This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1513.
Have a light bulb moment with IELTS Speaking Part 1 Answers.
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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Today, get three Band 9 Speaking Part 1 answers to learn how to use idioms to score highly.
And as a bonus, you will get one low scoring answer and find out why it would get a low score.
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Hello, Lindsay. How are you? I'm doing well, Aubrey.
Excited to be here on IELTS Energy with you.
What's going on? Yeah, I'm great as well.
I have a question for you. When is the last time you had a light bulb moment?
Oh my gosh, light bulb moment. I think it's been a while, right?
I feel like I need to meditate more often or something, whatever evokes those light bulb moments.
But I had one when I was hiking the Camino de Santiago in my 20s that I wanted to start my own business.
And I did after that. So that was a big light bulb moment.
Yeah, that's a big one, right? It's interesting, this expression. could be for big things like that, right?
It could be for something small as well.
Sometimes I'll have sort of a realization about one of my kids something they need or something I could do to spend time with them, which is also a light bulb moment, any kind of realization, right?
Totally. So this is, Interesting. It's actually quite a flexible idiom.
It can be used so many different ways. We taught five idioms with the word moment in a recent episode.
Scroll up if you missed it. Today we're going to use them in Band 9 Sample Part 1 Answers. because you need idiomatic language on IELTS speaking, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, so today's episode is all about those sample answers.
And yeah, you definitely need idiomatic language and good, interesting idiomatic language. that is not what everyone else is using.
Right, Aubrey? Right, it can't be. You know, there are some very common idioms, maybe reigning cats and dogs, piece of cake, That still would be band six because they're so common.
Students use them so often. So in order to score band seven or higher, you need idiomatic language. phrasal verbs, idioms, but also it needs to be something that examiner's not hearing multiple times a day in order to score seven or higher.
And we talked about this on the last episode.
It's so vital to learn idioms that are pretty flexible. that you could use for lots of different answers because some of them are quite specific and you might not get asked the exact right question you need to use that idiom.
Yeah, I love what came out of that last episode.
We did say it's really valuable to create kind of a bucket of hyperflexible idioms and expressions and then think about where to fit those in and then practice that instead of trying to come up in the spot in the moment with the right idiom.
That's hard to do. Exactly. So that's what we're showing you here today.
We are going to give you four band nine part one answers. where we have these idioms that we taught last time, right?
Light bulb moment, spur of the moment, caught up in the moment.
There are quite a few. And we'll give feedback after each of the answers to show why it's high scoring, to show how we use those idioms.
But we have them ready. They're pretty flexible.
We're going to use them on these answers.
Nice. And there will be a part three to this series too, right, Aubrey?
Exactly. We're also going to show you how to use these idioms in part two answers.
So those are longer. You have to take a full two minutes to talk about something.
You also need to use idiomatic language in those answers.
And these are perfect. They're flexible.
They can be used for a lot of different part two questions as well.
So be sure to hit follow so that you don't miss part three.
All right. And I want to call out some of our amazing listeners who took the time to leave us a review.
Special thank you to 123456 in China. Reviewed us with five stars on May 30th.
Apple XUEP from China on May 18th. Another five stars, Aubrey.
And let's see, Yifu on April 10th. We so appreciate your reviews, everyone. please go ahead and leave a review because we will announce your name.
We'll try to announce your name on the show.
Okay. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the reviews.
It means a lot to us. And it also helps others find the show.
So everyone out there studying for IELTS will be able to get all of our good tips and advice and strategies.
All right. So just a quick review again.
Remind us one more time, Aubrey, when we do these speaking sample answers for part one, how long should our answer be?
Yeah, your part one answers should be three to five sentences.
So they're pretty quick, right? Part two is the long one, two minutes.
Part three answers are longer as well. They're closer to a minute each.
Part one answers, they're going to be shorter because they're usually a simpler question.
But it's interesting because if you do talk too long, your score doesn't go down.
The examiner will stop you. They'll say thank you and ask the next question because they have to ask a certain amount of questions.
But that won't hurt your score. But you should be aiming for about three to five sentences.
Don't repeat yourself. Don't summarize, right?
You need to be adding new information with everything you say.
That's an important point, don't summarize, because I think a lot of people might think they should because it's kind of academic.
It's kind of like you would do in an essay maybe.
It just feels like you should summarize in a sense.
Yeah, that's especially tempting with part two.
If they haven't, the examiner hasn't stopped you yet.
So, you know, it hasn't been two minutes.
Students often will find themselves summarizing what they've said, offering conclusions, but then you get stuck where you've summarized And there's still extra time.
What do you do then? That's tricky. So we recommend that you just never summarize at all.
Also, because this is pulling down your fluency and vocabulary scores to repeat anything.
You want to add new information. Okay, I love it.
All right, Aubrey, let's get started with the first sample answer, which you will answer.
Here is the question. Have you ever changed your mind about something important?
Absolutely. When we were moving from Arizona, we were thinking about moving rather and we were considering all of the options We could have moved anywhere because my partner and I both work from home.
We could have gone to the East Coast. We considered North Carolina.
Carolina, going back to New York, we could potentially even have moved out of the country.
But we sort of had a light bulb moment where we decided we wanted our children to know their grandparents.
So we decided to stay in Arizona where they can be close to family.
I love this. Fantastic work. I like, first of all, how you opened your answer with absolutely and you really punched. the syllables there, right?
With a full pronunciation. And I guess it probably gave you time to think Am I right?
Definitely, right? Sometimes the way we start our answer, I can't pause and think of a time that this has happened to me.
I've changed my mind. But you might not have that right on the tip of your brain.
Give yourself time with a filler phrase, right?
Absolutely. You know. In your life, at some point, you've changed your mind about something important.
Use a filler phrase. Give yourself just a little bit of time to decide what you want to answer.
And that also sets you in a very positive emotional state in a way, right?
Absolutely is a very positive state. answer.
And you are going to think of it in that instant.
You just need a couple seconds to come up with it.
Right. And you also used we we sort of had a light bulb moment.
So you use the key idiom, but then you also said we sort of had, which seems really appropriate for part one because it's casual the way you said that.
Yeah, that's a good point. We will often use an idiom like this that could be bigger.
Like you mentioned, right, a light bulb moment about starting a business that's much bigger.
If it's something that seems a little smaller, a little more casual, we will sort of soften it with this.
We kind of or we sort of had a light bulb moment.
Yes, I love it. That's what I heard that I liked on that one.
Awesome. All right. Let's ask you a question, Lindsay.
Are you ready? Okay. Yes, I'm ready. Do you often get emotional?
Oh my gosh, this is so funny. Actually, the times when I get the most emotional are the times when I'm not taking care of myself, right?
So I'll get caught up in the moment when I am tired, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed, maybe I haven't been sleeping well.
And then something will happen. And I will really kind of feel I'll be in the heat of the moment at that point.
I'll get caught up in the moment. I'll really burst out. in emotion.
But otherwise, I don't really tend to get super emotional if I'm calm, taking care of myself, eating well, sleeping well. exercising, meditating, doing all the things to stay more down to earth.
Nice. Excellent example. Really great use of these idioms we had learned to be caught up in the moment.
And for something to happen in the heat of the moment, which these are perfect to use when you're asked a question like this. about getting emotional.
How often do you get emotional? What happens when you get emotional, right?
If it were a part two question, then you would have time to share a story with details about one of those times.
But where it's not, this is perfect. to take three to five sentences you're still giving a lot of examples about what if you are you know things that you are doing that keep you from getting emotional You're listing these interesting things, meditation, exercise, all of those details you share that increase your vocabulary and fluency scores. but also adding these idioms that are pretty flexible, right?
You can either talk about Getting caught up in the moment or not getting caught up in the moment, depending on what the question is, and fit these idioms into a lot of different answers.
Yeah, and I think it really comes down to practicing this a ton, guys.
Practicing speaking in part one, two, and three. so much that we have that flexibility, that fluency to fit in the key vocabulary.
Absolutely. This would be really difficult to do if you just hear our podcast, you hear these idioms, okay, perfect, and then go on test day. and expect to be able to call them to mind for different answers.
But if you've practiced, if you've answered today's questions a lot of different questions and thought about how you can fit these idioms that are pretty flexible into a lot of different answers then you'll be ready.
It'll be part of your active vocabulary.
And whatever questions you're asked on test day one of them, you're going to be able to talk about either getting caught up in the moment, having a light bulb moment, something happening the spur of the moment, last minute, right?
Any of these idioms, you could work into an answer.
Yep. And we're going to get into those other vocabulary idiom, other idioms after the break.
So we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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And so now, Aubrey, let's take a look at another sample answer, which I will be answering this one.
Yeah. Looking forward to it. Are you ready for your question?
Yes. Another part one question here. Yes.
Lindsay. I wouldn't say Lindsay. I'm going to ask us if you're an IELTS student.
Do you prefer planned holidays or spontaneous trips?
Well, honestly, I've found that I really thrive more on spontaneous trips.
I really like it when something happens at the spur of the moment, right? there is some kind of decision that's made in the spur of the moment and we're able to, I don't know, just be present in that moment.
And so that's what I prefer is the spontaneous trips.
That's when the best ideas come to me. I'm able to be, as I said, be the most present.
And yeah, that was a bad answer. I kind of love that you gave a lower scoring answer because it makes the episode more interesting sometimes.
When not only is this more relatable, like all of you out there practicing these answers and This helps you to see that even for a native speaker, it can be difficult, especially if you're trying to use specific vocabulary, which you guys have to do.
You have to have idioms ready and use them for specific answers.
It does make it more difficult to just say the first thing you think of.
Very simple answers with basic vocabulary.
Those answers won't score seven or higher.
So when you're trying to use higher scoring vocabulary, idioms that you've been practicing, if you haven't practiced it, it is difficult.
So I love that. It's tough. Yes. I ran out of ideas, Aubrey.
My mind kind of went blank and I got tired and I was like, oh my gosh.
Okay, not sure what else to add to this.
Because the first two or three things you said were perfect.
I loved this first sentence. Well, honestly, I've found that. was a great way to start this.
It gave you a little bit of time to think was also a really good linking phrase, your fluency and coherence score for task two for, uh, IELTS speaking. the examiner's listening for those linking phrases, those transition phrases in order to give you a seven or higher.
So those are vital as well. We've talked about those on other episodes.
So that was great to say, well, honestly, it's very native and natural to start a question and answer that way.
And then some great vocab. You said you thrive on spontaneous trips.
So band six, you might say, I really like spontaneous trips.
Band nine. is to use a phrasal verb like thrive on.
And that's also idiomatic language, right?
I thrive on this. And then you use this great idiom spur of the moment, right?
When we can make decisions spur of the moment. is another way to say spontaneous because we're trying not to repeat vocabulary.
And then the best tip we could give here, Lindsay, and for all of you out there, as you're practicing answering these questions, That would have sufficed.
You could have stopped there. Done. You've answered the question.
You know you can't talk at length or tell a whole big long story or you're going to get interrupted.
But they don't have to be three to five sentences.
It doesn't have to be a lot more than that.
Some of your answers can be shorter, right?
Okay. You could have stopped there because then you found yourself sort of repeating yourself and summarizing.
Yes, yes. And no new comments. Content was coming in.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's easy to do. We all do it.
So the best thing is If you feel like you have answered, if you know you have answered the question, just stop and let the examiner ask the next question.
I love it. Yeah, have the confidence to stop.
I love it. Let's flip over to one more sample answer, Aubrey.
This is, are you ready for it? Yes, I'm ready.
Alright, have you ever had to make a difficult choice?
Ooh, yes, just a few days ago, my daughter was visiting, and she shared with me something about... one of my siblings' children.
So either a niece or a nephew. And it was something... that she felt like their parents should know, but she didn't want to... have it come back to her.
So she, um, told me and asked me not to share.
And because it was something illegal and dangerous, I decided to tell the parents.
So I sort of betrayed her trust. She was upset. upset with me, but I had to make this spur of the moment decision to do the right thing, to tell the parents what had happened.
Yes, nice. I love that. You used a real-life example, which is a good idea to do that.
Use material directly from your real life.
I like the vocabulary betrayed, right? High level.
And then you mentioned the idiom spur of the moment decision.
I had to make a spur of the moment decision. decision.
Your pronunciation was good because I could feel the emotion in your voice, right?
That's the value of using our true stories or true examples.
I can feel that was a hard decision. On your end, that has to insert pronunciation variability, right?
Definitely, right? You are wanting that to let that emotion, that expressiveness come out. to get that variation of intonation, right?
But this spur of the moment is maybe going to be the easiest, the most flexible for you to use.
Anytime you make a decision or whatever you do, imagine you're asked about birthdays, restaurants you like to eat at. anything you could say you did, you know, on the spur of the moment, it was a spur of the moment decision.
That will be a really easy one to throw into lots of answers.
There you go, having that flexible vocabulary that can go into all different categories of questions of topics.
So good to have in our back pockets, Aubrey.
Great. So if you missed it, scroll up now to see 1512.
This is where we taught these idioms. It was called take a moment. to boost IELTS vocabulary scores and be sure to hit follow so you can get part two We'll share these idioms and how you can use them in sample part two answers.
All right. Sounds good, Aubrey. What's a takeaway for today for our listeners?
Where should we leave them? Yes, I love how you are emphasizing, Lindsay, these must be practiced, right?
It is not easy. Just like Lindsay was showing, it's so easy to start... repeating yourself or summarizing if you haven't practiced IELTS answers a lot, right?
How often during the week do you give IELTS answers for speaking?
Not often. Not often enough. Yeah. Yeah.
Right. So it is something that must be practiced.
You have to take these idioms. You can't just add them to a list.
You need to use them in sample answers so that on test day, you're ready and they come to you really easily.
Exactly. And guys, we give you all the templates, the tactics, the strategies that you need within our system inside our course.
Right, Aubrey? You can go over to allersenglish.com slash KEYS if you want to go deeper into our study plan.
To make this easier and more simple, we'll tell you exactly what to do each day.
Absolutely. Yes. Hopefully we will see you in the course, allersenglish.com slash keys.
Thanks, Lindsay. Great episode today. Thanks, Aubrey.
Take care. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com.
My score.
