This is an IELTS Energy Podcast episode 1489, Band 9 Vocabulary for Medical Visits.
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There is a good chance you will be asked about health and wellness on IELTS speaking.
Today you'll learn topic specific vocabulary and hear band nine sample answers so you're ready for this common topic.
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Hello, Michelle. How are you?
I'm good. Aubrey, I'm happy to be here.
How are you? Yes, welcome to IELTS Energy.
It's always so good.
Thank you, and you can stop.
I thank you, thank you.
That's really exciting, because I have seen a lot of IELTS speaking questions lately about doctor visits medical visits.
Michelle, when's the last time you went to the doctor?
Um, I just went like two weeks ago.
So, you know, I feel I don't know.
I feel like as I'm getting older, there's more people.
Have to go for more specialists and I've been trying to since I moved, I've been trying to get all new doctors.
So I've been crossing them off the list of finding them.
So it's been a little bit of a pain, but that's okay.
How about yo? Yeah.
I did. I had to go to a doctor just a couple of days ago, the OBGYN.
for just to check up, right?
But what's interesting is I think about in the languages I speak, right, French and Spanish, I would not easily be able to talk about doctor visits and name these doctors, like this is very topic specific vocabulary that we don't often talk about in a second language.
But you will very likely be asked about it on the IELTS exam, you guys.
So you need to be practicing this vocabulary.
You need to talk about your recent doctor visits in English.
So today, you're going to learn a ton of vocabulary for this, here's some sample answers, and then you need to practice answering these on your own.
So you're ready when you get these questions on test day.
You might get what are some questions we might get, Michel.
How often do you visit the doctor, do you prefer to see a general practitioner, or a specialist, or do you have any particular preferences when choosing a doctor there are a lot of questions on part one, part two?
And then also part three, you might be asked in general about medical care in your country, right?
Do you feel like wealthy people get better access to healthcare or something like that, right?
So you need to be ready for all of these questions.
So we first wanna talk about, you know, you might be asked about frequency of doctor visits.
The examiner might ask, how often you see a doctor, whether it's for routine checkups or specific illnesses.
So, Bruce briefly some of this vocab, what is a checkup, Michelle?
Oh, so a checkup is when you usually go, it's a routine exam, basically you're not sick.
You're not going for something specific, you're just going to have them, check right?
Right, it's often like an annual visit, right?
Just to sort of check, to make sure everything's, you know, we often go to the pediatrician for children, this is a doctor for children for a checkup just to make sure that they're weight and height is correct that they're growing correctly, right?
And then we also have annual checkups as adults.
But this is definitely something you're going to want to be able to talk about, which checkups do you go to which doctors do you see for that?
And you need to learn the names of common doctors or reasons you might go besides a checkup.
like for example, back pain if someone has arthritis, diabetes, chronic pain, all of these types of things, right?
Imagine if you were just asked like, you know, why did you go, what's the last time you went to the doctor and why?
And you haven't thought about how to say all these things in English.
They're very specific vocabulary, right?
Yeah, oh, definitely.
And this is, I mean, this is going to take you, this is such an important topic.
People aren't using this all the time to talk about connection, I mean to connect with others on the IELTS exam.
Just this is gonna be great for the exam but also for after the exam when you're connecting with people in English like this is just a common topic.
That's such a good point.
It's not just about IELTS, right?
In everyday conversations we are asking like about medical visits, we're sharing about doctors visits for our children for ourselves.
So even after IELTS, this is going to be a great way to connect with others to be able to talk about medical visits, medical care.
Definitely. Yeah, exactly.
And then you're definitely going to need to know the names of different types of doctors.
You could be asked if you prefer that question, you shared my general practitioners or specialists, or if you have a preferred doctor.
So what are some specific doctors?
We should learn the name of it.
And what type of doctor is it?
Yeah, sure. So when we have a cardiologist, So this is for your heart, the heart doctor.
And you can kind of look at these, you can look at the prefixes here.
So cardio, right, when you think, you might have heard when you're doing some sort of exercise, right, and you're running, running, running.
You might hear that's called cardio, right?
That deals with the heart, and so, yeah, cardiologist is a heart doctor.
And then pediatrist is a foot doctor.
exactly I had to see a foot doctor or a podiatrist. I had to see a interest because I had to have a tonial permanently removed.
You guys may have pretty well.
I lost one hiking the grand canyon.
I've had to see a podiatrist. A lot of people if people have ingrown toenails or other kinds of issues, they have to see a podiatrist. This is a specialist for feet.
And then I mentioned a pediatrician, right?
I'm sure you see pediatricians a lot Michelle with your children.
I do. kids, doctor, right?
So, it's also good to be able to talk about preferences in choosing a doctor, right?
I'll be, because the examiner might want to know what factors influence your choice of doctors, such as their expertise, their communication skills, or their location, right?
So, what would be some, I really like this piece, what are some vocabulary words that could be helpful here?
Yeah, a really good term is bedside manner.
Huge. It is huge and it's such so vital in choosing a doctor that if you're asked about this, definitely refer to your doctor's bedside manner.
This is band nine vocabulary.
Students don't say this often.
And what that means is how friendly a doctor is, how comfortable they make you feel.
Some doctors could be the expert in their field, but they're very cold or furious and don't really make you feel like everything's going to be okay.
That means we're not terrible bedside manner.
Yeah, they don't make you feel heard, right?
I mean, I've had this so many times.
And when you find one with a good bedside manner, it's like, you never want to let them go.
I mean, I had a cardiologist. Unfortunately, since I moved, I don't have them any more, but he is my favorite doctor of all time, and I trusted him with medical stuff, but of course, I don't know about that, but I know he had good qualifications, which is another keyword, but his bedside manner was A++++, Plus, right?
And I would tell him I'm like, you are the nicest doctor I've ever had.
Yes, I had a similar experience with the first podiatrist I tried to see.
He was so just cold and it really hurt because you have all these nerves in your feet.
And he sort of made me feel like I was being really, I don't know, weak or childish.
She was sort of mocking me, being in pain.
I've had children naturally without medication.
So I know I have very high pain tolerance and it really hurt.
So that was terrible.
So then next time I had to see a podiatrist again, I'm like, we're going with someone else.
And you can sub it with a better bedside manner.
Yeah, this is a whole top.
We could talk about this on all your English for a long time, actually.
We should do a follow -up on all your English.
Make sure that you're following all your English as well, because there is so much vocabulary over on that podcast that can help you for a else.
So make sure you're following right here a else energy and also all your English.
And also we had the word qualifications, right, Aubree, so what is that about?
Yeah, so this is, if your doctor is qualified, right?
Often I think we see a doctor and we assume they know what they're doing, they're qualified, but they're a doctor, right?
They've got to be, but sometimes people will choose an older doctor that has more experience as opposed to like a medical student or someone who is just training, I actually just saw doctor who was sort of being supervised because she was very new.
Right, and I did kind of feel a little nervous, like, are you qualified?
I don't know. And then we also have no general health habits.
You might be asked about your overall approach to health, including preventative measures that you take.
So this is a lot about those annual checkups.
That's all preventative medicine.
Right. And we also have to think about qualifications, right, Aubrey?
Exactly, right? We're thinking about someone's education, how long they've been a doctor.
Sometimes we might want someone who has been practicing medicine for quite some time.
So we feel like they have seen it all, they are definitely going to be able to help us.
Newer doctors, I'm sure they have all of the qualifications, but do they have the experience?
However, I mean, this is a whole debate.
I mean, they actually, it's possible that they are more up to date on some of the research right?
Maybe because they're, you know, they're still kind of super ambitious, just at the beginning of their career, maybe they're doing more.
But it really could vary.
I mean, I think it really depends on the person, on the doctor.
That's interesting to think about, and you might even get a question on IELTS part 3, that's like, do you prefer, you know, a doctor who has excellent qualifications or who has more experience.
Something like that.
So you would need to think about your opinion and be able to talk about something like that as well.
Interesting. Yeah. All right, and then we also were often thinking about preventative measures.
This is sort of general health habits.
Do you go to a doctor for checkups for preventative medicine?
Or do you wait until you're really sick or injured to see a doctor.
You might be asked about that as well.
What do you do at Michelle?
Oh, man. A lot of the appointments that I've been working on knocking out the past year have preventative?
I would say, you know, it's important to stay up on your preventative, your preventative appointments, but it's hard. It's hard to motivate yourself because it's annoying.
It's annoying to go to the doctor, especially if you need blood work, you have to go do that.
And so I think a lot of people put off the preventative stuff, but that's that's where you can run into danger, right?
And this makes sure that you have health care, right?
of growing up, my dad was an artist. We did not have healthcare.
And we so we never went for preventive appointments.
Like we didn't go to the doctor unless our leg was broken.
No matter how sick you are, you were not going to the hospital.
So, I have health insurance and it's very different.
Like we're going for preventative check ups and all of these things that we didn't do as a kid.
So that is interesting to think about that too.
You might be asked about the difference between healthcare when you were a child and now something like that because often you get these questions to encourage you or force you to use past tense.
That is interesting.
And then another thing could be about your attitude toward traditional medicine.
So the examiner could explore your views on traditional medicine.
You might be asked about changing health practices in your country or culture, right?
Exactly. And so this term traditional medicine means sort of how medicine has always been or has been in the past. and then modern medicine would mean how it's done now so you might need to compare the two.
Yeah. Interesting stuff.
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Letter -c No. 1. Alright, Michelle, let's dive into some sample answers.
We're going to give you a Part 1 and a Part 3 bad nine sample answer, so I'll ask you first one, Michelle.
Okay, and just give us, you know, three to five sentences like a standard part one.
And then I'll have you ask me a part three question.
So, okay. What do you consider when choosing a doctor?
Well, I really like to get recommendations from friends or look up reviews.
So I'm looking to see what other people say about them.
And for sure, for me, bedside manager, manage bedside manner.
My goodness, bedside manner is huge.
I do want a doctor who is not kind of rushing me and making me feel like I just have to get through my list of questions and they don't really want to be there so bedside manner is huge for me but also of course their qualifications.
So I don't. It's not that I just want to really nice doctor who doesn't know anything.
There has to be that balance in my opinion but definitely getting recommendations knowing that other people like this doctor, that's future mean.
Okay, this, I'm really glad that that happened with bedside manner because I want to point out for everyone listening.
Michelle's answer could still score Band 9.
If you sort of trip over a word, sort of stumble over a word like that, that is fine.
Native speakers do that too.
What you need to be able to do is recover.
Just like Michelle did.
This was a perfect high scoring answer, because even though she kind of like and then just sort of said it again.
And then, and then She finally got it and she had such a native way of being like, oh my goodness, this is what you need to do, right?
If you let this throw you off, if you're like bedside man and then you finally say it right.
And then you're like really stumbling in embarrassed and pausing after that that could pull down your answer.
But if you go back and listen to how Michelle recovered, this is what you need to practice doing.
Cause this will happen.
You might stumble over word, say the wrong word and need to correct yourself.
That won't necessarily pull down your scores because native speakers are also having to self correct.
We stumble over words.
This happens all the time, but it's how do you correct?
And then instead of just like awkwardly moving on, say something about it like Michelle did.
She's like, oh my goodness, right with - Beautiful.
In take a joke or you know, just anything.
Yeah, don't hide from the mistake.
You made it, we all heard it and just kind of, you're going with the flow, you got this.
Exactly right, don't let it affect your confidence and then don't let it affect your next question or how you finish the answer just like Michelle did, right?
You can say, so like, wow, I really stumbled over that or Oh my goodness, right?
Just the funny with interesting intonation to point out that you stumbled a little bit and then finish the answer, so great job on that Michelle, that was a good example.
Thank you! How would we recover when we mess up a word?
It happens all the time.
That's right, thank you so much, Aubrey.
All right, should I ask you a part three question?
I'm ready. Alright, our attitudes toward traditional medicine changing in your country.
Ooh, this is super interesting.
I think it depends on who you talk to.
Right? My parents, their attitudes toward, you know, how medicine has always been and how it should be health care are pretty much the same but I I'm sure that students getting out of medical school today would sing a different tune.
they definitely are feeling like we should be using the newest medicines, the newest technology and in that way, medicines changing a ton.
So it sort of depends.
Not everyone's on the same page there.
Hmmm. Yeah. Aubrey, I like what you did there.
I like because you were talking about your parents and then you were talking about different points of view, kind of comparing them, what people might be thinking, and I like to You said, it depends.
It sort of depends.
Things like that. Those were really, really natural.
And I used some idiomatic language here.
I said, singing a different tune.
Oh, that's right. Which means thinking the same thing or different thing or saying different things.
And then on the same page, which means we see eye to eye, we're all thinking of something the same way.
So keep in mind this idiomatic language you need on IELTS speaking.
It's not just for part one, right?
All throughout the IELTS exam.
the examiners looking for you to use a variety of language, idioms, phrasal verbs, so practice using those, not just on Part I, but also your Part III answers too.
Alright, Michelle, what's our takeaway here?
What do our listeners need to know, untested?
Yeah, well, health and wellness is a very common IELTS speaking topic.
So just be ready with this topic specific vocabulary way when over a lot of good vocab today.
And then again, practice answering today's questions with your own answers.
Give it a try, see how it goes for you.
Anything else you wanna to add, Aubren?
Yeah, no, you're exactly right.
And the other tricky thing is in your culture, people might not be really open about medical care and doctor visits.
So if you were asked on Eilz and you've never spoken about this allowed in English, maybe not even a lot in your first language cause some people are very private about medical care.
It might be really difficult.
So definitely practice answering these allowed so that you're ready and these don't trip you up on testing.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Alright, Aubrey, thank you so much for having me today.
Love getting to visit on IELTS and guys, thank you for listening.
Yes, thanks, Michelle.
Thanks for joining me and we'll see you next time.
Alright, bye, Aubrey.
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