This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2076, IELTS study plans that help you win at life.
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Expires at midnight on Friday. allersenglish.com slash b-l-a-c-k-f-r-i-d-a-y. aubrey what's going on today how's it going much i'm excited to be on the mic with you i have a question for you lindsay okay i'm ready i'm ready did you have good study habits when you were in at the university yeah i think i did i think i did in high school as well as in in school in college uh i always like of used my little book to write stuff down it's hard to remember it was a long time ago but you got good grades you had you were systematic yes i feel like yeah that's the trick right sometimes it's just kind of not being chaotic i was a little more chaotic sometimes i did not have a good system i was working and i would just cram studying in when i could but the classes that i got the best grades in were for sure when i was being more systematic about how i was studying Well, it's really good because I think it's easy to get anxious if you're not systematic, you know, like I always and I feel that even today, like with work, you know, if we're creating a campaign, I really like to create a schedule and say this is what's going to happen on this date.
And then, by the time we go to launch this, all will have been done and ready and we'll be ready to go.
It's just.
It reduces stress for me.
Absolutely right.
You feel more organized, you understand the steps to the process and i think that would reduce stress for anyone.
Probably, system right?
Yeah, so today we're talking about test prep.
Yes yes, we got a really good question from maria elbukili and i'll just go ahead and read that question.
Great, it just said how do we prepare for an oral exam in english at an intermediate english level?
Such a good question.
I know a lot of you are in that same boat And there's some specific things here right, Lindsay?
Oh my God, I'm excited.
This is really in our wheelhouse because our listeners should know that we have an entire IELTS program, including an amazing podcast.
Tell us about that podcast, Aubrey.
Yes, Jessica and I co-host it.
It's called IELTS Energy.
So especially if you're studying for the IELTS exam, be sure to follow.
We have two new episodes every week with the strategies for the IELTS exam, the vocabulary you need.
And we really recommend that.
Whatever test you're studying for, you need to study with someone who's an expert about that exam.
We're lucky we have Jessica.
She was an examiner for 14 years of the IELTS exam.
She has all this inside information, expertise, knowledge.
But Maria and anyone out there you need to first know what test you're taking so that you can study in a very specific way, because they're all different.
Oh, my God.
That's the first piece, right?
Yeah what you're doing because toefl couldn't be more different from ielts and toeic is a whole other thing, and the truth is no one single teacher or company can teach you all of these.
At best they can teach you one of them.
If someone says, oh yeah, i can help you with toefl and ielts and toeic, be very careful and step away slowly, because likely they they're not true experts.
And what i love about our podcast, ielts energy, is that not only are you guys such incredible experts, it's clear that you know what you're talking about.
You know the exam incredibly well and can help our listeners, but you know it so well you can make it simple and fun.
So a lot of people are just learning about ielts, so they can't quite make it fun yet, and you guys are able to simplify it and have some fun at the same time.
So love that.
I agree.
Yes right, be wary if someone seems or claims to be an expert of all of them, because they might know a lot about all these different exams, but if they're so focused on knowing all about that, will they be able to keep it fun?
That's the question.
Yeah.
And I mean, IELTS is complicated.
I just don't know how you could be an expert in TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS, all the others.
It's just, it's possible, maybe.
Maybe it's a rare person, but unlikely, so that's the first thing to know.
Study for your exam, not everyone else's exam.
Yeah, absolutely.
But also, whether you are studying for ielts or another exam, learning a language in school or whatever you might be studying for, we're all there, we all have things we need to study for and we all need good study habits.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
So before we move on, I just want to make sure our listeners know you guys can find the IELTS Energy podcast.
Just open up that search bar, type in IELTS Energy and hit follow on that show two days a week.
Love it.
Yes.
As you said, I think you might have said that already, but we're going through this again.
You know what?
It doesn't hurt to hear it twice, right guys?
Pause the episode.
Do it now.
You're missing out if you're not following.
Do it now.
So what are our pieces of advice for our listeners here?
Very first.
This is often the biggest thing that we hear students say makes a difference when they get into one of our courses, especially for the IELTS exam, is having a study plan.
So our first tip here is whatever you're studying for, whether it's IELTS or something else is to have a study plan.
Make it systematic, right, Lindsay?
Oh my gosh, it is so much better.
As I said, when we create campaigns, when we do anything, we usually have a plan.
It just feels clean and you feel like you're under control, and it does allow you to take some breaks, build breaks in, because you can exactly right, you want to plan specific activities that you want to get done, how much time you're going to spend on different things, space out you're studying.
If you just have sort of a general abstract idea of what you need to master, what information you need to master, sometimes it's hard to get started at all.
Right, oh my gosh, completely.
It can be really overwhelming.
So have a plan, have a chart, print it out, have it on your desk.
Day, amount of time.
Then you plan your day around that.
When it comes to IELTS, we recommend that our students study about how much, Aubrey.
What is the recommendation?
It's pretty hefty, especially in our course, right?
Yeah.
Right.
Well, so 30 minutes to an hour a day is really ideal.
If you can spend more, amazing.
But The other thing to keep in mind is if you're doing too much at once, if you spend hours and hours and hours, you are going to get burned out, especially when it's test prep.
Yes, there's a lot you can do to keep your study fun and make it engaging.
But you still.
If you're not taking breaks and you're doing it for too long at once, you'll get burned out.
And then you might not want to spend any time the next day or the next day.
And you want to keep it steady where you're spending time each day.
This is how we pace ourselves.
This is how we let ourselves go the distance.
You might be studying for 30 days or 60 days.
This is how we can keep going on that week four, when you're just exhausted but you're still ready for that test.
But what would be the second piece of advice Aubrey?
Yes, the second tip is to minimize distractions.
This is so important with our modern day full of technology.
I don't know about you Lindsay, but it's so easy to like check a text or see a notification on my phone and then suddenly I've lost a half an hour.
Oh my God.
Yeah, it can totally happen.
Yes.
We battle this every day, all day.
All of us do.
Yeah, exactly.
So I was looking online for some tips, and we'll share ours as well, but I saw some really great advice in a Coursera article called 11 Good Study Habits to Develop from June 15th 2023.
So we want to share a couple of these.
They may seem kind of obvious, but if you don't, you're not proactive about doing them.
You can lose so much time getting distracted.
Yeah, so the first one.
I like what they said turn off your wi-fi.
It seems obvious, right again, like you said, um and and so this just makes total sense, because then notifications can't come in and they can all come in after when you turn it back on.
It's like your reward.
I love that Google Drive has the option to work offline so you can turn off your Wi-Fi and you'll get that prompt.
That's like would you like to work offline?
And you can do everything you need to in Google without getting new emails and without getting notifications, and stay focused.
Oh, I didn't even know that that was an option.
This might be a life changer for you.
I've got major problems with email.
So I am looking for some solutions here.
Very good.
But you do, you know, the world will come at you like a fire hose if you don't do something.
Right.
That is the key nowadays.
So you have to take control.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
And then the second little tip they said was just to not let your phone distract you.
We were talking about this a little bit. but to put it on airplane mode, right?
Turn off your notifications.
And they also suggested to keep your phone out of sight in a bag.
I added, put it in another room.
That's usually what I do.
Or they suggested, give it to a friend to keep you from checking too often.
If you're studying with a friend, be like, here, keep my phone over by you.
Don't let me touch it.
I need to stay focused.
Hopefully at that point, your friend's not also studying and checking your phone and their phone.
Then your friend is in trouble, right?
No, that's funny.
I like it.
Good ideas.
Good ideas.
Yeah.
So I did want to share over on the IELTS Energy podcast that we mentioned, we recently shared some really good tips to stay focused and not get distracted while while you're taking an exam, like on test day, right.
So it was episode 12, send me nine called three skills to stay focused on reading and listening.
And these tips are like identifying keywords, making predictions, things that you're doing in advance to keep you focused on what you're listening for, what you're looking for when you're reading.
And because our mind can also wander while we're actually taking the exam, which can really be a downfall.
Yeah, these are all things that we teach in our Three Keys IELTS online course.
But you guys will hear more about that course once you are over there listening to the IELTS Energy podcast, if you are actually preparing.
But these are skills, you can't just hear it, learn keywords, identify keywords.
You need to know how to do it.
And that requires a little more study.
So good stuff.
Yep.
Okay, Aubrey, what would be the third thing?
Yeah.
The third thing is to study with others, right?
This is so motivating to find speaking partners in English.
Just the other day I was at a coffee shop and there was a girl and her friend.
They're studying together.
And I could tell they were studying.
I think one was working and one was studying for like a college course.
They were doing very different things, but they had clearly gone there together to study.
And so then you have all of this built-in accountability.
Right.
OK, we're going at noon, even if I don't want to.
I've told my friend I'll be there.
There's so many perks.
I love that.
I love that.
And you just can feel lonely in a coffee shop or at home at your desk.
Right.
Like you're what's everyone else doing?
But if you know, someone is across from you and they're in their own study world, they have their own goals, but you're both doing it.
There is something to that, Aubrey.
Absolutely.
Or you might just not stay as long.
If you haven't committed to a certain amount of time, you might go for 10 minutes and be like okay, I'm going to go do something else.
Right?
A friend can keep you accountable for your goals to each other.
And it doesn't matter if you're working on the same material or not, right?
To study with a friend.
Totally.
I mean, we've started doing Open Conversation Club here at All Ears English, which I love.
Absolutely right, especially when you're learning a language, this is so vital to find speaking partners, get to know them, to practice actually speaking.
That's the goal right, like we did in high school learning to write essays and we actually can't communicate with anyone.
You want to be able to be practicing speaking.
Yeah, so that's a free bonus for anyone in our courses.
You guys can hear about that later, but i'd like to give our listeners a little takeaway here.
What should we come away with today?
Absolutely, guys.
Unfortunately, we can waste so much time if we don't have good study habits, right?
We're getting distracted.
Maybe we're just not staying engaged.
Whatever you're studying for everyone out there, if you're not studying something, you should be right.
And these tips will help us have those good habits.
Yeah, guys.
So this is the way to get focused, get something done, right?
What is that expression they say, like, if things feel slow, but then after a year you look back?
I think I mentioned this before, and it feels like we've done so much if we've been organized.
That's so true, right?
And then you can look over your plans and your study plan and see how much you accomplished.
It's a pretty cool feeling.
It really is.
So, you know, get organized, guys, and check out our IELTS Energy podcast.
Good stuff.
So fun.
We'll see you over on IELTS Energy.
That was fun, Lindsay.
All right.
Talk to you soon, Aubrey.
Have a good day.
Bye.
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