Transcription
[Music] welcome to aehelp.com's ielts test preparation videos. you will now see a candidate from tunisia score an amazing band 9 with a medical mask on. the ielts speaking interview is done in face masks during the covid pandemic. after the interview, i will explain strategies and tips to follow so that you can get those high band scores even wearing an uncomfortable face mask. again, for this lesson, we have partnered with cambly, a world-class app that lets you connect with a professional native english speaking tutor anywhere, anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. cambly has been generous enough to give this discount code to save ten percent. this also means that you will get four months for free when you join for a 12-month plan. students who sign up for a 3 or 12-month plan can get a refund for any classes that they do not use. cambly is the right place to start to improve your communication and english for the speaking interview of the ielts exam. now, watch and learn.
welcome to the speaking section of the ielts exam. my name is adrian. i will be your examiner for this part of the test, and i'm going to record this for marking purposes. may i see your identification?
yes, this is my passport that i used to register. please take a look.
thank you. and what is your full name?
my given name is rememy, but please call me rima.
okay, rima. here is your passport back. for part one, i will ask you a couple of questions to get to know you better and some questions on a general topic. what do you do for fun?
for entertainment, i like to socialize and meet my friends. last night, i had a great conversation over dinner with my friend hansa.
who do you like to spend your time with?
i like to spend my free time with my family and friends. i feel comfortable around them, and i can be myself.
let's talk about your traveling. how often do you travel away from your city?
before the pandemic, i used to go outside of tunis at least once a month, either to visit relatives or to go sightseeing around tunisia or abroad. but nowadays, i'm mostly staying local.
where do you like to go on vacation?
for vacation, i like to go abroad. i like exploring new cultures and seeing the diversity of new places. last year, i was in greece, and it was a unique and beautiful place.
when is the best time to travel for you?
um, i think the best time to travel is during summer or spring. i get time off from school, and the weather is very nice. last year, as i said, i went to greece in july. but this is mostly true when there isn't a pandemic.
what is your favorite way to travel?
i like traveling by car when i'm going locally. it's comfortable. i can put music, and i can stop wherever i want. but if i'm going further away, like further away places in tunisia, i like to take the airplane because it's fast and convenient.
have you ever traveled to another country?
yes, as i said, i've been to greece. i've also been around europe and some places in africa and the middle east. i am fortunate because my, since i was a child, my family goes abroad at least once a year. both my parents love to travel and explore.
if you could visit any place on earth, where would you go?
okay, that's a tough question because there are tons of places i would like to go to. but if i get to choose to go anywhere, i think i would go to antarctica. it's remote and difficult to access, but i heard it's very beautiful, and snow and ice are rare sights for me.
that is the end of part one. now for part two, here is a card with some questions. don't turn that over yet. here's some note paper and a pencil. you will have one minute to look at the questions on the card, think about your answers, and then you will have two minutes to speak. you can take notes in the one minute if you wish. i will tell you when to start, when to stop. your one minute preparation time begins now. go ahead. turn over the card, rima.
your one minute preparation time is up. please begin speaking.
yes, definitely. the most important choice that i had to make in my life is to choose where to go for my post-secondary education, i mean, university. i had to choose between studying in my hometown, tunis, in tunis business school in business studies, or to go to columbia university in the usa. so, both decisions have their advantages and disadvantages. if i chose to study at the university of tunis, i would be close to home and close to my friends and family. i would also, life would also be cheaper since i would not have any rent or other costs, and i would definitely be able to fit in with the school culture since i'm a local. however, if i choose to study in the us, that would mean that it would cost much more money, plus i would definitely have some culture shock, and i would get homesick, and i would miss my family and friends. but if i choose to study at columbia university and do business studies and later do an mba, that would have a huge impact on my life. since learning native american english while studying would arguably have a is a vital asset because english is the language of business. plus, i would have new friends and new connections, and that is very valuable for me later in the future. after weighing the options, i decided to go with columbia university. i think it is the right choice to make, but only time will tell. i, i'm both nervous and excited because it would have a deciding, deciding factor on my future.
okay, i'm going to stop you there. your time is up. so please pass back the paper and the questions.
yes, thank you.
the note paper and the pencil also. please pass that back.
yeah, yeah. thank you.
and now i will ask you some more questions for part three, related to the topic of part two. let's talk about life-changing situations. what are the most common planned situations when people's lives change drastically?
i think that the most common, uh, situations where people's lives change is, as i said, education, career goals, and marriage.
is this common to all cultures?
yes, because whether you are in tunisia, brazil, france, or china, you're most likely to make these decisions, these personal decisions by yourself.
can you explain?
yes, most school expectations and system, school systems are the same in every country. teenagers are expected to go to school, go to university, graduate, and get a job, and then get married.
what are unplanned circumstances that can suddenly change a person's life?
there are certainly unplanned situations that people have no control over, such as the loss of a loved one, an accident, a car accident, for example, or simply winning the lottery.
are these always positive or negative?
it can be both. people get surprised by good news, like expecting to have a child, but in other cases, it can be negative.
what is good advice for people to keep in mind if they feel that their lives have turned for the worse?
i think the most important notion to remember is that life changes. there are ups and downs, and it is important to remember the good times when the going is rough.
can you elaborate? give some details in that.
yes, if someone loses a loved one, say a father, it's saddening, but it is also good to remember the good times that they shared with their father so that he or she would live on, um, his memory and children.
let's talk about making big decisions. which steps are important to consider when making big decisions in order to reach the best possible outcomes?
i think that doing research as much as possible is a good idea, or opting for professional advice. that's what i did when i, when i was looking to which university i should go to. i researched as much as possible before making up my mind.
how can people remember to take these important steps?
a good way to do this to remember is to write down the decision-making process. also, keeping a cool head is important.
what social support is available to help make big decisions?
i mean, society has can give a lending hand to to people who are looking for for for help. there are tons of online reviews that can guide people. there is also professional advice, and i thought the advice of a career counselor when i wanted to decide which university i should go to.
where can people search for these?
they can find in governmental offices, or they can simply find them online.
that is the end of part three. that concludes the speaking portion of the exam. you will have your mark in about 10 days' time with the other sections. remember to take your passport with you and have a great rest of your day.
thank you very much.
thank you. bye-bye.
rima gets a band 9 expert user of english for her speaking interview. her lexical resource, fluency and coherence, grammar range and accuracy, and pronunciation are outstanding. she clearly understands every question, gives fluent and complete answers using a broad range of grammar and vocabulary. importantly, she pays attention to giving answers, explanations, and lots of details. her speech is original. it's clear that she's not just simply memorizing expressions to use during the exam, but she is confident expressing herself in just about any context of english.
so, what are some important points to pay attention to when wearing a medical mask? as you know, medical masks are irritating. they make breathing slightly more difficult, and they muffle speech. so you have to compensate for these extra challenges. it's already difficult enough and stressful enough to sit the speaking interview without a face mask on. the face mask definitely gives an added level of challenge. here are a few tips to follow in order to make sure that you do the best that you can and get a high band score.
tip number one: bring your own medical mask. invest some time to find a comfortable mask that fits you well and that you can breathe in as easily as possible. ielts exams are expensive, so make sure to spend a few extra dollars and get a medical mask that is as good as possible for you. look around, shop around.
tip number two: practice the speaking interview with partners using a medical mask. it's important that you have a feeling of what it's like to communicate in this context with a mask on. you should not be experiencing a face mask for the first time when you sit the official exam. this is just asking for trouble.
tip number three: pay extra attention to staying calm. remember, visualize the examiner as if they're your grandmother or your grandfather. feel really comfortable speaking to them. when you're wearing a face mask, it's much easier to become even more anxious because it's making breathing difficult. when a person is nervous and their breathing is impeded, they become even more anxious. so you must practice at home and in partners to stay calm and stay focused.
tip number four: enunciate. in communication, we get a lot of information from the movement of the mouth. with a medical mask, of course, we cannot see the movement of the mouth. so it becomes much more important to enunciate words, that means inflections and deflections in your intonation and your pronunciation. be a little bit melodramatic, really pronounce your words. also, keep your hands and your arms above the table during the interview and use hand gestures, just like i'm doing right now, because the examiner is not getting information from the movement of your mouth. it's a good idea to substitute a bit with your hands and your eyes. okay, so make sure to follow these four tips and practice them when you're having to wear the face mask for your next speaking interview. good luck on your next ielts exam.
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