it gives you the confidence to immediately look and say, okay, this isn't here, I can't find it, let's move on and not given. And then she says when something is there, so when something is there, then you have to think about is it true or is it false? So if it's not there, not given, if there's something in there related to the question statement, then you decide is it true or is it false? But when something is there and you can correct that sentence, that means it's a false sentence. So what she said there was if you can look at the text and think this is wrong, I can actually correct it, I can change it to something that is true, then that is false. Now there are many other ways that you can do that, but that is a very logical way of thinking about it. So first of all, is it there? If it's not there, it's not given. If it is there, then you need to decide is it true or is it false? If you can correct the statement, then it is false. If you can't correct it, if it's the same, then it is true. Importantly, don't just look at this short part of the video and think that you have mastered true false not given questions. You need the strategy and you need to practice it slowly. You need to master it and then apply it on test day. We'll give you that at the end of the video. Now let's move on to time management. It's very common for students to email us and ask us for time management tips. But what bar nine students say is completely different from time management tips. Let's have a look at what Priyanka says. Actually, I never faced problem with time management since I started practicing like from first day I was able to complete my test in one hour. So she never faced an issue with time management at all. Does this mean that you can't learn from her? No, because this is reflected in what Jaswant said as well. For reading, I've did like more practice on it. I was reading some online articles, as you always suggested in the course, like I've been going through when reading the BBC articles. So that really improved my skills a lot. So he talks here about reading in a spare time. To be honest with you, Chris, I was more interested in like, you know, wildlife. So I was reading more and more that kind of, you know, things that interested me. That will make you to, you know, I'll read anything with ease, right? So you don't have to struggle with anything. He talks about reading something that he loves, reading about wildlife. I find I need like new vocabulary. I will make a separate note of it. And then here he talks about making notes about new vocabulary. What has this got to do with time management? So both these band nine students were reading in their spare time. They were practicing that skill. They were reading things that they enjoyed. So they were doing it sustainably and regularly and they were actively reading. They were improving their vocabulary as they were doing it. This means that time management is not an issue at all. You do not improve time management by learning time management tips. You improve time management by becoming better at reading. Let me give you a quick analogy. So Usain Bolt was the fastest man in the world. Is Usain Bolt better at time management than these guys? Are these guys behind Usain Bolt because they don't have the same time management skills? No, Usain Bolt is better at running. These guys are not as good at running as Usain Bolt. Exactly the same with not only the reading test but also the writing test. Students that get a band nine do not think about time management at all. When I did the real IELTS reading test I got a band nine in 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I just went to the toilet and then came back and just stared at the ceiling. That is not because I did anything magical or looked up top 10 magic time management tips the night before the test. In fact, I was in the pub drinking the night before the test. It's because I'm a native English speaker and I am an IELTS teacher. Of course I should easily be getting a band nine but there is one extra thing that band nine students do related to time management that lower level students don't do. So there are three sections in the reading test section one, section two, section three and they will get more difficult as you go through them. Let's have a look at what Shrabani has to say about that. What I did, I did some time bounding practice and I checked that each and every section how much time I'm spending and I realized that initially I used to spend a lot of time in the section one and section two. So I used to have very little time left for the third section. In an Excel sheet, I marked my times like I'm taking seven minutes. Usually initially I used to take 10 minutes. After that it came to seven minutes. I told myself that I have to make it finished by five minutes. And so this type of practice actually helped me to complete the test within time. And Jaswant says a very similar thing here. So I don't know how much time I should allocate for each section. So I'll try to complete first two sections in 30 minutes so that I will have plenty of time for my section three, right? So what they understand is because the questions get progressively more difficult they spend a lot more time on the more difficult questions later on in the test. So most band nine students that we work with tend to not think about I must spend this number of minutes on each question or this number of minutes on each section. What they generally do is they try to get section one and two done as quickly as possible. Correctly, but as quickly as possible. And then that gives them a lot more room, a lot more time at the end to really think and focus in on the last most difficult questions. So to summarize band nine advice, real band nine advice from real band nine students. Each question is different and you must have a separate strategy for each of them. True false not given and matching headings questions are difficult and can cause problems but not if you practice them and master them and apply a real strategy to those questions. And then finally, time management tips just don't exist. It's all about improving your reading, your reading skills and your vocabulary. And if you get to that level band nine is inevitable. It just will happen for you. Okay, so this is a very special video that we're going to make today. One of the most successful students that I've had, Sana, I posted her results last week. She got 8.5 overall. And we got a huge response from people who wanted to get more information about her, wanted to, for me to share her story a little bit more. So we're going to do a video with her today and she's going to help you guys with some advice on how, maybe not get 8.5 but help you reach your goals. So Sana, can you first of all just introduce yourself to people and give a little bit of background information? About yourself. Yeah, of course. Well, my name is Sana and I'm a medical student. I recently graduated, I finished my medical school and in order to set my medical exams, I was supposed to do the IELTS exam because my primary medical qualification is not from the UK. So I was supposed to say it. And that's why, yeah. Excellent. Can you tell people just a brief story about your IELTS journey? But like, so people know that you got 8.5 overall but how many times did you do the test? Some things are cut. Yeah, well, this one was my second attempt. I did the last one in July, yeah. And then what happened was like, I didn't get the scores that I needed. I basically needed 7.5 each of the sections and also overall. But I really struggled with writing part and that's why I came to you for help. Excellent. So what we're gonna do is something slightly different today. On my page, I told people that I was interviewing you and did they have any questions for you? So I have like the top, the five most popular questions. And so we're gonna do that first. So the first question was a really, really important question. I think, how did you identify your weaknesses? Well, I think it was just natural. I just, whenever I'm doing something, I just know, like, you know, because my whole purpose is like, you know, to improve myself in whatever I'm doing. So I was no different anyway. So what happened was like, I exactly knew that and after the school, especially I knew that the writing part was the one that I was struggling with. And in the listening, for example, I knew that I'm gonna get a 7.5 the last time that I got. That was the score. And I missed six of the questions and that was everything to do with the map. So obviously I knew that the map was the area. In the reading, well, I was kind of confident. Last time I got an eight. So I was okay with that. Then speaking, yeah, I knew that the 7.5 I got wasn't really reflective of my true ability because I got really nervous in the exam and I just messed it up. So I mean, and in the writing, I obviously knew because of this code that I got and I'm not up to the mark because I got a 6.5 when I needed a 7.5. So I just knew everything exactly where I'm in short. Yeah, so I, because you were my student, I was able to help you identify your weaknesses in writing, but maybe for a student who either doesn't have access to a teacher or doesn't have the money for a teacher or just lives somewhere without any IELTS skills or something like that, how could they identify their mistakes in writing? I think this question is very subjective because it really differs from person to person. Every person has a different way of identifying their weak areas. But the best thing they can do is obviously regarding the IELTS that they can just practice with the official material and that really helps because when you do that, obviously you will know like which areas you're falling short of, like, you know, and if you have stopped the exam before once, twice, twice, you definitely know because the scores are reflective of your ability. So obviously I knew like in the listening part, for example, I knew that like the maps was the thing that I was really struggling with because when it came in the exam, I got all six of them wrong. So if you subtract six from 40 or at least 34 and it's a 7.5. So you just know because you practice and you practice a lot. And then the next question was just how do you boost your general level of English? Because one big misconception is you can just learn lots of IELTS skills and take tricks and tips and things like that. But at the end of the day, IELTS is an English exam. So to get 8.5, you need a certain level of English. How did you get to such a high level of English? Okay, I'm gonna be very honest here because I know there are many people watching this. But yeah, I totally understood that it's just not about the IELTS techniques and it's just not about IELTS. It's an exam of your general level of English. So I read every day. I don't like reading. All I love reading books is like medical books, okay? I'm generally not into reading, definitely not. But for the purpose of the IELTS exam, obviously I had to because I knew I had to. So I was reading every day. Every day I'll read some article and I'll just read online because I'm always on the net anyways. So I was reading every day and then I will note down the words. But I followed your 100% rule. I didn't memorize a list of the words for sure. So I made a copy, I still have it actually. So I was writing down the words and then I was writing the adjectives, synonyms, the collocations, that was really important. I used an online dictionary for that and it was really helpful. So by the end of everything, I had a huge book with a lot of vocabulary that I could use in the exam. And also secondly, I think it was, it's something to do with my school as well because I have been taught in English all my life and the school that I studied in, country where I was born in, I studied in a school called Convent of Jesus and Mary and there teachers, like, you know, we were taught by nuns and other teachers and they used to come from the UK and Spain and everything. And we were fine if we spoke in the national language and not in English. So it was, yes, it was always stressed and I'm very grateful for that. Like, you know, it really helped me. Yeah, so I think for anybody who want to just do what you did, surround yourself with English, which could mean reading every day or listening every day, speaking to people, just do whatever you can in English. Yeah, and I listened as well actually to be honest because I love watching documentaries regarding women trafficking and prostitution and stuff like that. I'm just interested in those topics. You know, the things that affect socially, like, you know, everybody, so like, you know, I would watch a lot of documentaries. I love documentaries. Yeah, so choose something that you're interested in. Like it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be like an academic book. Of course, I mean, if I was choosing an academic takeout, I would definitely choose something related to medicine only. But I'm also interested in all these kind of things. So yeah, I chose documentaries for it. Yeah, I mean, you could watch cartoons in English. Yeah, almost. That's maybe an extreme example, but you know, but it just shows the point I'm making here. Yeah, that's true, that's true. Do whatever you enjoy in English and that's going to help you. I think you just surround yourself with English. Read, listen, write, do everything you can. That's only where... Okay, so the next question was, this is a really popular question, but I don't think that the answer is going to help a huge number of people because it is so subjective, but how much time did it take you to get to that score? Okay, as you already said, it's very subjective, so it differs. But for me, it took around a month. Yes, exactly a month actually, not even a month because it was exactly 28 days. But for everybody else, it could take some people a week, it could take people six months, it could take some people a year. Definitely, because as I already said, my general level of English wasn't bad. I mean, last time I got the other parts, if you take out the writing part, including that one, I got 7.5 and 8, which is obviously a much higher level of English, but still, you need to improve. You can't stay static and just think that everything is going to be fine because what people do, I think, is they keep on repeating the test, thinking, okay, I didn't do it this time, maybe next time the paper is going to be easy or something, it's not going to change. If you don't put in the effort, it's also going to be the same, so the choice is yours. Excellent advice. All right, so the next question, how do you write the perfect essay? Actually, I'm laughing because there is no perfect essay. Anyways, but the point is, for me, I just follow the structure that you gave, but I won't lie because not completely, because I was still running out of time. In the introduction, I thought, I'm running out of time, what do I do? I had to make a choice. Either I write the perfect introduction, or I just spend more time on the supporting paragraphs. Instead of doing that, I chose to spend more time on the supporting paragraphs, and it actually worked. But I think the structures that you give are really helpful because then you don't have to go into the exam and think, okay, what do I write next? Okay, what's gonna be the next thing that I have to focus? And also I'm gonna say, planning is very important. I know it's a crucial step that many students just get because they think, okay, we have just got 40 minutes, and we're gonna do everything in these 40 minutes, but that's the wrong approach. So as you always say in your course as well, planning is crucial, not just for us, for everything in life to be honest. It's no coincidence that every single student that I've interviewed like this, they all say planning was crucial to them. Yeah, it is the crucial part. But I think the main point in reaction to that question is there's no such thing as a perfect essay. A lot of people are jumping from website to website, from IELTS book to IELTS book, trying to find the perfect structure or anything. It doesn't exist. There's no teacher. That doesn't exist, of course, yeah, you're right. Writing the best essay that you can, the most effective essay that you can is what your goal should be, not trying to find someone who will teach you the perfect essay, because it's not a mathematics question. Well, it doesn't exist. So if some teacher is doing that, I think it's just about good for something, yeah. So the next question that people wanted to know from you, and I think you'll have a good answer to this because I spoke to you the day before the test and the day before your results, and you were very stressed out. Yes. So how did you cope with stress? Well, I was very stressed, firstly, because it was the second attempt. Okay, now I don't wanna sound negative or something, I know there are many people who have done it like writing times, quoting times, and thumbs up to them. But I think it's like for me, it was set back for me because I couldn't believe that, I mean, I've studied English all my life and I've studied in the best schools and everything and like, you know, how come I couldn't hear it? But I think I'll, it's a little bit different than other exams. Like, you know, you do need the professional help, like, you know, and sometimes what people do is, like, you know, they think, oh, it's just an English exam anyway. Like, you know, I'll pass. So I think it's really important to get the professional help that you can. And with the stress part, you know, like, it really depends. Like, you know, it's first from person to person, but at the end of the day, I just stop thinking about it. Like, you know, I remember, because I remembered what I actually wrote in the exam and the actual exam. So I remember emailing you as well with the whole essay and asking you, oh, can you please give me the feedback? Can you tell me how my ideas are, how I've sent it and everything, okay? And I did the same in the group as well, the private group. And then, like, you know, some people were saying, it's really good. Some were saying, oh, no, you could have done this, but like, you know, and it was just like, absolutely. Like, you know, I was like, okay, I can't take it. So I just like, you know, deleted the post. Okay, in the exam. What other students tell you? Normally not, not, not, some of it is very, very good advice, but some of it is, hmm. Yeah, so you told me not to worry. So after that, after hearing your advice, like, you know, I just deleted the comment, but yeah, what I did in the exam, like, you know, I thought, because I messed it up last time because of getting nervous. I mean, like, obviously the 7.5 was not my real mark. I was pretty sure on that in the speaking part I'm talking about, like, you know, so I thought, that's it. I mean, what I'm getting out of being nervous anyway, like just a 7.5, you know? So I thought, like, you know, forget it. Like, you know, I'm not gonna think about it. It's not an exam, so I literally went in there and I was talking to the examiner as if I've known him for 20 years or something. I literally did that, I literally did that. And that is the best advice I can give to anybody who's not getting a score in the speaking part for sure. Like, you know, you wouldn't be nervous. It's not gonna help. Just go there, remain calm and do your best. That's all. And talk to the examiner as if he's your friend. I mean, like, that's all. I said that to you 10 times, 20 times on the course, so that's great that you did that. All right, so those are all the questions that other students have. So what I think we'll do now is we don't have a lot of time, obviously. So we'll go through each of the four skills. And if you can give just some quick pieces of advice for, let's say someone, most of the students watching this need a 7 or above. So if you are hoping for a 7 or above in each of the skills, what would you do? So listening, what would you say for listening? Best advice is focus in the exam. Just focus, like, about the surroundings, everything. I was literally like, I don't know how to explain it, but be very focused, especially in the math questions, because you have to use more than one senses at that time, like, you know, hearing, listening, like, you know, just moving from one point to the next. And that was the part I was struggling with. So focus is the number one advice I can give you. And for the people who are not, like, used to listening to, like, English language most of the time, maybe for them, I would say, like, you know, listen to document fees. There is a lot of stuff on the net as well to help you with the listening part. If you are obviously already in the UK, you're obviously surrounded with people, like, you know, who already speak in English. But if you're not, then clients can English, listen to English, I don't know, watch movies and things like that, maybe. And I think for when you say focus, I think that's something that is a skill that needs to be developed. Yes. And I was talking to another student who got eight or nine in listening, and they said it was very similar to meditation, that you need to build up absolutely the skill, the focus that you need to do that. So, I mean, just saying focus is, some people will be like, well, how do I do that? How you do that is slowly building up your practice and through listening. Yeah, I can add another advice as well, actually. I mean, I don't recommend this, because this is, like, very risky. But I did it, and it worked for me, but maybe, like, but I don't recommend it. I just recommend you, like, listening very carefully. But if you can't, like, you know, if you just missed a point or something, let's say, like, you know, there are six spots to a question. And let's say you didn't quite get, like, you know, the third part or something. And what you do is, like, you listen, and when you listen, just quickly write the important bit. Like, you know, if it was a map question, that's how I improved on the maps. Like, you know, that was the reason I got a 7.5 last time on the map, because I just couldn't follow the conversation. I just lost focus. So, like, you know, this time, what I did was, like, you know, I just wrote, like, important bits, like, you know, opposite the road in the north, like, on the north side or something like that. And I just quickly wrote it. So, when you have a minute, you know, just to check your answers, instead of checking my answers, I just quickly read it, and then wrote the option correctly. And that's how I improved. Great. So, let's look at reading now. And what would be some advice that you would give to someone for reading? Reading, reading. It's, I think, it's more to do with, like, improving your vocabulary, first of all, because it's just easier when, like, you know the words already, and it's not something new. Secondly, for the reading, of course, practice, practice goes for every part anyway. But, yeah, for reading, it's very essential. Third and very important timing, okay? Because I, well, I said it on one of my things, but yeah, I'll say it here as well. Like, you know, don't divide your time equally. Like, because it says, like, you know, you have 20 minutes for each passage. Don't do that because the level, difficulty level of each passage is different. So, first one is the easiest. And the third one is the most difficult. So, obviously, it makes sense to give more time to the third one, rather than the first one. And because first two passages are easier, relatively, then you gotta, like, you know, just get as many questions you can get, like, you know, just get them correct. And the first two and the third one is just a bonus. So, yeah, this is my advice. That's what I did. That's great advice. And did you do the, did you do it in order? Did you start at the first one? I did it in order. Yes, yes, I did it in order. But, yeah, I mean, you can do any part first. I mean, like, you can do the third passage first. But if you're doing a difficult thing first, it's just, like, you know, maybe something else. I think it's better to do it in order. Yes, I did it in order, yeah. The low hanging fruit first, because what people, I've seen a lot of advice from other people that says, do the hard part first, but then you're going to spend lots of time and your brain is just gonna be like, oh my God, this is difficult. And then the easier questions become more difficult because you're mentally drained and you don't have time. Yeah, probably, you know, because you're not gonna get many of them correct anyway in the third one. So like, you know, you're just like, you know your confidence. Yeah. The third part is really for people, and a lot of the questions are to separate out the bands seven, eight, and nine people. So you, so for realistically, a lot of people who just need a seven or an eight are going to always get some questions in the last part wrong. So that is really good advice. So speaking, you're obviously very good at speaking, but let put yourself in the shoes of someone who just needs a seven or a 7.5 or something like that. What would be your advice? You've already talked about the examiner, like you would talk to a friend and relax. Anything else? Anything else? Yeah, for sure. Okay, now because I've been studying in Ukraine and obviously I didn't know the Ukrainian language. And the only way I learned it was to converse with people in that language. So English is no different as well. It's a language I've been to today. So if you want to learn it, like, you know, and be good at like, you know, conversing. So you should talk to more people and try to talk to people in English anyway. Because what happens is like, you know, when English is not your first language, at home you don't tend to speak in English. But if I have to give an advice, it would be like a month before your exam or like, you know, if your level of English is really bad, then probably two months or something like you just speak in English. Don't speak any other language, like you speak in English and that's the only way you can improve. And it's better to speak with somebody who's got a better level. I mean, because if you are like speaking with somebody who's at the same level as you, it's not gonna help because they're at the same level as you and they can't tell you the mistakes or like, you know, whatever you are. So it's better to do that, yeah. Excellent. I mean, English speaking is a skill, you have to practice that skill. I don't know how many students I've met who say that they want a band seven or a band eight and then you say to them, well, how often do you speak? Never, it's like, you know, it is important to practice. Task two, writing, what would be a quick piece of advice for that? Task two is the most difficult. Okay, practice, practice as much as you can because that's what I did. Every day I will write pre-assess, okay. Now, yeah, because actually I have to say, like, you know, sometimes I would post the essays and even though, like, you know, you're only allowed to, you know, so Michael would sometimes, like, you know, just check it anyway. And I was the luckiest one. So yeah, practice a lot, at least write, okay, I'm not saying because most of the people work, like, you know, I was not working, so, and I had just finished my medical school, so it wasn't the problem for me, but at least write one piece, writing a day, it really helps. And I mean, in the group, we have the chance to, like, you know, with two essays every week anyway, so, like, you know, it's more than enough for the people who are working. And that's the way you can improve. And secondly, I think that's very important, like, you know, once you have done the five writings with you, like, you know, once people have sent you the writings, and like, you know, they get feedback, it's very important to, like, you know, read through the whole feedback. I know it's quite long, but it's really helpful. I mean, that's what I used to do. I would read through the feedback and then if I was struggling, let's say if I was struggling with a lot, let's say I was struggling with the grammar bit. Like, you know, I was struggling with the grammar bit, to be honest. I was struggling with articles. But I think it's like, I don't know, like, when I speak naturally, like, I don't think, like, you know, there should be an, or an, or like, you know, I don't think, like, it just comes naturally, okay? But while I was writing, I was kind of struggling with it because according to the feedback you gave me. So, like, you know, I just went on the internet and like, you know, I literally read through all the rules. And after that, like, you know, I passed a lot and I improved. So the whole point is, like, you know, just whatever your area is, like, you know, that your weak area is, know that area and you will know because we get the feedback. It's like very detailed feedback that we get. So, like, you know, after that, like, you just try and improve and that's the only way you can improve in anything. Like, you know, just target the weak areas and that's what I did. That's how I improved. Excellent. And last but not least, academic part one or task one, that's what I hate. But anyways, yeah, okay. I think everything we need is in the course anyway that you give us. But if I have to give it... For people who are not on my course, what would you suggest? Okay, I'm not supposed to say that maybe, but like, as I always say, like, you know, it's very... Okay, writing and speaking are two parts in the IELTS exam, but you can't do well without getting professional help. I mean, it's not something that I'm just making up. It's very true. Like, you know, because maybe you can improve your reading and listening just because you've got the keys and everything like that. But speaking and writing at class that you can't improve without professional help. That's what I personally believe. And for the people, I think it's better to get professional help. That's just... And guys, I have to say this. I'm not being right. Chris told me not to say this, but I don't know how else to answer this question. Yeah, I said before the video, I said, don't use this as a marketing thing and don't just say it. I've always thought of marketing when I haven't been right. I'm not related to Chris in any way. I'm just a student, but I really think that his help is really what you need. Yeah, so I'll just say, obviously we can't help you, but if you are struggling with writing, I'm not saying join my course or anything, but do get someone to help you. So, for example, if you're in an English school, find out who is the best IELTS teacher in that school, show them your work, get feedback on it, or find someone to help you with it. And it is really, really going to help because it's a bit like if you, for example, if you had a problem with your car, would you try and fix it yourself or would you take it to a professional and get them to intensify the problem? So that's it. So thank you very much, Sana, that I think we're back to one time. What is, what are you going to do in the future with this result or what that's it? Well, it was very, very important for me. I actually, I think one of my, one year is wasted because I didn't like, you know, clear miles in time. I didn't know there was a deadline, actually, that was my mistake. But yeah, I'm going to prepare for my medical exams. And after that, I'll have a year because one year is wasted anyway. I know one year is going to go in preparation for exams, but after that, I think it's valid for two years. So I should quickly prepare my medical exams before it runs out. That's great, Sana. Thank you very much for sharing your advice with people. It'll be really useful for a lot of students. Thank you so much. And best of luck in your future. Okay, Sana. Thank you for being an amazing teacher. You're welcome. Thanks, Chris. Bye-bye. Hey there, Chris here from IELTS Advantage, and this is Anna. Anna recently got an amazing 8.5 in her writing. So if you consider that the average score worldwide for writing is just 5.5 and that most students struggle to even get a seven, an 8.5 is a pretty amazing thing. So I had an idea. Instead of doing a normal success story video where we talked to Anna one-on-one and talked about how she did it, I decided to do things a little bit differently and do a one-on-one interview with her, but get Anna to write out her essay, the real question that she got on the test and write it nearly exactly the same as she did in the real test and then go through it sentence by sentence and talk about what she did, why she did that and show you guys what an 8.5 essay looks like. And we're also going to talk about how she prepared for the test, how she generated ideas, what her practice routine was, all of the things that you guys need to know to help you improve your scores. So without further ado, I'll introduce you to Anna. Okay, Anna, so when you saw this question for the first time, some think that only those people who have worked for a company for many years should be promoted to a higher position. Do you agree? What was going through your head? What were you thinking when you saw this one? Well, first of all, I was over the moon because that very topic was one of my favorite because immediately I realized that I did have a lot of good vocabulary and quite clear ideas because it's not something vague or something too complicated. Everyone can have good ideas about this. So, and then I followed your strategy which you usually mentioned during your course, which is not to support your real viewpoints, your real perception of life because initially I don't think so. I do think that senior employees actually should be promoted a bit more. But I decided to stick to the ideas which I can clearly and easily understand without spending a lot of time on just going through a lot of ideas and thinking how to put it together. So, it wasn't my real opinion, but it was something which is easy to describe. Yeah, whatever makes it easy for you to write is the best choice. So, you might totally disagree with that in real life, but if you agree with it and you can easily write about it because you have good ideas, good examples, good vocabulary, just use that. The examiner is not testing your personal opinion, they're testing whether you can write effectively an English. So, that's right. And also a good life hack, so the so-called life hack also from your course is to stick to simple ideas. So, they weren't so complicated. They were obvious because I do know from your course that we should show our ability to explain, to deliver our thoughts, not our scientific knowledge. Exactly, it's not a knowledge test. And they're not testing how complex your ideas are, they're testing whether you can think of ideas that actually answer the question, which is normally the simplest ideas that come to mind. There's a game show in the UK and the US called Family Fortunes and they ask a question and they say, we asked 100 people this question and the game show contestants have to guess the most popular answer. Normally the most popular answers or the most straightforward or obvious answers are the easiest to use, would you agree with that? Yeah, so today. Excellent, excellent. So, how did you generate ideas? Was there any technique or did they just pop into your head because it was a very obvious question or? So, I followed the strategy to stick to a one-sided opinion. So, first I chose my side, which was against senior employees and then I just immediately thought about two main points which are easy to describe, that's it. Exactly, there's a lot of strategies, like we have the coffee shop method on the course, a lot of teachers teach brainstorming, but often sometimes you will get a question where the answers or the ideas just pop into your head. They're very obvious and you don't need to go through that whole technique and strategy. They're helpful if you can't immediately think of what is going on, but if they pop into your head, just use those. Yeah, and also I think it's important to write a lot of essays to practice these very skill because before that, like one year ago, it took me much more time just to think of ideas. I was really stuck looking at some essay topics, but just practicing this skill is, it may be developed. It's not something unique. Yeah, it's like if you wanted to learn how to play football or learn how to improve your cooking or singing, you have to do those things and writing is a doing thing. Often people will ask me, well, why is my listening and reading very high, but my writing is very low? And I said, well, you've been listening to English your whole life, but you've never write in English. And even smaller things like analysing the question, idea generation, planning, these are all skills that you should practice before you. So that's great advice. So did you do any planning or did you just think of the ideas and immediately start writing? Yeah, because of that practice, in quite intense practice, I didn't have to write down my ideas. It was a computer-delivered test. So I did have a list of a sheet of paper to write down my ideas, but I didn't need it because they just were in my head. And in fact, I put it in my introduction, so they were in front of me. Exactly, exactly. So you had the structure already in your head and because you had done it so many times, you could just immediately start. Yeah, and we'll talk about that in a second where we teach you to kind of plan your essay in your introduction and your introduction is a mini plan. Excellent. So let's get into it and let's have a look at your first sentence. So your first sentence, there is an opinion that primarily staff members who've dedicated many years to working for a particular company should be given executive positions in a company. So what the examiner is looking for there is your ability to paraphrase. And they'll be looking at two things. Number one, does that sentence mean the same as the sentence in the question, which it does? And is your grammar and vocabulary accurate and have you varied your vocabulary enough? And you did that perfectly. Yeah, you did an excellent job. So the examiner is looking at that and immediately they know, you know how to paraphrase, you've understood the question, your grammar is good, your vocabulary is good. So that would give the, immediately give the examiner an indication that you know what you're doing. So the second sentence starts off with, I disagree with this viewpoint. So what that does is it indicates to the examiner, here is my opinion. My opinion is, I know exactly what I want to talk about. My opinion is extremely clear from the beginning. That helps the examiner understand the viewpoint, but also helps Anna, when she's writing, stick to that viewpoint and make sure the rest of the essay links up with that and is nice and coherent and cohesive. Now the second thing that she has done in that sentence is she has listed her two main ideas, her two reasons. And as much as younger workers may have more skills and if not provided with an opportunity for a promotion, they will become demotivated. So Anna has put two main ideas here. Number one, younger workers have more skill and number two, if they're not promoted, they'll become demotivated. So it's very clear to the examiner, here's my opinion and here are the two reasons to support my opinion. And as Anna said before, that acts as a mini plan for the rest of Anna's essay because the first main idea, lack of skill, she's going to use that in main body paragraph one. And then the second main idea, demotivated, she's going to use that as her second main idea in her second main body paragraph. So is that what you did? Is that what you were thinking about while you were writing it, Anna? Sorry for talking so much, it's your video, but. It's our video. Yeah, yeah, that was exactly my approach. Excellent, excellent. Did you proofread the introduction or did you just immediately then go into the... Yeah, it was a computer-based test. That's why I used to do a lot of spelling mistakes because of my typing. When I write by hand, I don't do so many spelling mistakes, but when it comes to typing, I do have to check each sentence right on the spot. It helps me because maybe by the end of the test, I may not have any time to check it. So that's why I do it right after finishing a paragraph. Yeah, I would recommend at the end of every sentence, check your work at the end of every paragraph, check your work, and then when you have time at the end, check your work again, so you check three times. So that would be good. So let's move on to the first main body paragraph. And what we can see here is in the very first sentence, this is Anna's topic sentence. And what the topic sentence does is it tells the examiner, this is the main idea of this paragraph. This is the main thing that I want to talk about. So she says, although senior employees have proved to be reliable and loyal, more often than not, it is novices who have a wider cluster of actual skills. So a wider cluster of actual skills, that matches up with the main point that she listed in her introduction, which is younger workers may have more skills. So she's taken the main idea from her introduction and put it into her topic sentence, which is exactly what we teach on the course because it makes everything very, very clear to the examiner and easy for Anna to write about in her main body paragraph and makes everything coherent and cohesive. Would you agree with that, Anna? Yeah, totally. And I also decided to mention that I understand the opposite viewpoint, which is about senior employees who are reliable and loyal because it didn't take a lot of time and space and it was clear that's why I thought it would be a good emphasis. Like making a contrast. Yeah, I mean, it's fine to do that. What I would, if anyone's watching this, what I would avoid doing is trying to do that in a very elaborate way. I, at the end of the paragraph, trying to show the opposite view or maybe have like five or six main body paragraphs that you in an agree or disagree question, you can show a balanced view, but it's very easy to mess it up. So what we teach our students is just make it really simple by agreeing with one side, either agree or disagree, and just sticking to that side. Anna briefly talked about the other side, but you don't need to do that. It's not essential. It was my experiments with the language to... Yeah, and it helped you with a complex sentence as well, so that was great. The other thing that Anna did very, very well was she didn't just stop there and list one idea. She then fully developed that idea by explaining her reasoning behind that. A good way to think about this is someone saying to you, well, I understand that idea, but how does it actually answer the question? Give me reasons. Give me justification. And she did that very well here. This is because young specialists exert their full effort in mastering their hard and soft skills in order to meet the requirements of today's highly competitive job market. She's explained why skills or wide range of skills are useful for the job market, and then continues with that. Therefore, having been promoted, such workers may bring innovation and help to better incorporate the latest technological advances into business processes, which is irreplaceable for every company to flourish. So it explains why companies would want that, how young people with lots of skills would benefit a company, and that helps to really develop her answer. What were you thinking when you were writing that bit? Frankly speaking, I was thinking how to put together everything I know about this topic and to a bit show off my vocabulary, but then I realized that actually I don't need to show it off because I already had a lot of good expressions and they come out of me naturally. So I just gave up that idea and move on to explaining. And then I thought, okay, I need an example here, but I don't have time. I decided to write this essay at the end of the test because my weak side was the first part, so I started off with it. And then I had only 37 minutes for the essay. That's why I just decided to leave it here, or to leave it there like this. And if I had time, I would come back and then add an example, but I didn't have time. Yeah, so I've added an example in here. This is the only amendment, only change that I have made to Anna's essay. I've put it in yellow here. I put in, for example, the average age of a new hire at Facebook is only 23 for this very purpose. So Anna didn't add in an example because she was running out of time. And I think that's a really good point to make, that sometimes you have to be a little bit strategic with your timing. So what happens with a lot of people is they think, I have to put an example in, and they can't think of an example, and then they waste five minutes or 10 minutes or they add an example in. People often do that with vocabulary as well, especially when paraphrasing, they're like, how do I change this word? And they waste a lot of time. So Anna had already developed her main body paragraph sufficiently. An example would have improved things, and I've added that in, just to show how someone could add a very, very short example that would take just 30 seconds or one minute to write. But I think if Anna had added in a good example, it would have even brought it up to a nine. That's one of the reasons why I think it is at an 8.5 instead of a nine, but 8.5 is pretty good for writing anyway, Anna. So I don't think you should be too hard on yourself. Yeah, yeah. I also thought that in fact, I had quite explicit and well-developed explanation. That's why it might have worked as an example. So I decided to move on and just to finish the essay. I mean, for anybody watching, definitely do try and put a good example into each main body paragraph, but in real life, in the real, under real exam conditions, often things can go wrong. You might have to repeat a word sometimes or leave out an example or something like that. Try and make it as perfect as you can and follow the system that we're giving you. But sometimes you have to make a trade-off, you know, you can't do everything perfectly. So let's move on to your second main body paragraph. People see a big thing in red here, which Anna added in, but we'll talk about that in a second. But what Anna has done here in her topic sentence, yet another reason why less experienced staff members should have even chances for a promotion is that otherwise they will not be motivated to do their best. Again, so she has taken demotivated her main idea from her introduction and she has added that into her topic sentence. And we've already talked about why that is a good idea so we can move on. Explanation, knowing that however hard they try, they still will not be given a higher position at a company. Young employees are likely to grow reluctant to go the extra mile, which may negatively affect the company's revenue and curb its development. So a good way to think about explanations is, imagine somebody saying, well, so what? What does that mean? So they'll not be motivated. So what? So I used to have an English teacher in my, in England when I was in high school and he would walk past us and look over our shoulders when we were writing essays and he would point and say, so what? And what he was trying to get us to do was elaborate and give reasons, where rather than just state our opinion, give reasons for our opinion. And I think Anna did that very, very well there. Did you use that little trick for writing explanations? Yeah, yeah, and were it not for your course, I wouldn't do it at all because I wasn't like that. I thought, initially, I thought, oh my gosh, one sentence is enough, why should I write more? But when I sent like 10 or 12 essays for correction, then I realized, yeah, I have to elaborate my ideas. Yeah, I think it's the difference between speaking and writing. When you're speaking to someone, they can ask you follow-up questions. They can say, what do you mean or so what? Or can you tell me more? But when you're writing something, the person reading that doesn't have the chance to ask you follow-up questions. So you have to leave everything on the page and kind of anticipate follow-up questions that they might have. One of the great things about your essay is an excellent example here in the second main body paragraph to illustrate a prominent IT entrepreneur, Pavel Duruf. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing it. Had to leave his first workplace since despite his outstanding abilities, he was not rewarded with the leading role. As a result, he has successfully set up his own business while his employer lost his company due to a lack of highly qualified workers. So is that a real example that you read about in a newspaper or magazine or something? I'm not so rounded. I just came across Pavel Duruf's page on Instagram and I do know that he's a prominent IT specialist and he's one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. But I really don't know about his working background, about his story. Yeah, it was just made up for just to show the example. That's it. That's a really good point because sometimes you'll be able to think of a real example that is 100% true. Sometimes you won't be able to think of a real example. And in that situation, you can make up an example. As long as the example makes sense and it fits the question and it's not like some people write 99% of, you know, they make up some crazy statistic but yours was false but it did a very good job of exemplifying that point. So it's fine to make up examples as long as they make sense. Yeah, in fact, it was the most difficult part in the writing practice because it was really hard for me to come up with ideas. With examples? Yeah, for ideas, for example. So I'm no good at all in making up things. So I did a lot to master this skill. And for anybody watching this who feels the same way as Zana does, a really great way of doing this is to go on to the BBC News or The Guardian or some good news source and you will find technology news, the environment news, education news, health news and those are the common topics that come up again and again and again for writing tasks too. So if you just read one newspaper article a day for two or three months while you're preparing you'll get lots of ideas and lots of examples and it'll help with vocabulary and everything. It takes 10 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day but can make a huge difference to your overall score. So let's finish off. Well, before we get into the conclusion, Ana left in a spelling mistake. So you've put this in red, entrepreneur. Entrepreneur is a difficult word to spell. Most native English speakers mess it up as well but it was great that Ana left that in to show that she made a small mistake because a lot of people think that band 8.5 or band 9, like Ana got 8.5 which means that she got a band 9 in at least two of the criteria. And to get a band 9, you can make small grammar mistakes. You can make small slips, not many of them and they're just slips. Same with vocabulary. You can make a slight spelling mistake here or there. You should try and minimize those as much as possible but many people watching this, even when I post sample essays someone will see one comma out of place and you've made a mistake. That's terrible. It's like everyone's human, you're writing under exam conditions. Try and minimize your mistakes as much as possible but even band 9 students make little slips and it even says that in the marking criteria. So you're not, for most students I wouldn't focus on the small details as much as focusing on getting the big things correct. Like for example, paraphrasing, your idea being clear throughout your structure, looking good, clear topic sentences, clear explanations, good examples, good conclusions, the big things are the things that really matter. Not things like a lot of people focus on, oh, you use one personal pronoun or you misspelt one word, you must be a band 5. It's like, no, that's not realistic and it's not how the examiners think about it. By the way, what do you think about the viewpoint? I've heard it a couple of times that there are such things like the so-called native speaker mistakes and they actually don't lower your score as much as other types of mistakes do. Can you give me an example? I don't really know what you mean by, like native speakers. I usually mess up less and fewer. So if you do this in your essay, and this is just one out of, or only one or you have only two mistakes throughout the whole essay, it won't affect your score that much because even native speakers do this. I mean, if you listen to native, if you go and live in London or New York or Sydney and you listen to how native English speakers talk, they make little grammar mistakes a lot, as countable, uncountable nouns, for example, or verb-sub-debt agreement. But they don't make them that often. And that is what is referred to in the marking criteria as a slip, an occasional slip. So it wouldn't be like a massive mistake like getting a tense wrong or a systematic mistake which is you make a mistake every time you use that grammar point, you make that mistake. Articles or prepositions is a very good example of that. So somebody who has a big problem with articles, especially Russian speakers, every article is wrong. That would be a systematic error and that would lead to a band six because it just shows that your grammar is not up to the level it needs to be. But if you got one article wrong in your whole essay, that's no big deal. That's just a slip. So yeah, that's a very good point. It's a very good point. I do live lessons all the time and I make little slips all the time. Nobody's perfect. Even in class, I'd be writing on the board and talking at the same time and I'd make a little mistake and some students would say, oh, you know nothing teacher. It's like, no, I'm human, I'm a human being. So that's a good point. So your conclusion, what we're looking for in the conclusion is the examiner's looking for no new ideas. They don't want to see new ideas or anything that hasn't been talked about in the rest of the essay. The examiner is looking for a clear opinion. Again, your opinion must be clear throughout the essay in your introduction, in your main body, in your conclusion. So Anna did that in her conclusion and a summary of her main points. So taking the same two ideas from the introduction and the same two ideas from the main body and stating them again in the conclusion and a lot of people have a problem with this. Every time I teach this, people will say, well, how could you repeating ideas? Like, well, that's what a conclusion is. A conclusion is, this is what I just talked about. This is a summary of what I just talked about and that will improve your coherence and cohesion because everything links together and is very, very clear. And how you do that is you need to improve your vocabulary because you can only do that if you have a wide-ranging vocabulary and you can vary the language. You should avoid repeating the same word again and again and again, although if that happens, it's not as big of a deal as people think, but you can repeat the same ideas in your introduction, main body paragraph and your conclusion. So is that what you were thinking about? You're thinking about paraphrasing whenever you got to your conclusion? Yeah, yeah, I used to look at my introduction just to remind myself of my own ideas. And then I decided to put that concession which I did in the first body paragraph just to stick to one rule. If I made it once, so I decided to repeat it just to be on the safe side. I know I could avoid this, but I decided it wouldn't damage my score. So I did it, yeah. Excellent, excellent. So there's two more things I want to talk about before we finish. Talk about why this is such a good essay and why it's at such a high level. The first one is grammar. So the number one thing you're looking for to get a bound date, to get a bound line is not so much range, although that's important, it's accuracy. The avoidance of making lots of mistakes. So Anna has mostly nearly all error-free sentences. And that is what the examiner is looking for. They're looking for lots and lots of sentences with no grammatical errors in them whatsoever. Also, Anna has used a range of simple and complex sentences. Every sentence does not need to be complex, but most of her sentences are complex and a range of different grammar structures. But what is very impressive about Anna's work is you can tell that she hasn't tried to show off her grammar. She's tried to answer the question clearly. And as a result of doing that, she has naturally used a range of structures, complex sentences, and kept her grammar extremely accurate. One of the things that a lot of people say about band nine, band 8.5 essays is, oh, it looks very simple. How can it be such a high band? It's not about showing off and using complicated language. It's about answering the question clearly. Is that what you try to focus on, Anna? Yeah, and during the exam, I realized that all the time I spent on mastering my grammar actually helped me because I practiced inversions a lot. But I, of course, I didn't use them all the time. And during this essay, this inversion, like knowing that however hard they try or it is noises who, they just came up naturally. So I wasn't thinking, oh, now there should be an inversion. Yeah, or some people think I need to write an inversion here and then a passive sentence and then a conditional. And then imagine trying to write a normal email like that. You know, instead of just writing an email to your boss or someone, you're like, I'm going to try and use the future tense and the past tense and progressive tense. And it's just very confusing and difficult to do. Instead, just answer the question, focus on accuracy, and the rest will take care of itself. Yeah, and I also practiced a lot by forcing to use this complex grammar, but out of my essays, just in my writing practice at home, just my essays, which I didn't send for an assessment. So yeah, I did force myself before the exam a lot. But during the exam, I avoided this. Yeah, that's what I suggest with grammar and vocabulary. During your preparations, take chances, push yourself out of your comfort zone, try and get better, but on exam day, play it safe. A good analogy is when they send astronauts up into space, they try and break everything before they go when it's safe on Earth. But when they're up in the space station, they take no chances and they play it very, very safe, which is a good way to think about essay writing as well. So finally, again, we'll talk about vocabulary. Again, when people look at a Band 8 or Band 9 essay, they often say, oh, it's not good because the vocabulary is simple. But then what I do with that is I highlight all the good vocabulary, and then they go, oh, actually it is very good. So if we look here, staff members dedicated many years to working for a particular company, executive positions, younger workers, provided with an opportunity for a promotion, demotivated senior employees, reliable and loyal, novices, and it just goes on and on and on and on. And the two things that are very impressive about Anna's vocabulary, number one, it's extremely accurate, which is what you're trying to do. You're not trying to use big, complicated words that are wrong. You're trying to use words that help you answer the question that are correct. The second thing is she has an extremely wide ranging vocabulary because she's using so many topic-specific words. Words that you only really use to talk about this specific topic, such as staff members, executive position, younger workers, reliable and loyal, senior employees, hard and soft skills, meet the requirements, highly competitive job market, bring innovation, business processes, irreplaceable, flourish. You don't use those words to talk about the weather or to talk about what you did last weekend. And what that demonstrates to the examiner is if this person can talk about this topic with such a wide-ranging vocabulary and accurate vocabulary, it's a good indication that they can do that for any topic. So sometimes you might get lucky and like for example, if you're a doctor, you might get a health question. If you're a teacher, you might get an education question, but it is a very good indication if you can use those topic-specific words that you have a wide-ranging vocabulary. And did you work on your vocabulary before the test for a long time or what did you do to try and help you in that area? It was a lot of effort from my side. I studied every day. I did an exception. I had a weekend once a month, and that's it. I read a lot of tons of articles. I've written a list of more than 2,000 words and idioms, and I had an English-speaking friend to bounce ideas off. So yeah, I really pushed it. Yeah, most of the really successful Russian students I've worked with, they really systematically every day improve, try and do something to improve their vocabulary. Yeah, and what I did is that I followed the so-called bottom-up approach, which means that you're learning chunks by heart. And then they come out of you naturally both in- Collocations? Collocations and chunks, like... So if we look at your dedicated many years, provided with an opportunity for promotion. Yeah, bring innovation. Meet the requirements. Yeah, so that's how our brains normally learn vocabulary when we're children. We are when we're adults as well, but we don't learn single words. We learn chunks of language. So that's very good advice as well. So it does take up a lot of time, but it's really well worth it. Definitely, definitely. As I said, there's no tricks or tips. I can't give someone a list of words the day before their exam and say use these in the exam because you need to learn how to use them. Not learn them, memorize them. It's not a memorization test, it's a writing test. So Anna, thank you so much for sharing your essay and giving that advice. It's such a privilege to work with a student like you who's worked very hard. And now you can see the results in 8.5 and that will hopefully lead to much success in the future for you as well. Thank you, Chris, for your association and for the course, of course. I will follow the videos and I will try to take up some new things. So yeah, I do enjoy the simplicity of your explanations. And now I can tell everyone that the strategies really work. Keep it simple, as I said. I'm sure you're sick of hearing me say keep it simple, but anyway. Well, thank you again, Anna. And I'm sure everyone will get a lot of benefit from this video. And I hope that you have the best of luck in the future. Thank you very much. Hi everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another one of our success stories. So today we're going to talk to Komal. And what we were able to do with Komal was to bring her from 5.5 in writing to a band 7 in writing. So Komal was getting great scores for her listening. She ended up getting 8.5 for listening. She got 7.5 in speaking. She got 7 in reading. But the thing that she was really struggling with, like many, many other students out there, was the writing. And she did the test four times. And on her final attempt, we were able to get her a band 7. So Komal, let's start off by talking about what were the main differences between when you were getting a 5.5 and when you were getting a 7? What would you suggest to a student who is in a similar position to you, who's maybe getting a 6 or a 6.5 or a 5.5? What do you think is a good? I'll let you explain anyway. You know better than me because you're the one who did it. Well, actually, I went through a lot of videos online. And what they focused on was vocabulary. They told to practice vocabulary, high-frequency words and stuff. And I did practice that. And in my exam, I used them. But when I got my result, I was very shocked. After hard work, I worked hard for around a month. And in the end, the result which I got was 5.5, which was not what I expected. Then I thought of going with your course after trying your challenge. And I was quite happy with the structure. And specifically, what you told was keep it simple. And the sample essays which were provided in VIP Academy, that had a lot because there were around, I guess, around 15, 16 essays or so. And I went through each and every one. And the topics were different. And I read them. The vocabulary, I was like, I was shocked. I mean, is this a band-aid essay? Yeah. Where in others tell that you have to focus on vocabulary and stuff. And the formula which we have to keep in mind is keep it simple. So I used that strategy. I went through your videos. Specifically, the structure. It's so specific, so easy to understand. And yeah, I made my own notes going through your videos. And I saw most of them were similar. And there were some tips and tricks. Like if you remember them, then you can go easily band 7 in IELTS. It's not difficult. The reason why I was laughing there about vocabulary was one of the things that we used to do, when I was teaching face-to-face, when I was working for the British Council, on the very first day of class, I would give them a band 9 essay and a band 6 essay. And I wouldn't tell them which one was which. And I said, take the band 9 essay and put it on the left-hand side and the 6 essay on the right-hand side. And they always 100% got them mixed up. And the reason that 100% of them said was, we thought the band 6 essay was a band 9 because it has lots of bit words. And we thought that the band 9 essay was band 6 because it has lots of simple words. And it comes from this thing that you will see on YouTube and Facebook and on lots of schools where they teach you that the secret to getting a high score in IELTS writing is use lots of big words. Yeah. The problem with that. Yeah. I came across those videos, five vocabulary words which would help you. For example, plethora and stuff. And it was like, I had literally by heart kids there. Well, the problem is that, well, the first problem is 25% of your total score is vocabulary. So you're, by focusing on vocabulary, you're ignoring the other 75%. The other problem is, what happens if you try and use very high level words? What do you do? It became very difficult. There was a time when I thought, oh my God, this is not my cup of tea. I should not do IELTS and I told my husband, let's not go to Canada and let's cancel the plan. And, but then when I referred your structure, it was so simple. I mean, I just spend around 30, 40 minutes a day or two hours in a weekend. And yeah, that was great. Especially your correction service. It was so up to the mark. When I went through my mistakes, I understood where I was going wrong. Yeah. I think. And your team, and your team, they are really very active. I mean, on Facebook group also, if I put something that I have difficulty and so and so, and they will immediately send me a link, which I have to just go through and practice. Yeah. I think the other problem with teaching people high level words is that most of the people that they're teaching that to are not capable of using those words. So it's the analogy I always use is like, if I go to the gym, I can normally lift, let's say, 50 kilos. But if I try and do 200 kilos, I will get injured or I'll drop the weight on my head. And it's the same thing with giving people lists of big, long words. They don't know how to use them. And it's very common to get 5.5 because you will get a very low score for vocabulary because you have so many mistakes. Would you agree with that? Yeah, I totally agree. Plus, I believe that people should verify before going to an IELTS instructor. For example, what happened with me is before giving my second attempt, I came across one instructor. I mean, there was just a Facebook page to help me with my preparation. And they charge a very small chunk of amount and they correct the essay. But then through my research, I came to know that that person is still struggling with the IELTS exam. Yeah. And they are just tutoring to earn some money so that they can, you know, it's like an investment for them. Yeah, I would say that so many times. Yeah, and people like us, they get cheated just by paying and then demotivated. No, you need another six months of time to prepare for the exam and stuff. But I believe that, as you always say, that take IELTS as an investment rather than giving exam again and again, find a better tutor and do. And I feel that IELTS Advantage is the best. I know, there's a lot of people out there that have not even got the score that they need yet, calling themselves IELTS teachers. And it's like, if you broke your leg and went to the hospital, would you ask the other patients, the sick people, to help you or would you ask a doctor or a nurse, you know? It's crazy the things that people are doing out there. And the cheapest option, like anything else, if you buy the cheapest car, it will break down. By the cheapest house, it's going to have a leaky roof and be in a terrible neighborhood. If you buy the cheapest correction service or the cheapest course, and I'm not saying that because I want people to give me money, I'm saying that because I want people to save money and give it to someone who really knows what they're doing. That's probably not going to be me because I can't help too many people, but save your money and give it to someone who knows what they're doing and then you'll get the score that you need because it would be a shame for you to have missed out on an opportunity to move to Canada, have a better life because you trust someone who just doesn't know what they're doing. Yeah, I mean, that was like really shocking for me how people earn money through various networking sites. So I think people should verify before going through any institute or any classes. So what would you say to someone who you mentioned to keep it simple? What would you say to someone who right now is watching this video and would say, well, if you use simple vocabulary and simple grammar, you're going to get a low score. You have to use complex vocabulary and grammar and everything. No, I would just say that follow a particular tutor. Don't just keep changing your tutors just because you don't get a good score from that person. Other thing is practice, practice as much as you can and follow a structure. I mean, following a structure is very important because for example, in question, when they say that what are the causes and solution? So when we see that word causes and solutions, there are many people who might misinterpret that, oh, we have to write two causes or three causes and three solutions, which is not possible. In fact, I also used to feel the same, but when I followed your structure, I realized, okay, we can write one cause and one solution for the same and we get good marks for that. So in the real test, did you have a causes and solutions question? No, I had opinion question. Whether do you agree or disagree? It was like, I don't remember the question as such, but it was based on children growing in, whether children should grow in rural area or whether they should be in cities. So whether you agree or disagree? I followed your structure, that is paraphrasing the question and giving, like, I disagree that they should not stay in rural areas. So why do I disagree? In introduction, I mentioned my two ideas. Then my first paragraph was on my topic sentence plus explanation and example. Same then with the second paragraph and conclusion. Yeah, simple. Yeah, another thing I would also like to share with others is, basically I'm from India. I stay in Dubai, but I'm from India. So one problem which we Indians face is, mentioning the same thing again and again. Yeah. I mean, there would be a topic sentence and in my explanation, I would just write the same thing and it would just go round and round and round. So that was a problem with me and I went through your video on YouTube about mistakes which Indians do as in going round and round with the same topic. So I went through it and you had explained it in such an easy way. Yeah, well, link up that video. So other Indian students can check it out. Yeah, yeah. After that, when I wrote my essay, there was a sudden change. As in first, when I used to get my essays corrected by you, I never got more than 6.5 or 6. And after going through that video, when I wrote my essay, I started getting seven because it went into my mind how I have to basically write an essay. The typical format because we are so used to writing same thing again and again and again, it reflected in my essay. So that video really helped me a lot to overcome my problem with, you know, running around the bush and writing the same thing. Yeah, I think for anyone watching, they might be thinking, well, I don't have that problem and I have no idea what my problems are. The key is to get feedback on your writing. As if there was a problem with your car, you wouldn't try and fix your own car or you wouldn't go to mechanic school and try and learn it yourself. You would take it to a mechanic and they would fix that one or two problems that you have, exactly the same writing essays. Anybody getting below a seven, there's at least one or two big problems that you have but you're unaware of those things. But once you become aware of them and then you work on fixing those things, then you see progress. Yeah, and another thing when I went through your videos, it also helped me to improve my listening because I was listening what a native speaker spoke. So it helped me with my listening. And it also helped me with my speaking. And it also helped me with my speaking because at times there are particular words which we might be pronouncing wrong but when I went through your modules, I realized that some words are to be pronounced this way when you're speaking to a native English speaker. So the advantage is it's like a complete package. Yeah, I was recently traveling in Asia. I was going around different countries in Southeast Asia and I was just Googling IELTS schools just to check out the competition there and stuff. And I couldn't believe that most IELTS courses are taught in the native language. So there was like schools in Thailand that were teaching IELTS in Thai. There were schools in Vietnam that were teaching IELTS in Vietnamese. And I was like, this is crazy. Why are you doing a English test but you're learning it in a different language? And then wanting to get a band seven but doing that is just crazy. So yeah, I think another point from that is surround yourself with as much English as possible. Be listened and reading and speaking and writing English as much as you can because it's an English test at the end of the day. And don't be overconfident because I tried that, I became overconfident and once I got 7.5 in listening. And I got a good score in other things. So I would advise people don't be overconfident, practice as much as you can. You can, yeah. And it is the key. And get feedback. Yeah, that is the key. Yeah, get feedback that is very important and go through that feedback. Don't just ignore it and yeah. Yeah. Don't just ignore it and keep it aside. Please read your essays, go through that and review. Yeah. Yeah, even a problem that we have with some students on the VIP courses we'll give them feedback and tell them this is wrong, you need to fix this, you need to work on that and they won't do that even when they get feedback. And we say that learning is the first step, getting feedback is the second step but the third and most important step is taking action on the feedback. Yeah, actually I was one of them. Yeah. I got my essays corrected in the start and I just had a glance, five minutes, okay. And then that's it and don't read anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I need to just focus on grammar, nothing else, okay. This is the feedback, okay fine. But then later on when I got my result after my third attempt I became really very serious. And I took all my previous essays, I literally highlighted my mistakes and I went through it and then I understood that yes, Chris told that once you're done with the correction go through your essay, review it for 30 minutes or so and then you write another essay. Yeah. And that is how I got my desired score. Yeah, I think that's another reason why we limit the number of essay corrections that people can do because if you don't do that people just do essay after essay after essay after essay and they don't look at the feedback or take action to improve the things on the feedback. Practice alone is useless. If you need to practice, get feedback and then take action on your weak points and then you will see the improvement because imagine learning how to drive a car by just driving a car around and around and around. You would do really bad habits. Same with reading, listening, speaking, writing. You can't just do lots and lots of practice and then see any improvement. You really need to look at the feedback and take action on it. So we will definitely show this clip to the other VH. Not all of them do that. Not all of them do that. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's it. What was your mindset whenever you saw a lower score than you thought? So when you were practicing, when you were sending us your essays, we were giving you 6, we were giving you 6.5. We were, you know, a lot of mistakes and things. What was your mindset towards that? Well, I got really very demotivated when I saw my score and then I told my husband also, look, I cannot do this. You find another way to migrate or you give the exam. I told him you give the exam. I cannot do it. So but then he motivated me and your quotes motivated me. The quotes which you put regularly on your Facebook Facebook page as well as he also. Oh, Komal, you the there we go. Yeah, sorry, you must have hit the button by mistake. Sorry. You were saying that you went, you seen the stuff on the in the Facebook group, the motivational stuff. Yeah, motivational stuff as well as he put that 8777 score in front of my eyes. So whenever I used to see it, I used to see that and I'm a teacher basically. So then I thought that what would others feel if they see that their teacher is only not trying her level best. So that is how I woke up one day and I had like Cambridge Books 11 to 15. Oh, then again, OK, I had already practiced those books. So I took copies of those books again and I, you know, I was continuously practicing. I dedicated myself towards us for around eight to nine hours in a day, continuously doing those listening modules and writing and stuff. In fact, I used to finish my writing task two in around 20 minutes. Wow, wow, that's amazing. Yeah, but the problem with me was idea generation. And I was not very sure about that. Like and how would you help someone if they were struggling with idea generation? Because there's a lot of people who do struggle with that. Would you say brainstorming? No, I loved your coffee shop method. So I went through your previous videos on YouTube as well as Facebook and I went through the mini module in VIP course. I went through it again and again. I made my own notes. Then again, I bought essay correction service again because my previous one was already finished. I had got my five essays corrected. So I bought another essay correction service and then I started writing. And that is how I got around seven from you in all the essays I wrote. Well, we'll link up our idea generation video because you talked about the coffee shop method. We'll link up the video here so other students watching can have a look and improve as well. Yeah, and that is when I came to know, yes, I'm actually prepared for the exam. Excellent, excellent. So congratulations again on going from 5.5 to 7 in such a short period of time. Now you'll be able to go to Canada, is it? Yeah, and just a few days back, I came to know I have to give IELTS Academy as well because I'm into teaching. Okay. So I have to revisit the course. I have to give IELTS again. Well, if you have any problems, well, you know that you've got lifetime access and we'll help you. Yeah, yeah. I feel that I took a right step enrolling myself with IELTS Advantage and it's a very good investment for me. And thank you so much for helping me out. You're welcome. Yeah, because it's because of you that I'll be going to Canada now. You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, thank you so much for helping other people. And it's a really inspirational story and you've given really good advice. So if you need anything in the future, just let me know we're here for you and we'll do anything we can to help you. All right? Sure. Thank you. Bye. Hi, everyone and welcome to a very special success story. Meet Andrea, who was one of our students and what we're gonna do in this video is Andrea did the test 10 times? Yeah. About 10 times. More or less. And she was telling us about all the mistakes that she made and what we'd like to do is share those mistakes with you guys so that you can avoid making those mistakes and you can get the score that you need next time. So we're kind of fast tracking you to getting the score that you need. And we'll also talk about how we helped her get a band eight overall. She managed to go from a band five to a band seven in writing. And now we're sitting in Cambridge where she is going to be living and working and why don't we just start off by you introducing yourself to everyone? Yes, of course, Chris. Well, my name's Andrea. I'm from Venezuela, which is in South America. And I started this journey one year ago, more or less. So it was when I finished my training as an oncologist and I decided to start preparing this exam. And in that moment, I never thought that it would be so hard, mainly because it's true that you, well, the main thing is that you have to point out that you are making a mistake and you are not so good as you thought you were. And the other things that you have to work on your mindset because it's not easy to be constant and disciplined with your studies and at the same time dealing with frustrations and failures and rejection. So I did a lot of mistakes, many mistakes. Well, that's good for our audience because they can avoid them. Yeah, so when I found Chris Academy and I saw that video about the mistake that you shouldn't avoid or you shouldn't do. And when I saw that video, I said, I did all of those mistakes. So I wish, I wish I didn't, but I did. And it was part of my journey and hopefully these kind of things will help someone. Not so good for you because you wasted a lot of time, a lot of money and thousands of dollars, but we got you there after you joined our academy and we'll be able to help people now. So what was the, what are some of the big mistakes that you made that led to you failing the test? Well, the first thing is that, well, the main problem with IONS is that you are not able to find a reliable source of information. So part of my journey, I did it alone. So I didn't know anything about the exam, the structure of how to study, how to prepare this exam. So for example, I took my first exam just to know the experience and to know about the exam and it was a huge mistake because you felt like, like you know nothing. And the listening part, I got lost and the reading, I was rushing myself and the writing. I didn't have time to just write one task. I was one task, a task too. So, and speaking, it wasn't myself who was there and I fell, I fell, I obtained that exam. The listening, 5.5, the reading, six, the writing, five, and the speaking, six, so. Yeah. And did you feel like giving up then or? Because a lot of people, that's what happens. They go and they do the test because they think, it's just an English test. I have good English. I'll go and do it. And then they have a very bad experience like you had. And they're just like, this is not for me. I'm not doing this again. No, no, no. I didn't feel in that way with the first exam what I felt in that moment as the time of the level of English that I was required, it was so, so hard that I, the one that I was obtaining. So, I felt like this is a lot of work and I don't know how to do it. So you felt a little bit overwhelmed. And it was a moment that I started to study grammar on my own. So I bought a book and I was doing my exercises and trying to, but it takes your time because you are studying and you don't know if what you're doing is okay or not. And then I did another mistake that I was to take a general course. It was so expensive and the amount of hours wasn't enough and it wasn't personalized. So you never knew, so I never knew that what was my mistake. So the only feeling that I got from that is, oof, this is so hard and you have to, but you didn't have the guidelines, the which step you should take in order to improve. So, and you, this feeling of anxiety and being stressed it was growing up and you didn't know what to do. Just to, no, taking another test, just in case. Just in case I got, I was lucky and I don't know, but no, don't do that. So would you recommend that people just keep doing the test until they get the score they need? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, don't do that because the first things is, well, you have like two different person in your mind. So the one is that, no, well, maybe if you do the exam again, maybe you are going to obtain your score, but the other has to be them, be honest. You have to be honest with yourself and say, come on, you are not going to jump from a five and you're right into a seven. It's not possible. Or you're listening 5.5 to a seven day, the score that is needed to. So you have to work on that. And then what happened if you take the exam many times that you are going to deal with the stress of being under exam conditions and then to deal with when you are receiving your scores and it's not the one that you wanted. So it's like, oh, and you have to start again. So I don't recommend it to do that, even when I did it. Yeah, I think we, a lot of people email us and say, like, can you help me? And we say, yeah, no problem, but you need to do all of this work and you need to maybe join our course, which costs a certain amount of money. And they say, no, I don't want to do that. So you don't really have a choice. You can either spend the money failing the test over and over again and spend the time failing the test over and over again, or you can actually learn what to do and spend, you'd probably spend about $2,000 on failing the test. Whereas our course, when you joined it, it was like $3.50 or something like that. So it's not cheap. I know a lot of people, that's a lot of money for a lot of people, but it is a lot less than failing the test multiple times. Yeah, yeah. And what the thing is, I have to say, because I was in that position that I said, oh, no, but I already booked my exam. But maybe it's because, in my case, I had a deadline. So I was also, I had an extra pressure. And I can understand when people say, oh, no, no, it's because I have to book the exam in eight weeks and wait for the results in eight weeks. And so I can apply or whatever, because I was in that position. So it's difficult. So if you are there, I recommend you to work hard on your preparation because it's really hard, but it's not guaranteed that you're going to get your score. And then I think a lot of people, they do the test maybe one time or twice without any preparation. And then they do what you did, which was, okay, I'll just go for a general course and see what the format is and see what's going on. But why does that not help? Because it's not personalized. And sometimes I think that because it wasn't, I did two courses and the other was a little bit more VIP, but it wasn't because they changed the professor every time and I think that they make you feel better about what you were obtaining because I remember that I was in this academy. There was another one before I moved to England and they said, oh yes, you are doing great. You are obtaining at least in a seven, but I didn't feel that my English was improving for that time. It's true that it felt great for me, but for the result on paper, it's not the reality. What we hear from a lot of our students is, oh my old teacher told me I'm doing really well and they gave me lots of positive encouragement and said everything was great and then I went and did the test and then I failed. What we do is the complete opposite. We don't try and be your friend, we just try and get you the results you need and we say, this is wrong, fix this, you need to work on this. And people often hate us for doing that, but as I say, I want you to be my friend when you get the results, not during the course. We're friendly, we're helpful, but I think I've been in that position too when I was first teaching people, you want to be friendly with them and you want them to like you, so telling them the truth is not, you know what I'm saying? One of the mistakes that I was, I was like, come on, and I remember my first feedback, and I say, for example, once, yeah, from you guys, this sentence doesn't make sense, it's not related with this subject and that's it, very cool, and I say, what? Maybe because you are not trying to, you don't understand what I was trying to say, it's like, no, no, no, grammatically it's wrong, it's out of context, and I say, well, that's it, and it's work for me because they, yeah, don't delete that part of your essay and work on that. And you had a good mindset about that, when sometimes when we do that with students, they are like, oh, they get really frustrated and they see it as an attack on them personally and that's why we say, no, we're not attacking you as a person, we're just trying to make your English better, trying to make your writing better, trying to make your speaking, your listening, your reading, whatever it is, you know? And it's also through that, it was through your feedback because before that, it's true that I was improving my writing skills, but I've never received a proper feedback, it's true that some native person, they were reading, and they can correct me certain things, but maybe the structure or certain, sometimes I receive like, this sounds weird, but sounds weird for me, it wasn't enough because I didn't know what was a mistake. So that was another great advantage of receiving the feedback from you because it was there when I realized that I have problem with my word order, and that was because of my Spanish grammar structures, I was doing the other way around, and the preposition, what? Preposition, I was working with articles, but prepositions, and I had my list and things, and I was reading every time, but it's because I had my Spanish mind and things, so I was failing every sentence, most of them, I think. So I was working on that, I was just, okay, what order, and my preposition, and read again, if you're not sure, change the sentence, or use another word, and that really helped me in improving my essays. It's really interesting to hear your story because it is a very typical story of the test is not that difficult, I'll go and do it without any preparation fail. Okay, I'll go for a general course, I'll get any feedback, look at some videos, look at YouTube, fail, and then you're like, and then what was the next part of your journey? Yeah, no, no, I was consuming every type of video in YouTube about IELTS and profile. It's still confusing because one guy says this, another girl says the opposite, and you go into the test and your writing reflects the confusion in your brain because you have no idea what to do. No, no, exactly, and you have to follow a plan, which I didn't know that you have to. I thought that it would give me a pen and a paper and I'm going to write everything that is going through my mind, which is not the case. No, no, you have to, no, no. And then I thought that, for example, because in my first attempt, that I just finished one task, that if I finish in the other, because if I obtain a five with just writing one, maybe if I finish the second one, I will obtain a seven because, I don't know, just because of percentages or something, but no, it's because I didn't know what was the way that they evaluate my essay. I wasn't aware of that. The four areas, until you learn, and the moment that you learn that, is when you say, okay, can I understand what I'm reading, what I'm writing, can I, I don't know, it's any mistakes, it's what is your vocabulary, how many words are you repeating, even if you're repeating yourself, your vocabulary, can the examiners understand when you are writing? That was... All over the place. Yeah. And I think the next part of the journey that people normally go on is, they get help from a teacher who gives them good feedback, but then they come up against a new difficulty, which is mindset, because it's very difficult for someone to be constantly telling you, you're making a mistake, this needs to improve, you need to work harder, you need to get... What mindset things would you suggest people understand before they go on that journey? Yeah. I think for me, that was the only thing that it kept me continued doing this, because if you are in front of so much frustration, so much failure, you want to give up. So what I did is change this approach to this exam, so I used to think, well, I think, that while you're learning your English, trying to enjoy this. So I want to say, ah, this is horrible. So for example, for me, writing an essay, it was my fear, because I didn't want to fail again. So in the moment I say, I put in my schedule, Andrea, you have to write tomorrow four essays. I say, four essays sounds horrible, but I say, okay Andrea, maybe one introduction, then the overview, and it was so much easy. And at the end of the day, I wrote, I don't know, four essays per day. Yeah, if you say to someone, you want to climb a mountain and you look at the peak of the mountain, you'll never do it. But if you just say, I want to go one mile today and one mile the next day, you'll get up there, you know? Yeah, and the other thing is, because I was so focused on my writing, but I didn't want to write in that moment. But what I did was, okay Andrea, so trying to find another way to learn the English and how you can apply this in your studies. So I was listening, and I was reading and listening to different news, and I was trying to explain myself, if, like I was talking to myself at home. Your neighbor's not here. Yeah, no, yeah. If you have a camera on my house, you say, oh, come on, this lady is a little bit crazy. Yeah, because I was explaining in front of the mirror. So I knew that I was working on my idea generation. I was working on topics that I wasn't felt comfortable. So in the moment that I read a question that, I don't know, it was religion, I think that you, because that's what's the other thing. Oh, I don't have idea. I don't know how to write. So I found that by doing this, in the moment that I would have to write, it was so much easier. So and at the same time, I was learning new words. I was working on my vocabulary. I felt more confident in front of someone to explain my point of view, because that was the other thing. At the beginning, you felt so frustrated because you are not able to express your opinion. Yeah. And it will help you here in Cambridge as well. You'll have a much richer life because you'll be able to meet new people and explain what you mean and your work will be better and everything. Yeah, exactly. So I said, Andrea, this is helping you. Come on, I know that you don't want to write, but I changed my mind and say, Andrea, you have to enjoy this. Otherwise? Yeah, we speak to a lot of people who say, I want to move to Canada, for example, and they're at a bar in 5, 5.5, and we say, you should improve your vocabulary. I don't want to do that. It's like, why do you want to move to Canada? You want to move to Canada and not speak to anybody and not get a job and not do it. You know, this is not only going to help you with your IELTS preparation, but your life in general and your new country. So I think that's one of the goals if you're lacking in motivation, is to not just think of it as a band score on the IELTS test, but improving your life in general because your communication and skills and everything will improve. Yeah, of course. For example, I remember that one of my first moments here that I wasn't able, I was in a place with many people, and I couldn't understand or I couldn't participate in that conversation because, or I couldn't understand what they were saying or if I wanted to say something, I didn't have the word to express my opinion. So I said, I'm gonna change this. And in the moment that you start to improve this, your vocabulary, your grammar, and you're writing because like, okay, you're going to do this and you're going to write because you know that this is your difficult part. And at the same time, you're learning how to be yourself in another language. So the worst thing that could happen is that you learned another language. Exactly, the worst thing. So let's talk a little bit about vocabulary. So we've talked a lot about the mistakes that you made and helping people avoid those. Now let's talk about how you got to this level and the scores that you got. And one of the things that you mentioned was vocabulary. How did vocabulary help you improve your scores? And how did you learn new vocabulary? How did you? Well, for me, vocabulary was one of the main things that helped me to improve all the four areas. So what I did, I remember when I, because I bought these books, Cambridge Isles, Sirius 9 to, I did nine to 13 books. So when I was doing the reading part, after I did the mock, I went back and I was checking all the words that I didn't know in that moment. But because it's true that you can't, in that moment, you can't identify whether it's the meaning because of the context. But I always check if I didn't know. So for example, I don't know, I knew what they wanted to say, but I wanted to be sure. And then from there, I learned about the word, the different usage of the word. So for example, it was a noun, what is the adjective, what is the verb and how to use it. So it's true that each passage after I finish, it took me one hour at least, an extra hour just reviewing that. And then I was underlined, I don't know what is the main idea. Maybe after each day, I had at least 20 words that I didn't know. So what I was trying to do is to work on that vocabulary that I didn't know that in that moment at the end of the day, I was making sentences on my own. It could be very simple because at the beginning I said, I don't know how to use it. The house is green, that's it. And then I was trying to incorporate all those vocabulary on my daily routine. So for example, if I want to express an idea or something. And this helped me a lot. For example, for the listening because if you want to find the answers, they're going to tell you a synonym. So you were working on that in the reading. If you know a lot of words, you don't have to scheme or scan. Just you're reading faster because your comprehension is also improving. And for the writing. You're able to express your meaning, you're able to be more fluent. And speaking, obviously. So I have to say that working on my vocabulary it helped me a lot. Yeah, it improves absolutely everything. What you did is exactly what you should be doing. But a lot of people forget that you need to, if you're preparing for the test, you're going to be reading every day. You're going to be listening every day. So you're constantly going to be seeing new words. So do what you did, which is guess the meaning from context then look the word up and then use the words, review them regularly. Look at the different forms of the word, different synonyms, collocations. Really learn them 100%. Instead of what most people do is go online, try and find a list of band nine words. There's no such thing, you know? And it doesn't help you. You have to learn them, learn the words in context from real English and review them and then use them. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Otherwise you're going to make more mistakes. Because if you just learned a list of words, that's a mix. And it improves reading, listening, speaking, writing, absolutely everything. Did you have a notebook like we suggest? Ah, yes. No, I think, yeah, a huge notebook. Followed new words and everything. So then, because I finished that word, it doesn't make sense. So I started to categorize all the... Categorization is really good for reviewing. So if I want to talk about education, health, so I was working in that kind of thing. And then, well, the idea generations. At the beginning it was hard because you say, oh, yes, idea generation, how? So it's just reading. So the thing that I did was go to BBC News and go to Health, Education, Science, Technology. Yeah. No politics, I think. You know, like it's... It's too boring. Yeah, it's too boring. Yeah, it's too boring. And you have to try to be, to do the most enjoyable part of this. Yeah, because if you go to any news website, you'll see health news, education news, technology news, science news. What are the common topics on writing tasks too? Health, education, technology, science. So if you read one of those articles per day, you're gonna help with your idea generation, your vocabulary, your idea development, your examples, absolutely everything. An example. Yes, of course, I'm working on that. So what I did with my idea generation as well, I had my notebook is if I read something about health, I try to create a debate on my mind and then also the different points of view, even when it wasn't my point of view because... Critical thinking, you know, seeing the other side of an argument and appreciating what other people would say about your argument and all of those things are really important. Yeah, because I didn't know if the, in the moment of the exam, I have to contrast my ideas. So, and you obviously, you felt more comfortable talking about what you believe. Exactly. If you're working also what other people believe in the moment that you have to write about that, you don't, you are not going to have any problem. So it's hard, it's hard. It takes, sorry, I remember it took me times. Every day I was studying hard because I was also learning about different things. Yeah. So I said, I remember, I thought, Andrea, it's not just exam, it's just also about learning new vocabulary there. Yeah. We're learning about the world. The world, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I didn't have too much time. To be honest, it's a great thing because for me in my case, I say, Andrea, because before I was studying medicine and the only thing that I read was medicine. And now? Now you're a more well-rounded person. Yeah, so I have, no, you have to look at this as a positive. Excellent, excellent. And now, so that's 25% of your marks in speaking and writing are going to be vocabulary. Another 25% are going to be grammar. How did you get over the grammar? Ooh, the grammar, yeah. The grammar for me was so, it was an nightmare because I've never, I've never studied grammar before in my life. So never, I was able to talk but I knew that I was talking present or in past and I didn't know anything. So what I did was I bought my grammar books and I was studying each unit, doing the exercises. It wasn't so hard, it was hard and slow because I didn't have a teacher who, because sometimes when someone is playing a particular chapter, you are able to understand because I don't know that the teacher told you something and you, it's more easy to remember that. So I was working that every day. Every day I think that I study one hour of grammar. One hour. So I did my one chapter of my book, some exercises, reviewing that, going back. So it was part of my, otherwise I couldn't improve. What would you say to someone who, let's say they don't even know that they're struggling with grammar or they know they have a problem with grammar but they don't know how to fix it. Apart from studying grammar, what would be your biggest piece of advice for them? The thing is, if they don't know that they are struggling with grammar, I think that the best exercises to do is to try to express something to someone. Could be, so it is, can you describe me this and what did you do yesterday? So if you are struggling with that, if because you need help, you need help in your grammar and your structure of this, so find a professional help. I think because it will, you can do it alone but it takes you time and you don't know if you are doing well. Yeah, I'm not saying this because I want people to join our course or give me money. I'm saying this because if you don't get professional help with your grammar, you will have no idea the mistakes that you're making. And the analogy I always use is if my car breaks down, I don't know anything about fixing a car. I bring it to a mechanic. If my little boy was sick, I wouldn't go onto YouTube and look up his symptoms on YouTube. I would bring him to a doctor because why do we hire experts? Because they know a lot more than us and they're able to immediately identify the problems. And for most people doing the tests that are at about a six or so, it's not that all of their grammar is terrible. It's because one or two or three areas, they make small mistakes or they have fossilized errors. Like you, it was prepositions for a lot of our other students, it is articles, for other students, it's punctuation. So a professional will be able to, I can look at your writing and within 30 seconds say, you have a problem with this, this and this. You need to work on that. Yeah, no, no, it's true. It's true that the grammar, it will help you for example for your speaking. So as you study everything, but you are not going to use the whole grammar on your essay. But if you don't know what are you doing wrong, you're never going to obtain the score that you wanted. So it's the best. The thing, when I received my first feedback and I realized that I was making these mistakes and I said, and then you have to work that. And when I was producing each sentence, I was double checking these mistakes. So I said, okay, it makes sense. Verification, subject, things. It's not a Spanish grammar. Okay, go. So it was the thing that I helped it, it helped me a lot. No, it really does help. And what I'd also say about grammar is don't get too frustrated with it because it can be little rules because I know how frustrating it can be for students that are like, ah, but the rest of the sentence is fine. There's just one tiny article or one tiny preposition or a comma and it gets very frustrating. But the thing to remember is, let's say articles and prepositions are your two main weaknesses. They're in every sentence. So if you're making mistakes in every sentence, then you can't get over a seven because to get over a seven for grammar, most of your sentences need to have no errors whatsoever. And then if every sentence has a mistake, it also affects your coherence because it's more difficult to read. So, you know, a lot of students get frustrated because they say, yeah, but my structure is good and my vocabulary is good and I answered the question and it's just articles or it's just prepositions. It's like, yeah, I know, but you still need to fix it. Yeah, it happened to me. And I said, oh, but it's just one, a few prepositions. But then I was felt relieved because I thought Andrea, it's just preposition. So it's not like your grammar is so that no one's can understand that what you are saying. It's just preposition. So just work on that. So it's easy. And you told us you're going for a job interview here in Cambridge in a few days. If you went into the job interview and every sentence had a grammatical error in it, they might give you the job, but they might give it to someone else because they say, you know, well, she might have a problem communicating with colleagues or she might be writing a very important medical report and make lots of mistakes. So hopefully it does help you with that as well. Yeah, no, no, of course, of course I am. And this is another type of motivation. So I said Andrea, this is part of, so you are going to do this in your future. So you don't want to be misunderstood and have horrible mistakes. And so learning about this, the best that you can do it. So I think you have to find what is your purpose of why you are doing this. And then work on that. But trying to visualize yourself each day. So I'm going to do this because if you are not doing nothing each day, you are going to feel frustrated at the end of the week. And say, no, I haven't done anything. So I said, come on, but you have to work. One thing we do in our company is we do something called plan tomorrow today where we force everyone who, we don't force them. We ask them to, before they finish work, the last thing that they need to do is they need to plan what they're going to do the next day, put it in their calendar, and then they send it to me. Just small things like that mean that you wake up the next day and you're like, okay, I have to do this essay, read this thing, work on my vocabulary, and then you'll do it. But if you wake up and you're like, oh, I can't do this anymore. And then you watch TV and then you're like, oh, I'll go for a walk. And then you're like, come back, oh, and then you get to the end of the day and you don't do anything. Exactly. Yeah, it's something that you had, well, I set my goals the night before. Yeah, exactly. So, and I was working. Even if you feel tired, even if you just do it, take five minutes and it makes a big deal. And I said, and I remember and I said, okay, I'm gonna start with the most difficult for me. It wasn't writing. I'm gonna do it. Yeah, start with the most difficult. The most difficult because I, and I did the other way around, oh yes, I'm going to do the listening, I'm going to read some news, I'm going to talk to myself. And then when I was the time to write, I said, oh, I'm so tired. Oh, happy working, so hard, maybe tomorrow. So. Yeah, there's a book called Eat the Frog, I think it is, but it's like, eat the frog means that you do the, you do the thing that you hate the first thing in the morning. When you have the most energy, the most motivation because your motivation will go down throughout the rest of the day. So, you know, and when you first start, the thing that you are struggling with the most, focus on that. Because once you turn those weaknesses into strength, everything becomes much easier. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's true. I remember I finished my essays in the first things in the morning. And I remember in between I have, okay, you are going to do some exercises. And that was like, hey, André, if you finish all those essays and then you read and you practice this, you're going to do exercises and then you can do whatever you want. So, and then you are going to review and work on your feedback. And that's things working on your feedback was so much easier than producing an essay. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I think that's something that even our other VIP students struggle with where they'll do the course, they'll submit the writing, and we'll send them like four or five pages of feedback and they'll say something like, so where am I going wrong? It's like, you have to look at the, we told you exactly what you're doing wrong and then they say, what do I do now? And it's like, fix those things, work on those things. And that's where you see the biggest improvement. Just doing essay after essay after essay after essay is a complete waste of time. If it's better to do one essay and take action on the feedback than it is to do a hundred practice essays and don't do anything. Cause you just make the same mistakes over and over and over again. So, and that's difficult for people to understand because they hear things like practice makes perfect, practice does not make perfect. No, not in this case. Even when I did that, I don't know how many pages I wrote practicing my essays, but I remember one successful story in the Facebook group from one guy that he, I don't know, he obtained an amazing score in the writing part. And one thing that I remember was that he said that he only submit, submitted three essays. Yeah, there's no correlation between the number of essays that people submit and their success. No, normally the people that are most successful don't actually submit that many essays. So, a lot of people don't join our course because they say, oh, you only correct five essays. You only correct 10 essays. We explain this is on purpose because we want you to think about the feedback and take action on the feedback. And you can always buy more if you wanna buy more. If you wanna do a hundred, you can do a hundred. But we would recommend that you don't do a hundred. You only do five or 10 or 15, however many it takes, because the story I always tell is, I had a friend who he grew up on a farm. So his dad had an old car and said, just let him drive around. And he was driving from, he was like, eight or nine years old. And then he went to do his driving test and he failed over and over and over again. Even though he had been driving for 10 years because he had picked up such bad habits. So he had practiced for thousands of hours but couldn't drive on the roads because, so just practicing is not the key. Practice, get feedback, think about the feedback, take action on the feedback and then that's where the learning comes in. Yeah, yeah, no, it's true, it's true. And be patient, patient, because this is another thing that we think that after we finish to look at the models and study the models and practice, everything that it could be instantaneously that we are going to be able to produce a perfect essay. Yeah, I can't watch Messi or Ronaldo play football and then go out and play for Barcelona. It's just the first step, you know. Watching a video is just like, that's why I get frustrated when I see videos on YouTube that say, you know, watch this video and you'll magically get a ban. They're like, no. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. It is the first step, but you know, it's watch the video, then do the thing in the video, then get feedback and then take action, so that's good. So one of the things that I made in my notes about you was that you struggled with time management but did I give you time management tips or how did you solve that problem? Because tell people what you were doing when you got a ban five and writing, what was happening with time management? Obviously, well, what happened when I was producing an essay, also in the ban five, that I didn't know how to write. So my level of English wasn't so good and I obviously to produce 250 words, it was a nightmare. So it's true that I also made that mistake and said, how can I improve my timing, blah, blah, blah. No, I realized that after I got better on my grammar and how to produce to organize myself, the only thing that I was aware is about the clock and the timing just to be sure that you are writing on time. But I didn't have any tips for time management. Is this become better when I was better at doing that? And it was the same with the reading part. So in the moment that you read faster and you can understand everything that you're reading, you don't need time, say. And you're not going to struggle with that on the moment that you get better. It sounds horrible, it sounds horrible, but because I was looking for that tip, but... Because everyone wants the easy way. I always say, if I could give you the easy way, I would give it to you. And there are some things on the course that are little tips and that are little shortcuts, but 99% of the things that we teach are the opposite of tips and shortcuts. And the story I always tell about time management is if you look at Usain Bolt running 100 meters, is he faster than everyone else because he went and looked for time management tips? No, he's faster. No, he's better at running, he's faster at running. So the way to improve your time management for reading is become better at reading. For writing, become better at writing. For listening, become better at listening. Which sounds very simple, but when people hear me say that, they think, they think, oh, that's obvious, that's simple. It's like, no, what you're really saying is, you understand that that's going to take work and you don't want to do the work. You want me to give you top 10 magic super tips. No, no, I'm just... Because that's what you are looking for because you want to save time. Ironically, by saving time, you're going to wait, you're going to sell your time out. The only tip that I remember about time management that I found very useful, it was for the reading part. I found this girl that she was saying that she tried to do the passage, the first passage in 15 minutes, 15 and the second 20 and the third 25. Because it gets more difficult as you go through. A big mistake people make is they think that, oh, I'll spend two minutes on each question. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's like, or one minute on the, do the first part as quickly as you can and that will give you more time to focus on the more difficult stuff. So we've talked a lot about the different mistakes that you can make and we've talked a lot about your advice to students in different areas. Let's finish up by talking about if your brother, or sister, or family member, or your best friend was doing the test, any other advice that you would give them, apart from the things that we've talked about already? Well, the main advice I will say to someone is to say what is your purpose, so why you are doing this, and trying to remain honest and realistic about your current situation and your level of English, that you are not going to be as good as you wish, that you can work on that and in order to improve and please find professional expertise because otherwise you're going to spend a lot of money and you're going to waste time and it's better to find a good place and follow certain structures rather than, I don't know, doing that on your own and don't be successful in the time that you wanted. When you talked about purpose, what did you think about when you thought about why am I doing this test, what helped you motivate it? Well, the thing is my main motivation was to work in England, that that was like a too big, too wide goal, so then I narrowed this goal and said, Andrea, my main purpose was to be able to express my ideas in English. So that was my main idea. And then I knew that by doing that, I will improve and I will obtain my score. So, and then I will obtain my job here, but I was trying to put that more realistic and more useful in the future that I knew that, okay, I'm going to use my vocabulary in order to communicate with other people. The students that I've worked with that have done the most work and made the most progress, normally they have two purposes, two main motivations. One is internal, so they are trying to improve themselves in some way, either by, like you said, improving their communication skills, or often it's because they know that once they get the score, they'll be able to do a job that will help them grow as a person and it will make them much happier and they'll be more fulfilled, or someone like you who you'll be working on breast cancer and lung cancer and that is a huge motivation. The other motivation, and I think this is the most powerful one is they think of things bigger than themselves. So, for example, for me, the reason why I'm very motivated is because I think of my wife and my son and that keeps me going and I work very hard. Often I will hear people talking about that they want to do it for their family or for other people or like you, they want to go and do a job, a nurse or a doctor or an engineer that will help a huge number of people. So, whenever you feel a little bit darned or demotivated, try and think of something bigger than yourself and because it is difficult, everything is difficult but like anything, the more difficult it is, the bigger the achievement. Yeah, and the way that you're going to feel in the moment that you obtain your score is unbelievable. That moment, guys, is priceless. Yeah, Fridays are always the best day for us because we look in the Facebook group and we see I got this score, I got this score, I got this score and that's really motivating for us. And you talked also about being honest with yourself. That is so important. A lot of people, the people that are most, I'm not being very fluent here or very coherent. The people who are the easiest to lie to are ourselves and so a lot of people will say things like, I don't have time, you have 24 hours in a day, you chose to do something else. Or they'll say, this is just too difficult or they'll say things like it's not my fault, it's the teacher's fault or it is the test's fault or it is whoever's fault. Like you need to take responsibility for your own development and your own performance and if you have that very humble attitude, then you're going to do very well and we have that attitude in our team as well. We always look for people on our team who are very humble because we don't want people running around saying, blaming everybody else and never wanting to get better. We want to work with people and we want to work with students who just are always, how can I get better? And it's my responsibility. So that I think purpose and humility and being honest with yourself are really, really important. So that's great, that's great advice. If people just did those two things, they would be able to work very hard over a long period of time and they would constantly improve because they are always thinking, how can I get better? So that's great advice. So before we finish any last minute things that you would tell people? Well, the most important thing is that you have to believe in yourself and you have to work on whatever you need to work because you are going to be able to achieve your score. The things work every day, a little bit. A little bit and then at the end of the month, at the end of that week, you will be better than in the beginning. So do that and you are going to obtain your score. Thank you so much, Andrea. It was really, really helpful for the people watching and the reason why we do these is there's a lot of confusing and conflicting information out there and people don't know where to turn or who to believe. So someone like you who has gone from really struggling and doing the test over and over to getting a band aid overall, moving from a band five to a band seven and writing is unbelievable. So thank you so much. Hi everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage and today we have another success story and we have Vikas who amazingly got a band 8.5 overall, which I was just saying to him is higher than a lot of native English speakers and even IELTS teachers. He got an amazing band nine in reading and nine in listening. He got eight in speaking and 7.5 in writing. Is that all correct? Yeah, that is correct. He's kindly decided to share his story with you guys so that you can learn from him, get some advice from him and then you can improve your scores. So Vikas, can you just start off by introducing yourself to everyone? Sure, yeah. Hi, my name is Vikas and currently I was working as a product analyst in a company called Bloom Global. I was also in the US for the past four years and then I decided that I wanted to move to Canada so I left my job in the US and then moved back to India and then started my preparation for IELTS and finally I took my IELTS exam on August 7th and I got a very good score of 8.5 overall. Excellent, well done, congratulations again. It's a lot of hard work to get to that stage so well done. Thank you. So can you tell us a little bit about your IELTS journey? So like how many times did you do the test? What scores were you getting, those type of things? Sure, actually the official test, the final test I took it just once so this is, but before that I took some of like a few mock tests, like two or three of mock tests and in all of them I was getting the overall score of like 7.5 or eight, but I was not getting good scores in speaking and writing exams. The reason was like I was not doing good in task achievements or anything but my scores in listening and reading were always varying, like I was always getting either eight or 8.5 and it was always varying. The main reason I think was because I was having pseudo confidence in my listening and reading abilities so I was not practicing to the right, what do you say, to my potential. So what I was doing initially was I was just going on YouTube and then looking for tests and then I was just practicing and like I was following practice makes perfect kind of thing. So I was just doing that and instead of correcting my mistakes I was just practicing again and again. So and after I watched your videos I learned about like what we should do instead of practicing a lot, we should just take in a few exams and then work on our, what do you say, our shortcomings or what all mistakes we are doing. I just started working on my weaknesses and then I got better at it. It's like you work in software development and product development. It's just like debugging. You create a product and it's going to have a bunch of bugs because that's normal. When you're learning a language you're going to make lots of mistakes and when you're doing the IELTS tests, lots of mistakes, but the key thing is just like any good developer is to focus on debugging. Why did you make that mistake? I'm really thinking about why that was and then addressing that. So when you were going through our method for improving your reading and your listening what were the bugs, the mistakes that you've seen? So with the listening, the issue that I had was I will instead of writing the same words that were spoken in the audio I was using like synonyms of it or writing some meaning software. So I concentrated on like listening to the actual word and then writing down the same thing. And the other thing was like plurals. Like if the word was newspapers I was instead of writing it as newspapers I was writing as a newspaper and this was having a lot of grammatical issues like I was having such issues. So I tried to concentrate on those things like listening. And one more thing was like different question types of different strategies like in your videos. So I was not following them. Like whenever I used to watch the YouTube videos I just used to practice them and then I never used to understand where I was lacking in the listening section. So the most problematic section was for me was the maps and also the section four of listening because it's a 10 question and they don't give any gaps between the questions. So I tried to improve myself on those sections and then I got better score in listening. And in the reading I was trying to read the entire passage before going into the questions. Because of the time I was short on time and then I couldn't concentrate on everything. So after watching your videos what I learned was like I just had two strategies for different types of questions. So for any questions like matching the headings or matching information I first went to the passage and then note down my keywords and also came up with my own headings. And then I answered the question and for the rest of them I just went with the question and then noted down the keywords and then went to the passage. Yeah. Excellent. So if we go back, just go back to listening a little bit. When you said that you spotted two key mistakes. One was using synonyms instead of the actual word and one of them was a problem with plural nouns and things like that. And I think that's a really great thing to highlight because it shows that there was no problem with your listening skills. There was no problem with your English. There was no problem with you, your intelligence or anything like that. It was just silly little mistakes that you were making. And I think that that's why practice doesn't make perfect because if you just kept practicing and you kept making those mistakes and not spending the time to really analyze your mistakes and figure out what the bugs were and remove those then that takes one day, two days to figure that out even less, whereas if you just tried to practice your way to a band nine, it would take years. So I think your hard work is important but working smart as well is also very important as you probably know from your career as well. And then you also mentioned the different question types and having different strategies for those question types. And again, I think that that's, again, nothing to do with your listening skills or your English level or anything like that. It's just being a little bit more strategic and aware of the different types of questions and then having strategies for them. And it also reduces the stress a lot because you know what's coming and you know, okay, this is a maps question. Step one, do this, step two, do this, step three, do that. Would you agree with that? Yes, I do. Like that's the same thing that I did as well. Like after practicing all your strategies, like it became really easy for me during the exam. Like I knew what is going to come next and then I was able to be prepared better and then answer it properly and then concentrate on the right answer like while I'm listening to the audio. And then the last question, section four is always the most difficult and anyone who's having problems with that the last section of both listening and reading are the most difficult. The first questions are the easiest and then it gets more and more and more difficult. And that's really the last part is to separate out the band nines and 8.5s and 8s and 8s and 7.5 and 7s. So if you're struggling with the last part, it's probably because you're not at that level that you need to be and you need to focus on your listening skills, your grammar, your vocabulary and things like that. Yes, so even at the same issue, like I was always having trouble concentrating on the last part. Like when it came to the last one, like I was like, oh yeah, this is the end of the exam. So I was becoming more relaxed. So what I kept in mind is like till the speaker tells, this is the end of the speaking test or the, sorry, the listening test was not going to stop concentrating. So that helped me a lot in the last part. Yeah and you think of your brain as a muscle and if you were, let's say you are very unfit, at the moment I can only run, I'm going for a run after this and I can only run like 5k at the minute. So think of that as like focusing on your listening for five minutes. Well, how does a runner get from 5k to 6k? Well, they push themselves out of their comfort zone and do a little bit more and then you're 7k, then 8k, then 9k, then 10k. So exactly the same principle with listening, try and focus completely for one minute and then two and then three and build it up because it is just like, your brain isn't a muscle. I know I'm aware of that, I'm not that stupid. But it does feel like that sometimes when you're trying to, even things like meditation can help as well. Or reading can help as well, just doing things that like, one thing that's quite surprising when you do this with other, I've did this with a lot of students is say, just read in English for one minute and don't think about anything else, just read. And a lot of people can't do it and in the same way that a lot of people can't run 5k or 10k, it's not because they're bad people or there's anything wrong with them, they just have never done it before and you need to keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Would you agree with that? Yeah, like you said, the reading part, right? So I was, I did not come out of the blue, like I'd not become an expert in reading or listening just overnight. So I was like reading novels since I was in my 10th standard and then it has become a habit for me. So I keep reading books and then I like note down the words and then learn new words through it. So, and also listening, but like I used to watch a lot of movies. So this has helped me like without subtitles. So that helps a lot. So that you like try to listen and then you understand the, what do you say, the accents of people and then also the way they speak. So it really helps. Yeah, it's a gradual process. Yeah. People watching this video might think, oh, Vikas got a band nine and I'm currently at a band six. So I'll just follow what Vikas told me and I'll get a band nine. The stuff in this video is going to help you improve, but a lot of the hard work Vikas did years ago by reading regularly in English, listening to English regularly. And most people watching this don't need a band nine, they need a band seven or maybe a band eight for listening. And you need to put the hard work in now and it doesn't need to be hard work if you make it a habit. So get in the habit of, even reading the news or a comic book or a newspaper article or a novel, whatever you're interested in, read that for five minutes, 10 minutes each day or listen to a podcast for five minutes, 10 minutes each day about something you love or you're interested in. Because if you don't do that, if you just listen to boring IELTS stuff, then you're never going to do it regularly because you'll hate it. Did you listen to podcasts and read stuff that you're interested in just for pleasure? So I not listened to podcasts, but I used to watch a lot of movies, as I said, like movies and TV series for my, like what I was interested in. So I just used to watch them. Podcasts, yeah, I was never interested in, but reading part was always there. Like I always read a book. So whenever I finish, I just buy a new book and then keep reading, it's a constant thing. So that has helped me a lot with reading. Yeah, excellent. I've never met a band nine student who didn't have a very healthy habit of consuming English every day by reading and listening and also producing English every day through writing and speaking. Even if it's just five minutes, 10 minutes, so that could be in your job, interacting with your colleagues, or it could be, I've met band nine speaking students who I was like, how did you get so good at speaking? I know one guy from Mexico and he has like the most amazing accent, not a hint of Mexican. You'd think he's from Ireland or the UK and he does it through computer games. He's been playing computer games online his whole life and has been chatting to people in English and he's like, well really, am I good at English? He's like, you're amazing. Because he loves computer games, he doesn't see that as hard worker or anything like that. So you find something you enjoy doing in English and do that every day and even if it's just watching movies, you know, that's good too. Yeah, I agree with the speaking part because like before I moved to the US, I had very difficulty in like speaking because even though I knew English, but I was not confident enough to speak in English. So when I went there, when I started speaking with people, it helped me a lot. So practice makes perfect, but it's not just practicing the exam, it's practicing English for your life. Yeah, and I think that's what a lot of people don't get about the IELTS test is it's an English test. So your English needs to be at the level of, you know, there's no magic way of getting there, but it's also a specific test. So if you combine a high level of English with test taking strategies and all of these things that you're learning, then that's where you get the band lines and the band 8.5s that someone like you can get, you know? So congratulations. So we've talked a lot about listening and reading. Do you want to give some advice to people about speaking or writing? You've got a really high score in speaking and writing as well. If you were giving advice to yourself 12 months ago, what advice would you give for speaking and writing? Okay, sure. So for both the parts, the one thing that I would say is start practicing early on. Like what I did, the mistake like I started practicing from May, like I decided to take the exam in May. So from the month of May, I was just practicing listening and reading every day like for one hour and then I never concentrated on listening or sorry, speaking or writing. So at the end like in the month of July or something, I got serious about doing the writing and the speaking part. So that's when I joined your course as well. So yeah, that's one thing. So start practicing early on. And the second thing is know your weakness in both the parts because when I started writing, I mean, I never wrote anything like I'd never practiced it. I just used to watch videos on YouTube and then see what all mistakes they make and how I can write something very similar. But instead of that, take a mock exam or take your correction like service and then get the feedback on what you've written. So this helps you to find out the weakness and then you can improve on that one. That's the same thing for writing and speaking as well. There's a huge difference between learning on YouTube and getting your individual weaknesses assessed by a real expert. YouTube don't get me wrong. There's some great YouTube channels right there that will familiarize yourself with, familiarize you with what you need to do. But you know, it's like you're a, you work in software development. You can't really go onto YouTube and watch lots of YouTube videos on how to become a better coder and then just go and do it. You know, you need someone looking at your code and telling you what's wrong with it in the same way with your writing and your speaking. The difference between reading and listening and writing and speaking is you're producing language when you are speaking and writing. So you need someone to look at that production, that product and say, this is great, keep doing this, that's wrong, change this. And it's a simple process, but not a lot of people follow it. And again, I think it's because a lot of people think that you just go onto YouTube and watch lots of videos and then you're gonna get the score that you need, which is not true, I don't think. Sure, I mean, like you can learn a lot of strategies by watching such videos, but unless you get the feedback, you won't be able to improve on yourself. Yeah, and it's a shortcut as well. We don't teach shortcuts or hacks or things like that, but it is a massive shortcut in terms of time and if you get your weaknesses assessed, because then you know what to focus on. We teach IELTS in the same way that a doctor would treat a patient or a mechanic would fix a car or a dentist would fix your teeth. What's the problem? That's what's the root cause of the problem and identify that and fix that. That is the most efficient way. It's not easy, but it's very efficient. Yeah, that's the one thing that I liked about your course. The main point that you say is clarity is king, right? So whenever I was watching YouTube videos, I give a lot of strategies, but they never tell us the purpose for which I'm writing or the purpose for which I'm speaking during the exam. So that is one thing that I learned from your course and then that made it really easy. For anyone watching, I'll share that with you from the course. What is the purpose of writing? What is the purpose of speaking? It is not to show off how amazing your vocabulary is, how many grammar, tenses and structures you know, how many words you've memorized. It is to clearly communicate with someone. Why do you send a text message? Why do you send an email? Why do you write a book? It is to take the things in your head and clearly communicate them. So if you could forget about 95% of all the strategies and tips and tricks and just focus on that, just focus on clear communication and it won't only help you in the aisles, it'll help you in your jobs as well. I run a company with nearly 40 people working for me now and once 40 people all start talking together, if one of them has poor communication skills, then it's really bad. So we preach that to our team as well. Just be super clear and simple with communication and that's much better than memorizing a bunch of nonsense and putting it in the paper. That would be one of the advice that I would give to anyone. If you're learning for aisles, don't learn for the exam. Don't prepare for the exam. Prepare for learning English for your life, like for the betterment of your life. Exactly. Same with the vocabulary improvement plan that we put together. A lot of people look at that and they're like, oh, this is going to take a long time. But if you want to move to Canada or Australia or UK, you're going to need a wide-ranging vocabulary because you want to live there. You don't want to move there and just sit in your bedroom and be like, oh, you want to go and you and your family can have a much richer life and being able to clearly communicate and understand people and what's going on, that really, really helps. And I think that's also a really good point for motivation. Because a lot of people are like, I don't want to do this aisles nonsense. It's boring, it's tough. Don't think about that. Think about how much better your life is going to be for you and your family and if you're materialistic, how much more money you're going to earn, all those different things. And that really helps you with motivation, central. Yeah, I mean, that was the main difference for me. I was preparing for my TOEFL like four years back. I was like, I went to the US to study, so I was preparing for my TOEFL and then I just prepared for the exam. So it was not that good. I did not do good at my speaking section or the writing section, but when preparing for aisles, I prepared in order to get better at my English. So it helped me a lot. Yeah, it not only helps a motivation, helps your score, but just makes everything much easier if you think one step ahead and improving your general English. And your boss and your team leaders and the people working under you and with you, they will thank you for it as well because you'll be a much better colleague to work with if you can clearly communicate. So thank you so much, Vikas. I really appreciate you helping everybody. You gave some great advice and I wish you the best of luck in the future. If you need any help in the future, myself and my team are more than happy to help you in any way we can. So stay in touch if you need anything, Vikas. Yeah, thank you very much, Chris. Hi everyone, Chris here from aislesadvantage.com with another success story. So we have Navjot and she's going to share her success with you guys so that you can learn from her. So Navjot, can you introduce yourself to everyone, please? My name is Navjot Kaur and I am working as a lecturer in mathematics since 2012. And I wanted to migrate to Canada on a permanent resident basis. So I needed CLB 9, which is listening eight and best of three, seven. So I was quite desperate to get this score, but this has become only possible because of the AP course. So this is all the information I can tell about myself. So before you joined our course, what were you struggling with? What did you find difficult about the IELTS test? I was finding difficult that I can part because I had appeared three times before my successful attempt. And even though I was thinking that my attempt was perfected, I was thinking that I am able to get this seven, at least a seven, but it was not possible. Even if I thought I have written very well. So first of all, it took a long time to make my mind that it is not the fault of IELTS, it is the fault of students because I have listened from a lot of people that they are doing it intentionally and they are not going to give you a seven. So my last attempt was on 10th February and then I had almost given up. So this was the only portion that because I was getting quite higher score in listening, reading, and a seven in speaking. So this was the only portion that I was struggling with. And what score did you get before and what score in writing did you get after? I scored 6.5, always. 11th. How many times? You three times you got 6.5? Three times, yes sir. And then after we helped you, what score did you get? Seven. After we helped you, after you joined the course, what score did you get in writing? I got 7.5. Congratulations, amazing. Thank you so much, yes sir. So that's a very common problem for a lot of people. A lot of people are stuck at 6.5 and they need seven or 7.5 in the writing test. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about the differences between what changed from when you were getting 6.5 to when you got 7.5. What did you do differently? Firstly, when I was taking classes from their teachers, I joined three different teachers in a quite big city in my state. They were not telling about the different type of essays. It was like they are saying that we have to answer the question in a similar way. Whether it is a discussion essay or it is an opinion essay, then we can make an opinion essay a discussion one. This was the biggest mistake I have done in the previous attempts. So this time, things were more clear because I knew what I had to do in the exam. Everything was crystal clear in front of me because I knew there are five type of essays as you told and there are different approaches to attempt all these questions. So I was quite confident this time that I will certainly get my score in the writing section. Apart from understanding the different types of questions and having a different approach, was there anything else that you think made a big difference in changing your writing from 6.5 to 7.5? Keeping the thing simple. Yes, because I was making everything complicated. I don't think whose fault is this, but by default, we are thinking that we had to write quite complicated vocabulary and we had to use a typical type of sentences. That is not the main thing because we had to convey our ideas and our opinion to the examiner or whoever is reading. Then this is the main thing. I think it can take a long time for everybody to understand that this is the main thing. We cannot use any random words which we have learned from random sources. I think if everybody can understand it, but there are a lot of things. I think this is about... I think we've done over 30 videos now with VIP students and every single student has said, yeah, keep it simple. That's the thing that helped me more than anything. It's the thing that is very difficult to explain to someone because when you fail a test, what you think is automatically, naturally, you think, oh, I have to do things in a more complex way or a more complicated way. So when you tell a student the opposite of that, they find it very difficult to accept it and especially it's the opposite to what a lot of other teachers are telling them which is use complicated grammar and vocabulary and then you'll get the score you need which is not true. So if someone like you who... Imagine you were talking to a group of other students and they were like you, they kept getting 6.5, what advice would you give them? First of all, I will advise them that making a plan is compulsory in the writing because in my previous attempts, I was not willing to waste my two 10 minutes on planning but this time, even in practice, when I was practicing my writing and in the exam as well, I spent around eight minutes to plan and surprisingly in the last 40th minute, I completed my writing task group because I always attempt my essay first and later in the last 20 minutes. It was amazing to see that it worked quite well because a couple of minutes spent earlier are worth it because it is very important to plan. It's an investment of time, is how I always describe it. Because a lot of people think of it as wasting time and it's like no, it's investing the time so that you won't be wasting time when you're writing so that's excellent advice. Anything else you would say to them? Um, join the course. Apart from that, apart from that, yeah, apart from that. Um, apart from that, um... I'm putting you on the spot now. I think those three things that you said would make a huge difference to a lot of people so, you know, approaching each question individually and having an individual approach to each question, keeping it simple, especially when it comes to, you know, clearly communicating with the examiner, clearly answering the question rather than trying to use fancy vocabulary and grammar and planning and time management also, investing the time to plan out your answer, which will lead to a much clearer answer, fewer mistakes, and you'll get it all done on time. So I think, sorry for putting you on the spot and I know you're not an iOS teacher. Yes. So what will you be able to do now in the future that you've got your scores? Uh, I'm now eligible for the express entry because I was getting a quite close score in the process and at present I have boosted my score by 60 points, which has made a huge difference. And I think I will be able to move to my dream country Canada within six months, which I had before this exam on 12th of May because I had lost all the hopes and I was still hoping to move to Canada but I had changed my plans and I was thinking to move as a student because I just, but that was quite a difficult path for me because it will take around four to five years to get all the things which I can do with this score now. This has made a huge difference in my life and my family. I was talking to a lot of students today and they were saying to me, you know, I don't have enough time to do what you want me to do. I don't have enough money to do what I want you to do and I was explaining it to them that if you think about it, you're investing this time, you're investing this money but it's going to save you so much time and save you so much hassle in the future. There are a lot of people who are trying again and again by thinking that luck will get to them soon and they will get a seven. Suddenly, I know this will not work because I had tried three different approaches in my writing in my previous three attempts and I was not able to get seven. Then I thought there is something wrong with my writing so I made an expert advice so I said it's not the fault of us. I think a lot of people who are failing over and over again I was speaking to one guy yesterday and we were talking about whether he could join the course and on the call he was saying he was blaming IELTS, he was blaming the examiners, he was blaming everybody and I said listen, you're not welcome on our course and he said why? I said because you won't accept that it's your fault. It's your fault that you're getting those scores and blaming everybody else is only going to lead to further failure but it's when you accept that it's my responsibility to get the help that I need and my responsibility to do the work and to improve then every single time we see students moving up and getting the scores that they need but I see students every single day that aren't members of our course that are maybe on our Facebook page or things like that just blaming everybody except themselves like never actually saying oh maybe I just didn't find the right teacher or didn't find the right approach or didn't work hard enough and I think accepting that is a big, big, big step not just for IELTS but for pretty much anything if you blame other people for your problems then it doesn't normally lead to success so thank you very much for sharing that with everybody and I wish you all the best of luck in Canada You're going to be a mathematics lecturer? Yes sir Excellent Excellent Yeah Excellent Alright so thank you very much and I'll see you again soon Bye bye Hi everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another success story So today we have Ashok from our VIP course Ashok can you introduce yourself to everyone? My name is Ashok Dabi I'm a dental surgeon and I'm from India Great Can you tell everyone a little bit about your experience with IELTS and how many times did you do the test what scores did you get what did you struggle with, things like that Chris, it was basically a long journey it took around one and a half year to reach this score You don't believe My first score was a 5.5 brand but I just wanted to achieve my score at any cost because I wanted to move to Canada So that is why I worked hard and right now my score is 18 listening, 18 reading 7 in speaking and 7 in writing So from 5.5 overall to 7.5 overall Yes That's amazing, that is a huge jump Even in a year and a half that requires a huge amount of work and effort So congratulations on that So can you share your journey with people a little bit to go from 5.5 to 7.5 in a year and a half is a massive achievement So how did you do it? Share that with people Actually Chris, I didn't know anything about IELTS about this, what's the test My friends told me that it's just an English test So every time I read English, that's enough and I also read, initially I also read some sample essays but I never practiced, means I never wrote essays and I never practiced a lot So initially I also took up some local training course from India but it didn't work After that I got 6.5 So one of my friends, he is also a dentist and he is also a member of Pal Academy Do you know Manthan Solanki? He is also my friend So we both decided to take and roll your course So after that you don't believe I got 3 times 7 and 7.5 in writing So the writing was the big hurdle for me initially because I didn't know anything about writing I didn't know the different types of the essays So it was the main hurdle for me So after that what I did, I strongly followed your advice 2 main ideas, then explanation, then example Initially what I did before enrolling your course before taking your course, I mostly started writing whenever I got my question So I started writing immediately without planning my essays But when you told me, strongly, when you told me that I had to plan essays before starting writing So after that I planned, I gave at least 5 minutes for writing, planning essays and then after I started writing my essays Secondly you always told that read newspapers I also prefer to read newspapers So what happened, after reading newspapers it became very easy for me to write down the examples So I didn't have to think about the examples at the time of writing Apart from this, it also benefited me in speaking portion Because in part 3, speaking part it's quite a typical question The examiner asked some typical questions So it became very easy for me to answer all these part 3 questions So that is why I mostly concentrated on reading newspapers So I downloaded The Guardian, The Hindu So at least I gave one and a half hour to read newspapers Every day And you don't believe, I wrote more than 300 essays That's a lot I didn't correct you And I also advised each and every member of the Pal Academy as well as other students that never miss Monday as well as Wednesday's essay classes I cancelled my appointments for Wednesday and I strongly read different students' essays So it helped me to get all these ideas of different students So at the time of exam, I didn't have to worry about the ideas I didn't have to worry about the examples I didn't have to worry about the explanations So all these things just stuck in my head So it became very easy for me to write essays particularly on exam days So there was no room for nervousness So when you were sitting down on test day how did you feel compared to the first time and the last time? Was there a big difference in how you felt? First time I didn't know anything about essays different structures of the essays But after enrolling your course it became very easy for me Initially what happened, you know Our local trainer always told me advised me to write down heavy vocabulary so-called heavy advanced vocabulary so many ideas without explanation That is why I got around 6 and 6.5 bank It was very careful with local trainers Some of them are really good Most of them aren't, you know So it's a shame So initially I also believed that I had to use heavy vocabularies and I had to use so many ideas without any explanations without providing examples But all these things are very necessary if you want to get more than 7 banks And secondly Newspapers also, I forgot one thing that newspapers also play a very important role to learn grammar because grammar is a really boring portion But if you, really for me it's quite boring Whenever I read the grammar Even though I created a whole grammar course like that I didn't enjoy it So when I read newspaper I was familiar with the prepositions and articles So if anyone knows about the prepositions and articles then they will definitely win this game Because you don't have to write down heavy active, passive voices or conditional sentences in this particular exam The main aim of this exam is that you can convey your message in English in a simple way So keep it simple Read newspaper And third most important thing I would like to share with you is that if you have a good friend who is also preparing for IELTS then discuss with your friend It will not help you to improve your English but it also helps you to provide so many ideas related to essays as well as your speaking portion And last thing is that many times people always advise that watch BBC But I mostly prefer I mostly advise students to watch Discovery as well as National Geographic channels Because in reading and listening portion you will get the same topic in your last sessions So it becomes very easy for you to predict the answer That's excellent advice You seem to have just surrounded yourself with English and IELTS for a long time and working hard It's great to hear that because you are an example of someone who has followed the system that I encourage everyone to follow which is not very complicated Find out what your weaknesses are find those weaknesses into strengths Surround yourself with English Practice every day Work hard Anyone can do these things It's great to see someone a shining example of someone who just followed that system blindly and got the scores that they needed Yes sir Sometime during Venice days you many times scolded me because I mostly prefer to do some experiments with my essays particularly in your class because there is no room in exams So I mostly prefer you to advise me very well I really followed your advice and during test time You hear me? Yes, yes, yes Keep going So looks like Ashok has hit the wrong button and ended our success story a little bit early But that's all right He pretty much said everything that he needed to say Maybe he lost power or maybe he lost the internet or something like that But now that you have me alone if you look at all of our success stories all the students who were on the VIP course they pretty much followed the exact same formula You'll hear all of them talking about keeping it simple, simplifying everything using grammar and vocabulary in a way that helps you convey your message and clearly communicate with the reader surrounding yourself with English practicing your vocabulary improving your vocabulary every day reading every day listening every day to English planning out your answer following a certain structure that we use on the VIP course and all of them get the scores they need if they follow that system It's really really simple It's not simple as in you do have to do a certain amount of work but if you're prepared to do the work and get the scores you will get the scores you need So that's pretty much it I'm talking to myself instead of normally speaking to a student but that's it Thanks guys, bye bye Hi everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another success story Today we have Disha who is going to share her success with all you guys so you can learn from her and be successful yourself Disha, can you start off just by introducing yourself to everyone Yes, hello everyone I'm Disha I'm from Punjab, India So I got my score listening 9, 8 in reading 7 each in writing and speaking just after the first attempt after joining the VIP course and I am just over cloud 9 right now Congratulations again Those are amazing scores and dream scores for being able to get to Canada, isn't that right? Yes, I waited for a very long time to get this score Excellent, so you said that you joined the course and then you got the scores you needed the next time but was that the first time you had done the test or how long were you preparing for the test can you tell us a little bit about your IELTS journey Yes, actually my IELTS journey started in February 2018 so it was my 6th attempt In the first attempt itself I got 777.5 so I was lacking in listening so I got to know that I was not focused at that point of time and I just gave the test after watching some of your videos only on YouTube but later on my struggle was more kind of by managing the different modules that because I was lacking every time it was 0.5 band in one or the other modules that was the biggest challenge for me to try to get that consistency in every so score in all modules to go from about 7 to about 9 investing is amazing most people never get a band 9 even native English speakers would struggle to get a band 9 so yes, in fact in my third attempt I lost in listening only I got 7.5 in listening then 8, 7, 7.5 in others at that point in fact one day before the test this time also I was so nervous about listening that I don't want to face that recording again because I'm so afraid of it Yeah, fear and stress can cause a lot of problems and things like that so would you say that your biggest challenge is your biggest struggles were consistency or were there any particular things as weaknesses or struggles that you had I think in the beginning my struggle was with consistency and focus and with the time as I got to understand about art skills in various modules my writing was quite fine but now and after failing a lot of times because I used to think like I failed my struggle was with the mindset so when I purchased this VIP course I first got through all the videos of mindset and even every time I was a little bit demotivated I saw your videos mindset course and I just buckle up again Yeah, I think it's so important especially when you're just missing by 0.5 it's quite easy just to a lot of people blame themselves and think I'm not good enough but our attitude is the opposite of that is okay learn from your mistakes use those to get better and turn your weaknesses into strength so that is not easy that's very difficult because most people don't want to hear that and so well done for having that because I always used to be a kind of topper you can say and even my family was looking at me like what are you doing you're not able to get the score it's just an English exam you go and do it then so now I saw your videos like we feel like this but eventually we have we can change our mindset anytime we can every time I watched your videos I got the motivation I needed so we'll come back to mindset but you talked a lot about focus especially in regards to listening and a lot of Indian students that I speak with need a band 8 or even higher for the Canadian PR so if you were to give advice to someone who needs to increase their listening score to a band 8 or band 9 what advice would you give them in listening I think most of the people they try to they focus more on the words they don't make try to make the connection what exactly the speaker is trying to say in fact I found it very useful that the way speakers talk in listening even by their intonation by the way they speak we get to know many things like this can be the answer by the tone itself so instead of just focusing on getting the answer we should relate to them that makes things easier excellent advice so instead of focus instead of going very in close into the individual words to kind of zoom out a little bit and understand the general sentences the general meaning the intonation and all of those different things and in fact in listening because we always we have short time duration so it is very important when to make the best use of that time when we have to look at all the questions just to understand quickly and then when to focus on the connected speech when to just eliminate the options which we feel like they are not the answer so this helps in MCQs especially too yeah intonation carries a lot of different meaning like if for example let's say I'm teaching a class and a student comes in late and I say please sit down or I say please sit down like it's exactly the same words one is very friendly no problem the other one is I'm angry it's the same words or if I come home late to dinner and my wife says that's fine or she says that's fine one is I'm getting dinner you know so intonation is very important and that's what I have understood I have understood how to connect with people by their intonations excellent excellent let's say imagine you have a friend who is at a band 7 in listening and wants to get to a band 8 or band 9 what would be the main things what would be the advice that you would give that friend for the listening part I would say that meditation it really helped me excellent because I'm a kind of person who gets a lot of thoughts at a moment so just to sit in the present moment was a big challenge for me so I started meditation after that I would say that we should go strategy question wise in the listening also what is the kind of question I would practice it strategically so that yes because I have practiced a lot like in these 3 years if we say practice makes a man perfect I know one person not just a man so much in the listening also and my score was not increasing so when I listened to your videos I got to know that we have to fix I started analyzing my mistakes what kind of mistakes I make it was not of spelling it was sometimes of plural singular but most of the times it was like I did not know the strategy of the question and I did it wrong if you got 2 students one student does 100 practice tests and another student just does 5 practice tests but that student looks at the 5 practice tests on all of the mistakes and analyzes the mistakes and then learns from those mistakes the student who does 5% just 5 tests compared to one who does 100 will do much, much better because it is not about practice, practice, practice it is about practicing strategically that is what I learned analyzing my mistakes which I was not able to figure out so that made all the difference it is really interesting what you said meditation, because meditation not only helps with focus but it can help with stress and it can help with many other things so there is some great apps you can get there is one called Heads Bay Calm The Waking Up app I meditate myself I find it really does help but also a good way to think about the listening test, on the reading test it is a lot about focus and to use it a different analogy imagine you have to run 10 km but you are not very good at running so you don't try and go from 0 to 10 you go from 0 to 1 km and then 0 to 2 and then 2 to 3 and then 3 to 4 exactly the same thing with listening you might be able to completely focus for 5 minutes then the next day try to focus for 7 minutes and then 9 and then 12 and then 15 you will build it up like a muscle and I think that will really help and do a little bit every day try and push yourself a little bit every day and that will help with your listening and one more thing like in the listening I used to take deep breaths whenever I felt like I am losing the focus it helped me to get into the present moment I already knew beforehand that in the exam also I am going to be stuck somewhere in the listening but I will take deep breaths and I will just go with the listening test I think there is something to learn from that as well is like focusing on the present moment if we look at that from a higher level a lot of students when they are preparing for the test don't live in the present moment they look at the past and think I failed the test which means I am terrible I am going to fail again and then they look at the future and they fear the future so I think meditation living in the present each day what little thing can I do to improve I am really focusing on what is my biggest weakness that I need to work on today do a little bit every day don't even think about booking the test in the future don't worry about that just every day try and get better and then one day oh I am ready to book the test I am ready to do it whereas I think a lot of students first and then panic and then they don't do anything and then they get really upset and stressed out so that's why we always say don't book this test until you are ready to get the score that you need all these things have already actually helped me because I was also this kind of student every time in the past I booked my test first and then I started preparation then there was a one week or two weeks before the test and I was totally nervous I don't know where I stand now I have to go through it and I just started fearing this exam and how did you cope with feeling nervous and feeling stressed how did you manage your stress levels when I saw one of the videos in the mindset course that you have to work every day and the test day will not be that much stressful I put in a lot of work I got good score in writing also in listening one day before as I mentioned that I was not I knew that I have done a lot of work but still I had this thing that anything can happen in the exam but I was prepared that this time I will not let anything ruin my exam so I will do my best I don't know what will happen if I have lots of problems in my business a business is just basically a bunch of big problems that you have to solve so it's stressful but what I always tell people working here is as soon as you take action on that stressful problem the stress goes away what is most stressful is when you know that you have lots of problems and you don't do anything about them that's really stressful what I always say is first of all what are your problems what are your weaknesses and then just systematically go through each of those and attack those and take action and then on test day you are like I have done enough work I am a little bit nervous but not very nervous whereas what most students do is do nothing do very little maybe look at youtube look for some tips and tricks and then on test day they are extremely nervous because they know deep down in their heart that they didn't do anything I did not want any such thing in my mind this time that I would regret I could have done this or I didn't do this so I was prepared I prepared a question type wise I did a lot of practice tests listening was the one module which I never missed doing it so yes I was able to do it on the exam day excellent well Disha thank you so much for sharing how you got a band 9 in listening and an amazing band 8 in reading and 7 in speaking and 7 in writing and thank you so much for sharing that with everybody and do listen to Disha like the basic things fundamental things that she said such as practicing strategically learning from your mistakes learning how to focus on the test and managing your stress levels those things are very very important but if anybody needs help from us feel free to get in touch with us and we'll be happy to give you any advice that you need Disha I wish you all the best of luck in the future and if you need anything in the future get in touch with us any last minute advice for students I would say to everybody who is selling the same board that don't give up because I was about to give up but I don't know how one of my friends he called me on my birthday last year he told me that you why are you giving back, you just take eyes at one page I was thinking okay so for my dreams I will do it and I never knew that I will talk to you so soon well thank you so much Disha you deserve all the success because you work so hard thank you so much again for sharing everything Susan here on part of the academic team as you probably know and we're here again to record another success story and to offer our congratulations to Nishta so Nishta could you just introduce yourself and tell the students a little bit about yourself I am Dr. Nishta Arora and I've been working as a consultant dentist in a private dental college in a small city in northern region of India and I plan to immigrate to Canada so I wanted to take this IELS general training course exam so I looked up online and I came across IELS advantage course through a video in which a person had failed IELS exam for six times and when he took this course IELS advantage course he could get through the exam so that really motivated me I didn't want to make that kind of a mistake and I wanted to clear the exam in the very first course so I took this this VIP course I registered myself in the waiting list took this course and fortunately I was able to crack the exam with high scores in the very first attempt and you've never taken you've never taken IELS before? Never this was my first attempt and what score did you need in order to achieve your desired score? The basic score that we need is 8777 that is 8 in listening and 7 in the rest of the part and would you like to tell everyone what you achieved? Okay so my score was it's 9 in speaking sorry 8.5 in speaking and 9 is in listening 9 in reading and 7 in writing So that's pretty impressive scores especially on your first attempt it will now allow you to migrate to Canada What did you find most difficult about the IELTS exam when you were preparing was there anything you were particularly worried about? Yes in reading section I was very worried about true false not given section I took a lot of time to grab the actual strategy to attempt this kind of a question and in listening section the multiple choice question was something that I was worried about so these two things made me a bit nervous but eventually after practicing and listening to the tape scripts of the listening section I was able to understand the accent the slang used and where paraphrasing is done so those things were clear to me after listening to the tape scripts that is given in the official Cambridge preparation textbook at the back so that was really helpful for me and I was able to get such high score. And how did you get on with the writing part of the course? I scored 7 so I'd say there is a scope of improvement but basically I listened to Chris's videos and he told that there has to be a good structure for the answer you have to think about ideas make a structure and then attempt the question and you have to address the question as it is it's not like you can write everything that comes to your mind no you have to make points then clearly communicate your message precisely shortly using good vocabulary and punctuations and synonyms and sort of keep it simple and accurate accuracy is what he taught us in the videos. I was just going to say keep it simple I think is the main key for the writer to try not to make it complicated and also you have to keep to the right length because if you write too much you won't have time to check your accuracy so well done and the speaking were you concerned about the speaking at all? Speaking exam was like a roller coaster ride for me it was so quick because he kept on asking me questions and I went on answering at that point of time I just had one thing in my mind that I have to use correct vocabulary and communicate my message clearly because if the examiner is not able to comprehend what I'm speaking then there's no point and I think it's all about the comfort zone and how comfortable you are while speaking this language so that is what I had in my mind and I listened to quite a lot of podcasts and stuff like that to you know grab the slang and try to speak like native speaker and I record in myself the most important thing is I always used to record myself I used to read a question then answer it for like 2-3 minutes and then see what mistakes I was making so that really helped me so that is something and then when you were analysing your speaking did you record the mistakes that you were making and to try and avoid them the next time? I attempted same question thrice or four times with different methods to really understand what I was lacking in and whether I was confident enough to you know appear for the exam so that was I am a teacher myself so I teach students okay dentist as well as teacher so you understand exactly so I tried my best and then when the results came through did you get a text message how did you find out what you scored? we have a website and it quoted that the exam result will be out in 13 days so I had an eye on that website like and on the 14th day I clicked for the result early in the morning at 6 o'clock when I woke up and I was so happy to have a nine in listening and reading was something which I really appreciated absolutely fantastic that's 100% yeah okay so there's going to be other students watching this just like you watched that video the first time with the student who failed six times they're going to be watching this now and they're going to be seeing you passing first time and achieving those great results do you have any advice for students who are in the middle of their at the beginning in the middle or towards the end of their IELTS journey? first section is the listening part and I think one should really learn how to focus and concentrate while attempting this listening section because that is the key you have to be there and you have to forget the world while attempting this question and one should hear podcasts and see web series or stuff like that to understand the language and along with that sometimes you have to go you have to guess also there is a particular pattern how the question is asked and you should read two sections at one time I tried to be a little quick so that I could get what the person was speaking clearly so focus and concentration one should focus and that is the key message I'd like to say, forget the world when you're attempting the listening section and think about anything else and I think that same piece of advice would apply to reading, writing writing the whole exam the focus is so important is there anything else that you'd like to share with everyone mock tests one should at least give five to seven mock tests before appearing for the exam and watch all the videos step by step and not skip the videos because that is really important and be confident and believe in yourself because if you don't believe in yourself then it's not possible thank you very much Nisha that's some really excellent advice and on behalf of Chris and the rest of the team here congratulations and best wishes for your life in Canada hi everyone Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another success story and today we're going to talk to Siva what we're specifically going to talk about is how to identify your weaknesses and the importance of identifying your weaknesses and how to turn those weaknesses into strengths so that you can improve your speaking scores and your writing scores so Siva was really struggling with her writing and her speaking she was going to lots of different schools and looking at lots of different things on the internet when she joined us we were able to quickly identify the exact reasons why she was not getting the score that she needed and then she was able to get a Band 8 in speaking and a Band 7 in writing so let's learn a few things from Siva's journey on the Miles Test and then we can hopefully improve ourselves so Siva, can you start off by just introducing yourself to everyone sure I'm Sivaranshani I'm a working professional I work for a product based company here in Chennai, India and I have attended IELTS twice before joining your course I have made my attempt once after joining your course to check how far I have improved and surprisingly I got the marks what I needed so thanks to you Chris so let's start off by talking about speaking so we're going to talk about speaking and writing those are the two things that you needed the most help with so when we did a one on one speaking with you what were some of the things that we identified the reasons why you were not getting the score you needed actually I gave my mock speaking test with Jason and I set my mind I should not be getting less than 6.5 because in my previous two attempts I got 6.5 so I should learn all those things whatever I have done in the past I should give my best so surprisingly in my mock speaking test I got 8 and he said the only thing I need to improve was I'm speaking really fast so that the examiner can barely able to understand me what I'm doing it so because I'm speaking really fast there are many chances for me to go my marks I mean low in aether and grammar and also in the lexical resource so he wants me to slow down so that was the only advice he gave me also from that day on I literally try to slow down it speaking quickly is it's caused for maybe one or two different reasons number one people can be very nervous when they're speaking in front of an examiner and often when people feel nervous they want to not waste the other person's time so they subconsciously speak very very quickly or maybe because you just are filled with nerves and stress and you speak too quickly the other thing is a lot of people think that speaking quickly means high fluency and a lot of people are taught that in school or maybe it's a misconception about what good fluency is good fluency is not about speaking quickly it's about speaking naturally and the problem with speaking too quickly is you're being tested on fluency pronunciation grammar and vocabulary so fluency if you're speaking too quickly you're not speaking as naturally as you could so you might have a lower fluency score but it can also affect the other three because if you're speaking very quickly it's difficult for the examiner to understand what you're saying so your pronunciation could suffer but also remember our brain is kind of like a computer if you're trying to do too many things at the same time and too quickly on a computer it starts to slow down and it can make mistakes same when you're speaking too quickly you can make more grammar mistakes more vocabulary mistakes so that is why if for you Siva that was the one thing and it improved everything for you so on anybody watching exactly you might have a problem with speaking quickly but you might have you know one of other 50 other problems it's really important that you try and work with someone who knows what they're doing to help you identify that in the same way as if my car was broken I would take the car to a mechanic and get the mechanic to fix it because he or she knows what they are doing and so what was the improvement in your score in my first two attempts I constantly got 6.5 in speaking and in my third attempt I got 8 that would make total sense because if you are getting if the examiner can't understand you you can't get above a 6 for pronunciation and then you might have got 6 in one of the other things because you are making more mistakes so it's totally normal to get 6.5 because of just one thing you know and that's frustrating for a student but it's very satisfying when you understand what that one thing is and then you can fix that so well done and congratulations for getting your band 8 and speaking thank you and even the worst part was even I was not like speaking really fast could affect my score I was not in that consciousness so later when I attended zoom session I learned that like you have to speak naturally and you have to let the examiner understand each and every word whatever you are trying to say so that is the key thing I've also found out sorry, sorry there's a delay between I've also found out with many of our Indian students because I think when you're speaking in your native language you naturally speak very, very quickly and then you start to speak English in the same way and that can cause a problem for the examiner to understand not every Indian student but many of the would you agree with that in your native language you speak more quickly than you speak English even in the zoom session I could see many Indians speak at the same pace whatever I say so it is like it's a common problem in India actually and then often you will have you don't have a problem with your pronunciation but often the Indian students will have a little bit of accent interference and that's not a problem but when you combine speaking very quickly with a little bit of accent interference that causes an issue because the examiner can't understand 100% of what you're saying and that will lower your score to a 6 for pronunciation so you will be able to help you with that hello Tommy come here look hi Tom hi say hello how are you I'll be up in 5 minutes okay I know it's ready 5 minutes alright you're telling me my breakfast is ready sorry for interrupting so now we've talked about speaking do you want to talk about writing now what scores were you getting in writing before you joined us in my first attempt I got 6 and the second attempt I got 6.5 between my first and second attempt I just follow your dollar one course like you used to do previously so I just go through your videos and try to learn on my own like what is the structure I need to follow and I could see an improvement of 0.5 there and after joining the I'll school in my area I couldn't find any improvement in my writing like they were just telling what you need to write but they're not identifying my mistakes so I decided to join your VIP group and I submitted my first for the correction service and I was so shocked and I felt really bad because I got 6 in my writing and you people were literally able to identify each and every mistakes even in the sentence like articles the subject verb agreement the tenses like I could see these many mistakes I was doing it so that's where I realized like I was not getting the score what I want because of all these mistakes then what I did was I did so much of things in between I made like a mini plan like I started reading books I started reading articles and I did so many things to improve my grammar because grammar was my biggest part especially the articles so I did so many things and the second time I took almost 3 months between my first and the second essay and when I submitted my second essay I got 7.5 so I was so happy because I did so I put so much of effort and hard work in that and I got the scores and again I submitted my third essay there I got 7 but still articles was an issue at that point so I was trying to work on it then at one point I decided maybe I'll just book for an exam and I will give a try to check what is the improvement I have made then surprisingly all my scores were I was so happy and I thought like maybe I got the score whatever I needed and you got a band 7 in writing overall at the end so two things number one it's really satisfying to hear you say after my first correction I took a lot of time to work on those things because when somebody sees our corrections they just see all of the mistakes and it's quite like oh my god what am I going to do because it's just red, everything is red when I first opened that pdf everything wasn't red exactly everything was I was like what is this even in IELTS I got 6.5 but here I'm getting 6 that was so hard breaking but I knew like because of my mistakes you're giving the corrections I could figure that out it's difficult for me as a teacher sometimes because if you tell people you've made this mistake this mistake this mistake this mistake this mistake it can be a little bit demotivating but also it's my job to tell people exactly what the situation is so that they can fix it but the most satisfying thing is when people see that for the first time they react in one of three ways number one they either pretend that you know put their head in the sand and pretend that everything is okay when it's not and they don't take any action number two they just immediately go and do another essay instead of actually focusing on the mistakes number three some of them which is the correct way which is they look at each mistake and they work on fixing those mistakes and then they're going to see improvement so it's very satisfying to hear that you did that and that's why you were successful when we talk about in the mindset course you need to see each mistake as an opportunity improvement points yeah because some people look at mistakes and think that oh no I'm going to fail and other people look at mistakes and think good now I know exactly what to do to improve it will help you to avoid the mistakes whatever we are going to do in my real test so it is actually you should take it as an improvement point for us exactly exactly and I know that's difficult I know it's not nobody likes to be told you're not good enough yet or you need to work on this and nobody likes to hear that but if you have the right mindset you're going to really really improve and I'm so happy that you watched the mindset course that we include and you got it from that and the daily motivation stuff that we do exactly even I felt frustrated at many points and I almost gave up at so many points and I thought like even if I if I'm not feeling good I would write email to your team and I would like to thank Mike Jason and Sam like they always motivates me and they reply back me in a short span of time saying that maybe you should take a break like just give a break when you're studying for continuous hours maybe like once in a week you should not think about IELTS at all because that is also really needed because if you constantly think about IELTS nothing is going to work out you should give your brain some time to relax and to focus on other things like you should have a healthy routine so that it will help you to boost your confidence and your mental power sometimes you just need sometimes you need because you feel like you're hitting your head against a wall and nothing is getting better and sometimes you need to just step back and allow your brain to actually learn something and relax a little bit and then you can come back and see oh I have improved and I need to keep going so it's knowing when to work hard and when to take it back and that's difficult for everybody including me I find that difficult so well done so any other last advice before we finish the video any other if you if you were giving yourself advice one year ago what would you maybe tell yourself maybe like give yourself enough time to prepare because I feel like many people are they want the marks in a short span of time like they may be pressurized they may be like they have their visa interview or some kind of a commitment so they're just rushing to attend the exams like they're not actually improving it so give yourself enough time get yourself assist by a proper mentor who know what else really is all about and try to improve try to make a mini plan like based on your work schedule and try to work on it like surround yourself with English what I actually did was in a day I would read at least 5 pages in a book maybe any journal and I started reading BBC articles like education the topics related to education travel ads because those points helped me in my speaking as well as in writing and I started watching web series continuously like maybe 2 episodes per day and I started watching some Ted Talks because those will be really helpful with the lexical resource every time whenever I hear a Ted Talk I would get at least minimum 2 or 3 new words I would straight away not go and jump into dictionary to find out the meaning I'll just try to understand the meaning of it from the sentence whatever they're trying to convey and I will compare with it the dictionary meaning so it will be so that I will not forget easily so it will stay with me for a quite span of time so these are things I did it almost maybe like 6 months continuously and for speaking what it was I daily I took a mock test with my roommate and I attended zoom session like every week and try to incorporate what are the comments they are giving in my weekly mock test so daily I used to practice that and also for writing I try to write at least a letter and essay daily and post it in the FB group so that people will give me feedback like I was constantly doing all these things and I was not worried about my results that is the most important thing you should stay positive and you should not be worried about the end result you should see only the progress and how far you're exactly the process and also the progress how far you're going to make it so these are the things if you just look at the end result all the time if you're trying to you know if you're focused on a band 7 and you're trying to just get to a band 7 every day you'll never get there because you'll be frustrated every day but if instead of focusing on the result focus on the process which is improving your vocabulary improving your grammar, improving your writing improving all of these different things just focusing on the daily work and then you will look up one day and be like oh I'm at a band 7 it's like if you're swimming if you were swimming from one point to the next and you look up every after every stroke you'll be very frustrated but if you keep your head down then you just get there before you know it you know so that's an excellent advice and also during on your test day you should not worry about whatever you have done in the past or the marks you should give your 100% even if I'm particular in listening if you miss out one question like if you didn't hear what was the answer leave that and move on because you should not panic and you should focus properly so that is the key point and in speaking you should be very natural like you're talking to a person and you should try to put the standardized phrases and the fancy words because that is not going to work out at all because examiner will immediately find out like these are the things that people have already memorized it is very easy for them because they have seen so many people yeah so see someone who got a band-aid didn't use fancy phrases or fancy words I don't know how many times I have to say this but I'm very very proud of you because it's very satisfying for me to give people the advice and then someone takes it and then actually gets the scores that they need because we give a lot of advice in the group free advice but not many people take that advice and actually do the things and the people who do everything that we say they always get the scores that they need and I know we have very high standards and we expect people to work very hard but it's the only way you know there are no tips or tricks or hacks and you know and if you do the work you'll get the scores that you need and thank you so much for sharing that yeah congratulations again and I wish you all the best luck in the future is it Canada you're going to? yeah I'm applying for Canada excellent well good luck in the future and if you need anything in the future always feel free to get in touch I miss all those zoom sessions because I can't attend right now excellent well thank you so much again and thank you for helping everybody who's watching hi everyone Chris here from Isles of Vantage with another success story today we have Alba who recently got a band 8 overall am I correct band 8 overall and she is coming over to Ireland to help us out soon and she has agreed to share her success story with you guys so that you can learn from Alba so Alba can you start off just by introducing yourself to everyone yes well I'm Alba and I'm from Spain and I joined the chorus this Christmas the last Christmas and I just work really hard and go and I went all through all the models that Chris has there complete all of them practice as much as I could as he always advice and it took me three times but I finally did it excellent and can you tell them a little bit about like what scores were you getting before when you tried to get the scores that you needed yes I was pretty close honestly every time because I always got like 7, 7, 7.5 and always the famous 6.5 in the writing that was exactly the same two times in a row and after I got 8, 8, 9, 8 and the 7 in the writing excellent you got band 9 in reading 8 in listening and speaking and the 7 in excellent amazing so when you were going through the course or we were giving you feedback could you identify the reasons why you were struggling or what were the big challenges that you had yes always so I was like focusing just in the key mistakes that they in the feedback I already had and I think that was the key of the of the success because if you have a lot of them as you always say once you raise then your score rise a lot and what were those key challenges that you had in me in my case it was the articles a review and always the third person that I always I was always missing that in the in the writing I don't know why and they were the fossilized ones that you always say in the course and what else and was mainly that and keep it simple because I was always trying to impress the examiner and trying to maybe look fancier or something like that and in the last try I did it really simple and it was when I got the 7 yeah I've noticed that with a lot of dentists and doctors I think it's because you guys have gone through medical school and it is you're dealing with complex things all the time and often especially with the more intelligent the person is the more complex they make everything and it's often they have a fear of writing in a simple way because they're like oh if I write in a simple way I'm going to fail again. Is that how you felt? Sometimes yes because sometimes I have the feeling of if I write in this simple it sounds like a primary school you know but making it more complicated it was always more mistakes always so I just kept it simple and it worked yeah and you mentioned also that you had some mistakes in your articles for example so often what we will see is that the student will use complex ideas and then find it difficult to explain those clearly and then when you combine that with lots of small grammatical errors you read the essay and because it's complex but the grammar isn't the best either it makes it very difficult for the reader to understand if you have clearly answered the question whereas if you write in a primary school way of just like you know this is a very simple obvious answer I think one of the other difficult things is writing your explanations in that way I was working with students today and we had to it was a question about tourism and how tourism increases pollution and then I said you know you have to explain how a car if you turn the car on that creates pollution and the students were like well everybody knows that why do I have to explain that the commoner doesn't know you know that and I think a lot of people fear maybe that's a dentist or a doctor thing as well where they are used to talking to other very intelligent people who just know everything that they're talking about and they find it difficult to explain things in a simple way would you say that well I don't think I am that intelligent or my friends are but maybe maybe yes maybe we try to we take things for granted and if you take things for granted then you are not conveying the meaning because if you say if you are writing a thought that you have and you are trying to convey something but if you didn't explain from where it is coming from you are not doing anything I was at the dentist yesterday with my little boy and he explained in a very simple way there is a hole in your tooth and when you eat sweets the sugar goes into that hole and it makes it go crazy okay okay he is 6 years old but that's like the level of explanation that you need in an IELTS essay just cause and effect exactly if you do this this will happen just read the sentence it was my trick and I asked myself what are you trying to say here what are you trying to convey it really says what you are trying to say or it doesn't make any sense just rewrite the plain in a more simple way exactly you also talked about that you had problems with articles this is a very common problem for most English learners how did you overcome that problem I took the course that you have there it really helped what process did you go through with that course I took the course and after follow your advices of reading a lot and paying attention of the articles that they were following the rules that you said in the course and just practice yeah I think the best writers I know are the best readers they read a lot so you could get a book that you are interested in and while you are reading just notice if it is articles for example every noun that you see look before the noun why did they use the definite article why did they think about what rules apply to this and that will help you while you are reading you will also improve your grammar and vocabulary and your ideas if you are reading each day so that's really really good advice and if you if there was another dentist who was struggling with the same problems as you what advice would you give them I would say keep it simple don't try to to get the IELTS scores if you don't have the level of English that you need for example for Ireland you need a C1 if you don't have a C1 no matter how many courses you take you need to have first the C1 and after learn how to use your level to get the scores absolutely because it's a lot of people think that it's an English test and then other people think that you need just test techniques so it's not like you have a system and you learn the system and you just pass it with the English that requires the band that you are looking for and after learn the system the one that you teach to reach that band with the level that you already have because it's not a course of English it's a course of how to optimize your English for IELTS and at the end of the day it is a communications test because the testing when you move to Ireland is going to be a letter to a patient or an email to your new boss explaining that this thing has happened can you clearly explain that to them and that's another reason why we teach the simple method because when you move if I was your new boss and I asked you why have you done this thing and you send this very complex essay with and I can't understand it you know good communication is just clear and simple as possible exactly, it's a communication test you have to convey always meaning thank you so much Alba you will be moving to a place very close to my brother and about two hours away from me so if you need any advice on moving to Ireland thank you I will need it for sure and it's a wonderful place that you're moving to and I wish you the best of luck thank you very much Chris thank you for all because this is thanks you it's our team and you your team thanks very much