Welcome to My IELTS Classroom, the podcast where two English experts talk all things IELTS.
I'm Shelley Cornick.
And I'm Nick Long.
And today we are looking at six recent IELTS essay questions from the real exams.
Which topics are new and which are repeated?
What ideas or arguments would Nick and I use if we had these questions in our exam?
And how difficult do we think the current questions are?
Good evening, Nick.
How are you?
Yeah, not so bad.
Thank you very much.
Had a long week and a long weekend.
How are you?
Oh, that's not good.
I've had a lovely weekend.
I came down to London to visit some friends, which is very nice.
I'm basically doing 10 days of cat sitting.
Very nice.
I've got two little boys here with me until this week, until Friday, for my best friend from university.
And then at the weekend, I'm going to go and start cat sitting because it's Easter, isn't it?
Next weekend.
So my sister's going away.
So I'm going to look after her four cats.
So I'm doubling from two to four.
It's cat crazy.
Yeah.
It's nice to be in London though, actually.
I haven't, you know, been here for 10 days for ages.
So I'm going to try and do some of the sites.
Yes.
Meet some friends.
It's all good.
So, Nick, before we begin today, I want to say some congratulations to some of our students.
Two who got a seven.
Well, not a seven overall.
They got much higher scores overall.
But in terms of writing, two who got a seven, which is Philip and Tonya.
Well done.
Very nice.
Very nice.
Right.
So seven is usually we're all happy.
We pat ourselves on the back.
Our job was done.
But we actually had three 7.5s this week.
Yes, as well.
So congratulations, Iris, Emily and Maya.
Particularly Maya, who absolutely needed a 75 to go on to register for the NHS Foundation to become a doctor.
So some absolutely cracking scores from our students.
And more importantly Nick, because we've got a lot of students at the moment sitting the exam.
We're getting a lot of reported questions.
We are.
So we are.
So that's what we're going to be looking at today.
So these are questions which actually it's questions that have been reported directly by our students.
So these are questions they've had in the last two or three weeks.
Wow.
Sitting the exam around different countries in the world.
So obviously we always say this.
You know, this is one of our most popular types of podcast episodes.
But in case we've got new listeners, let's just make this clear.
What we're going to be looking at today are edits of what the student remembers from their exam, so the general topic should be pretty much the same.
Hopefully, the wording will be sincere to the idea of the question right.
However, I can't guarantee that these are, word for word, exactly the same as the student had in the exam.
Because as we know, it's really difficult to remember things.
You know, if you've had a big exam, you know, when you come out, your adrenaline's really high.
You can probably just remember the idea, but not word for word.
So...
Always, always.
When you practice, you know if you're writing essays for your teacher or for an essay correction service, like Nick and I offer.
Always make sure that you're using essay questions or any type of questions from the actual Cambridge books.
Yes.
Because those are verified 100% real Cambridge questions.
What was the point then of today's lesson, Nick?
I wouldn't recommend the students use these for essay correction.
So why are we actually looking at these essay topics?
Well, we're just going to go through them and discuss potential ideas that we could have for these essays and definitely point out some of the pitfalls that students might fall into exactly.
So this is really a lesson where you're going to be able to practice idea generation, you're going to be able to practice thinking about organizing your essays um, And you're just going to be able to yeah, as Nick said, hear us discuss some of the problem areas that students might fall into.
I have to say there are, I think, in the six questions I've chosen today, a couple of really tricky ones.
We've got a couple of completely new topics.
Okay.
Yeah, I know.
I don't know where they keep coming up with these topics.
And we've got a couple of old friends let's call them who have changed their format a little bit right.
So maybe you've seen your old friend from school and they've lost a lot of weight, for example, something like that.
No, definitely not me nick, i'm telling you, especially not in london, um.
But that's the idea of today.
As always for this type of lesson, you can just keep listening and go straight into nick and i, you know, giving you our ideas.
But the point is, nick and i luckily don't actually need to sit the ielts test.
You do so it's going to be far more beneficial if, before you start listening to nick and i, you pause this video.
I always say that you pause this podcast And spend I don't know 10 or 15 minutes looking at these questions, maybe two or three minutes per question.
Yep.
And just think, okay, what would my ideas be?
How would I organize this?
If it's asking for your opinion, what would your opinion be?
Why?
Really, you know you've got this is a great opportunity to to plan and think about ideas for six real exam questions, right?
So you know that is kind of a golden opportunity.
Don't waste it.
It's easy to listen.
It's much more difficult to do.
All right, so maybe pause the podcast now, make a cup of tea, do something nice, but really put the time and effort in, because then when you come back and you listen to Nick and I, you're going to be able to see which ideas you had that were the same, which were different.
And if you fell down any of the sort of usual holes or if you found, you know, what can I say?
Fell foul of some of the problem areas with these questions.
All right.
So with that said.
Hopefully you are now coming back with a notebook full of lovely ideas for these questions.
So Nick, we will start with question number one.
Do you want to have a read of that question for us?
Okay.
Number one then.
So some people think that water is the most important natural resource.
Others believe that other resources like oil and gold are more important.
Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
So the format, you know, the type of question, obviously, IELTS classic, discuss both views.
This is definitely a new topic.
Yep, it is natural resources.
Now, really quickly out of interest.
Would you expect this to be a general training or an academic question?
It's an academic question, i think.
Yeah, so would I, But it wasn't.
This was from a general training.
So that in itself really surprised me.
Right.
Because I feel that this definitely feels much more like an academic question.
It's less day to day life and more kind of like the world around us.
I'm going to say, is this really a discuss both sides question or is this the best way question?
Well, this is the other thing, right?
So they do have discussed both sides questions like this, which is sort of a hybrid of a best way.
So here it's saying water is the most important natural resource.
So it's not saying it's important.
It's saying it's the most important number one.
And then the second view is that there are other resources that are more important.
And this is what I think is quite tricky about this question, because I don't know like they've used this question before.
I think there's a question about the environment.
So some people say that loss of species is the biggest environmental problem.
Other people say that there are other environmental problems that are more serious.
Mm-hmm.
That kind of format is quite common, actually.
But the interesting thing for me is, 99 of the time when you've got that format, I would encourage students to always agree with the view that says that there are other things which are, I don't know, most important or most serious things.
Just because you know, for the previous question, for example yes, species loss is important, but we've been losing species for hundreds of years.
Maybe climate change, do you know what I mean, would be something we would consider more important.
For this question, though, Nick, if we've got to compare water to other resources...
Which side would you encourage or which side are you personally inclined to agree with?
I think it's going to be very difficult to say that water is not the most important resource.
So do I. Which is why I think this is really tricky.
But my question was really based around the idea that they've given us two examples like oil and gold.
Does that mean we should discuss oil and gold, or are they just giving us suggestions for what other resources could be?
So I'm now thinking that maybe very good point, and this is why you should not even you know, I am a certified exam writer.
This is why reported questions, you need to be very careful.
I'm now wondering if we've had this discussion before, haven't we?
When IELTS gives us examples in brackets, like such as.
Mm-hmm.
I think that they are just giving you an idea or a clue what the other resources are.
So I don't think it has to be limited to oil and gold.
You know, I'm not sure.
What would we call people who study natural resources?
Like geologists, would it be?
I guess so, yeah.
Yeah.
What other resources they are.
I mean, my inclination for this goes against everything I would usually teach.
Yeah.
And just to say it's going to be water, I guess.
Yeah, to be able to make that decision, the first thing we need to do is actually think what makes these things important.
Right.
All right.
So why don't we start then?
We're really looking for two arguments that, For each of you, water is going to be the easiest because we've only got one natural resource to focus on there, I guess.
So it's all about water.
So off the top of your head, Nick, I mean, what arguments would we have for water?
We need it for life.
Exactly.
Life can't carry on without it.
I mean, it's pretty important, isn't it? just paragraph one, no water, no life next.
Exactly.
No life can't carry on actually.
So I guess if you've you know what I always say is, if you've got one big idea like no water, no life, we probably need to separate that into sort of smaller.
Right, like into two parts.
So if we need to sort of think about the connection between water and life, what?
How could we divide that?
Maybe like two arguments.
One of them is definitely going to be sustenance, that what that humans need.
So we need to drink it, we need to, we need it to grow food, i guess Yeah, could we do those as two separate ones?
I guess we could actually, couldn't we?
We could do it as one part is that we need it for day-to-day sustenance.
We need to drink water.
Yes.
Otherwise we get dehydrated.
Yes.
Otherwise we get sick very easily.
Yes.
And then the second argument could be that we actually need water to grow food as well.
I think that's the two.
Which is sort of more long-term sustainability of humankind.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah, and I mean, you've used some great vocabulary there already, like dehydration.
I would say, you know, we're talking about water to feed us as well.
We could talk about, you know, words like crops, irrigation.
Mm-hmm.
Also, like, the animals that we eat also need water, don't they?
Yeah, so...
I mean, I'm sure that I mean again, if you don't know anything about water.
I mean that's kind of embarrassing, isn't it?
I feel like this is something we should study.
Everyone should know something about, yeah.
What's water?
If you don't know, you could obviously Google something for other ideas.
But I mean, I would say those.
I think if we divided it between sort of like the human need, you know, like water, people you know need water first, beyond anything, don't they?
And talk about dehydration, maybe drought um, and then talk about we need it to grow food, what's an idea?
So the student who had this question in their exam, they said one of their ideas for water was that water um, or places with water, are important centres for tourism.
Would that be relevant for this?
Well, I mean, most cities are either built on a coastline or on a river, so kind of true.
True, but I'm not sure in this one.
If you're talking about important resource, a natural resource, I guess you know when you think water, the main thing is that, like you say, no water, no life.
I guess if we're talking about water as a resource, we could talk about dams and hydroelectric power and reservoirs maybe.
Right.
So they also sustain.
I mean, no water, no life.
If we wanted to get into a more sort of using water for energy.
Yes, you could do that.
Then we could talk about dams and reservoirs and hydroelectricity and stuff like that.
Yes, and also, I guess, the thing about water.
Well, maybe we'll come back to that in the next one then.
So if we think about other resources, I think the problem here is we've got to think about arguments that summarize the importance of all the other resources so you don't just want to focus on oil or gold yeah or i mean you might want to but let's think then about you know what makes the other resources important I think this is going to be, if we focus on, let's say, we could have one that talks about fossil fuels.
Right.
So gas, coal, and oil, which are important for sustaining our modern way of life.
Yes.
And we could use that as an argument.
I mean, we're not going to die without them.
Yeah.
But the quality of life would be much lower without them.
Right.
So we'd still be alive, but we would be going.
We sort of be going backwards in terms of development.
Good.
Yeah.
And then I guess maybe you could talk about precious metals.
That's the other one.
So, on the one hand, you've got things like gold and silver, which is used for currency, or at least to define currency maybe, if it's not actual currency itself.
And you could also talk about things like the sort of precious metals that go into modern technology.
I was thinking about that as well because there are like, I can't actually remember.
What is it that we use in sort of computer processes and silicon, right?
Oh, Silicon Valley, literally.
Yeah.
Yeah, and a lot of our medical equipment relies on sort of particular resources like helium, I think.
A word which has come into my mind or something I'm thinking of a bit globally I'm not sure which we put it in is that?
I guess water is a renewable resource, right?
So we can clean water.
It rains.
I mean, this is another basic question, Nick.
When it rains, we're just getting the old water back again, aren't we?
Isn't it the water that's like evaporated... Into the sky.
Up to the sky and back.
So I guess the water is kind of like.
I guess the difference between the other resources and water is that the other resources are kind of scarce or finite.
Like once they've gone, they've gone.
Or it will take thousands of years to get them back.
Whereas at least water can be cleaned.
You can even use seawater for drinking if you clean it properly.
Yes.
So desalination.
I mean, goodness, if you could use that.
Now, that might be a much more philosophical approach to this essay.
You know sort of a very, very high level student might want to talk about, you know, the non-recyclability or the recyclability of water.
Yeah.
And the finite of the other one, which maybe you might say something that's finite or can't be replaced, is more important, right.
Because once it's gone, it's gone.
So that could be an argument for the other resources.
So, actually talking about it, I suppose you could actually agree with i i mean, you could.
In any essay you can agree with either side, but i thought it might be easier surprisingly, for this one to agree with water.
Yeah, it's the most important.
But actually having discussed it with you, i think there are good arguments for the other resources as well.
Yeah, like you said, like yes, we'll be alive, but our quality of life won't.
Wouldn't be as high Um, and the scarcity.
I don't know.
What do you think about that question, Nick?
It's a good one.
I mean, it's terrible as a general training question because it's going to stump a lot of people.
I think.
Yeah.
I mean, the general training topics tend to be more.
Friendly.
Well, friendly, right.
So sort of you know things that focus more on sort of you know, family culture, that type of thing, which is you know.
When this student emailed it to me, I had to say what was your task.
One question, because I thought she was a general training student and I thought I got it wrong.
But no, she said it was a letter.
So it was definitely.
So in terms of difficulty, I think this is high.
Very high.
Yeah, I'd put this up at like an 8, 9, 10 probably.
Yeah, probably maximum difficulty.
In terms of interest and kind of... Opportunity for vocabulary is also a 10.
Yes, right.
It is, isn't it?
That's right, Nick.
And I do feel that sometimes with the general training questions although the questions can be a bit friendlier sometimes because the topics are a lot simpler, I think for high level students it can make it difficult um, for them to show their range of vocabulary.
Yeah right, if they're talking about, i don't know, you know, apartments versus houses, right.
There's not such a uh, the opportunity for sort of sophisticated lexis, but here there definitely is however, for lower level students, and a struggle Yeah, students who just need a five to go to university.
This could be a difficult one, I think.
Okay, so let's move on then.
Let's look at the second question, which is no easier.
Mm-hmm.
Number two, too much emphasis is placed on education.
More government money should be spent on providing free time activities.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Okay, so this one was an academic question.
Yeah, not surprised.
Yeah.
So, I mean, obviously the actual question is quite easy to understand.
I don't think anybody would go off topic with this question, which is what can happen when you've got an agree, disagree question.
Yeah.
I don't know, Nick, off the top of your head, would you agree with this or disagree with this?
I mean, it's really, it's difficult to say.
I would probably have to sit down and think about ideas and arguments for both sides.
Inclination right at the beginning is to disagree.
Sorry, it's to agree.
Sorry, it's to agree.
Agree.
Is it to agree?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
So I'm coming at it from a more academic versus practical skills kind of thing.
Okay.
So, if I kind of reinterpret what the question is saying, too much emphasis is placed on academia and more government money should be spent on.
I struggle to think that this question actually said free time activities.
This is what I'm also wondering as well.
But this student's very, very good, which makes me feel that that probably is the wording, but I'm not sure.
I guess one of the key things here is going to be defining what free time activities are.
Because if it is stuff like board games or something like that, then I would probably disagree with the question.
But if it was like building things, teaching skills, like language classes, for example, then it would be much easier to agree with that.
Yeah, i'm wondering if it was.
I'm wondering if the free time activities are my okay, i think this is great.
So i think the first thing, what we're obviously struggling with is what are free time activities?
So I guess we're going to have to define that as the first step to knowing your opinion.
The first thing that came into my mind.
There was more things like sports club, fitness stuff, sort of like community activities, like choirs, craft stuff like that.
In which case I would agree still.
Yes, now I've done that, I would as well, because I guess... I guess...
Those free time activities.
Well, what are those free?
I mean, we know what education is providing, don't we?
Yeah.
Right.
So I guess what are those free time activities giving us?
A sense of community, friendship.
Yeah.
Which we don't have anything of at the moment, really.
Right.
Exactly.
So it's more about well-being, maybe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I guess... All right.
So let's imagine then that we are going to agree.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then, I guess the other thing we have to do is So, now that we've sort of understood what free time activities are, we're going to have to make sure, I guess, in our essay, that we are comparing the importance of those free time activities to education.
Because in a way, this is a comparison essay, isn't it?
So we're comparing education with free time activities.
For that reason...
I you know.
Obviously we could just have two arguments why free time activity are more important, why we agree or not more important, or why they should have more.
Funds.
Emphasis.
Yeah.
You know, reason one, reason two.
So that could literally be, couldn't it?
Like health could be the first one.
So it could be more investment in gyms, encouraging people to go outside.
The second one could be community.
We live in an isolated world, blah, blah, blah.
So if we do that approach, how are we going to focus or how are we going to include the comparison to education?
I guess well, when you're talking about community, I definitely think you could say you could write about what they've said here that too much emphasis is placed on education.
So you could maybe mention that children maybe worked a little bit too hard in school.
A lot of emphasis is placed on getting a university education at all costs, which means people...
Only really have time to study and to maybe work as well part time, and they don't have enough time to focus on other areas of life.
Yeah.
For example.
Right.
Yeah.
And hence why.
And you can also.
Sorry.
Yeah, sorry.
No, I was just thinking that if you talk about education, not everybody is academically minded, are they?
Yep.
Yeah, so like not everybody benefits from, that could be a good argument.
Not everybody benefits from the emphasis placed on education, whereas everybody would have an equal opportunity to benefit from the provision of free time activities.
Yeah.
Yes, we could do some sort of, so you could add some sort of balance, I guess, you know, because the obvious thing, I mean, if we were going to disagree and say, no, we should focus on education, what would the arguments, you know, why is it necessary to focus on education?
Why is that a good thing?
Well, we could say that having a good education gives a person more opportunities.
And they can spend their time, once they've finished education, however they choose to.
If they want to engage in free time activities, they're free to choose to.
I think that they would be my two arguments.
I think the first one would be an education.
You know, not only benefits the individual, who can then get a better job, but it also benefits the society because it's going to be more developed.
And then my second paragraph would be you know People, you know anybody can choose to do, or you know if they've got that money.
People themselves can spend money on free time activities or there's nothing stopping an educated person having free time activities.
And that might be an easier essay to write.
Yeah.
So how would you, if you were going to?
Then, if you were going to agree with this Nick, what would your two paragraphs be?
Mine, as I said, would be the health one and then maybe the community one.
No, I would do the same.
I think that that's a good approach.
Yeah, definitely.
Um, focus on health specifically things like swimming pools, gyms, especially like subsidized gyms.
Cause gyms are very, very expensive.
Yeah.
Usually, uh, memberships are very expensive.
So if you had like gyms in schools, for example.
That students could use, or in colleges.
Or, if you could, you could have a gym that is in a public building like a school or a college, but members of the community can get a discount if they live close by or something like that, rather than you know going to go into a private gym.
Definitely.
So for health, that.
And then, yeah, community as well.
Organising local community events.
Getting the people who live there to know each other better and take part in various... Yeah.
I think people today are really isolated.
Like, you know, we've got a decent education level in our country anyway, right?
So why do we keep on focusing on that?
Maybe it's time to focus on the other problem areas, which is like isolation, lack of community.
I do think that there could be an argument here for doing a bit of a best way approach, which is like yes, education is important, paragraph one.
However yeah, There are other aspects of life that would definitely benefit, and then have that.
I wouldn't recommend that unless you've done a lot of preparation or I've got a lot of guidance, because you could easily get that one wrong.
I don't really want to usually dedicate a paragraph to the opposite view.
But I actually suppose it's not, I think that's quite an interesting question.
It's a good one.
I like it, yeah.
Maybe not quite as difficult as the first one, but it's still quite hard, I think, that one.
I think it's quite hard, as you said, defining what free time activities are and then making sure that your arguments are kind of comparing education to the other things.
It's good.
All right.
Let's have a read then of question number three.
Mm-hmm.
Celebrities and famous people require constant attention from the media, newspapers and internet.
Do you agree or disagree?
Right.
So this one is a general training question.
Of course, talking about celebrities.
Exactly.
But it's a bit of a strange one, isn't it, Nick?
Do you know what?
It reminds me of?
The one that we have on our course about?
Being a celebrity has benefits as well as negatives.
Do the benefits outweigh the negatives?
Right.
A little bit like that.
Well, it's definitely an old topic, right?
IELTS love, particularly for general training, famous people.
Is their life difficult or is it hard?
That's what concerns me because what is the key word in this question, Nick?
Like the word, which I think it doesn't look like it's the key word, but if students misunderstand this, they could easily go.
Right.
Well, I think it's require constant attention.
Mm-hmm.
So is this question.
I guess is this question asking us do famous people have attention from the media?
No, it's different.
No, it's not.
So this is not a question that's like oh yes, poor famous people, they don't have any private life.
Would an argument like they don't have a private life be relevant here?
No, it's not.
It's not relevant at all actually, no.
So what, what?
What would help us?
What do we need to understand to get inside this question?
If you can be a famous person yeah, without any media attention exactly, exactly that is exactly the question.
So i think to answer this to, to sort of think about your opinion, you just want to think do I know any famous people who don't constantly have some kind of media attention, media attention?
So that's the first thing I would do.
So, you know, is it necessary?
If I'm kind of struggling to understand or to think of examples of people who are famous, then you know the answer to the question, don't you?
So the only question is yes.
But then the next question you've got to ask yourself is why do they need that constant attention?
So gut reaction, Nick, obviously I've seen these questions before because I've looked at them.
I would agree with this one probably.
Yeah.
I think that's the only logical answer.
I think it would be much more difficult to argue that they don't require constant attention.
No, because you could think of maybe some specific examples, but sort of understanding what is it that those people are doing to be famous?
That doesn't require media attention?
Mm-hmm. would be very complicated, right, I think.
So if we think about you know, I think most people you know when we're talking about famous people or celebrities, we kind of think of music stars, social media stars, film stars.
I guess the question is then is we need two arguments.
I can only think of one.
Right.
Which is that, obviously, being in, now this is a really useful word for this, right?
The public eye.
The public eye, the press rather than the media, right?
Being in the press, I guess, if you are a famous person, is a form of advertising really, isn't it?
Yeah, it's true.
So you know, every time somebody appears in a newspaper, on a TV show, in the internet, they're reminding the public that they exist and they're sort of keeping their celebrity.
I guess to be a famous, yes, like they're sort of keeping, what is it?
They're, what do you call someone?
They are remaining a household name.
That's a really nice.
So they're keeping in the public attention, I guess.
And therefore people are more likely to.
People are going to recognize them and therefore are more likely to watch their films, buy their products, you know, listen to their music.
So it's all sort of about.
You know there is that I please do not use proverbs or idioms in your in your writing.
But there is that proverb that says, what is it?
No, is this where like no press coverage is bad coverage or?
There's no such thing as bad press.
There's no such thing as bad press.
Thank you, Nick.
Yeah.
So you know it doesn't matter if you are in the news for I don't know, saving a baby from a car crash or because you've got a drug addiction.
To be honest, if you had a drug addiction, you'd probably be more famous than if you saved a baby from a car crash.
Right.
It's very true.
Yeah.
So my first argument would basically be the media is a kind of like a way of advertising.
Now, don't get me wrong.
These people are not paying to be paid.
They're not paying to advertise themselves.
Well, they might be.
That's a bit different.
But the idea is, being in the papers or being in the news or being in the press reminds people that you are there and therefore yes, you remain a household name, and then people are going to be more likely to like, buy your products or watch your film.
So it's going to maintain your celebrity status.
But that's the only idea i've got, nick.
Have you got another one?
No, it's a tricky one, this one, i think maybe what you could talk.
I mean, it's kind of similar, but you could say that people who sort of step away from the limelight yeah, it's a nice phrase um, they do become less famous.
Yeah, people get forgotten easily, don't they?
Yeah, so that could maybe be the second argument.
And you could maybe talk about sort of retired footballers from the 90s.
There's going to be...
A part of the population that remembers Neil Ruddock and Ian Dowie and Julian Dix and all these like old English players.
But the number of people that remember them and know who they are, their fame, sort of dies down with the population as the population gets older.
Right, I think that's brilliant.
So I think what you've done there is really clever.
So it's about time and generations and that, and that you need to keep going so that the next generation
With the constant part.
Right.
So in the short, so it could even be short term and long term.
Two different arguments.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
We've got there then.
So the short term, you know it needs you just to keep your level of fame up in the short term so that you can
Sell your products, essentially, because that's what famous people are trying to do.
When I say sell products, I don't mean celebrity endorsement.
I mean, sell their own concert tickets.
You know, get money from being in...
Well, yes, sell their opinions.
Yeah, get money from having their photo taken in Hello magazine.
I mean, cash in on their celebrity status.
And in the long term, as you said.
You know, it doesn't take very long for somebody to become unknown to the next generation, does it?
Yeah.
Oh, well done.
Okay.
I mean, to disagree...
Then you would have to.
As I said, that would rely on you being able to think about celebrities who don't have concert attention.
But I mean, maybe sports stars?
I mean, yeah.
But I mean, I gave the example of these aren't the most famous sports stars.
Yeah.
You could maybe talk about people from history.
Because they don't technically have constant media attention.
People like Shakespeare, like Queen Victoria, like, I don't know, Peter the First.
Peter the Great.
That's really true, actually.
So there are lots of famous people out there.
So historical famous people are not constantly in the press.
They just sort of pop up every now and then.
I mean, God.
But I mean, can you think of, I mean if you can come up with a second one?
I don't, I mean, we could, but the point is, in the exam we've got two minutes, haven't we?
Yeah, so think of ideas.
It's much easier to agree with this question, I think.
Much easier to agree.
But even you can see here, like how many, how...
Much went through Nick and I's brain there to get to those two arguments.
So if you're just grabbing the first things you think of, if you've answered the previous questions Nick, as you said, that you know, do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for celebrities and you're grabbing those old ideas, I don't think any of them no, none of them, are going to help you here.
You've got to really get inside the question, think about it OK, cool.
All right.
So let's I like this next question.
Let's have a look at number four.
Many students find it harder to study at university or college than when they were at school.
What are the reasons for this and what can be done to solve the issue?
I like this question.
Really?
Well, yeah, because I actually... Well, I'll tell you why I like it.
My personal experience matches this question.
Because I definitely did find it harder to study at university than at school.
So I like this because I think it actually connects to my personal experience.
And it might connect to the personal experience of... Someone who's answering the question.
Yeah.
Now, this was an academic question.
Yeah, it doesn't surprise me.
Yeah.
So I guess the key to this, I mean what you've got to really ask yourself.
I mean, I know we need to know what are the reasons, but I think to think of the reasons, the easiest way to do this is just think OK, what is different when you study at school to studying at university or college?
And what might make it therefore difficult or more difficult to study at university.
So what have you got for that, Nick, off the top of your head?
More independence.
100%.
What do you mean by that?
I understand what you mean.
So you're responsible for doing everything.
And if you don't do a task, like an essay or an assignment, you don't get punished.
You get a low mark and that's it.
Yes.
The university is still getting paid either way, so they don't care.
They don't care.
Exactly.
So I mean, I think, more independence, or even maybe, because to give the problem, maybe it might be less supervision.
Mm hmm. might be a better way of saying the same thing.
Because at school, and again, we want to be making comparisons here between school and university.
At school, your teachers, aren't they?
They're on your back.
Where's your homework?
You're getting punished.
You get detention.
You know, it's noticed if you don't do things.
But at university...
No one will know that you're not, well, they will notice.
I think I told you once before Nick, I've got a letter at home that says from my university tutor that just says dear Michelle, are you intending to attend any classes this semester?
Yeah.
Because I didn't go to any, right?
But you couldn't do that at school, could you?
Because the teachers are there.
They're, you know, they're doing registration.
Definitely, that is the first one.
What would a second reason be?
Hmm.
Shall I give you mine?
Go on, go for it.
I think Well, if I'm thinking about what you're doing at university and what you're doing at school, it might just simply be that the the, the content of the course, like the course material, is much more difficult at university or more advanced.
I would offer that as as an easier.
You know that's a relatively easy um idea, isn't it?
For maybe a lower level student?
Um, can you think of anything else?
Um Oh, I've got one.
Go on.
Maybe it could be as well that at school, like most people who are at school, are sort of like living in the family home.
Yeah.
So the only thing they have to focus on is, you know, doing their homework.
But when you go to university or college, at least... Yeah, you need to... Yeah.
Cook, you need to clean.
Right.
You need to spend 10 hours a day with your friends drinking.
Yeah, on personal experience, that is very true.
You have to manage your finances, which is difficult if you're spending 10 hours a day with your friends drinking, yeah.
So I mean, I do think there's sort of like other things you have to sort of well yeah, do more life things as well.
Can you figure anything else?
No, I think there are three pretty good ideas.
I think, I mean, you only need two, right?
Yeah.
So I mean, I definitely think the independence, like nobody's watching you, that should definitely be there.
Mm-hmm.
And then maybe also I quite like the one about you know you're away from home or you've got That's kind of, because it's different.
I guess it's not about the academic thing.
Also, if you do, you know, if you're in this situation in the exam and your brain comes up with three reasons.
One way to help you decide which reasons you're going to keep is that.
The second question is what can be done to solve the issue.
So you want to think, well, which of the problems could I offer a quick and easy solution for?
So the less supervision, Nick, or more independence, what could be a solution to that problem?
It's quite a tricky one.
I mean, the only thing I think of is that people need to take more responsibility for their themselves.
Yeah, maybe sort of like creating a study plan, maybe.
Yeah, individuals need to take more responsibility, and when you're doing a solutions essay, individuals taking more responsibility is often a very good solution to pretty much any problem.
That's true, actually.
Yeah, and then just outlining what that would look like, I mean, maybe sort of like joining together with other students.
Do you know what I mean?
In order to have like a study group to keep keeping yourself accountable.
I think would be quite good.
So more personal accountability, maybe having a study plan, working with a group of you together, so that there are people watching you.
That group's actually quite a good solution for that problem.
What about the second one about the sort of the level of the actual content, the academic content?
Is there anything we could do to solve that?
I mean, not really.
I guess you could ask or you could suggest that students ask for help when they need it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Not be afraid basically to go and speak to the tutors and the lecturers and ask for guidance if they, if they're struggling with something.
I think that's great.
And again, that's a really good example of how you can't always solve difficult problems in an IELTS essay.
Literally saying ask for help is a solution to that problem, right?
I think that's true.
And then what about the sort of, you know, people living away from home, not near their parents, having to do, you know, not just academic?
I guess one thing could be that parents could help their children prepare for university and make and like give them more independence when they're 16, like make them start paying bills, for example, or doing jobs around the house Brilliant.
I have nothing else to add.
I think that's an incredible solution.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
So you know.
So, if you've got more, if you can think of more than two reasons for any trend you know, chuck down all the you know the ones that you can think of.
But then, to help you select, think of the solutions.
What, you know, what are the best combination of causes and solutions?
Cause you know, it's not just the first paragraph that's important.
It's the second one as well.
Yeah, I mean, I think Nick's solution there is brilliant.
So I might go for that argument purely because I love your solution.
Okay.
How difficult do you think that one is, Nick, then compared to the others?
That's pretty hard.
I think particularly the solutions are quite hard.
And I think if you don't click onto how school and university is different, it might be hard to come up with the causes.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think again, you know lots of students look for really big solutions to problems, don't they?
The government must do this.
Yeah.
Government change.
The government's not going to help you write your essay at 2 am on a Thursday evening when it's due Friday morning.
So these solutions need to just be things which are actionable by students, by parents.
What can you actually do to help you?
These are small things.
And I think asking for help is a great one.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, brilliant.
So let's move on then to our fifth question today.
Nick, would you like to read question number five for us?
Many places of natural beauty, like mountains, lakes and beaches, are spoiled by the rubbish that people leave there.
Why do people do this?
What can be done about this problem?
So it's our topic of rubbish.
It seems to be in the moment.
They are.
Are they sponsored by some sort of like green Australia or green Cambridge?
Lots of lots of.
The questions are about, you know, what damage does the rubbish do?
That kind of thing.
This question is a bit different though, isn't it?
Yeah.
Why do people do this is quite a... Yes.
And also not just general rubbish.
Mm-hmm.
But places of natural beauty, like mountains, lakes and beaches.
And I do think... They're giving you a big clue with this, I think, aren't they?
Well, they are.
So I would say, to get inside these questions, we're not just thinking about people throwing away rubbish which you might have ideas about from previous essays.
Don't do that.
Don't grab the first thing that comes into your head.
Focus on places of natural beauty.
So nick, if we think about that my, my place would be.
Well, why are people, what are people doing at these places of natural beauty having a good time?
They're having a good time.
They're probably having a picnic, aren't they?
Or they're having, you know, drinks or eat.
I guess the waste tends to be food wrappers, drinks containers.
So why do people leave those things in these places of natural beauty?
Well, my first solution is lack of infrastructure, Exactly.
Not solution, first reason, sorry.
Yeah.
And in this case, what would that infrastructure be?
Bins.
There's just not enough bins, is there?
Yeah.
I mean, that is, I think, often a problem.
And even if there are bins, there usually aren't enough.
Yeah.
And so people place rubbish, you know, at the top of bins.
Which are already full.
Yeah.
Or next to bins and that gets blown away back into nature.
So I would say definitely.
I mean...
I wanted to use a very bad word, which we're not allowed to use on the podcast.
But, you know, why do people do this?
Some people are just idiots, aren't they?
They're just lazy and they don't care.
But that is... Could you have that as an argument?
I mean, you could, I suppose, have that as an argument.
But I mean, I think it would be quite difficult in an academic essay to kind of extend that.
Yeah.
I mean, the solution is obviously to the solution for that could be better education.
Yes.
Signposting signage.
Yes.
Basically reminding people that they need to recycle and not throw rubbish away.
Right.
And brilliant.
And what I like about that is you haven't just said educate the people, which is you know.
That seems to be the solution to every problem going.
It's not just education, you know, educating them but maybe reminding them at the point where the rubbish is happening.
Right.
That's the key thing.
Having signs.
Yeah.
Fine.
Three hundred pounds littering.
Don't be a litter bug.
Exactly.
Yeah, don't kill that seal.
Don't kill the birds with your rubbish.
So I guess lack of... I agree.
I think most of the time this happens is because people just There's not enough bins, there is there.
What would a second reason be, though?
Maybe you could.
You mentioned picnics yeah, yeah.
So maybe a solution could be to restrict food and drink.
Oh wow, what in those places?
Non-picnic area please do not eat on the beach, enjoy this, enjoy the beauty.
But i mean it could be.
But yeah, but it is.
It's an idea and a solution, i guess?
Yeah, but i'm guessing like, why do people do?
It is because there's not enough bins.
Oh, are you saying because people are eating there?
Yeah because, but then?
But then why do they throw the rubbish away?
Why don't they take it with them?
Yeah, that's not the reason why they do that, isn't it?
No, you're right, Maybe we can do.
So, I mean, I think you could definitely do there's a lack of infrastructure.
And also you could do the people don't.
Maybe it's not that they don't care or that they're idiots, which is what I want to say.
But maybe it's more that just people don't realize how devastating the effect of their rubbish is.
Yes.
Yeah.
On the natural environment.
And then we could have the signs which show them.
You know so because you know the obvious solution to less bins is to provide more bins.
Not just not to provide them, but also, you know, clean them or empty them more regularly.
Mm hmm.
I'm kind of shocked because I live opposite a really nice huge area like not even a park but like a common
And there's a lot of benches on the edge with bins and those bins are emptied every week.
Hmm. which is why they don't overflow.
Right.
So I do think sort of like not just having more but emptying them and then educating people or having a fine.
Um, My head's thinking, I don't know why, because of mountains.
I know that there is a lot, a lot of rubbish.
I've been watching a lot of.
Have you ever seen any YouTube videos, Nick or documentaries about climbing large mountains like Everest?
Not really, no.
I don't know why I seem to go in lockdown.
I've tended to watch a lot of videos and I know that on those huge mountains there is an incredible amount of waste.
Yeah.
I mean, and also human waste actually.
Purely because it's just impossible to carry it all back down.
Yeah.
So they're going up and they're just not able to carry everything with them.
But I don't think you could have that as an argument in the essay.
So maybe it's as simple as that then.
Not enough infrastructure and people don't understand the damage... that's done by.
Yeah.
Why else would there be rubbish in place of natural beauty?
All I can think of is food and drink wrappers.
Yeah, but I guess that's going to be it, isn't it?
Yeah.
So I think that's it.
I mean that's kind of interesting because it's almost like a limited you know number of arguments for that one.
In terms of difficulty then, what do we think of this?
It's pretty hard.
I mean, to think of two good ideas and two good solutions to those ideas is...
I think it's easy to fall back on simple ideas on that one.
Difficult to get inside the question as you like to say.
Yes, I think you've got to think, why are people at the places of natural beauty?
So it's not.
You know we're not.
People aren't throwing away.
You know they're not throwing away old mobile phones, are they?
Or cars or, you know, big pieces of rubbish.
It's purely going to be litter.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't know.
Yeah, I agree.
I think it's easier than some of the others, but I think there are a limited number of relevant arguments.
So there's not much to choose from.
And I do worry that people are just going to start talking about rubbish in general and not about rubbish at natural places of beauty.
Yeah.
Okay, Nick, let's move on then to the final question, number six.
The final question is, in many cities and towns today, only a few people know their neighbours.
What are the effects of this trend and what can be done to resolve the issue?
So another problem-cause solution, I say.
Yeah.
We've got problems and solutions this time.
Exactly.
And this is the carbon copy.
I mean, it's almost identical to a previous Cambridge question, which is exactly the same trend.
Many people today do not know their neighbours.
But it was why is this, wasn't it?
Yes.
In the Cambridge book, it's asking for the cause of the trend.
And in this one, it's asking for the effects of the trend.
How many students who sat that exam do you think probably wrote about the causes?
Probably quite a few, to be honest.
I'd say about 25 percent.
They probably because they just expect for these essays cause solution.
Yeah. and not affect solution.
So this is a great example of where you've got to read the question carefully.
I actually think though, if you do read the question carefully, I think giving the effects of not knowing your neighbours is easier than giving the reasons for not knowing your neighbours.
I would say
So what would you say if you don't know the people in your street, what effect could that have?
Or in your building?
Um, so a less sort of connected community yeah, i think.
I think something about isolation, more isolation, yeah.
Low community spirit yes, which means that people don't want to help when something goes wrong.
Right,
So you've got.
For example, if a burglar alarm's going off in a tight-knit community, everybody rushes out to see what the problem is.
Yeah.
In a disaffected neighborhood, people are going to be like, oh, God, it's going off again.
What are they doing?
Right.
Yeah, it just becomes the background noise, doesn't it?
Mm-hmm.
I think that's definitely true.
Definitely true.
So we could actually have I mean to simplify your argument, which is it could just be sort of like, you know, for a lower level student, just increasing crime is kind of what we're saying.
There isn't there.
Or sort of...
Um, yeah.
So yeah, I mean, I think that's it.
I think people feel less isolated.
Funny enough, Nick.
Coming to London this weekend, called a taxi, was supposed to come at three o'clock.
My train was at 3.27.
At ten past three, there was still no taxi.
Oh dear.
And I was really panicking.
How did I get to the train station?
Neighbour.
Knocked on my neighbour's door.
She gave me a lift in her car.
Excellent.
Well done.
So yeah.
So I do think that.
I mean, I think sort of like people feel isolated, more lonely, like sort of like the personal effects.
And also there's less community spirit.
Which leads to sort of more breakdown and stuff like that.
Yeah, sort of more anti-social behavior.
So maybe more graffiti.
People don't take care of things in the local area as much because they don't feel part of it.
Less likely to report a crime or look out for your neighbor's stuff.
Brilliant.
Yeah.
I mean, some people who live in, you know, we're talking from an English perspective.
Some people might be like oh, imagine it'd be lovely if your neighbors didn't talk to you all the time.
It'd be more relaxing.
So I don't know.
But for me, it's all negative effects, really.
Now the next question is the same as the old Cambridge question, and I've always struggled with this.
So what can be done to resolve the issue?
How can we help people get to know their neighbors better?
Well, you got the old classic, set up a neighborhood watch or something like that.
Yeah, so like, yes, sort of like set up local community groups.
Community meetings once a week or something like that, once every fortnight.
You can discuss issues.
On my street there is a WhatsApp and I know this is quite common now in England there tend to be sort of areas that have WhatsApp groups.
Yeah, I've heard about that, yeah.
Yeah.
So sort of like in your area if you move in you get added.
And then you know it might say things like at Christmas, no bins being taken this week because of Christmas, not until next week, or things that are happening.
So some something which could create a sense of community in terms of a group right so, whether or not that's a facebook group or a whatsapp group or something like that yeah um, what else could be events?
Yeah, right.
So sort of what sort of events like... Street parties.
A street party.
Which we had during the Jubilee, didn't we?
We did actually.
In some places.
Yeah.
I like the idea of having community spaces.
So I always like it when there's a community garden, for example.
Where people can sort of go, like everyone can share the same space.
Yeah.
By choice.
Force everybody to get a dog so that they meet each other walking the dog.
Dog park.
Dogs for all.
Yeah, exactly.
Also, again, a bit like your solution to the university college one, just ask for help.
I quite like it if a student just says when people move to a new area they should introduce themselves.
Yeah, knock on the neighbor's door.
You know, do small things i always put out and you know, if the bins have been collected and they're outside the front door, i'll put my neighbor's bins away for them.
Just small acts of sort of generosity really, maybe.
So you don't have to have big solutions sometimes to problems.
Like you said, just introducing yourself when you move to a new neighborhood.
Yeah.
I still think that is a difficult question.
I don't know why.
It's not an easy one.
I agree with you there.
I think the solutions to that problem are always a bit difficult because they're a bit woolly.
They're not clear and easy to write.
That's true.
But of all the questions today, I mean, how does that compare?
Easier?
I do think that's on the harder side, but definitely the first question is the hardest.
Yes, the natural resources yeah, I totally agree.
I'd even say actually the second most difficult would be the famous people require constant attention.
The celebrity one is also pretty hard, to be honest.
Yes, so you know.
There unusually, the two most difficult questions were both general training questions.
Oh, there you go.
Did you have the same ideas as us?
Were your ideas different?
Did you misunderstand any of the questions?
Right.
That is the biggest thing that, you know, if that's the worst mistake you can make.
That's the thing that's going to hold you back the most, isn't it?
Yeah.
So you know, getting inside the questions, noticing how much attention Nick and I pay to all the words, coming up with things that really focus on this specific question and not just the general ideas which appear for these topics.
Brilliant.
So, Nick, it's Easter next weekend.
Are we going to have an episode over Easter or are we going to have a week off?
I'm not sure.
I guess that's up to you.
That's your decision.
I guess that's up to how much... I've got four days off and I'm looking forward to it.
Right.
Well, maybe then we should have a break next week.
But, well, you're going to hopefully already subscribe.
So if you see an episode in there, I ate so much chocolate and had so much energy...
I decided to do a quick episode.
But if we're not here next week, that is why.
In any case, we'll definitely be back in April with lots more episodes.
If you've got an idea for an episode, email us at hello at my IELTS classroom dot com.
Say what you're struggling with.
That's you know.
That's what we want to do is help you improve your scores.
So we might see you next week.
If not, we'll be back in the middle of april, but whenever we're back, take care until then, bye-bye.
My ielts classroom podcast is a production of my ielts classroom limited.
Nick and I do not represent IELTS, and everything you heard in this episode is our own personal opinion.
You can find the show notes and transcript for this episode on our blog.
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