This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1526 5 Expert Answers to 5 IELTS Listening Questions.
Welcome to the ielts energy podcast from all ears english downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner trained ielts wiz, aubrey carter and lindsay mcmahon, the english adventurer.
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What is the danger of asking a forum your important IELTS question maybe at the last minute?
Today.
Get five answers to five questions our students have asked us at the last minute, and find out why you need an expert when it comes to IELTS.
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Hey, Aubrey, how are you today?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, Aubrey.
How do students in our Three Keys Out course get answers to their questions?
Yes, they post them in our community and they get answers right away that they can trust.
I'm the one in there answering questions.
They always have very intelligent questions.
I'm always pretty impressed.
Yeah, it's amazing.
It's so good to be able to go somewhere and know that you're going to ask a question and get an answer from a true expert.
Right?
Absolutely, right?
So today we are going to share five of these questions with the answers that our students got immediately.
So if, for example, if you have questions about the IELTS exam, you're not sure, should I post them on a forum?
Could I find a teacher that might know?
If you sign up for our Three Keys IELTS course at allearsenglishcom, slash keys K-E-Y-S, then you can get fast, reliable answers to your IELTS questions right away.
All right.
So we're going to go through five tricky questions that again, are not necessarily like.
They do require an expert.
Right.
You can't just ask anyone these questions that our students asked us and they got an answer.
And now our listeners will get the answers right here.
Exactly.
And these are all about IELTS listening today.
So all five of these questions were about the IELTS listening exam.
OK, so here's the first question.
Can I start the listening test audio when I want?
Am I given a minute to look at the questions before starting the audio?
Yeah.
And so this was a student asking about the computer exam, right?
But whether, if you haven't taken IELTS at all, you might not even know for the paper delivered exam right.
So you cannot start and stop the audio when you want.
For the written exam.
The audio will be started for you and will come from a speaker somewhere in the room.
Hopefully you're close to it.
Hopefully there's not a lot of ambient noise.
Sometimes that's an issue.
But on the computer exam, how does this work, Lindsay?
Yeah, on the computer exam, there is an instruction screen that you're going to look at.
And on that screen is a button that says start.
So then the screen will go to the first section as the audio starts.
So very different experiences.
In the paper versus the computer exam.
Right.
But for both of them, it's going to start automatically and you can't stop it.
You can't slow it down.
The audio is just going to play.
You might be told you now have 30 seconds to look at the answers, but that doesn't mean you pause the audio for 30 seconds.
No, it's running.
It's out of your control.
Okay.
Okay.
Good to know.
Very important.
And, you know, the key here is this student got an answer when he or she asked it, right?
With answers, it's about timing, right?
I'm in there every day.
I'm like checking for answers.
I want our students to get the answer right away because sometimes you have a question like this.
And it's almost hard to focus on anything else and think about until you get your answer.
We can kind of get stuck that way, right?
It's so true.
But it's also interesting to know the same time is allowed to look at the questions before as is given on the paper exam.
So, whether you are taking paper or computer delivered, you will have that 30 seconds or so to highlight keywords and make predictions before the audio starts, and You just have to keep in mind that you know you don't like.
Oh, it's about 30 seconds.
Now I'll start the audio.
It's going to automatically start on its own.
Yeah.
And those are key as a key 30 seconds.
We show you inside our course how those 30 seconds fit into our strategy, our system, right?
Absolutely.
It's vital that you use strategies during those 30 seconds to be ready, to be ready for the audio to start.
All right, let's move on to the second question.
Are you ready?
Can I read it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Second question was, is there an all caps function on the keyboard for essays on the computer exam?
And if so, should I use it?
This is such a great question, right?
Most test centers allow the keyboards to use the all caps lock, the caps lock key.
But it will be easy to see if that's true right away.
As soon as the test starts, you'll be able to test to like check it.
But most test centers will allow this.
And anywhere on the exam, you are allowed to write in all caps.
And this can really help on both listening and writing, because it helps you avoid errors with capitalization.
However, if you're taking the written exam, this could slow you down.
So if you're planning and writing in all caps, you would definitely want to practice that ahead of time.
But if you do have that all caps lock, which you probably will on the computer exam, we do recommend you use it because if you make a mistake with capitalization that will affect your grammar score.
That is so strategic, right, to do that.
Let's take away any additional variabilities that could bring our score down and focus on the structure of our essay.
Yes.
And we do see mistakes with this because proper nouns, capitalization of proper nouns, it does work differently in different languages.
So you might not even be used to really thinking about this.
And it does matter for English grammar.
Capitalization has to be correct on IELTS, but you don't have to worry about it if you are writing or typing in all caps.
Okay.
Good to know.
Here's question three.
When the answer is difficult to spell, I spend too much time thinking about how to spell it and I miss some of the audio.
Would you recommend I quickly write it phonetically and then come back, or maybe a different strategy?
Oh, you can imagine what a problem this would be, right, Lindsay?
If a word is difficult to spell and you're taking time to think about how to spell it and suddenly you realize you've missed two or three things that have been said in the audio.
And if you've missed one of the answers, it would be hard to catch up again, to find out where you are and get back on this.
You don't want that to happen.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, so what's the answer, Aubrey?
How did you answer this question to the student?
So since you have time to check your answers after. you will be able to check spelling then.
So you definitely should just write it quickly with your best guess at spelling, or write it phonetically, like this student said, and move on.
Continue listening to the audio.
Don't let yourself get lost with that audio.
Listen for the next keyword, for the next answer.
And then you will have time after to go back and check your answers and correct any spelling.
You know, we have to be really nimble flexible, able to pivot on this exam, because we can't let one thing like this hold us back.
The exam doesn't wait for you, right?
Exactly.
You keep moving.
Yep.
Exactly.
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Okay, here's the fourth one, Aubrey.
Next question.
I have a question regarding the computer-delivered IELTS test, the listening section.
At the end of each part, the computer says, now you have 30 seconds to check your answers.
If I'm at the end of part one, can I move to the next part during those 30 seconds and start reading the questions instead of checking the answers?
Good question.
Very good question.
And we can understand why you would be tempted to do this, because then you have even more time to read those answers.
Underline keywords, make predictions.
But we definitely recommend that you check your answers first for grammar, spelling, and logic.
Because sometimes you do have to change it slightly from the wording of the audio.
You need to read the sentence that you included the word in to make sure it's grammatically correct.
You might need to change a verb form, a word form.
And you also want to double check spelling because, as you're writing the answers, as the audio is playing, you're writing them as quickly as possible and can easily make a spelling mistake.
Yes.
And also the check step is an important part of our three-step system for writing.
And you'll learn more about that if you're in the Three Keys Out course, of course.
But when we're following a system, a set of strategies, we need to follow each step.
Right, Aubrey?
Exactly.
So don't skip this step.
Check your answers on the listening exam.
But once you have checked them, then you can move on to the next part and start reading those questions.
Start looking for keywords, but you'll be given 30 seconds to do that.
So don't skip this checking.
You can catch errors that you might not have noticed as you were writing the answers.
Love it.
So good.
Here is question five.
Would the answers 16th May 1931 or May 16th 1931 both be correct?
Does the punctuation matter?
This is a great question.
We get questions like this a lot.
They would both be correct.
So in different countries, English-speaking countries, dates are written differently.
In Europe, the UK, you'd see it likely 16th May 1931.
In the States, May 16th, 1931.
So both of these would be correct.
And one good thing to note is that no comma would be necessary.
Answers won't require punctuation on reading or listening exams.
Okay.
Wow.
Yeah.
These are fantastic questions.
And again, what happens Aubrey, if we go off to a forum or even ChatGPT, because don't forget that ChatGPT just grabs stuff from blogs and we don't know if we can trust that.
And so what would happen if we get lost in those forums, Aubrey?
You can definitely get the wrong information.
We have seen incorrect answers on forum questions.
And also, if you are asking maybe a TESOL teacher, an English professional, but that doesn't specialize in IELTS, you can also get incorrect answers.
So it's definitely important that you make sure that you are getting answers to your questions that you can trust.
Absolutely.
A lot of TESOL teachers will mention that they've taught IELTS.
And I'm always kind of curious about that.
Right.
Because it's a whole skill set that you don't learn when you learn to become a TESOL teacher.
It's a very separate set of skills that not all TESOL teachers can do.
OK, super important to know that.
Exactly.
Yes.
So if you want to get quick answers that you can trust, definitely sign up for Three Keys IELTS.
Not only do you get our entire system of strategy, but you are also strategies.
You're also a part of our community where you can ask questions and get very quick answers.
And sometimes that quick answer is the peace of mind we're looking for.
Absolutely.
I know there was a student that I just talked to last Friday in Open Conversation Club or last Wednesday.
He was going to take the exam this weekend and he was going to tag you Aubrey, right in the circle community.
And, you know, luckily he was able to get our support on time.
Right.
I love that.
So important.
Right.
If you are taking your exam right away, last minute, you think of a question and If you post it in a forum or try to find a teacher, you're likely not going to get the answer in time.
Sometimes we need quick answers to these questions.
Love it.
So good.
So guys, go over to allearsenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S to get into our course.
That is the way to get that automatic support.
Good stuff.
Aubrey, have a good day.
You too.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
Slash my score.
