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Much IELTS. Very success.
Hello sunshine, I'm Maria.
My name is Rory. We're 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 gorgeous grammar and super vocabulary for your high IELTS score.
You're a bad night's score.
Rory, Rory, what are you doing, Rory?
Oh, sorry Maria, I was listening to an old university lecture and got distracted.
Oh, university lecture?
University, shall we talk about university?
Let's talk about university.
Yeah, the listener in IELTS, they can ask you questions about studying, about in our college, universities.
This topic is also useful for essays and speaking, part three speaking.
They can ask you questions about education.
So let's talk about university.
Have you ever attended a university or college?
Several times actually, although I wouldn't say that makes me particularly smart, to be honest, probably just highly overqualified.
Did you like or dislike it?
Well, looking back, I think I could have managed it better, really.
It was fun, but I think I might have liked it better if I'd picked more relevant qualifications and had something to aim towards rather than just making it up as I went along.
What was easy and difficult there?
Well, first of all, it was equal parts easy and hard.
I didn't mind going to lectures and meeting deadlines for essays and assignments, but it wasn't particularly easy to see how a career or a life could be made out of it.
At least at the time, it seems easier in hindsight now I've gone through everything.
Will you study more in the future?
Yeah, but I do ongoing CPD for my work, so I imagine so.
But nothing like taking on things like a master's or a PhD.
It doesn't seem necessary for me to do something like that.
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See you soon. Hey, university!
So with university, we say, I went to university, right Rory?
University, we mean higher education.
So you go to school, then you may go to college and then university.
So if now you are studying, you say, I'm studying.
And what do I say? Like I'm a first year student, I'm a second year student...
In the future. If it's your first degree, so it's your first university education, you can say, I'm studying for my bachelor's degree, the first degree.
The second degree, I'm studying for my master's degree and the highest level is PhD.
So I'm a PhD student.
Is there something beyond a PhD?
Postdoctoral studies.
Buddha level. Like, yeah, crazy levels of...
I'm a scientist. Of studying.
Yeah, I'm teaching scientists.
Hmm? No, like some people have two dissertations.
So... That's crazy.
And then like a post -PhD, so the second dissertation.
Yeah, crazy, yeah. So we can say, I've attended a university, so I went to university more formally.
A more formal word would be attend a university.
Actually, it's good for essays, so a lot of people attend university.
And if you've attended a university several times, you say, yes.
I have many degrees, I have two degrees or three degrees.
So you've attended a university twice or three times.
And if you have a lot of degrees, you say, I'm overqualified.
So Rory is super educated.
So he can say that I'm highly overqualified.
What is it to be overqualified?
Well, to be overqualified is to have too many qualifications that are almost detrimental to your application.
So I'm able to say that, but probably most people would say I'm going to university to become a qualified and then whatever the job is.
A qualified doctor, if you study medicine, a qualified nurse, if you study nursing.
Yeah, and if you are a qualified doctor and you start working as a taxi driver, well, you are overqualified for this job.
So the word overqualified is negative, tell us.
It means having more knowledge, skill or experience than is needed for a particular job.
So if Rory with all his qualifications, being a super educated native speaker goes and works in McDonald's.
So he's overqualified for this particular job and they may not accept him because like, oh, whoa, whoa, you are too cool for school.
Like we need somebody, you know, like without any experience, without any knowledge, you know too much.
So yeah, this is one of the reasons.
And also such people are expensive.
They kind of expect a higher salary and many companies say you are overqualified for this position.
We can't offer you this much money.
I disliked my university studies or I liked them.
I couldn't stand them like I hated them.
Or I was really into studying.
I enjoyed my university, for example.
And you can say like looking back, if it was in the past looking back, I really enjoyed it.
Or I'm studying now, so I'm not enjoying it.
Yeah. This is another way to think about talking about the past instead of just saying I liked it or I disliked it.
We can say looking back to say we're talking about the past and then we make a comment.
And here I said I could have managed it better.
So if it could have, then it's again a modal verb for the past.
Oh, so advanced. If for example, you think that now you made a wrong choice, so you don't like your university.
Can I say I could have chosen another university.
I think so. Yeah. Or I could have chosen a better university.
I could have chosen a better university.
I didn't do it. Now I'm studying at this university.
I don't like it. So looking back, I could have chosen a better university.
I could have chosen Oxford actually.
Yeah. That would be nice.
Well, I couldn't have chosen Oxford.
Other people perhaps could have.
You can say like I could have picked more relevant qualifications.
Picked like choose, choose, pick more relevant qualifications, like more relevant subjects, studies.
My studies are easy or difficult or challenging.
I struggle with exams, for example.
It is difficult for me to take exams.
Do you struggle with exams?
Well, no, not really.
Well, they were okay.
Annoying. I struggled with French.
Because like we had French classes.
And then for some reason everybody in my group spoke French.
But I like spoke zero French, like you know, like Chinese.
Like zero, Chinese zero French.
But everybody else kind of was like...
And the teacher assumed that everybody in our group knew French.
So the exam was to read an article from a magazine, Rory.
Translated. And then kind of like deliver a monologue above the article.
And I couldn't read in French.
Well, that's not great.
Yeah, and she wanted us to become so fluent in French in like what, six months.
Well, that's not going to happen.
So like come on. Come on.
Yeah, and you listen.
So you can say I struggled with French.
I struggled with biology.
The teachers were a bit crazy.
You can say I didn't mind going to lectures.
So going to lectures were okay.
Like I didn't mind studying Latin.
Like it was okay. Meeting deadlines was a bit challenging.
So you meet deadlines for essays, for your kind of assignments, assignments like tasks or projects.
And then when you look back at something in the past, you can use this word in hindsight.
A very good word. What does it mean?
Hindsight. Well, that just means looking back again.
So lots of things for talking about the past in hindsight or easier in hindsight, better in hindsight and looking back.
So all of these things are for talking about considering the past or thinking about it.
Usually we say in hindsight, the listener.
So we don't change it.
In hindsight, I could have picked a better university.
So looking back, I could have done something else, but I didn't.
If you are studying at university now, you can again look at the past like, ooh, in hindsight, after school, I didn't do this.
Or in hindsight, the final days at school, war, tatata and then I chose the university.
So still you can think about the past.
Like before entering the university, right after school.
So still you can speak about the past.
Or just lie, dear listener, lie.
Just to use it, you know, if you are a first year student, you can say like, well, I am a second year student or I'm a third year student, just lie.
And then in hindsight, I could have chosen a better university.
Even if you are happy with your university, just say it, okay.
It's a nice phrase to listen to.
Or you could say, well, even if you're not thinking about regretting, you could just say in hindsight and in hindsight, that was the right choice as well.
So it's not just for talking about regrets.
Actually, yes. Yeah.
Yeah, I am a first year student in hindsight.
That was the right choice because now I'm happy.
I am. I'm good at meeting deadlines.
I write all my essays.
I am a super student.
My teachers are the best.
It's pretty much a dream university.
Hey, I pay a lot of money for this.
Ouro, you paid for your education, right?
Well, I paid for the things associated with it, but I didn't pay for the actual courses that's funded by the government in my country.
Oh, okay. But you paid for your food, for the flat, for transport.
Right. Yeah. Because in many countries, you have to pay.
Yes, you do. In some countries, you have to pay a lot.
Yeah. And what can we say if our listeners are paying for education?
So what do you call it?
They pay tuition fees.
Well, that's what it's called in my country.
I don't know what it's called in other countries.
Yeah, but you can use tuition fees.
So the sum of money you pay for your education.
So I pay my tuition fees.
I always study, you can say.
In the future, I'm planning to enter a university or I'm planning to do this course.
Rory said that I do ongoing CPD.
Yes, which I just realized was a mistake.
Because if you do CPD, that means continuous professional development.
So of course, it's ongoing.
Yeah. Yeah. Continuous professional development, meaning like you do different courses, you learn different things, acquire new skills, maybe a new profession, or you can say that I'm planning to do a Masters in Biology or I'm planning to do a PhD in Physics.
Well, I'm not planning.
Yeah, or just I'm planning to learn how to drive, for example.
So new skills like learn how to cook, learn dancing, could also be there.
It's all like studying.
So my studying process is ongoing.
So it's like it continues.
Yeah, now I'm learning meditation techniques, mindfulness.
Oh, I'm learning design and different kinds of mirrors.
Dear listener, you've just asked me about mirrors.
Yeah. And you're going in about mirrors.
Rory, so if you were to choose something new to study, what would it be?
Like something which is not connected to your profession.
So let's choose something like absolutely different.
Probably, of course, and join a race so that I could do the repairs or make the repairs to my house myself.
Oh, Rory the plumber, Rory the carpenter.
Very practical, I know.
Yeah, really practically.
And plumbers in England actually get a lot of money, as far as I know.
Thank you very much for listening.
And we'll get back to you in our next episode, dear listener.
OK, bye. Bye. Have you ever attended a university or college?
Several times, actually, although I wouldn't say that makes me particularly smart, to be honest, probably just highly overqualified.
Did you like or dislike it?
Well, looking back, I think I could have managed it better, really.
It was fun, but I think I might have liked it better if I'd picked more relevant qualifications and had something to aim towards rather than just making it up as I went along.
What was easy and difficult there?
Well, first of all, it was equal parts, easy and hard.
I didn't mind going to lectures and meeting deadlines for essays and assignments, but it wasn't particularly easy to see how a career or a life could be made out of it.
At least at the time, it seems easier in hindsight.
Now I've gone through everything.
Will you study more in the future?
Yeah, I do ongoing CPD for my work, so I imagine so.
But nothing like taking on things like a master's or a PhD.
It doesn't seem necessary for me to do something like that.
