IELTS Common Mistakes That Nurses Make

Scott, can you share the common errors that nurses make during the exam?

We talk specifically about nurses because that is our viewership today. But these are errors that I see generally that are made across a variety of student demographics, age demographics, the world that I've seen in my years actually teaching this exam and providing courses for these students as well.

The first thing is, of course, relying on learning speaking and writing templates. If I can learn a speaking response, if I can memorize a two minute answer to a variety of different speaking prompts, or I can learn an essay into talking about climate change, I can take it word by word, step by step, paragraph by paragraph, I can copy and paste that into the exam, boom, I'm going to get my band 9 in my writing or my speaking that is not going to happen because first and foremost, that way, you're not going to be applying your answer specifically to the exact prompt and IELTS are very good as Ervin he touched on earlier on when he was speaking like the IELTS exam is international standardized across every continent, every centers everything is what's being done in one center in terms of changing the format changing the prompts that you offer will be done elsewhere as well. So it's going to be changing, the prompts are changed slightly so you have to answer the question a different angle or different peg. Secondly, IELTS examiner's are trained on templates, they will know if the template has been assigned in the answer spot, regardless of your speaking or writing. So don't rely on speaking or writing templates. One, you won't answer the question appropriately and two, you will be caught out and automatically score much lower in your task completion, while you're writing and your overall band score for your speaking, secondarily, not developing enough complex and topical vocabulary. It's really a bit of a balancing act when it comes to how to use vocabulary appropriately in the IELTS exam.

Of course, you need to start from the very bottom build up from the basics once you've actually mastered some of basic vocabulary and grammatical structures, and build up from there, then you can start applying something more complex and therefore make a difference between for example, a band score five in your lexical resource in your speaking and your writing, and then a band seven or a band eight at the same time, as it's been touched on previously. Don't make it overcomplicated, don't try and make use words that are very verbose or out of context or don't actually work. You need to get the basics first and build up appropriate but especially in your speaking, it's really important, you don't sound like a robot, you're trying to sound like the way a native speaker would speak.

So if you're using big words here and there to sound impressive, you're going to sound very robotic, or not very natural in your speaking so develop from the bottom, but make sure what is inappropriate at the same time. As I mentioned, not protecting the basics before adding complexity, make sure of course, you're getting your basic grammatical structures down your basic vocabulary structure, knowing your basic scaffolding techniques to writing an appropriate IELTS band. IELTS Writing Task Two essay, and build up from there, ideally, from feedback from your teacher, and see how you can scaffold making responses too complicated.

I've seen many candidates, especially in their speaking, they are going on and on and on well beyond three minutes. And that's even assuming that they've built up their fluency enough to actually get to that speaking part to to begin with. But make sure of course, first and foremost that you're keeping it appropriate to the task appropriate to the band scoring criteria. And also, that you are getting feedback from a teacher who can actually then give you some advice and pointers into making sure that you are scoring appropriately in your exam itself. Touching a bit on listening and reading. It's very, very important that we don't go into the reading example listening exam, just thinking, Okay, I'll just do this as naturally as I can. I'll just try it my best without any guidance whatsoever listening and reading is very methodical. It's very structured so you need to learn the techniques enable you to successfully complete the activities within the time frame. also incredibly accurately, but not just learn them, apply them see how well you've done. What areas are you scoring in well in which tasks you need more assistance is relearning and then re applying overtime intelligently by self reflecting upon your skills, your strengths and your weaknesses.

Okay, so make sure you're learning the strategies and applying them with appropriate feedback. The last thing I want to say it's been touched on many times today, this is the big one self studying for your IELTS exam. It's going to cost you a lot of time, it's going to cost you a lot of money, it's going to result in some hairs coming out of your head because you'll be frustrated with your progress, it's going to cause you some sleepless nights. It is not the way that most candidates should prepare for this exam because I relate to studying for the IELTS exam, being a skills based exam, not an examine your intelligence to driving a car. I didn't just jump in a car one day, I'm going to take my driving test and hope to pass I had to learn the skills built up in that to get my passing score. You know what the IELTS exam is the exact same concept. Learn from expert instructors or a comprehensive program and allow them to show you the skills, the techniques and strategy and most importantly, get the feedback to pass on your exam the first time.

Okay, I love that analogy, Scott, that is a great analogy about learning to drive a car because nobody just gets in a car and just drives it's a skill, you have to learn it, you have to be taught how to drive and then after a while you drive and you almost say to yourself, well, how did I get from A to B? So that's kind of what happens.

Just so you know, I wasn't the perfect car driving student as well. So I wouldn't have been the perfect if I didn't pass the second time on the fortunately. But you know what, it could have been six or seven times so.

But you and Ervin and Alex are all the perfect ale skills, training experts and that's why you're here today sharing your expertise with everybody who's watching and we are so grateful for that because I think that is really to me, one of the biggest misconceptions about the IELTS is the self study, I think you really have hit on a very big takeaway, if anybody watching has one big takeaway from today's show. It's self studying is very risky, you are risking your time you are risking your and your money and you are risking your your ticket to America. So rather go with the experts who are there to teach you in the same way as you you would learn how to drive a car. Eagle what were the biggest errors? What are the biggest errors that you made on that on it taking the IELTS? What do you wish you had known before you took it?

Well, of course, I need to know every other how to attack each sub test so in order for me to answer correctly, specifically in the listening part, so I need to stay focused, in order for me to, to answer in each topic. And of course, look for the reading part so you need to see the question first before going to the passages, then of course, through through the writing part. So I focus on the biggest part, which is the past two and before answering the past one then, of course, for the speaking test. I just stay focused or in my examiner in order for me to ask the question correctly, and to answer right away and to get my input in inside about a specific topic that the things I'm given to me.

Okay, well, those are great tips and pointers and thank you so much for sharing that with everybody.