IELTS Speaking Band 9 | INCREDIBLE LEVEL + ANALYSIS

good morning my name is Eli house can you please tell me your full name oh gladly my name is Roy Floyd and what should I call you oh just Roy this is Roy he's from Lebanon and has achieved the best IELTS score I've ever seen check this out listening band 9 reading nine writing nine and speaking nine as well he's the first person that I've ever seen get a band 9 in the IELTS writing test and I've certainly have not heard of anyone getting straight lines in all parts of the test crazy by the way stick around until the end because after our mock speaking test I'll be asking him how he got band 9 in IELTS writing spoiler alert he wrote almost 700 words for his task 2 essay okay let's watch Roy okay Roy in this first part I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself let's talk about what you do do you work or are you a student uh no I'm afraid my my student days are behind me um I'm um I'm a teacher I teach the SAT and the IELTS exams and I'm currently working full-time right it's easy to see from the start that Roy has got an exceptionally high level of English I asked Roy do you work or study by the way that's the most common question in the IELTS test he answered I'm afraid my student days are behind me this is a brilliant phrase it means he used to be a student but not anymore his time as a student has passed let's break it down we often use I'm afraid when we want to show regret for something so for example if someone wants your help and you can't help them you might say I'm afraid I can't help you or if someone invites you to a party you might say I'm afraid I can't come to your party now Roy says I'm afraid my student days are behind me if something is behind you it means that those times have passed so someone who has retired might say my days of waking up at 6am to get to work are behind me by the way this is a C2 level idiom so that's band 8 9 vocabulary okay okay you're about to listen to Why Roy chose his job see if you can answer this question which subjects did Roy do well in at school listen to find out and why did you choose this type of job well you know what they say you don't choose the the force or whatever it is the the force chooses you um interestingly I was looking at my old um you know report cards and it says Roy is doing well academically especially English and history and those ended up being my degrees so I've it was just my strengths you know they just guided me towards this profession okay so which subjects did Roy do well in at school the answer is English and history listen again it's interesting I was looking at my old um you know report cards and it says Roy is doing well academically especially English and history now I also asked Roy why did you choose this type of job this is a very common question in part one you might get asked why did you choose this type of job or if you're a student you'll be asked why did you choose this subject the problem is it can be very difficult to answer this question on the spot so have a think about how you would answer this question before you go to do your IELTS test here's some vocabulary to help you always wanted to be a for example I always wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a child or you could say I wanted to follow in my parents footsteps I wanted to follow in my parents footsteps means you've chosen the same profession as your parents so you could say I wanted to follow in my mother's footsteps and become a doctor you could also have an answer like Roy you could say something like well I was always good at English so it seemed natural that I would become a teacher okay for this next part answer the question why does Roy miss being a student have a watch to find out and do you miss being a student yes I do some of my happiest days were as a university student I definitely miss those but I misfeeding off the energy of Professor of the students element Roy says he misses feeding off the energy of the professor and students to feed off something means to gain strength energy or support from something so you can say the singer fed off the crowd's enthusiasm and Applause now here's the next question would Roy like to become a student again Watch to find out do you think you'll ever return to be a student and study something new I think so I think so um currently I'm considering expanding my uh you know honing my skills and expanding my current knowledge base so perhaps taking a uh a Celta is uh you know it's it's on the horizon I'm thinking about it yeah so would Roy like to be a student again yes Roy would like to be a student again he said he would like to do a Celta which is a language teaching certificate do you remember what he said he said doing a Salter is on the horizon so the Horizon is this part here it's the line at the furthest place that you can see now imagine if you were on a boat and you saw land on the horizon it would mean that land was coming so on the horizon means likely to happen in the future you can say something like my IELTS test is on the horizon so I need to work diligently now for this next part answer the question which languages does Roy speak let's move on let's talk about languages what languages do you speak I speak English and Arabic and I also speak a bit of French my French is intermediate at best okay Roy speaks English Arabic and a bit of French okay next question which languages were taught at Roy's school have you ever learned any foreign languages at school no not really apart from these no why not uh good question I don't think the schools I went to I don't remember if they were even offered it's not like I could have taken a Spanish class or an Italian class or whatever and it was you know was my choice it wasn't I think it was just the the curriculum was just not designed for that right that was a trick question he wasn't taught any languages at school he said I don't know if they were even offered do you see the part were offered this is an example of the passive form you take the verb to be and then add the past participle it means that you don't need to say the subject of the sentence so instead of my school didn't offer language classes you can say language classes weren't offered instead of saying my parents didn't buy me presents you can say I wasn't bought presents okay now when you watch the next part answer this question is it harder for children or adults to learn a foreign language let's see what Roy has got to say do you think it's difficult to learn a new language oh yeah oh yeah definitely regardless of who you are but especially if you're an adult it's it's especially challenging I think physiologically it's challenging right as your your mind is your brain actually is no longer growing so it's very hard to assimilate all that new knowledge even if you have time and no stress uh but let's be you know let's be honest here you know which adult does not have you know a lot of time and no stress so add all of those together right uh Little Time Life stress and physiological changes right and it there's in my mind there's no doubt it's an uphill battle for sure okay Roy thinks it's harder for adults to learn English because of physiological factors that adults brains aren't growing and also because they have less time and more stress now because of all of these factors Roy describes learning a new language as an uphill battle if something is an uphill battle it is very difficult and a complete struggle so you could say starting her own business was proving to be an uphill battle or preparing for the IELTS test alone is an uphill battle by the way if you want some help with your IELTS test check out all of my IELTS courses I have eight different IELTS courses loads of model essays and a ton of PDFs to help you get your desired score members of English Pro tips have been able to achieve Way Beyond their desired band score and are now working in countries like Canada Australia and the UK you can start for free at englishprotips.com anyway on with the lesson in the next part find out why doesn't Roy want to learn a new language and would you like to learn any new languages in the future I mean three languages under my belt I feel is is enough um I already speak the world's For Better or Worse you know the world's lingua Franca which is English obviously so for me you know I can read almost any book I can research online I can go to any website I can watch any movie play any video game communicate with almost anyone using this language for me again for better or worse there's no incentive for me to you know go out of my way and learn a new language Roy said he doesn't want to learn any new languages because he already has three languages under his belt which means he has already learned three languages if something is under your belt then you have already achieved learned or obtained something so for example you could say basic computer skills are a good thing to have under your belt meaning it's a good thing to learn basic computer skills by the way that's also C2 level vocabulary so band 8 9. now Roy also mentions that he already speaks the world's lingua Franca lingufanko describes a language used for communication between groups so for example if there is a Spanish person that speaks Spanish and English and an Indian person who speaks Hindi and English then they will have to communicate in English it's their shared language that they both speak this shared language is called a lingua Franca Freud says I already speak the word lingua Franca which is English obviously okay so for the next part try to answer this question which classes did Roy find easy to stay focused in let's move on let's talk about concentration when you were a child could you stay focused in class at school well well the short answer to that is it depends right or let's say it depended uh some teachers were great some features sucked uh there were some uh you know some some subjects I absolutely love like as I've mentioned you know before English and history you know I have always been you know near and dear to my heart uh math physics chemistry regardless of the teacher now you can you can bribe me with you know 20 lollipops to stay focused in those right I was just lost I mean I don't care how Pythagoras has proved that two isosceles triangles are the same just get a damn protractor and you know put it there and you'll know if the angles are equal or not just leave me alone you know so yeah the short answer is again it just depended so Roy found it easy to stay focused in English and history classes he says English and history have always been near and dear to my heart now if something is near and dear to your heart it means that it's very personally and emotionally important so you could say music has always been near and dear to my heart or my children's paintings are near and dear to my heart now when it came to math physics and chemistry Roy says you couldn't bribe me with 20 lollipops to stay focused in those classes so even if you gave Roy well when he was a child that is even if you gave him 20 lollipops he wouldn't stay focused in those classes he just didn't like them now for the next part answer this question what does Roy do to stop himself from getting distracted by his phone and um what do you do nowadays to help you concentrate that's a good question uh what do I do now to help me concentrate mostly remove distractions so if I have something serious um I put my phones on silent and put them out of Arm's Reach doesn't have to be in the next room or something but just so I can't grab him uh easily and quickly so that that is basically that's basically it otherwise if I really have something I need to do just uh oh another thing I suppose is leaving it till the very end so I'm not encouraging procrastination here but uh you know by procrastinating and having a deadline Loom over you that usually that alone is motivation enough Roy said I put my phones on silent and put them out of Arm's Reach now if something is within arms or reach it means that you can easily reach it without moving too much so if it's out of Arm's Reach it means it can't be easily reached so for example when my baby niece comes to visit I make sure that all the sharp items in the apartment are out of Arm's Reach okay for the next question answer this what kinds of tasks does Roy prioritize let's have a look and when is it that you find that you need to be focused urgent things right unfortunately I I I'm not going to claim I have the discipline to you know focus on things that are important but not urgent right so urgent and important or urgent usually get the uh the Lion's Share of the focus Rory says urgent and important or urgent tasks usually get the Lion's Share of the focus have you heard this idiom before to have or to get the Lion's Share it means to have the largest part or most of something for example you could say I spend the Lion's Share of my salary on traveling which means that traveling is your biggest expense or I spend the Lion Share of my time with my children which means that you spend most of your time with your kids we'll now listen to Roy's part two in this part you have to speak about a topic for two minutes now Roy will be talking about a book that he read recently listen carefully and find out why would some people be discouraged from reading this book all right we're going to move on to part two and this part I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes before you talk you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say and you can make some notes if you wish do you understand yes all right remember you have one to two minutes for this so don't worry if I stop you I'll tell you when the time is up can you start speaking now please yes so the book I recently recently read is called fittingly how to read a book and it was about a uh well the title is pretty self-explanatory okay uh who wrote the book it was a philosopher named Mortimer J Adler he's an American fellow who was an American philosopher and he was the editor of the famous Britannica Encyclopedia in the 50s and 60s I believe so the book yeah the book is is you know uh is divided into four parts right the basic part these the second part is how to scan sort of get an idea of the book for you actually delve into it the third part is how to analyze the book and the fourth part is about going beyond the book and comparing two books right so these two authors spoke about the same topic where do they differ where do they agree uh where do you come in that's like the ultimate um yeah the ultimate reading uh method uh why do I want to read it a second time I want to read a second talk is that it's a pretty it's a pretty dense book right it's not one of those books you read once you put away right uh you have to read it you have to chew it you have to you know regurgitate it you have to summarize it you have to think first make sure that you know the Bedrock is there um and then and most importantly you actually have to put it in practice it's not one of those books that you read go ah okay yeah I get it okay no you have to actually um you know get those two books and try that exercise right see okay what do I think where do they agree where do they disagree and go on this wonderful intellectual Journey it's a difficult book uh It Was Written first in 1940 then revised in 1972 so it was written in very formal English which put a lot of people off unfortunately but otherwise it took a yes thank you well that was a very impressive part too did you see that Roy just kept on talking until I asked him to stop that's a great thing to do in part two you don't have a clock or anything so you should just keep on speaking until the examiner asks you to stop now did you hear why Roy thinks that some people would be discouraged from reading this book it was quite tricky he said It Was Written in very formal English which put a lot of people off so the language in the book is very formal and potentially difficult to read now the phrase over put off is very useful it means to discourage someone from doing something so you could say I wanted to do the IELTS test but I was put off by The Prize or I wanted to study in Scotland but I'm put off by the weather by the way it rains a lot here in Scotland now at the end of part two the examiner might ask you a follow-up question this will be a simple question with a yes or no answer if the examiner asks you one of these questions in your IELTS test just give a short answer now I asked Roy whether he would recommend this book listen and find out who Roy has recommended the book to um have you recommended this book to other people I recommended it to anyone who would listen yeah okay so Royal would recommend this book to anyone who would listen so basically anyone we're now going to move on to part three in this part The Examiner will ask you questions about your opinions on topics related to well whatever your topic was in part two listen to this part and answer the question why are humans the dominant species and not Lions this is a tricky question so listen carefully to what Roy has got to say good luck so we've been talking about a book that you would like to read for a second time and I'd like to discuss with you several more questions related to this let's consider first of all um children and reading do you think that we should encourage children to read oh absolutely I think we should encourage children to do anything that gets them off of those damn screens but you know but uh oh definitely I mean reading for me is is you know it it's for me it's what makes us humans right it's what makes us human period um we got to where we were because we can build on previous knowledge right a lion who gets shot by a hunter cannot teach the next generation of lions to hide in the grass and not attack someone with a rifle right and that's why they're not in control of the planet For Better or Worse right but we are in control because we can build this knowledge and get our imagination running right and have conversations with long dead people one-sided conversations but conversations nonetheless all right this was a tricky question why are humans the dominant species and not Lions well Roy said we got to where we were because we can build on previous knowledge so because we can learn from the past through books for example we're able to make better decisions in the present and that's what makes us the dominant species Roy used the example of how a lion can't teach other Lions not to attack someone with a rifle and that's why they can't make the same or rather that's why they can make the same mistake again and again right for the next part answer this question why is reading better than other modes of communication for spreading information another tricky question good luck there are other ways to um to give that information for example through spoken word or visually through things like documentaries what makes books so important in this regard true I would not disagree with that right I would not disagree with that and as we know most of our of the information giving right for lack of a better term was done orally right I mean writing is a it's like 7 000 year old invention right so definitely nothing against the spoken word right definitely nothing against the visual word but not visual word the visual representation of knowledge right via theater or plays or YouTube videos or documentaries or any of that nothing against that uh why reading specifically I would say because you are in control of the pace right if someone is speaking you're under their Mercy for lack of a better term right when you're watching a documentary you can sure you can pause right and fast forward and all that but it's different when you have a book you're in control of of the pace so if something is easy or you've seen it before they're talking about an experiment right that you've seen before you can read it quickly then they talk about something new you can go back to reading it slowly you can take notes right right on the page you can look up vocab words that you don't know right you don't have that option or those options when you're reading watching videos okay so Roy thinks that reading is especially good for spreading information because with reading you are in control of the pace so Pace means the speed as Roy mentions you can always stop reading to analyze information or re-read sections of a book again and again so that's why Roy thinks books are especially useful now for the next part answer this question why is it important to read two children so but if if the primary reason for books to be read is though so we can gather and digest new information why is it important to read to children because a lot of children's books don't necessarily have knowledge to be digested or perhaps they do yeah I mean obviously it depends on the book um for me there is usually always a lesson somewhere right at least the books I was reading or I yeah nobody used to read to me but I think I started reading from an early age there was always a moral right somewhere uh hidden and for children I think uh forget about the lessons per se um for me it's about building the habit right if you read to them at night they will associate reading with love care um you name it right so it's about that habit building and again in the case of children just by learning new words even if there's no you know moral or lesson behind them because they're young um any new word for them is is a plus so why is it important to read to Children Well Roy says if you read to them at night they will associate reading with love and care so children will connect love and care with reading if their parents read to them at night by the way this is an example of the first conditional if plus the present simple and then will and then the infinitive we use it when we're communicating future consequences so for example you could say if you watch this video you will learn some useful vocabulary or if you stop watching now you won't you won't learn how Roy got band 9 in IELTS writing by the way that's coming up after the mock test for this next part try to answer this question who banned books in medieval times now let's move on let's talk a bit about the power of books now some people consider certain books throughout history or even nowadays to be considered a dangerous why do you think that is I think that is because of the people in power this is what it comes down to uh you know um as far as I'm concerned right the only reason so always institutions in power and why would they ban books because it goes against their their interests their vested interests right either they speak against Authority um or they teach you I don't know how to be you know how to live off grid or something right all of these don't don't help the people in power right so who banned books in medieval times Roy said the church listen again well who bans books right people in power in medieval time it was the church right modern times it's uh governments okay that was a tricky one to get right as Roy speaks at a fast pace for the final question answer this does Roy think books should be banned so yeah do you think it's right the book should be banned absolutely not right absolutely right an idea should should be free to run wild and and and be explored right no one should be I mean unless the idea is you know related to something almost every sane non-sociopathic person agrees is wrong right such as murder okay or how to create a bomb or something like that right something that damages but I'm I don't mean something like that I mean an idea idea there are an idea for a different political system or different economic system right um or a different way of you know dealing with the resources we have or the environment I think all of these should be given free reign until proven wrong but it shouldn't be decided by some you know pencil Pusher somewhere right living in a secluded Ivory Tower right who you know who's whose best interest it is that they stay in power I.E the people who usually make those decisions I don't think it should be left to them wow what an IELTS test so no Roy doesn't think books should be banned now this was an incredibly impressive IELTS test I can totally see why Roy got band 9 in his real test now Roy didn't just get band 9 in iel speaking he got nine in writing reading and listening as well if you're interested in hearing his tips for the different parts of the test keep watching Roy has got a lot of great ideas that he'd like to share with you all right thank you very much that is the end of the speaking test thank you right wonderful so Roy how I mean so yeah obviously a very very strong band nine um incredible that you've got Bar Nine in speaking before band 9 and reading band 9 listening and band 9 and writing as well what was your experience doing this speaking test and how does it compare to your real IELTS speaking test well I I can say you're you're truly a a wonderful human being um your energy is so positive um you know it's hard to say in isolation I mean if I had you as an actual examiner would I have been a bit more nervous right um I don't know I don't know you know it's it's a hypothetical thing um I think a bit no not because of you but because of the you know more is at stake right but overall um again I've done these so many times I've done them four times officially um and I've done them you know as mock setups with students that uh no I'm I've you know I felt pretty yeah so you've got uh band nine in IELTS speaking before um when you're doing a test like our mock test just there what kind of things are you are you thinking about or being conscious of in order to to get those high scores um I try as much as I can to form complex sentences right I.E by adding something like however or that having been said or despite right though I think those are what the what the examiners are looking for at least partially and the other thing is try to use a mix of vocab right so leaning more toward the formal the academic but also getting in something that shows that um you know you're fine with colloquialism as well like I use the word damn for instance right when we were doing the uh the speaking test it you know I mean ultimately what is this test meant to to gauge right it's not your intelligence it's not your right it's if you were put in a normal English setting how well would you do right what is the extent that you can communicate ultimately in my mind this is what a band 9876 whatever shows right so for me at least to show The Examiner that I have that right that it's not only academic stuff I can talk about I I try to use you know a wide range of vocab going from colloquial to football as much as I can yeah I think you do that very naturally and appropriately so for example I would say that your register became more academic and more formal as the exam went on and that's because in part one you're being asked personal questions and about your experiences so if you were to answer too academically it would kind of strike me as a little bit odd however three of the exam we're talking about more abstract Notions like should books be banned if you were to answer in a very colloquial friendly term about such a serious matter it would also seem odd so the examiner is going to kind of guide you and test your ability to talk within those spheres by through the questions that they ask you whether it's personal part one questions or more abstract part three questions and then of course the kind of Storytelling ability in part two which you did very well did you find it hard to talk for two minutes in part two or do you have any techniques or tips that allow you to really expand on your story and answer um I personally no uh I didn't find it hard in fact I there was one thing I I neglected to mention which is how did you come across the book which I didn't have time to go over um uh so no for me it's not a challenge for me it's not a challenge as what happened with us was exactly what happened in my during my last speaking test which is that the examiner had to shut me up at some point you know he had to tell me that's enough you're two minutes are up you know what happened yeah that's a that's a good thing because what the examiner wants to to write down when they're evaluating you is that you can speak at length like you could just keep going you could talk for two hours if you wanted to and then so the examiner can say can speak with ease at length and I know that because they were still talking I had to shut them up so that's that's a great position to be in so I often tell my students you know in part two just keep on talking and then eventually The Examiner is going to put their hand out and say you know thank you very much and they're going to ask a follow-up question yeah and I'd like to also just talk about the fact that you said you didn't complete all of the um bullet points in your part two topic because sometimes students ask um do you have to answer the bullet points now what you did is you did it naturally you didn't ignore a bullet point you were going to get onto it but you didn't have time so that shows that you were on topic but that you didn't get through you didn't have enough time to go through all the bullet points that's great that's totally fine the alternative which is why I think some students try to do is they ignore a bullet point or they slightly change the topic in order to fit with something they feel more comfortable speaking about when they do that the examiner if they realize that is going to be lowering their score because that shows an inability to talk about unfamiliar topics but there's a difference between what you did which is I just didn't have enough time to talk about the bullet point and there's what some students do which is I can't talk about that but the point I'm going to change my answer so what you did great what other students sometimes do not so great right right no thanks for the tip these are these are nuggets to uh you know to grab onto and then remember yeah and in part three um I asked you a lot of very difficult um abstract questions oh in my mind they were difficult when you started answering them you made them seem almost as though they were very simple Concepts like the idea of banning books and who's in power and what does reading mean and kind of be replaced with other other media um how do you feel and what tips would you give for for answering those kind of abstract questions sure I was lucky because again yeah remember I'm a teacher you know as well so you chose something that's up my alley right be it reading in part two and then you built on that right and these are things I have already thought about right and these were things that had already pissed me off right before right so I wanted to you know I wanted to buy uh sapiens uh which is harari's new book The the big hit right sapiens and you know the story of our of our evolutionary story basically in a book and it was bad in Lebanon I'm like guys really we're still Banning the fear of evolution here I mean give me a break guys give me a break okay and so so I remember so it was still you know poignant and then when my in my mind so I would say I was lucky now what I would tips I would give and this is what I usually um tell my students is uh first of all what I tell them is try to speak for 45 seconds right try to aim for 45 seconds for part three right um your answer needs to be fleshed out okay uh you can stick to one point of view but if you can try to give the other point of view it will you know it will show The Examiner that you're not you know maybe not narrow I mean at the end of the day the examiners I'm assessing you know whether you're narrow-minded or not right it's a linguistic assessment but if you can show both both points of view right you will have shown that um you know you haven't just memorized answers perhaps right or you're just regurgitating something that you've heard but you're actually coming up with with stuff on the spot and I think that you know that would get you more points whether that's right or not yeah please you can tell yeah I totally agree I think when a student does that and which what and it's what you did they're showing higher order thinking skills and they're showing critical thinking skills as well because they're saying well there's this opinion however some people disagree and the interesting thing is when people and students do that they're also actually going to use a lot of interesting discourse markers so they're going to say however on the other hand or um despite this argument being you know use the word poignant there are others that believe this and so they're going to win on all fronts they're going to show higher order thinking skills like critical thinking skills and they're also going to use a wider range of discourse markers and grammatical structures in order to convey their opinions and opinions of others and uh sometimes I suggest students that they use it um what's called an ree method which is they respond to the question so maybe a short response and then so that's the r and then e is elaborate where they explain their idea a bit more and then the final e is example where they give an example of what they're talking about and you did that um and especially when we were just talking how you were talking about why you think books should not be banned um you were so you gave a short answer that you elaborated on why and then you gave the example of sapiens being banned in Lebanon so great that shows a very developed full answer which can help you get high score now you got a band 9 in IELTS writing as well you were actually the first person I've ever met that's got nine and IELTS writing so I've I've got a lot of questions for you and the question is um how long was your task to essay my task to essay was 696 words wow so yeah bearing in mind the it says write more than 250 words so almost three times that yeah I took that with a grain of salt right you can yeah minimum is 250. you can write more if you wish to yeah I definitely took that with a grain of salt yeah you're right to do that and sometimes I see teachers telling their students to only go 10 above but I think they're inventing that myth because you know you're a perfect example you've got bad nine in IELTS writing and you wrote did you say 690 words 96 I remember yeah 662 almost 700 words right right and um and tell me a bit about what was in that essay was it um lots of ideas or were you trying to really develop your ideas or was that huge introduction or a huge conclusion how did you structure your essay okay I'm gonna do my best here to remember okay um I'm going to do here my my best to remember because it was almost two years ago I did that in January of 2022 so it's been a year and a half okay uh what I remember was and yeah and here okay so I'm gonna go into a bit of teacher mode here as well as you know my own experience so this is what I did and this is what I teach don't write the introduction first obviously it comes first right and that's another reason why I encourage students to take the computer-based exam not the paper-based exam okay so take the computer one especially if writing is a struggle and for most people it is right and then don't write your introduction first write your body paragraphs first because you may change your thesis right you may change your thesis as you're writing as new ideas come up also your introduction needs to mention what you're going to talk about in order isn't it so let's say you start with okay whatever I'm going to talk about the social aspect then the economic aspect then the political aspect but as you get to the political aspect you realize whoa whoa whoa wait wait wait I need to start with the political because the economic and the social stem from the political right so make sure everything's in order right make sure your body paragraphs are organized fleshed out you have all the ideas because sometimes when you write new ideas pop up right so yeah so this is this is my first piece of advice and this is what I did so I wrote and wrote and wrote um and then I wrote the introduction and then finally you write the conclusion um I love that you're dividing your essay logically by you said the you know the economical the social the political um examiners love that because you know not only are your essays well organized but the general structure of your essay is organized as well you're saying well here's an argument that falls within the political sphere here's an argument that falls within the economic sphere and you can also introduce those arguments in that way so you can say something like from an economic perspective from a social political point of view and those phrases are just like gold mines for examiners exactly they give you a thread to follow right you know what you're looking at right what lens to put on absolutely absolutely um what else my second P yeah my second piece of advice is and this is all I really remember from the essay which is don't be redundant right don't be Superfluous don't repeat what you've already said just to flesh it out so I can say that what I wrote was all new material so I was either supporting a thesis right or an argument or whatever it was or writing new information new examples but I never repeated the same thing to get to that word count and I think that's very important right if you're just repeating in different words that doesn't that doesn't really uh help um my third tip would be if you try to convince obviously it depends on the the type of essay you get right if it's Advantage or disadvantage is fine but usually you're trying to make an argument if you try to convince you know if you try to argue for both sides you'll end up convincing no one so try to you know have the confidence to stick to your guns so to speak right that having been said don't be afraid to have a counter argument and flesh out the counter argument I think the answer I got that's what I did right I put look the counter I think it was um do you think public libraries are still useful should they be shut down why or why not something like that right so I did a whole generous counter argument right the people who are against this this is what they say right they have solid points but these are my points and ultimately my argument is convincing because right so build up a great counter argument then break it down make sure I'm so excited that you're saying that because that's an essay structure that I teach on my writing course um I call it the the 70 30 plus rebuttal structure and I've also got YouTube videos on that essay structure and I actually only recommend it for students that can get at least band seven because it is a very complex structure to use and to do convincingly so if you're a level five student it's not the right one for you but in your case it's a great one because you're a quick and intelligent writer and you've already got the English to be getting above band seven quite a bit above band seven and so I call that the 70 30 plus rebuttal where exactly like you said you you you create a kind of artificial argument for the opposing view and then you say why you don't agree with that is that right is that what you did absolutely absolutely brilliant yeah great technique great technique um and lastly my final tip would be don't forget your grammar right there's still you know there's an entire band dedicated to grammar right so show The Examiner you do you know how to use not just you know comma period comma period comma period right get a semicolon in there yeah get a colon in there get an M Dash in there um use the passive voice appropriately so really know your grammar know the uses of the passive voice and use it at least once appropriately use an advanced tense right had been going right had been asking path perfect progressive future perfect progressive present perfect um try to use those as well um Advanced sentences so use a mix I had a stiff can I can I tell the story about a student very quickly I had taught a student how to use uh compound complex sentences and he he got it okay he did well they were correct so he thought that by using compound complex sentences I would impress The Examiner so almost every sentence he wrote became compound complex so he would have a paragraph made up of two sentences like a legit paragraph like five six lines right so he thought why should I use simple sentences now I know to use compound complex sentences let me use them you know a bit too liberally so you know his writing became unnecessarily dense and convoluted and you know just difficult to follow so don't do what that student did okay don't do that and did he get a lower score than he was anticipating yes he did not do so hard on the IELTS he did not do so then he switched to another standardized test uh for Australia but uh which was easier which was to be told but um so I imagine one thing the examiner is is looking at at that stage is is is it easy to understand what's being said and if it's not easy to understand what's being said then that's going to lower your score for um task achievement or task response and also coherence and cohesion right um so even if you think you're doing better grammatically and you may well be doing better grammatically because you're using a more advanced structure you're also lowering your task achievement and your coherence and cohesion because what you're writing is so incredibly dense and very difficult to understand so it's a bit of a balancing act I always think the first priority should be communication and then you should use those Advanced structures because they allow you to communicate more complex ideas absolutely which is what you did perfectly for example um throughout the test but particularly in part three right with a speaking Point yeah yeah you know I would definitely agree um the third time I took the exam I got 999 8.5 on writing and yes by the way thank you but I did the opposite of what you did which was I showed that I can use Advanced grammar right here is a prepositional phrase acting as an adjective here is a professional phrase you know so I really wanted to like teacher mode okay yeah I got an 8.5 which is a good score but I did not get a nine the second time around I did what you you just said which is get what you want to say out there now if you have time go ahead and polish it combine what you can combine right use a more accurate more advanced term if you you know if it's appropriate and if you have time right but I definitely agree I mean the scores reflected that right the second time I didn't Focus so much on grammar got the ideas out wrote a lot yeah my grammar ended up being less Advanced still Advanced but less Advanced yeah and that made the Half Point difference now if you're writing an essay that's 700 words long are you do you have time at the end of writing task two and task one to check your writing before the end of the exam yeah oh definitely I I yeah please if any of any prospective students are listening to this okay please leave at least at least two minutes to go back and edit and to edit and proofread okay yeah even you know people like us who you know in in Eli's case it says native tongue in my case it's my first language and I teach it okay even even if you're at this stage um you need to go back and check right you may have heard it in your mind but you know Mr preposition or missed an article uh or simply misspelled right um yeah definitely leave to I would say two to four minutes depending on how long it is in my case I gave myself a good uh either four or five minutes to go back and tighten and polish everything that I had written because it was long if you've written the normal 252 7 I think two minutes is enough but do leave that time yeah for sure yeah and and that's also another point for you doing the computer-based IELTS test right because it's easier to go back and edit just delete something add something in it's not the same as if you've written by pen or pencil absolutely absolutely not to talk about you know the handwriting issue you may have written my handwriting isn't great for instance especially if I'm writing Under Pressure right uh time pressure I mean so yeah that's why I always tell students you know just go for the computer you know you can change you can edit you don't have to worry about handwriting all of it yeah now you also got band nine for reading do you think you could explain some of your tips some of your methodology some of your preparation even for the reading text in my case this is going to sound uh I don't know this is gonna sound but in my case no I a I finished with I think 25 minutes to spare so I did it almost half the time which is a good time for students okay because also many of my students who are not teachers right whose English is not their first language many of them tell me you know I finished with five minutes to spare or ten minutes to spare which is nice I mean it's comforting that's what I mean um I there are no for me at least there were I did not prepare it was just you know I read naturally I've expanded my vocab meticulously right um I look up every word I don't understand I write it in the margins so I've done my homework prior to the exam right you've been preparing for you know 33 years that's right exactly okay but I do I have tips yeah I mean for for the you know the chunks of paragraphs I always tell my students call it what you will call it a summary call it a heading call it a title you name it but you should be able to with practice say three things whom or what are we talking about right so whom or what is this paragraph about what aspect right and why why did the author write this right is it to anticipate a counter argument explain right um whatever illustrate Give an example you must be aware of you know the role this paragraph is playing in that large chain of text right and ideally you should not exceed seven words ideally you should not exceed seven words so just write okay this is about so so if you're taking the computer one they still give you you know three pieces of paper that have your username and password to go from section to section so you can use those as uh you know to write um summaries on I think I think this is very important it protects you from you know it protects your mind from wandering right all of us have have right all of us have been through this where you read a page and you stop and you go whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa you know the the symbols the letters were exchanged but the meaning wasn't right so you don't want that on the on the exam so stopping after every paragraph protects you from this brain fart moment right where your mind wanders and you have no idea what you're what you're talking about so if you don't understand you can cut it short right you can you can cut it you know at the root and no okay well I don't understand this paragraph I can't go on because I didn't understand so what was your structure then would you um glance at the questions and then immediately turn to the passage read through the passage I presume quite quickly but also paying attention to those three things you mentioned the who the purpose and what was the other one so homo what are we talking about what aspect and why the significance okay yeah and so and so would you do that and then go and start answering the questions individually well what was your what was your structure for the reading personally I don't do that I just again because I actually don't read that quickly I read it about my normal pace and I still have and I still had all that time so that's why I tell my if I can do it with half an hour remaining you can do it with 20 minutes remaining or 15 minutes remaining right you're I'm not I don't read a double your speed so I personally don't stop and Summarize each and every paragraph it's something I you know tell my you know ask my students to do um I just read at my normal right I soak everything in I don't read the answers before I read the text questions yeah sorry I don't read the questions I apologize I don't read the questions before I read the text okay read the text give it its due I know a lot of teachers say ah just read the intro and conclusion and then just read the first and last sentence of every paragraph and you should be fine I'm not a fan of that technique right um especially for the IELTS where again they are generous with the time that they give you to read the SAT is a bit different right or it was at least before they changed it but for the IELTS you have time there's no need to rush right so use that read the text make sure you know what's going on and then answer the questions so Roy you got band nine in IELTS listening how did you do that um how did I do that again natural exposure through my daily life right so through my daily life I have I've exposed or have been exposed to a different accent so this is what I tell my students who's who you know English is not their their thing right listen to things you're interested in podcasts YouTube videos whatever and try to get exposed to as many different accents as possible prioritizing the British accent the class the well more specifically the the neutral English accent which is you know the southern uh part of of the country right at the end of the day this is an exam done by British people so naturally their advice toward their own culture so most of what you're going to hear is going to be in a standardized English accent that having been said they're they're probably going to Pepper it with uh North American accents so make sure you're familiar with a standard American Canadian accent and very occasionally you'll hear you know an Irish accent or a New Zealand accent or Australian accent um you know making its way in so prioritize so I would say 70 of what you listen to to to prepare should be uh you know UK uh 20 should be North American 10 should be Oceanic so New Zealand and Australia right get used to the accent you don't want to go to the exam and go like what the heck I've never heard someone say vitamin before well you know get get used to that yeah yeah you know um one thing I recommend to students is by doing a lot of the listening tests from the Cambridge IELTS practice test book um they'll end up hearing some of those same actors in their real exam and so you know not only have they got used to that particular accent they've actually got used to that particular accent it's that exact speaker that's now doing the reading for their actual exam and so that's that's very useful absolutely that was something I I didn't yeah that was not on my radar so thank you thanks for sharing that yeah so you're listening to the specific idiosyncrasies of that specific accent from us from a specific person yeah exactly from that specific person yeah so um so what tips would you give to people kind of like a more more holistically um right before preparing for the IELTS exam whether it's kind of lifestyle choices um preparation time periods or um or even just managing stress okay um I would say yeah for managing stress I mean be be disciplined and be uh reasonable don't put unreasonable expectations on yourself a lot of you know I have I have A2 B1 students who come up to me and they're like yeah my dad said I can I can do this in three months and I'm like no you can't okay so yeah be willing to listen to people who know what it is they're talking about right if they tell you you need a thousand hours you need a thousand hours right don't don't take it that oh they just want to make money that's why they're telling me all right most of those 300 hours or whatever they are right depending on where you are on the band um they will be on your own right they'll be you doing exercises on your own or you reading on your own you're listening on your own right so a lot in my experience at least a lot of people have unreasonable time frames that I can do this in a month or two or three when in fact their English is too weak for them to actually do that right so be reasonable uh be reasonable give yourself some nice good breathing room um the second thing is for writing and speaking don't do it so don't do the speaking with just anyone and with writing don't show it to just anyone okay if you can't afford a teacher at the very least try to give it to someone who's at least one level ahead of you so let them be B2 if you're B1 or C1 if you're B2 and so on right otherwise you may not be doing yourself a favor right they may tell you yeah this is great you know uh common mistakes are things like people has I don't know why many students you know non-native students they they think of people as singular right so if someone's on the same level and they didn't detect that for instance right it might so you know solidify that and you may not feel a need to change it so you have to be very careful when you're studying alone with speaking and writing usually you will need a professional for reading and listening you can get away with just you know just the general tips and strategies and the rest you can really do on your own if you're disciplined enough right if you're disciplined enough listen to stuff right make sure what you're listening to is by native speakers so don't go you know listening to makeup videos by a Russian speaker speaking English right you're you know you may end up mispronouncing things or Worse right you may make syntactical errors because she or he whatever says something so many times it starts to sound normal to you right um so make sure you're choosing native speakers for your podcast YouTube Etc right yeah I totally agree with that I mean I I lived in Spain for many years and I realized that when I left Spain um do an error no longer sounded that bad to me or do a mistake instead of make a mistake and I thought oh my goodness that's it's because I've had that mistake made so many times um that now like do a mistake almost sounds like it could be correct and you know it was only after really I like had to kind of recalibrate myself to identify okay when we say make a mistake not do a mistake that's fine but you know that's that's a direct interference from Spanish absolutely and one one thing I'd like to comment on is um how important what you said about showing your essays and doing your speaking practice with professionals is imagine if you'd taken your 697 word essay to someone that wasn't experienced and believed this myth that you shouldn't go beyond 270 words or 275 words they would have probably given you a low score and deterred you away from writing such a large essay and you know you might have Come Away with a band seven a band 7.5 maybe even a band eight and you feel happy potentially with that but by really pushing yourself and writing such a comprehensive long Essay with you know expanded ideas you've got band nine so that you know that shows how important it is that you really need to be in the right hands absolutely absolutely especially for writing and speaking Yeah yeah definitely I mean this is where one shouldn't skip right you shouldn't you shouldn't try to be a cheapskate when it comes to these things writing and speaking you need someone qualified to give you feedback otherwise it's very hard to approve on your own very hard now if students want to get in contact with you for example for writing for speaking what's the best way for them to get in contact with you um email I would say email would be uh would be the the best way I check my email every day right yeah so I'll put that in the description below this video then very nice of you thank you so much thank you so much um thank you very much for coming on this was a hugely impressive speaking test and it's been such a delight to discuss all aspects of the IELTS exam a big thank you to URI thank you you I first of all thank you for having me and second of all I cannot tell you how much I I enjoyed this genuine pleasure thank you so much thank you [Music]

Channel: English Pro Tips - IELTS Preparation

Views: 13,240

Keywords:

Id: RG3HP789Iz0

Length: 63min 41sec (3821 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 18 2023