This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1506, IELTS Speaking Part 3 Answers about Product Reviews.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner -trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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It's possible that you often leave product reviews, but you might not be used to talking about it.
Today, get ready for potential speaking part three question on IELTS about product reviews.
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Hello there, Aubrey.
How are you today? I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you? Good. Aubrey, are you someone that often leaves online reviews when you buy a product or maybe if you go to a restaurant hmm very rarely okay I've only left a couple of reviews in my entire life I should do it more so a couple of times I've done it for friends who open a restaurant oh and I recognize they were like trying to get the word out and I am genuinely impressed by the you know the restaurant then I've left them a review yeah and then I've only left one negative review in my life yeah when we we were going to Disneyland and we went to a breakfast place called Huckleberries.
Now, Huckleberries are from like the Mountain West. I grew up picking Huckleberries and they're delicious.
They're like very tart and yummy.
And I was so excited to have to eat Huckleberries at this restaurant in California.
And they were not Huckleberries, they were blueberries.
And they were charging more too.
They were like, it was like an upsell to get Huckleberries.
So I was like, these are not Huckleberries.
I'm surprised that I think I've heard this story before.
And I'm, you're clearly enraged by this, but I would be too, too, because I was surprised that they thought they could get away with that.
I mean, you know, the difference.
I would think so. But maybe not.
Maybe like a lot of people, if you haven't had a huckleberry, you they look a lot like blueberries.
So you would maybe not know.
I think a lot of people who eat there just don't know.
But I knew and I was livid and I left a review.
But I've gone back a couple of times to look and people will comment about my sort of making fun of me for caring so much. Oh, that's so funny.
Yeah, people troll.
There's a lot of trolling.
People troll, you know, establishments sometimes in their reviews and then people troll the reviewers too.
Totally. That's probably why I don't relieve a lot of reviews.
I don't want to be made fun of for being upset about something.
That's a great sign to troll someone.
It's a good one. So we'll come back to that another day.
So Aubrey, what are we getting into in this?
This is going to be a dynamic episode today for sure.
Yes, I am excited about this.
So part one of this episode this series, we talked about higher scoring and idiomatic ways to say something is good or bad.
You are definitely going to need to convey that meaning on IELTS, but you can't just say good or bad.
They're so low scoring.
So we taught up to snuff, up to scratch, up to par, and fit the bill.
And so scroll up if you missed that.
Be sure to hit follow if you're missing any of our amazing vocabulary episodes.
And we'll share the episode number at the end, so definitely stay to the end.
But today we're going to use this vocabulary in part three answers.
Yes, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this can come into action.
And this is a huge part of our preparation plan for our listeners to be ready for IELTS.
It's not just consuming the vocab and knowing what it means.
It's practicing, right?
And you can get the practice questions online in our course, Three Keys IELTS.
We know the common questions that are asked on test day.
So being ready and implementing them, not being lazy in our preparation is huge.
Absolutely. right? Hearing today's band nine answers is huge for you to get a good example of how to use this vocabulary in a part three answer.
This vocabulary could be used all over the speaking exam.
Personal questions in part one, if you're describing something in part two, and even in part three.
Often these things that are sort of more general questions about society in general, you can still use idiomatic language.
Yeah, and Aubrey, I have a question about speaking part three here because because we're going to get ready to do some sample answers.
When we go to answer a speaking part three question, it's about society, right?
It's about society, about how people behave, and what happens on a societal level.
Are we supposed to avoid telling specific stories from our lives?
Is that more of a part two thing to do?
No, that is a great question, and this is a common misconception that students have, that part three, you need to be not speaking about yourself, not sharing personal experiences.
And that is not the case.
The same goes for writing task two.
You should, you're still asked to draw from your personal experience.
So you should be using personal examples.
So often on a part three question, a great strategy is to answer the question about society as a whole, but then provide examples and details from your own experience, because that's where you're going to find details.
It's going to to be easier to describe what you have actually experienced yourself.
I love it. Okay. That's really good to know here.
So when I answer these questions, I might dip into a story if it feels right in the flow of my answer.
But yeah, we want to know the differences between speaking part two and speaking part three.
Love it. Yes. That's a great question.
In fact, you will almost have to use personal examples because part three answers are longer, right?
Part one, it's like three to five sentences is about what what you're aiming for.
Most part three answers are going to be about a minute long, right?
Your part two is two minutes.
You're often given about a minute for part three questions, which they want you to develop a little more.
They want to know, you know, how can you connect your experience to the world at large?
Yes. But the tricky thing about part three, and we've talked about this before, is the timing.
The examiner has to ask a certain amount of questions in the time that they they have?
So if some answers go a little longer or they're running short of time, before you hit that minute, they might interrupt you.
They'll just say thank you.
And they'll ask another question.
Don't let it throw you off.
If anything, that's good.
It shows you have so much to say about it.
They might just need to interrupt you so that they have time to ask all the questions they're required to ask.
Okay, good to know.
Good to know. So if we've been practicing this properly and we've been going through this multiple times, it won't surprise us when we do get interrupted, interrupted, right?
Exactly. Right. So Lindsay is going to go first here.
And we want this to feel more like how the part three exam feels on the speaking test. Often here, when we provide these sample answers, we ask one answer and immediately give feedback.
So instead, this will look a little different.
I'm going to ask Lindsay three questions in a row subsequently, right?
And then at the end of all three i will provide feedback about you know i'll pull out some interesting vocabulary intonation so this will feel a little bit more like the ielts exam where you're just asked question after question without getting any feedback in between okay let's go for it aubrey i am excited let's all right okay let's go we're gonna give you three questions here ready okay all right what kinds of things do people write online reviews about in your country yeah that that is a great question well honestly people write reviews about a lot of different things in my country you know
now that we're in this new internet age we can see it all over the place when things aren't quite up to par people like to write reviews uh for airbnb stays that's a really common one i've also seen very common it's very common to leave reviews at a restaurant if your experience wasn't up to snuff for example when we book a tour when we travel when I travel I love to book things like bike tours or food tours and the first thing I do is I go to the reviews to see is this a legitimate tour is this going to be worth my money so Yelp is another common review site I think that was more previously used
in another time but we were at write reviews about a lot lots lots of different aspects of our experience, delivery people, when people deliver food, all kinds of things.
Nice. Why do some people write online reviews?
Yeah, this is super interesting.
I think the truth is people write reviews when they have a strong experience, whether it's negative or positive.
And when they have a neutral experience, it was just pretty good.
They tend not to write reviews.
So if my experience at a restaurant just doesn't fit the bill it's just not as good as I expected it to be I personally wouldn't necessarily do this unless it was terrible but some people would tend to go and write a review on that or if you had an amazing experience and it definitely was indeed up to par and it blew your mind how great the service was or at an Airbnb for example you might be likely to leave a review in that case do Do you think that online reviews are good for both shoppers and companies?
I actually really do.
I think this is a great way.
Online reviews are a great way to make sure that the quality of things stays high.
And also, I believe on a site like Airbnb, the actual people that rent the place, are we reviewed as renters too?
I think we are, aren't we?
And so if it's a double -sided marketplace, I think it's good.
Or for example, Upwork, which is a place where we can find freelancers online remotely.
Both the employer and the employee are reviewed. So it kind of holds people to account.
It creates a safe environment where there's a lot of trust when we wouldn't otherwise really know who we're working with.
So yeah, I do think that online reviews are good for whether it's shoppers, you know, or employers, for example, or companies or employees, I think it's a great idea to keep a positive and safe environment.
Thank you. Oh, amazing answers, Lindsay.
That was fantastic.
Thank you. Part three is definitely a little trickier, right?
You're not just sharing like, oh, your opinion about personal things.
Yeah. But well done.
I'm excited to dive into so many things that made these answers band nine.
So on that first answer, notice how she began it.
First first of all, with a quick filler that's like, this is an interesting question.
Give yourself just a second to think of what you want to say and then say, well, honestly, these linking phrases are vital and a lot of students don't think to use them.
We don't use linking phrases as much in speech in English, in conversations.
They are necessary for IELTS.
You have to transition between ideas.
You need to introduce your thoughts with linking phrases.
That's really really important for your fluency and coherence score.
And again, with your third answer you started with, I actually really do.
These linking phrases to start answers and transition between ideas are really boosting those fluency scores.
Yeah. Yeah. There's also something from a confidence perspective.
You hear yourself putting your personality into your answer and it relaxes you a little bit.
So you're not in this, you know, testing mode, being a robot and having to be perfect you hear your own personality coming through your voice yes for sure right and that can relax you that lowers the stress and yeah you when you're speaking fluidly having these transition words linking phrases you will also be more confident because you're feeling that your speech is smooth right your movement between ideas instead of those like choppy simple sentences you would use otherwise yes vocabulary was especially amazing here you did use our phrases up to par, up to snuff.
These are band nine phrases.
Instead of saying good enough or pretty good, right?
Use these instead. And then legitimate, you use this amazing band nine adjective to describe something as legitimate, which means it's trustworthy.
It's, you know, not fake.
This is a good word. And some impressive pronunciation a few times.
On that first answer, when you said, the first thing I do, you're not saying it in a monotone, right?
The first thing I do.
You want to emphasize words to switch up your tone, right, Lindsay?
Yes. Great feedback, Aubrey.
These are all strategic things our listeners can do and model in their exam to get that high score.
Pronunciation, vocabulary, filler words, huge ways to boost your score.
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Okay, Aubrey, it's your turn.
Are you ready? I am ready.
Great. So remind me again how long the entire answer should be is it did we say three minutes yeah so we're aiming for about a minute for each of these answers yeah okay so if i go longer then you don't need to time me i feel like we can just because we're not in an actual ielts exam where we have a stop time right right it feels like it's more than about a minute you could go ahead and say thank you and ask the next question because i might get carried away you might get carried away who knows let's see how we do um All right, Aubrey.
So here is your first question.
Are you ready? Yes.
What do you think it might be like to work in a customer service job?
Oh, I think it'd be tough.
I have worked in customer service jobs in the past. I worked for Sears and I was calling people who had scheduled repair for appliances, refrigerators, washers and dryers, and there was some kind of problem.
The technician was late, and often people would be upset.
So this, I think, is the biggest, toughest thing about customer service, is if you have someone on the phone, if you're dealing with someone who is angry, because then they're not always as polite as you would like.
So I would like to say that my customer service skills are always up to snuff, but when someone's angry, I also have a hard time being polite in return.
turn. So I'm maybe not cut out for a customer service job.
Do you agree that customers are more likely to complain nowadays?
Absolutely. I think we have more venues for doing so.
We can leave an anonymous online review where often people aren't as polite as they would be in real life.
So once upon a time, you had to either call them or maybe go into a business to let them know you were frustrated with the service now we can do this online either with our name attached or without so it's easier now and definitely happens more often yeah how important is it for companies to take all customer complaints seriously yeah this is extremely vital of course you can lose a customer if you are ignoring complaints because usually a problem that exists for one person Like if software isn't up to par and one user is having an issue, this is the same for many users.
That's likely. So if you ignore that, then the customer experience is likely worse across the board. And that can be extremely problematic for companies that lose a lot of their customer base, a lot of their income.
Companies could go bankrupt if they ignore something that's going wrong.
All right. Great answer, Aubrey.
I love it I love it excellent I heard you use some key vocabulary here like up to par is one thing you use I believe you used up to snuff yeah I was talking about myself I said I I hope I'm you know my customer service skills are up to snuff and I think I referred to the software as up to par these are definitely they're so high scoring but you're definitely going to need practice adding them because it is our our first instinct is just to say good or good enough something much lower scoring yeah and I also like how you used the phrase once upon a time instead of saying before or you know when I
was younger or in a different time it makes it feel like a bit more of a story and it's more unique I would imagine that would get you a higher score for vocabulary and it's very native and natural to say that once upon a time things were different yeah yes I love it and then I want to emphasize one thing so I did I actually responded to you i said yeah and then i asked the next question but our listeners definitely shouldn't expect any response from the examiner is that right or even like a smile or a not i think generally they try to be very stoic and unresponsive is that right they're not allowed
they're not allowed to respond or give you any indication of how you are doing so if ever they do it's sort of accidental because just like we do here sometimes it's in our nature as human beings to give you respond, smile, say yeah, to agree a little bit.
So that might, an examiner might accidentally do that, but they get, you know, they're so much more in the habit of not responding that that is what you should expect.
No reaction at all, no smile, just asking the next question.
And it will feel foreign because people in your everyday conversations don't do that.
Especially depending on what culture, you know, sometimes this can vary.
The amount that we do this might vary from culture to culture.
If you come from a culture that really receives, you know what people say and really reflects back and a lot of yand physical responses what a practice with a very stoic person role -playing an examiner okay just be ready for it we've given the advice to print out a face of someone that's not smiling and like give your answers to that face if you don't have a person to talk to so that you get used to no reaction at all after your answer don't let it throw you off that's really smart that's really really smart.
I love it. All right, Aubrey.
Good job on your sample answers.
Is there another episode our listeners should go to then?
Yeah, we just want to make sure you didn't miss.
It was 1504. Is your IELTS vocabulary up to snuff?
So, this really is an amazing episode because you will definitely need to share your opinion.
You'll need to say whether you think things are good or bad.
You need higher scoring vocabulary for this.
So, we showed you how to use some of these phrases in Sample Answers today and don't miss that episode for a deep dive on all of of those idioms. Yes, we've done a lot of good stuff today.
Our listeners got a lot out of today's episode.
Where should we leave them?
What should be our final thought today?
Yeah, it's not enough, guys, to be using less common vocabulary.
You need to use idioms. You need expressions that not every student is using in order to boost your vocabulary score.
This way, if your grammar score is a six, no problem.
Your overall score will be high because it's pulled up by this impressive vocabulary.
So definitely practice using this vocabulary to replace bad and good, which you are definitely going to need on IELTS.
I love it. So good, Aubrey.
Well, we'll be back here next week and you have a good weekend.
We'll talk to you very soon.
Awesome, you too. Thanks, Lindsay.
All right, take care.
Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish .com slash myscore.
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