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Hey everyone and welcome back to
the Understandable English 

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Podcast. 
My name is Oliver and today I am

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going to be talking about the 
IELTS examinations. 

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Many of you who use or want to 
use English academically so in 

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in in education or 
professionally will know what 

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IELTS is and what the IELTS 
exams are. 

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But for those of you who don't, 
I will explain. 

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OK, so IELTS stands for so it's 
an acronym for the International

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English Language Testing System.
Wow, quite a mouthful. 

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You can understand why I would 
rather say IELTS and why most 

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people just say IELTS. 
And it is one of the most 

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popular English tests in the 
world. 

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And it looks at your ability to 
communicate in English and 

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measures it across 4 areas. 
So listening, reading, writing 

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and speaking, all of the main 
areas that you need for a 

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language. 
And this examination or result 

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is accepted by thousands of 
universities, employers, so 

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companies and also immigration 
authorities. 

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So if you need a long term visa 
in the UK, Australia or Canada, 

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for example. 
So that is why IELTS is 

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important. 
If you're planning to study at a

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university where courses are 
taught in English, then you'll 

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probably need to take the IELTS 
exam. 

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And like I said, it's important 
for visa applications and even 

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for some jobs in English or jobs
that use English language. 

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Basically, having a good IELT 
score can make it easier for you

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to live, study and work abroad. 
So in this episode I am going to

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talk a little bit about some 
ways to prepare for IELTS, some 

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important bits to focus on and 
quite generally about the exams.

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But first I want to mention kind
of an advertisement or a 

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sponsor. 
So I am partnered with the 

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British Council, which is 
actually the company that runs 

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or administers. 
It's one of the companies that 

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run and administers the IELTS 
exam. 

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And in the description below 
there is a link for their 

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courses and classes that they do
for IELTS. 

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This is great because the 
British Council run the exams 

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and they have very thorough and 
well put together materials and 

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teachers that are fantastic to 
help you prepare to get the best

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result. 
The plans and subscriptions are 

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designed for quite intense short
term learning and there is 

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different levels, there are 
different varieties of plans 

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that you can choose. 
I won't lie, it is quite 

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expensive and I know it's not 
something everyone can do, but I

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do thoroughly recommend it 
because with the plans you can 

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get both private and group 
classes and you get plenty of 

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practice tests including 
speaking practice tests which 

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are fantastic. 
Free webinars and sessions with 

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unlimited access which is 
fantastic. 

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It's a very high quality English
learning for IELTS and probably 

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the best place or way to learn 
IELTS that I can recommend. 

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So if you're interested, do 
click the link in the 

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description. 
I do also benefit from this if 

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you do decide to learn with the 
British Council. 

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I get it supports me as well. 
So thank you. 

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OK, back to our podcast episode.
So as you probably know already,

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IELTS is split into 4 main 
sections. 

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So we have listening, reading, 
writing and speaking. 

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And what I always tell people to
do is to 1st think about the 

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areas that you are strongest 
with. 

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Depending on how long you have 
to prepare for the exam, you 

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will need to pick and focus how 
you organize your time for 

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study. 
For example, for me with foreign

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languages, usually I'm a lot 
better at reading and writing 

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than I am at speaking and 
listening. 

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Sometimes it's the opposite for 
other people, and in this case, 

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it would be wise or smart for me
to put more of my focus into the

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reading and writing, especially 
because they are much bigger 

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sections of the exam in terms of
time. 

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But it's important to understand
the different parts of the exam 

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and how long you have for each. 
So do make sure that you 

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understand and you know which 
areas are probably going to be 

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harder for you. 
So I recommend to practice each 

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section or part separately, so 
to take a day for each, perhaps 

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in the week and focus on a 
different skill related to the 

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IELTS exam. 
And then towards the end of your

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study, closer to the exam, you 
can begin to start doing 

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practice exams together to make 
sure that you have enough time 

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and that you get everything done
on time to start with the 

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writing section. 
So the writing section can be 

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quite tricky, quite difficult, 
and the best thing you can do is

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to practice writing lots of 
essays and reports under timed 

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conditions. 
So you want to time yourself, 

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and the number one way to do 
well on this is to focus on 

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structure and sentence 
structure. 

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Learn lots of sentences and 
structures that you can change 

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and use in the exam. 
In general, the writing section 

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is usually quite formal and 
learning some of these more 

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formal sentence structures can 
really help you. 

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And it can be good to ask maybe 
a native speaker or a teacher to

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look at some of the sentences or
the structures that you have 

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made to make sure that they are 
right and correct before you 

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learn them. 
It also means when you get into 

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the exam, you already know how 
to write a general structure of 

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the essay or report and all you 
need to do is add in the extra 

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details to make it specific and 
relevant. 

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OK so another key point I would 
like to make a note about is the

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speaking section. 
So for the speaking section, it 

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is important to practice 
Outlawed a lot. 

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And I recommend to people to 
record yourself giving a speech,

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maybe on a practice topic, and 
replay this to yourself so you 

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can look for or listen to areas 
that you can improve. 

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And if you can send it to a 
native speaker or a teacher or a

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friend and get their feedback 
too on how you can improve that 

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speech. 
And the final point I'd like to 

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mention is time management. 
Timing is so important in IELTS.

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I have had so many students that
have had problems with timing. 

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They have had great scores on 
the content that they have 

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finished, but they have ended up
with a bad overall score because

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they have not had enough time 
and they've spent too long on 

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one section and not enough on 
the other. 

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So once again, there are so many
ways that you can learn for the 

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IELTS exam and prepare. 
There are official examinations,

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study groups, lots of apps and 
websites, and of course the 

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British Council classes and 
courses that I've linked below. 

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But it's up to you to find your 
own study routine and the best 

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way of learning. 
So that is everything for today.

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I wish you luck on your IELTS 
learning journey if you are 

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learning it or preparing for the
exam and let me know in the 

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comments below. 
And if you have done the IELTS 

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exam or if you will or want to 
do it in the future, thank you 

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for listening and I hope you 
have an amazing day. 

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Goodbye.