0:03

Welcome to my IELTS classroom,

0:06

the podcast where two English experts

0:08

talk all things IELTS. I'm

0:10

Shelley Cornick. And I'm Nick Long. And

0:12

today, Nick and I answer all

0:15

of your IELTS questions. Should

0:17

you use linking words in speaking part 2?

0:21

Who actually gives you your speaking

0:23

scores in the speaking exam? And

0:25

what should you do if you have got problems

0:27

with timing in IELTS writing?

0:31

Good afternoon, Nick. How are you?

0:33

Not too bad. Thank you very much. I'm very

0:35

sleep deprived today, unfortunately,

0:38

but I'm feeling all right. What

0:40

has kept you awake this time, Nicholas?

0:42

The heat, unfortunately. Oh, really? Yeah,

0:45

very, very warm. It was weird, though, because

0:47

I couldn't sleep in the bedroom. It was

0:49

too hot. Windows were open. And

0:52

then I went into the living room on the sofa, opened

0:54

the big patio door, like the French door.

0:57

And when I woke up, it was absolutely freezing.

1:00

Was it? Yeah. And

1:03

you woke up because you were too cold? Yeah, just a bit of a

1:05

nightmare all around, really.

1:07

I'm going on my summer

1:10

holiday. So my trip to New York was, we're

1:12

going to say postponed, not cancelled, but

1:15

I have a trip to Galway this weekend or

1:17

this week. It was supposed to be four

1:19

days. But because

1:21

I'm flying to a tiny town called Knock.

1:23

Who's there?

1:25

I mean, I'm going to have to do some knock-knock jokes. Right. Knock-knock.

1:28

Who's there? Me! Because

1:31

it's such a tiny airport, there's not enough

1:33

people for the plane

1:36

home to fly, essentially.

1:38

So it got cancelled. So I should have come back on

1:41

Sunday, but instead I'm coming back next Thursday.

1:44

So it is a much,

1:47

much longer holiday than I was planning.

1:49

However, but what I'm laughing at was I

1:51

was like, oh, but you know, it's good. I'm going on a summer holiday.

1:54

And you know, on those Ryanair

1:55

flights, you can only take a really small suitcase.

1:58

I was thinking, oh, it'll be fine. mine because,

2:00

you know, it's summer, sorts and t-shirts.

2:04

At some point yesterday, I thought, oh, I better check

2:06

what the temperature is going to be. So

2:08

this is the west coast of Ireland.

2:10

So it's next to the Atlantic Ocean.

2:12

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. Yeah. 17

2:14

degrees of rain every day. So suddenly

2:17

in my head, I was like, I don't need

2:19

a plan. I'm just going to be outside in the sun.

2:21

It's on the beach. Nope. So

2:24

my new plan is just Guinness, Nick. That's

2:27

what it's going to be. It's like a tip top plan. It

2:30

does, doesn't it? Exactly. So

2:32

I was in two

2:35

minds about today's episode. On the one hand,

2:37

I had already planned and ready to go the

2:39

listening lesson

2:42

that we discussed last week from Cambridge 18.

2:44

That is still going to happen. However,

2:47

I don't know, this week, I have just

2:49

received loads and loads and loads

2:52

of emails with students asking me

2:55

just a huge range of

2:57

questions about the IELTS exam. And

2:59

it sort of made me think it's been absolutely

3:02

ages since we did an IELTS Q&A.

3:04

In fact, I can't remember. I mean, it's been what,

3:06

a couple of years, I reckon. It's

3:10

been a very long time, I think, since we've

3:12

done a proper Q&A. Yeah. And

3:14

what I thought was, you know, I think

3:17

in the first couple of times that we did those,

3:20

we looked at some of the more basic kind of questions.

3:23

The sort of questions about, I don't know, the procedure

3:25

of the exam, things like

3:27

that. What I've got today, well, to be

3:30

honest, it is just a representation

3:33

of the smorgasbord, the

3:35

range of questions which I get sent

3:38

in a week. You know, whenever anyone signs up for

3:40

our newsletter, I always say, if you've

3:42

got a particular problem area, if you've got

3:45

any question about IELTS, email me.

3:49

And people do, Nick. And on the one hand, I love

3:51

it. But on the other hand, it can be a little bit overwhelming.

3:53

So I thought what I would do today is we'd have

3:56

a look at some of these questions just because I think

3:58

the answers could be useful.

3:59

for everybody. Yeah. Also

4:03

to show people, if you have got a question,

4:05

you know,

4:06

email us, we are always, well,

4:09

I'm always willing to answer

4:12

questions. All I would ask is try and

4:14

keep your question as direct as possible.

4:18

I had a question this week, which was 800 words, Nick. Oh

4:20

my.

4:22

I mean, that's more like a novel really, isn't

4:24

it? Than a question. So try and keep them

4:26

like to the point if you can, just for my mental

4:28

health. Also, I

4:31

try and reply to every question, you

4:33

know, within one or two days, but

4:35

I have to prioritize our subscribers,

4:38

our students, because, you know, we always answer

4:40

those questions. So if you do email

4:43

me at hello at my IELTSclassroom.com

4:46

and you don't hear an immediate answer,

4:48

trust me, your question is not lost.

4:51

It will be answered.

4:53

It just depends on how much marking I've got that

4:56

day. That's it. All

4:58

right. So I

5:00

haven't shown you these, Nick. I think they're quite a good mix.

5:02

Okay. And I

5:05

just thought it might be a little bit of fun. I'm

5:07

in the holiday spirit. So

5:10

let's share our knowledge and share

5:12

the love. So Nick, if

5:14

you want, I mean, today you could do different

5:17

voices because each of these letters is from

5:19

a different person,

5:20

but

5:23

why don't you have a read of the

5:25

first one? Hello, Shelley.

5:28

How are you doing? Good. Shelley,

5:32

is it possible that a question from part two

5:34

might be asked several times? You

5:37

gave us a list of possible questions for part

5:39

two, and my friend had the question about

5:42

a recent film he was disappointed about.

5:44

I mean, should I cross such

5:47

questions or

5:49

is there a chance I'll be asked one of

5:51

them? So I

5:53

think they mean, should I cross out that

5:55

question? Or maybe come across. Oh.

6:00

Well, yes, maybe cross out. Yeah, you're right.

6:02

Maybe cross out on text. Mm-hmm. Yeah,

6:04

so what I recently did was and

6:08

Actually, I might try and send

6:10

this out as a newsletter this Sunday So if you

6:12

subscribe to our newsletter, I will

6:14

make an effort to see if I can actually send

6:17

one It's been a few months, but I've

6:19

spent the last few weeks I think when did the

6:21

so let's start from beginning there were two exam

6:24

packs aren't there of questions there's

6:26

pack a and pack B and The

6:29

examiner is given one of the packs and in each

6:31

pack there are I don't know how many part

6:34

one questions 12 maybe

6:36

I'm not sure Something

6:39

like that there are definitely in each pack 25

6:41

cue card questions and

6:44

then 25 sets of part three questions Which

6:46

are connected to the cue cards. So

6:49

there are two packs of questions and those

6:51

questions are rotated I think

6:53

it's every four months So I

6:56

think every format month one pack

6:59

is retired. Mm-hmm and replaced

7:01

by a new pack So each

7:03

pack I think is in circulation

7:05

for something like eight months and

7:07

then it gets retired

7:09

But they're alternating. So I think April and

7:11

September are the times

7:13

when the packs change Something

7:16

like that. So the point is is

7:18

that over time? Because

7:21

the same 25 or 50 topics

7:23

at one time are being asked

7:25

again and again and again

7:27

You know what students are like they share information

7:29

don't they they share the

7:31

topics they were given There's a great

7:33

website which is based in China That

7:36

I use to try and harvest

7:39

the current exam topics and I've

7:41

recently just finished the new ones It's

7:43

taking me a month. So I have put that

7:45

document It's up in our coffee

7:47

point for our subscribers, but I will try and send

7:49

it out this week Again,

7:52

it's not really cheating because there are 50 topics.

7:55

It would be absolutely impossible

7:57

I think for a student to prepare

7:59

or memory Oh, that would be

8:01

a terrible idea, wouldn't it? Well, if

8:04

you're memorizing, you're

8:06

failing, essentially, right? But

8:08

as we know, there are some kind of strange cue card

8:10

topics, aren't there? Yeah, sometimes there are, yeah. I

8:13

can't think of a really strange one that's in the current

8:15

ones. Oh, I think there's that, describe

8:17

a water sport

8:18

you would like to try. That

8:20

card's back. I remember one recently, I think it

8:22

was maybe

8:24

about a year ago, there was that, describe a friend who

8:27

wears strange clothes or something

8:29

like that, which was a bit odd, wasn't it?

8:31

Nick, that is the example that I always use

8:33

when I'm telling people, be aware of strange

8:35

cue cards, right? So, if

8:37

you can get your hands on the current cue

8:40

card topics, I don't think it's cheating because

8:42

there are so many of them, but it just gives you

8:44

a little bit of a heads up just to

8:46

think, what would you talk about for each

8:48

of the cue cards, right?

8:51

As I think this is Laila's question, as Laila

8:53

said, one of the current questions is a recent

8:56

film that he was disappointed about. So,

8:58

a film you've seen that you were disappointed

9:00

by or something like that. So,

9:02

I guess the question is, Nick, if her friend

9:05

had that card in, I'm

9:07

guessing, in her local test centre,

9:10

does that mean then that she will not

9:12

get that card

9:12

in her future exam? Well, based

9:15

on what you've just said, she's got a one in fifty

9:17

chance of getting it. Exactly.

9:19

Two percent. So, it's unlikely, very

9:21

unlikely that you'll get that one. It's

9:23

unlikely you'll get it, but you've

9:26

got no more or less chance of getting

9:28

that card again than

9:30

your friend did that first time because I guess,

9:33

I think it would be quite unusual for an examiner

9:35

to use the same cue card on the

9:37

same test day because

9:39

students could leave the exam,

9:42

tell the people who were waiting, that

9:44

would be unfair. But if

9:47

somebody comes out of the exam, one

9:49

or two

9:50

people in front of you and says,

9:53

oh, I was asked to describe my favourite

9:55

cafe, it's going to be pretty unlikely

9:57

you get that particular

9:58

cue card. Yeah, I don't

10:01

think the examiners repeat them on

10:03

the same day. However, if you're going

10:05

on a new day at the new test center, the

10:07

pack begins again. It's

10:09

up to the examiner which cue card topics

10:12

they choose for you. So, as you

10:14

know, there might be some that some examiners prefer,

10:16

so they might use them again or some they don't use.

10:19

I don't think they're really supposed to do that. I think it should be

10:22

more blind. But my answer

10:24

is no, do not cross out that

10:26

question. There is still a chance you'll

10:29

be asked it, but as Nick has just said, it's a 2% chance.

10:32

Which

10:32

is about the same chance as me going

10:35

out for a run this evening. So, very, very

10:37

low. We should say as well that

10:39

even if you're using the Cambridge IELTS books to

10:42

prepare and to practice,

10:44

a lot of the part two questions or

10:46

topics that are in those books could

10:49

be used in the exam today. The word

10:51

in might be slightly different, but the

10:53

general idea is recycled.

10:55

They're

10:57

all recycled really, aren't they? Quite often. Exactly.

11:01

Exactly. So, in a way, it's

11:04

often minor, minor changes, isn't

11:06

it? So, you've got a lot of questions about

11:09

car journeys, for example. So, a

11:11

difficult, it might be one time a difficult

11:13

car journey. Then it might be a car journey

11:15

when you were a child. Then it might be a long

11:18

car journey. It's all car journeys

11:20

at the end of the day. So, yes, so,

11:22

you know, don't worry too much. The part

11:25

two topics are designed for anybody

11:27

to be able to talk about really. So, although

11:30

I'm not

11:31

going to lie, as you said, Nick, some

11:33

of them ask you to describe someone who wears strange

11:35

clothes.

11:39

Yeah, I mean, there's an element of luck, but most

11:41

of the time, whatever

11:44

cue card you get, it's

11:46

just more, it's really, you should have an equal

11:48

opportunity of speaking. And that's all that matters really,

11:51

is that you are able to keep speaking, show

11:53

the examiner your language. Now,

11:55

Leila's asked a second question. So, do you

11:58

want to ask this one as well?

11:59

Also,

12:01

my English teacher always tells me,

12:05

Leila, use linking

12:07

words. It's the

12:09

second speaking part, so you must use

12:11

them more. I actually use them,

12:13

but rarely. And consequently, I start to blame

12:16

myself the same feeling when I

12:18

remember some cool related topic words only

12:20

after finishing my speech. Are

12:22

they extremely important?

12:25

I do think Nick, you should get a job

12:27

as some sort of voiceover man. Very

12:30

good. I particularly like the Leila.

12:33

Okay, so that's interesting. So I see

12:36

this is, you know, sometimes I think if I

12:38

went to the reading exam tomorrow, I

12:41

would do quite poorly because I get so

12:43

many letters. I don't read them carefully enough. I

12:45

didn't actually realize that Leila

12:47

was specifically asking about speaking

12:50

part two then.

12:51

So what would you say?

12:54

Would you say, what was her actual

12:56

question? Are linking words extremely

12:58

important? So why don't we do in general and

13:01

in speaking part two? What would you say to

13:03

that? I

13:05

would say linking words,

13:07

if you're aiming for a seven, which

13:11

Leila is, I don't

13:13

think they're that important, to be honest.

13:16

If you're aiming for something higher, then yes,

13:19

they are important, but not

13:21

every single type of linking word, I would

13:24

say.

13:25

Right, so what would be sort of the

13:28

things that we are looking for more than

13:30

others? Or what would be a good example?

13:32

I remember, I think

13:35

I told you this story. I had a group of students from

13:38

a town in Lithuania.

13:40

And they'd all had the same teacher

13:42

in the same school in Lithuania. And

13:45

every single one of them, when we were doing

13:47

part two practice and part one as

13:49

well of speaking, we're using things

13:51

like moreover and furthermore

13:54

and stuff like that, because their teacher

13:56

said, you must use linking words

13:58

between your sentences. and they are

14:01

very good examples of the wrong

14:03

type of linking words because part one and

14:06

part two, it's informal

14:08

questions in part one, it's an informal

14:11

discussion, a speech in

14:14

part two, and they are completely inappropriate.

14:16

And actually, a couple of them, I

14:18

said to them, your fluency

14:20

is good enough for a seven.

14:22

But because you've used these words

14:25

inappropriately throughout the first

14:27

and second part,

14:28

sorry, that's only going to be a six

14:31

for fluency because you've completely destroyed,

14:33

because one of the bullet points, I can't remember exactly what

14:36

it says, but

14:37

it's... I think it's like use cohesive devices.

14:39

Cohesive devices, that's it, yeah. Yeah.

14:42

Yeah, I mean, I think you're absolutely right, Nick. So, you know, I

14:44

think it depends exactly that on what

14:47

you are using as linking words.

14:49

In a strange

14:51

way, I agree with Nick and I would say,

14:55

good linking words are sort of invisible, aren't

14:58

they? So, you almost don't notice

15:00

them when they use well, but you

15:02

do notice them when, you know, as students use them

15:04

inappropriately. Exactly. So, I would

15:06

honestly say, Leila, you know, if you're focusing on telling

15:09

a story, which is what we tend to do in part

15:11

two, and you've kind of like put

15:13

that story together so it

15:15

sort of flows, you're probably naturally

15:17

using linking expressions anyway,

15:20

even if it's simple things like, you know, and then we did

15:23

this and after that, and I couldn't believe

15:25

it, you know,

15:25

things, I would say, you know,

15:28

and then if you want to go beyond that, we did

15:30

a, now we did a podcast. Comment adverbs.

15:33

Yes, and I think I have named

15:35

it really badly. Right,

15:38

so I didn't name it

15:40

discourse markers, which would be helpful

15:42

for anybody looking for it. I've named it Fluency

15:45

and Coherence Explained. So,

15:47

it's the podcast episode, how

15:50

will the examiner score your IELTS speaking,

15:52

fluency and coherence? So,

15:55

if you're interested in what discourse markers are or

15:57

how you can sort of

15:59

link.

15:59

your ideas together in a more natural

16:02

way than those terrible transition

16:04

signals. Go and have a look at that. I've

16:06

actually got the full blog post there, so you

16:09

could just read it or you can listen to Nick

16:11

and I demonstrate it. That's about it.

16:13

Yeah, but I think you're absolutely right, Nick. I think it

16:15

depends on what you're using and it

16:17

would be better to not have those

16:19

than it would to have

16:21

those. Brilliant. Okay, so

16:23

they were Leila's questions. That gives you a little bit

16:25

of an idea of the, you know, one sort of flavour

16:28

of questions which we get. Why

16:30

don't we move on to the

16:31

next one? Good evening, Shelley Cornick.

16:34

Thank you. Good evening. Hope you are doing great.

16:37

I am. Please. I want

16:39

to verify an important information.

16:42

I passed my IELTS in February 2021 and Plab 2 this

16:47

month. Can I still use

16:50

the IELTS result for my GMC registration

16:52

within the next three months? Thanks

16:54

and regards, Chima.

16:56

So, this

16:59

is obviously a very, very different

17:01

type of question, isn't it, Nick? Right, so this

17:03

is, you know, this is an

17:05

admin question, right? So, you

17:08

know, the very, very, very basics is

17:11

any IELTS certificate, it doesn't matter what you're using

17:13

it for,

17:14

is valid for two years. Two years.

17:16

Yeah, two years from the

17:18

date you sit the exam. Right.

17:21

So, if this student took their test

17:23

in February 2021. They

17:26

will need to take another test. It's

17:28

now out of date. Yeah. Exactly.

17:31

So, for anybody who's not a doctor,

17:33

Plab 1 and Plab 2, they are the

17:36

medical, I

17:38

guess they're kind of sort of tests that you need

17:40

to take if you want to come and work

17:42

for the NHS in the UK. Yeah.

17:45

They're basically verifying your medical knowledge.

17:47

So, you need your IELTS to show

17:49

your English and then you do your Plab 1

17:51

and your Plab 2 to show that you

17:53

actually are

17:54

qualified to be a doctor. There's

17:57

other sort of things some doctors need to do.

17:59

they don't have any

18:03

practical experiences, or if they didn't have

18:05

as part of their degree, they then have to

18:07

come over and take part in the NHS

18:09

Foundation. That means they need a 7.5 in

18:12

every area. So

18:15

that's difficult. But for IELTS,

18:17

for GMC registration through

18:19

Plab, you just need a seven in

18:21

every area. So

18:24

the first thing I would say is to anybody who's

18:27

got a question about GMC registration,

18:29

honestly, I am not the best person to

18:31

ask.

18:32

I can tell you public

18:34

information,

18:35

but if you

18:37

are trying to register with any professional

18:40

body, so the GMC, if you're

18:42

a pharmacist, if you're a nurse, I

18:45

would always contact the governing body directly

18:48

to ask them. Now, what I do know

18:50

is that, although the IELTS certificate

18:53

is only valid for two years old,

18:56

and also, by the way, if you're doing Plab, we

19:00

spoke at, I don't know when, but the one skill

19:02

retake,

19:04

they don't accept that. Ooh. That's

19:07

unfortunate. That's only for nurses, right? If

19:09

the nurses are allowed a

19:12

lower score, and they

19:14

can get a 6.5 in writing, and they can

19:16

combine two different tests. Two certificates.

19:19

Yeah, but

19:21

to be a doctor, you can't combine,

19:23

which means you therefore can't do the IELTS

19:25

one take. However, there is something

19:28

on the GMC website which says,

19:30

if it says, your IELTS certificate

19:32

is more than two years old, and then

19:34

it says, if you achieved our minimum scores more

19:37

than two years ago, and the certificate

19:39

meets all of our other criteria, i.e.

19:41

you've got seven in

19:42

each one, and a 7.5 overall, we

19:45

may consider additional

19:47

evidence that demonstrates how you can prove

19:49

you have kept your English skills up to date. So

19:52

you can do this by, so you have to submit your test

19:54

report on your IELTS certificate, and

19:57

then you could give a reference

19:59

from a tutor

19:59

or a lecturer of a postgraduate course.

20:03

So if you've done, I don't know, some masters

20:05

in some clinical,

20:07

well actually like, Nour, the student

20:09

we interviewed, lovely

20:12

Nour, I was hopefully gonna see her next week actually,

20:14

but I don't know if that's gonna happen now. Anyway,

20:18

she did a master's degree in cosmetics,

20:21

in like cosmetics, not cosmetics like

20:23

makeup, but like procedures on your face for

20:25

sort of like skin problems. If

20:28

she then wanted to go on

20:30

and do her Plab after that, she would

20:32

be able to because she'd done a master's degree. So

20:34

she just needed a letter from her tutor. Or

20:37

if you've been employed by someone who

20:39

is based in a country where English is the

20:42

first and native language.

20:44

So if you've been working in the UK or in Australia.

20:47

South Africa, Australia, New Zealand,

20:49

Canada. And

20:51

you have to do that and it says, all references submitted

20:54

for consideration must cover at least three

20:56

months full-time study or employment

20:58

within the last two years. So you can't have done,

21:00

I don't know, a six week course

21:03

in something. It's gotta be a minimum of three months. So,

21:05

you

21:07

know, like always, you can

21:09

probably go directly to the websites to get

21:11

this sort of information. You know, I will always

21:13

answer and do my best, but what

21:16

I would say is, you know,

21:17

if you can email somebody and you can demonstrate

21:20

in your email that you have got a high

21:22

level of English, you put a nice email

21:25

together and you may be explaining, you know, I did it, but

21:27

there's been COVID. I wonder

21:29

if there might be some flexibility.

21:31

But I

21:33

have no idea. The only way you will find that

21:35

out is by actually contacting GMC. So,

21:39

you know, this is not just for Cheema. The reason I've included

21:41

this one is just, yes, I can help you

21:44

answer these sort of admin questions. But

21:48

I don't think I'm necessarily the best person

21:51

to ask. I think I'm better for

21:54

more teaching questions. But the next

21:57

one might be something that's a little bit in the middle. So

22:01

why don't we have a little read of this next one. The

22:03

next one says, hey Shelly, how are you doing? So

22:07

I've taken my exam two days ago and received

22:09

my score this morning. I went in without

22:12

enough practice so I'm not quite surprised

22:14

with the result. However, I still am praying

22:17

for a 0.5 increase in writing

22:19

with EOR. So I'm

22:21

going to interrupt you then Nick. So

22:23

this student is one of

22:25

those students who is going for the NHS

22:28

Foundation and needs a 7.5 in everything. So

22:31

they've got a 9 in listening, an 8.5 in reading,

22:33

a 7 in writing and a 7.5 in speaking.

22:38

So

22:40

the only one they've missed

22:42

is writing by 0.5. So

22:46

I asked around and some suggested

22:48

that applying for a remark in both writing and speaking,

22:51

even though I already got the required band score

22:54

of 7.5 for speaking, I guess that is,

22:56

would sort of grant me an increase in the lowest

22:59

score of them, which is writing. Others however,

23:01

advise me to only remark writing and

23:03

tell them I was expecting an 8. What would

23:05

you suggest?

23:07

Are you allowed to tell them what you were expecting?

23:10

I don't know. I don't think you are

23:12

because everyone's, everyone but 9. No,

23:16

I don't think there's any way you can say what you, I

23:18

mean, you could put that in the email that

23:20

you send the test centre, but I do not think

23:22

that would make

23:23

any difference. Thanks in advance

23:25

from Rowan. Yeah. So,

23:28

you know, obviously it's difficult if you're aiming

23:31

for 7.5 in all bands to get all

23:33

of that on the same day. It's difficult,

23:35

obviously. So, you

23:37

know, if you're that close, I

23:40

think this is actually an interesting question. So the

23:42

question is, should she remark

23:45

the, she saying, should I just

23:47

remark writing or

23:49

should I remark writing

23:51

and speaking because

23:55

speaking is higher. So then they're going to go, oh,

23:57

the speaking is okay, but come on, we'll

23:59

bump.

23:59

up the 0.5. So

24:02

let's start with that. Do you think that there's

24:04

any truth in that if you're applied

24:06

for two? No, I don't think that would be any consideration whatsoever.

24:08

No. Yeah. If they remark your

24:10

writing, I would assume that they're not even going

24:13

to look at your speaking score. Just look at your

24:15

essay and your report.

24:17

Yeah. Well, I would

24:19

imagine there would be two examiners

24:21

who would remark your writing. I still think they would

24:23

do separate task one, task

24:25

two scores by two different examiners.

24:28

And then someone completely different would listen

24:31

to the recording of your speaking and

24:33

give you a speaking mark. And they would have

24:35

absolutely no idea what the other

24:38

one or two examiners was doing. Yeah.

24:41

So in terms of

24:44

your, I mean, this is a myth I had not

24:46

heard before, Nick, which is why I liked it. So

24:48

in terms of the myth that if you

24:50

apply for a remark for everything, at least

24:53

one thing will get moved. I think that's complete

24:56

nonsense. Yeah, that's not fair. I don't think that's fair whatsoever.

24:59

No, however, I

25:01

actually do think that she should ask

25:04

for a remark of writing and speaking

25:06

if she's going to ask for a remark at all. Can

25:09

you guess why that might be?

25:10

Because it's the same price, probably.

25:13

So it's the same price and

25:15

there's no negative remarking, right?

25:17

So your scores can't go down. It's

25:21

very expensive to ask for a remark. The

25:23

remark cost varies per

25:26

country. Remember someone in Canada

25:28

told me it was something, honestly, it was something like $200. It

25:31

was almost the same price as a new exam. So in this case,

25:33

I would say, you know,

25:39

the risk of a remark

25:41

is that if your score does not get changed,

25:43

you have to pay that money. If

25:45

it does get changed, you get a refund.

25:49

I know this student, she's a very, very

25:51

strong speaker. I

25:53

actually think an 8 for speaking

25:55

wouldn't be out of the question. Yeah,

25:58

I agree. Yeah, I think she could. definitely

26:00

going to. So the reason I

26:02

would ask for both is you've then got two

26:04

chances of the score being increased to

26:07

get your refund. So

26:09

you know refund if it does get increased. If

26:12

it gets increased you get your money back.

26:14

I see. Yes.

26:17

So for that reason only I would

26:19

put remark everything. I mean the chances

26:21

I mean I mean a reading and listening is not going

26:23

to change but you know for

26:25

anybody out there even if you only need a change

26:28

in one put everything down because

26:30

I mean really it's only writing and speaking

26:32

that

26:32

are likely to change because reading

26:35

and listening that answers are black and white. But

26:37

if you do that you've

26:39

given yourself at least another chance of getting

26:41

that refund. Is

26:43

there a sort of time limit

26:46

on when you can apply for an EOR? Oh

26:48

yeah there is. I think it is six

26:50

weeks after your test date. Okay so it's quite a long

26:52

time after. I've got another suggestion. Yeah.

26:55

Because I know Rowan's in the UK. Yes.

26:58

So she should apply for a breakdown

27:00

of results. Yeah. Because

27:03

that's in the data protection in the

27:05

UK isn't it. They're allowed they have to do that by law. And

27:08

then I would have a look at how

27:10

you did in each of the bans in task one

27:13

and

27:13

task two and if there

27:15

is a six anywhere which

27:18

they're making think about what that

27:20

might be

27:22

because that would suggest that

27:24

there is a fundamental error with either your

27:26

report or your essay and it might not be

27:28

worth applying for an EOR and wasting

27:30

that money and instead using it to take

27:32

the exam again. I

27:34

think that's a really really good suggestion particularly

27:37

if you've got I don't know let's say

27:39

that you get it back in your report you've got

27:41

a five for task achievement.

27:44

You've probably missed something in that

27:46

question. You didn't understand the chart. You might

27:48

have thought you did something.

27:50

I think you're absolutely right Nick. So you know if everything comes

27:52

back 777 7777 that

27:55

probably shows everything's pretty good and has a

27:58

chance of going up.

27:59

Exactly. Oh yeah, you're definitely

28:01

right there. So yeah, so that

28:03

what we're talking about now is not so the EOR

28:06

is what you apply for for like the if when

28:08

you're saying, Hey, I want another examiner

28:10

to look at this. That's why you have to

28:12

pay because somebody is now somebody's job to

28:15

remark. If you apply for the

28:17

breakdown of results, go

28:19

to our website, go to the

28:22

blog, general advice,

28:24

you'll see it's a black,

28:26

it's got a black thumbnail with a little pie

28:28

chart, breakdown of results. That's something

28:31

you can apply for, which is Nick said,

28:33

it's a loophole in the

28:34

privacy laws, the internet privacy laws

28:36

where they are legally obliged

28:39

to tell you the scores in the individual things.

28:41

So it's not going to change, nothing's going to change.

28:44

But you'll see what you got exactly.

28:46

Yeah. And then you'll know, is it

28:48

worth spending that money? Or

28:51

do you just want to save it and do it

28:53

again and do it again? Yeah. Fantastic.

28:57

Okay, cool. All

28:59

right, Nick, let's do, let's do the next

29:01

question. Okay. This

29:04

is from Yousef, right?

29:06

Yeah. So he says, I write very

29:08

good essays for the task 2 question. I constantly

29:10

saw score 7, but the problem is

29:12

that I usually overtake the recommended time,

29:14

which is 40 minutes. I usually take 42 to 47 minutes.

29:17

So I leave very short

29:19

time for the report. For the report question,

29:22

that is why when I submit my task to be evaluated,

29:25

I usually find that my report

29:27

estimated score is 6.5, not 7, like

29:29

my essay. My house exam is in less than

29:31

two weeks. So I want your advice, whether you

29:33

recommend that I start writing the

29:35

report

29:36

so that I guarantee that

29:38

it will be a band 7 level. And then I moved

29:40

to the essay, or should I do the opposite? My

29:42

goal is to score a 7 in writing. That's why I'm

29:44

asking this question, because I know that to guarantee

29:47

a band 7 in writing, you

29:49

should guarantee that your score is a 7 in

29:51

both of the tasks, because no one knows

29:53

how the writing score is marked, as you mentioned,

29:55

in your free ebook.

29:58

Well done, Yousef. you always say, oh

30:00

yeah, I wrote an ebook. I spend times forget about

30:02

that. Right, so now

30:06

this is the shortened version of Joseph's

30:08

question, which was really, really. This was the 800

30:10

word one, yeah. This was the 800 word question. But

30:13

I mean, I kind of, I mean,

30:15

it is a useful question, isn't it? It is. I

30:17

guess it is. If you know

30:19

that your

30:21

report is not as good because

30:24

you spend too much

30:26

time on this. Don't quite have enough time on, yeah,

30:28

for it. What should you do? Should

30:30

you switch to the report? Should you stick?

30:33

I mean, what would you say, Nick? Well,

30:35

I would say, you got two weeks.

30:41

So you want to practice writing an essay in 40 minutes,

30:44

three or four times. That's

30:46

what I think. Yeah, so that

30:48

you don't go over in the exam. Because

30:51

if you do, you're not going to have time to write

30:53

the report. Yeah. I

30:56

mean, if Joseph

30:58

was getting a 7.5 or an eight for

31:01

his essay, I would say, well, don't worry about

31:03

the 6.5. Because even though we don't actually

31:05

know how the

31:06

scores are combined. The essay is worth more,

31:08

isn't it? It's worth two thirds. If you

31:10

were getting 7.5, you're essay, and 6.5,

31:12

you report, you're going to get the seven that

31:15

you need, definitely. Because

31:18

you do need a seven, I actually still

31:20

think probably if you're getting a seven and a 6.5, you

31:23

are very,

31:23

very likely. To get a seven overall.

31:26

Yeah, but I'm just

31:28

using that based on my experience and my intuition and

31:30

my feeling. There is no official statement

31:35

that that is the case. So what I would

31:37

say is, unfortunately, to get a seven

31:39

in both, you have to be able to write both

31:42

to a seven. And if you think that the

31:44

issue

31:46

with your report is just because

31:48

you don't have enough time, it's not because

31:51

you're not spotting the key features, or you're not summarizing

31:54

or comparing. If you just think it's because you don't

31:56

have enough time, then

31:58

I've, well, my...

31:59

answer to this was you need

32:02

to make sure that you have enough time

32:05

because I actually think, you know,

32:08

if Joseph switched to starting

32:10

with the report and

32:12

took more time and then he didn't

32:14

finish the

32:16

essay and

32:19

got, you know, a 6.5 for the essay

32:21

and a 7 for the report has

32:23

got much less chance of getting a server overall

32:26

than a 7 for the essay and a 6.5 for

32:28

the report. So I think you're doing the right thing, but

32:31

you know, 42 to 47 minutes,

32:33

that's quite a big

32:36

difference in time, isn't it? Like that's five

32:38

minutes is a lot.

32:41

We've got a couple of students that I'm working with at the

32:43

minute who I'm trying to sort of, you

32:46

know,

32:47

teach. I think that, you know, as a teacher, the first thing

32:49

you want people to be able to do is

32:51

whatever you're teaching, you want them to be able to do

32:54

it correctly, right? So you want to know that,

32:56

you know, if you're teaching swimming, the

32:58

person can actually swim, right? If

33:00

we're trying to teach students to get to a band 7, I

33:03

want to make sure they can actually write an

33:05

essay that is a band 7, right? They've

33:07

got the idea and the feeling of

33:09

how to structure it, how to argue

33:11

correctly, how to do all of those things.

33:17

And then once they can do it, once we know

33:19

you can do it, then you can start speeding

33:21

up and doing it more quickly. I think

33:23

Joseph is at that

33:24

stage. You know, I think

33:27

what he needs to do now is if you know

33:29

that you're getting a 7, you know what to do, you've

33:31

got to be able to do that in the time

33:33

limit. It might mean you reduce your

33:36

arguments a little bit.

33:37

You leave a sentence out of a body

33:40

paragraph, which doesn't actually add much value.

33:42

Or you,

33:44

you know, spend more time planning

33:46

so that you spend less time actually writing

33:49

the essay.

33:50

Yeah, you need to experiment. I

33:52

think ages ago, god, I

33:55

mean, three years ago, it might even just be a blog post.

33:57

I wrote something about, you know, how to

33:59

consider your

35:57

So

36:00

let's pause here, Nick, and

36:02

then we will come back next week

36:04

with part two. Until then, take care. Bye-bye.

36:07

Bye.

36:13

My IELTS Classroom podcast is a

36:15

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36:17

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36:18

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36:21

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36:24

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36:36

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