Hello lovely, I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you joy, iot, super-duper vocabulary and high-level grammar.
For what score, Rory?
Is it a band 9 score?
For band 9 score.
Yes.
So, how's the course going?
It's going really well.
It's interesting to be studying again.
It's changed a lot since I first went to university.
University.
Studies.
What are we going to be talking about today, huh?
Could we be talking about studies?
Is that the coincidence?
This is the coincidence.
This is the ha-ha-ha coincidence on this podcast again.
It's quite the coincidence.
Right.
Why are we talking about studies again?
Because you either get asked about where you live or what you do at work or university, always in any IELTS speaking test.
So we're going to do it again with new and improved vocabulary, hopefully.
Yes, in the speaking exam, the examiner always chooses the first topic from accommodation or work or studies.
They might ask you about your country or your hometown, but usually it's either accommodation or work or studies.
And here you are, dear listener, studies.
Rory, let's talk about studies.
What do you study and where do you study it?
I'm doing a postgrad in primary teaching at Dundee University.
Why did you choose that subject?
Well, I need this particular qualification to become a primary school teacher in Scotland, so it was less of a choice and more of a necessity.
If you had the chance, would you change the subject?
Well, I'd change some of the content if I could but not the subject since it's my passion in life.
Is there something that helps you to study efficiently?
Other than my brain?
Oh, I have a file where I keep all of my material that I download from the online learning platform the university has.
The platform itself is actually quite well organized, but I prefer to do things my own way, and it means I can combine all the documents and material from well from the university with those that I make and gather while doing my practical work outside of it.
What's more essential for you, lecturers or friends?
At university?
Well, I would definitely say the lecturers, since they're the fonts of knowledge I need to pass.
But I have made friends who help me out from time to time.
Is there anything you want to change in your university?
I could probably do without some of the social justice aspects.
Not because I don't believe in it, but because I don't think it needs to be explained to people who are going into public service.
Also, when I get bored I get quite mischievous.
Do you plan to get a job in the same field as your subject?
Absolutely.
Well, it's the only choice, and the course is purpose-built for this.
I'm really looking forward to becoming a fully qualified teacher.
And do you like your studies at the moment?
Well, it's like I said, I like most of them.
I feel like there are some parts which are surplus to requirements.
Thank you Rory for your answers.
We have our super duper premium episodes for you where Rory and I are discussing speaking part 2 and 3.
This week, Rory, the Rory, is gonna describe a difficult thing he did.
And in Speaking Part 3, we are discussing overcoming difficulties.
In the description of this episode, you can find a link that will take you to a list of all platforms where you can get our premium episodes.
Do check them out.
So actually, the first question the examiner is going to ask you is something like this.
Do you work or are you a student?
So Rory, if you were to answer this question so do you work or are you a student what would you say?
Well, if I was telling the truth, I would say both, but you have to pick one and I can talk the most about my studies.
So I'm going to talk about studies and I'll say I study.
I'm a student.
So would you say that, so do you work or are you a student?
I'm a student.
I'm doing a post-grad in primary teaching at Dundee, yeah?
Yes.
And it's important to point out that the word post-grad is it's a short word form for postgraduate degree, which is something that you do after your first graduate degree and you always do a degree in or a postgrad in something at whatever university and you do a degree, or you study for a degree right, Or you stay patient with the degree.
Sorry, I'm making it sound miserable.
I do like my degree.
I just, some parts I'm over it.
I don't really like.
So, you are doing a postgraduate degree, which is like a master's degree, right?
Although really it's a postgraduate certification, and I suppose that's another expression that you could point out.
So, a certification is what you have in Scotland, I think.
No, that's wrong.
I'm sorry.
Because there's different education systems in the UK.
This is amazing because everybody thinks the United Kingdom has the same education system.
But in fact, there are four or five.
So the one for Scotland is actually a diploma and the one for England is a certificate.
And even though it's the same thing.
It's the same thing.
So you went to university before, right?
Okay, so first you went to school.
You did the school thing.
Then you went to university.
Did the school thing.
Yes, I was educated.
Yeah.
And now you are studying for this certificate.
So after your main university degree.
Yes.
Okay.
So it's a postgraduate certificate.
A postgraduate degree is another degree.
Like a master's degree.
Yeah.
I don't think it really matters, though.
Well, no, even yes, that's a really big simplification.
But yes, basically, a master's degree is a postgraduate degree.
So, dear listener, make sure that you do know what you are studying so you can say that okay, I'm doing a master's degree, I'm doing a PhD or I'm doing.
A course in teaching, in engineering, in IT at blah blah university, right?
A course might be easier if you can't remember it.
I'm doing this course.
I'm doing a course, you know.
I'm doing this course.
It's fine.
But if I've just finished school and I entered a university, what do I say?
So I'm studying for my bachelor's degree, right?
I'm doing my bachelor's degree.
So my kind of my first degree.
There's a BA and there's a BSc, which is a Bachelor of Science.
So a BA is a Bachelor of Arts, which is what most people have.
But you also have Bachelors of Science which are in scientific subjects like forensic anthropology.
Yeah, if this sounds crazy to you, dear listener, you can always say I'm studying mathematics at one of our universities, just like that.
We've gone through all this fantastic vocabulary and then we just say just say, you're studying something, would you?
No, but seriously, for example, I'm a two-year student, yeah?
No, I'm a second-year student at blah-blah university.
So, yeah.
Or even I'm a first-year student.
I'm a first-year student, yeah, at Dundee University.
Dundee, where's Dundee, Rory?
Dundee is in Scotland.
It's the fourth largest city and it's the sunniest city, and you can see that today because I'm inside my office when I should be outside in the sunshine.
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
And then Rory goes, I need this particular qualification.
So this is a qualification.
So your degree is qualification, or a course or certificates that you are studying for is a qualification.
And why is Rory in Scotland studying?
Because he wants to become a primary school teacher in Scotland.
Hey, hey.
Yeah, so this is his choice.
And the question was, if you had the chance, would you change the subject?
Yes.
So the second conditional and you go with the second conditional.
I'd change some of the content.
I would change.
I'd change the content like the.
Content of the course, right?
Yes.
And then Rory says like, it's my passion in life.
What's your passion?
I thought this podcast is your passion.
Well, I have many passions in life.
Can I not have many passions?
No.
What I should have said is it's one of my passions in life.
There we go.
There we go.
Is everyone happy now?
Yes, yes.
We are happy.
Yes, everybody's happy.
Well, I thought about that.
And I feel like if being a primary school teacher doesn't work out, then I could just do this for the rest of my life and it would be fine.
Yes.
Excellent.
What a set.
You're having a day where you're just like you're saying these things and your face just doesn't match the expression at all.
Excellent.
Fantastic.
We're going to be doing this until we're dead.
So, to study efficiently, what does Rory do?
He keeps a file where he keeps all his material.
And Rory is studying online, right?
Or you're studying face-to-face.
It's both we have.
We have.
Oh wow, you could talk about a hybrid or a blended course.
Yes, half is online, the other half is face-to-face.
Hybrid education or blended, blended learning, right?
Yeah, I think it's great.
Why is it great?
Because I can have coffee in the morning while I listen to my lectures.
If any of my lecturers are listening to this, I'm sorry, but I'm drinking coffee in your lectures because it's nine o'clock in the morning and I'm tired.
In your pajamas.
No, no, I get dressed.
Although there are people who have said I'm watching this in my pajamas right now.
I'm just like, God, a little bit of professionalism, please.
Do you have your video on?
Sometimes.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
And if you study online, you can then say something about the online learning platform your university has.
So the platform is quite useful, well organized.
And then you can say that you do things in your own way.
So, yeah, you download the materials from the platform.
It's kind of user-friendly or not user-friendly.
You can say it's horrible, so I can't just find anything there.
Yeah.
Or you could say it's well organized and be done with it.
Oh, you could say it's not well organized, actually.
We need to make this a thing where people say what something is not, so they can still access this vocabulary.
So yes, you could just say it's not well organized.
And then you have lectures and people who deliver these lectures are called lecturers.
So lecturers.
And Rory said that lecturers are the founts of knowledge.
Yes.
That just means that's where I get information from.
It's this fantastic expression.
It's a font of knowledge or they're a font of knowledge.
And really what it means is I can get information from them.
Lots of information.
Can you say that you are a font of knowledge or the font of knowledge for me?
Well, you could say that.
It wouldn't be very accurate, but okay.
You're a font of knowledge.
You corrected me when I was going off on one saying that have to is a phrasal verb.
I still believe that it is.
You just said it again.
Well, look, you can see why I would think that, though.
Surely.
Yeah, yeah, I understand.
Yeah, but it's just wrong, Rory.
Okay, don't ever say it ever again.
I believe, I think I'm right, but I think I might be right for different reasons.
Anyway, moving on.
Yeah, could you give us another example with this font of knowledge?
When can I use it?
No, I can't.
No, but I've given you two already.
I've just said that you're a font of knowledge because you know all of the stuff about grammar, and the university lecturers are fonts of knowledge because they know a lot about primary teaching.
Is that not enough?
Yes, that's enough.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Good.
Okay, let's move on.
About changes in your university, Rovi said, I could do without some of the subjects.
So I could do without it.
It means that, okay, you can survive without it.
I can do without coffee.
No, I can't do without coffee.
I was going to say, I can't do without coffee.
Yeah.
Philosophy, for example.
When Rory gets bored, he gets mischievous or mischievous.
Yes.
It just means that I get up to no good.
That doesn't actually make it clear.
It just means that I start deliberately doing things which are disruptive because it's entertaining.
So Rory starts getting a bit naughty, like you know, like leprechauns in Ireland, leprechauns who stole the gold.
So they're like mischievous.
Mischievous or mischievous?
Where do you put the stress?
Or both?
I do.
Do you know what?
If I thought about it, and I am thinking about it now, I've used both.
Probably I would say mischievous when I'm speaking just casually, but I'd say mischievous if I wanted to put stress on the fact that this is my behavior.
Hmm.
And mischievous is something like not really bad.
It's just like a bit naughty, you know.
You can say like naughty children.
Cheeky.
Yeah, cheeky.
I am extremely cheeky.
Like you should ask the people in my tutorial group.
God, there's poor people nice, yeah.
So Cambridge dictionary says mischievous, so the stress is yeah on the first syllable.
But yeah, I've heard people say mischievous too.
So I think if Cambridge says mischievous, then we have to say mischievous.
Hey yeah, All right.
And about getting a job in the same field.
So it's kind of like in the same field.
If you're in teaching, this is your field.
And Rory said that I'm really looking forward to becoming a...
Fully qualified teacher, or you can say, I'm really looking forward to becoming an IT specialist.
But if you're not looking forward, you can say that, oh, I'd like to change my field.
Or what else can we say?
I was going to say if you're not looking forward to it, then why the hell are you studying that subject?
Like study something you like.
Hmm.
No, but sometimes you start doing a degree and then in the middle of it you understand like no, there's no way I'm going to do that.
But you just like want to finish the degree and then work in some other field.
That seems like a phenomenal waste of time.
Well, yeah, but...
Yeah, people do that.
So what do I say if I won't be working in the same field as my education?
Just I'm not planning on working in that field.
Yes, just like that.
Well, I don't know.
I've never really had these conversations before.
I don't know why you would want to study.
Well no, I have had these conversations and I get confused every time why someone is studying something they don't like.
And of course, they'll say like, oh, it's for the money.
But then it's just thinking, why would you want to be miserable and bored with your work?
I mean, you're going to spend a long time doing this.
Anyway.
And then you said something surplus, surplus requirements, surplus to requirements.
Surplus to requirements just means that it's extra and it's not necessary.
How do you spell that?
Surplus.
S-U-R-P-L-U-S.
Surplus.
To.
Just T-O.
Requirements.
So it's like sur and plus plus like minus.
Plus.
Yeah, but surplus is all one word.
Surplus means extra.
Oh, it's one word.
Okay, surplus requirements, just like extra requirements.
No, no, surplus two requirements, woman.
Surplus two requirements, so we need like two.
Oh, boy.
Give us an example.
And what did you say?
Some of the social justice aspects of the course are surplus to requirements, or some of the lectures on the course are surplus to requirements because most people already know how to work a computer, for example.
So they're just extra.
Yeah, it's like it's something that you have that you don't need.
Yeah, like philosophy.
What is your beef with philosophy?
No, because I have a degree in teaching and also we had useless subjects like philosophy, for example.
Why do I keep thinking you have a degree in psychology?
No, no, no.
It's a degree in teaching.
I haven't finished my degree in psychology.
It's just old and I pay money for pretty much nothing.
And I studied online.
They haven't updated the material.
So it was just, you know, just useless.
So, yeah, I stopped doing that.
I should say we've had this conversation at least three times.
We have it once a year.
Because I always think I always forget that you have a degree in teaching.
It's not in psychology.
And someone told me once that your degree was in psychology.
Yeah, but this is my second degree.
My first degree is in teaching.
So I have like a BA in teaching and I wanted to do a master's in psychology.
So it's like I have a half of degree, half a degree.
There we go.
Yeah.
That's insane.
Super educated.
Absolutely.
Right, people?
Super educated, but don't know the phrase surplus requirements.
No, it's like surplus.
It sounds really strange.
And I think our listeners would agree with me.
Probably the phrase surplus to requirements is surplus to requirements.
You could probably just say like, it's extra.
Like, it's just stuff.
It sounds really bizarre.
But it's also a high-level collocation, so use it.
It is, it is, but it just sounds strange.
Some words just sound strange.
And maybe our listener, like if you go back and listen to Roy's answer again, you would be like what?
Well, even I was struggling to remember the phrase, so I was just like, what is that word again?
Or that expression?
Oh, yeah, yeah, you kind of hesitated, yes.
Would that mean that I don't get a band 9 score for hesitating?
Actually, yes.
You might get an 8.
Even one time.
Even one time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think that's not fair.
I think a native speaker would say, native speakers forget their phrases all the time.
That's not fair at all.
Well, educated native speakers who deserve band nine, don't forget.
They just know.
That's why, because they're educated.
All of these things just come out of their mouths and it's fine.
Anyway, dear listener, we've recorded several episodes about studies, because this is an ongoing topic in IELTS Speaking.
So make sure that you listen to all of them religiously, okay?
And read all the scripts.
So yeah, it's a good idea to listen to other episodes, because we do discuss the difference between degrees and master's degree, a PhD, and blah blah blah, blah blah.
And now we have given you even more vocabulary because now Rory is a student.
A student.
Rory is a student in Scotland.
Anyway, thank you very much for listening.
Rory, what's your final word?
Thank you, Rory.
Informative.
There should be something.
Hopefully we've given you... No, just send hugs and kisses.
No, I want to end on a pun.
Hopefully we've given you vocabulary to study.
Here we go.
Oh, boy.
God.
Bye.
Bye.
What do you study and where do you study it?
I'm doing a postgrad in primary teaching at Dundee University Why did you choose that subject?
Well, I need this particular qualification to become a primary school teacher in Scotland, so it was less of a choice and more of a necessity.
If you had the chance, would you change the subject?
Well, I'd change some of the content if I could but not the subject since it's my passion in life.
Is there something that helps you to study efficiently?
Other than my brain?
Oh, I have a file where I keep all of my material that I download from the online learning platform the university has.
The platform itself is actually quite well organized, but I prefer to do things my own way, and it means I can combine all the documents and material from well from the university with those that I make and gather while doing my practical work outside of it.
What's more essential for you, lecturers or friends?
At university?
Well, I would definitely say the lecturers, since they're the sort of fonts of knowledge I need to pass.
But I have made friends who help me out from time to time.
Is there anything you want to change in your university?
I could probably do without some of the social justice aspects.
Not because I don't believe in it, but because I don't think it needs to be explained to people who are going into public service.
Also, when I get bored I get quite mischievous.
Do you plan to get a job in the same field as your subject?
Absolutely.
Well, it's the only choice, and the course is purpose-built for this.
I'm really looking forward to becoming a fully qualified teacher.
And do you like your studies at the moment?
Well, it's like I said, I like most of them.
I feel like there are some parts which are surplus to requirements.
Thank you.
