This is an IELTS Energy Podcast Episode 1523.
Make IELTS vocabulary business as usual.
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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On IELTS Speaking, you may be asked to describe something that is repetitive.
Today, get three ways to talk about repetitive things in a way that will boost your score beyond the average candidate.
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Hey there, Aubrey.
How's it going?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good.
Aubrey, has anything been frustrating you lately?
Yes, my laptop keeps dying.
It'll just shut down out of the blue.
And I'm like, not this again.
I have to make sure it's plugged in at all times.
Because there's like no warning, no notification.
If the battery is dying, it just turns off.
That's the worst.
That's the worst time for a new laptop, I think, right?
Unfortunately, it might be.
I know it's a big project to get a new laptop.
You have to figure out all the programs and just everything.
Yeah. switching everything over.
I know I always dread it.
Yeah, for sure.
All right.
So today we are getting into a question that came from YouTube.
Aubrey, do you want to go ahead and read the question?
Yes.
So this was from Scottish Road Pinoy 9084 on YouTube.
And this listener said, can you say not this plethora again?
And this is really interesting because I think this listener is taking that phrase not this again, like I said about my laptop, not this again and wanting to emphasize it even more and thinking how can I add band nine vocabulary?
Could I add the word plethora?
So we can't do that because this is a chunk, right?
It's very idiomatic.
This is a chunk.
You would just say, not this again, but we're going to give you some high scoring options.
Other ways.
You can say this and also say Not.
This again is very conversational, but you could use it to narrate thoughts in the past.
So we're going to show you how to do that as well today on IELTS Speaking.
Yes.
So we know what you're looking for and we're going to give it to you.
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To help everyone get to that band seven or higher through this show and our course, of course.
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Yes, absolutely.
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So to dive into this, this phrase, not this again, it's interesting.
In order to emphasize it, we just change up our intonation.
We hit this even harder, right?
If I were really frustrated with this laptop issue, then I'm going to say, not this again.
And I'll sort of just say that hard instead of adding another word to emphasize, right?
Not this again, not this again.
Yeah, you can really feel the upset in your voice, the anger.
Right.
Because sometimes we do say it a little more chill, like not this again.
It's like a little less annoying depending on how we say it.
Good.
All right, Aubrey, what else do we need to know here?
Yeah.
So we want to show you how to use this phrase on IELTS speaking.
It's great if you are narrating thoughts in the past on IELTS.
So, for example, if you're asked on part one if there is anything you would like to change about the place you live in, you could say something like to be honest, my upstairs neighbors are super noisy.
Whenever I hear them stomping around, I think, not this again.
So I'm narrating my thoughts in the past.
This is very high level, very high scoring.
Students don't do it that often.
So if you can narrate your thoughts in the past, especially using a chunk like this, that's great for your scores.
Yeah, that's why it's so important to use real material from your real life.
You know, there's not a textbook answer for this.
You should use what's really going on in your life.
That will put that passion into your pronunciations.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Right.
If this is actually happening to you, it's going to be hard to say that with a monotone.
If you really do have frustration with these upstairs neighbors, it's going to come out the emotion.
All right Aubrey, what if you get a part to answer something like describe a time when you were really proud of yourself?
How could you answer that?
Yeah.
So as part of that two-minute answer, I might say, I've always had an issue with procrastinating.
And every time I put something off, I think, not this again.
However, last week, I was assigned a project and I jumped right on it.
I was really proud of my ability to overcome this tendency I have to procrastinate.
Again, narrating our thoughts, right?
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
Love it.
Love it.
Yeah.
And what about you, Lindsay?
If you were asked on part three, what are the disadvantages of living in a big city?
What might you say?
Yes.
Public transit can be unreliable.
When I lived in New York, subway lines would often be not be running and I'd get to the station and be like not this again.
Yeah.
Oh, I've definitely had that experience.
Yes.
On the weekends, when trains are running like local, only because I lived on the express train, the A train express.
And if it was running local, then it would take so long to get downtown.
Not this again.
Yeah.
And that was always when you had family or friends in for the weekend and you were navigating them around.
And then they get the announcement.
This train is going express.
It's going express.
It's going local.
Oh, gosh.
Yeah.
So then you have to hear them complaining about how unreliable public transit is.
You're like, usually it's not.
It's usually great.
We just got unlucky.
New York memories.
Love it.
Good stuff.
But you can really see how this would boost vocabulary scores and pronunciation scores.
So you want to really avoid if you say this, don't say it in a monotone.
Let that emotion show through that frustration, irritation.
You want to hear that in your tone.
And then just because this is more rare, it's higher scoring.
So it'll also boost your vocab scores.
It's an opportunity, right?
Don't miss the opportunity.
That's the key here.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
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Okay, Aubrey.
So there are other ways that we could indicate frustration because that's what this listener was asking for about something that's happened multiple times that won't actually require that we narrate our thoughts like we just have talked about.
What would be some examples?
Mm-hmm.
So first is the phrase same old story.
So that's very similar.
This means something that's happened over and over and usually something irritating, frustrating.
So in part one or part two, maybe you're asked about a recent birthday.
What could you say, Lindsay?
You could say something like I thought this birthday would be the same old story, with some friends and a fun hangout.
But then they threw me a surprise party.
Everyone knew it.
Everyone I knew was there.
It was amazing.
Nice.
Amazing, right?
Now you've added this idiomatic language instead of saying, like I thought it would be just the same birthday every year.
However else, you could say that.
This is impressive to add this idiom, same old story.
Amazing how we can see we can go from taking an answer from average to impressive by making small tweaks.
Right.
Absolutely.
That's not that big of a change, right?
You're boosting, you're getting that variety of vocabulary the examiner's looking for.
Definitely adding interesting intonation, right?
If you're talking about friends surprising you, you want to sound like you were excited about that, right?
For sure.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
And then the other thing we can say is same thing, different day.
Tell us about this one, Aubrey.
Yeah.
So same, something that's happening over and over, especially if it's annoying.
For example, in part one, you're often asked about work.
And if it is repetitive, often this is the case, right?
You could say it's a bit repetitive.
To be brutally honest, update contracts, file paperwork same thing, different day.
Just an interesting way to say the same thing happening over and over.
And I like that one because it feels very colloquial.
It feels natural, feels native.
That's a great one to boost your score.
Absolutely.
And then third?
Yeah, business as usual.
Also really good and shows just how mundane things are, right?
Absolutely.
And doesn't have to actually have anything to do with business, right?
Literally, this means like when a business is running, what do they do?
Like their standard operating procedures is business as usual, but we use this idiomatically too.
Right.
If I say I drink coffee every morning, it's just business as usual.
If I can get up and have my coffee, it just means the same thing that you're used to.
Right.
Or, for example, maybe an examiner asks you about typical weather where you live.
You could say there are rarely thunderstorms.
And when there are, it pours at night and by the morning it's back to business as usual.
That's like maybe.
Yeah.
So what an interesting way to say it's back to what we're always used to.
Right.
It has nothing to do with business, actually.
Here it's about the weather.
It's back to business as usual by morning.
You're right.
And it is so much more interesting than saying it's back to what we're used to or it's back to normal.
Right.
That's kind of boring and doesn't get you the high points.
Yeah.
Right.
Kind of boring and just more common.
Right. examiners hear that really often.
This business as usual, you will probably be the only person that says that that day.
So it's automatically boosting your vocab score.
And that's the key to keep in mind here.
The less common you are, the less the examiner has heard the words you're using on test day by other students the higher your score will be.
Right, Aubrey?
As long as you're using them correctly.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
So for all of these, they have very similar meanings of just like the same thing that we're used to a little boring, repetitive.
And then you do want to know more than one way to say this.
You might have an option, you know, the opportunity to use these in multiple questions.
You don't want to repeat what you've already said.
Use one of these others to instead, like you said, of saying the same old thing.
Use one of these idioms.
I love it.
Aubrey.
Is there another episode our listeners should check out right away to keep going on this learning streak today?
Yes, right.
We taught some more idioms recently in episode 1522.
Scroll up if you missed it.
It was called, Is Your IELTS Vocabulary Pulling Its Weight?
And there were some really great idioms there.
So be sure to listen if you missed it.
Yes.
And for a takeaway today, you may often get a question about things that are repetitive.
So take advantage of what you've just learned on this podcast, write these down and find other unique and less common ways to talk about repetitive things, right.
Aubrey, that's what it's about.
Don't be common.
Exactly right.
Use these in your own practice sample answers.
These are pretty flexible.
So, whatever you're asked about, think about how can you use these idioms to boost those vocab scores.
I love it.
Great episode today.
And guys, if you love our style of teaching, go ahead and hit the follow button right here on the IELTS Energy podcast.
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So hit subscribe on IELTS Energy on our YouTube channel.
All right.
Yes.
I'm waving in case you're watching on YouTube.
You can see all our gestures and all that good stuff.
Sometimes it is easier to learn that way, right?
By just watching our gestures, watching us communicate with each other.
Don't you think?
Yes.
Right.
Especially if you're a visual learner, come check us out on YouTube.
IELTS Energy TV.
All right.
Great stuff.
Talk soon, Aubrey.
Bye.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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