good day for you . hope you are fine and doing well

very nice subject . realy she is Iron women and women century

best regards

What do you recommend me to do for a C1 test?

Thanks.
Best Regards.

Tina

A chicken restaurant

I always remember these days with him. He was very good to write poem and it was my interest as well but not good as him. He used to teach me how to write a poem and a story. I never forget the words he told me close your eye and imagine. He was creative person.

He was helpfull,cooprative,friendly person and always made me laugh.I found him still same.

Cheerfully,
Salman

There are more on the way soon, don’t worry!

Another very good post!

Keep them coming, please.

I quite enjoyed the test. Can we have more of this with different phrasal verbs, in some future posts, please?

Thank you!

You did a very good work on this new lesson. It is also a very interesting way to up-cycling previous posts that are still relevant.

Thank you Phil and Ben for all the hard work put in this blog.

I would try to avoid overused ‘IELTS English’ phrases like ‘widen horizons’. I would also avoid using ‘etc’. Check your word forms too such as ‘proficiency’. You need the noun form. Then look to see if you are using the right forms of the verbs to match the subjects like ‘it can widens..’

There are a few other points you need to work on too. I’d advise you get a teacher or tutor to help you with your errors and to give you tips to improve.

Good luck!

joining university has a direct impact on our personality like how to coperate with others,helps to socialise,improves communication skill,make afriends circle etc..more over in an university there is a teacher or guide to solve any difficulties in studies and make any concept clear to andeachevery student…

Well, the topics change so maybe the second speaking topics were harder for you than the first.

I think you should attend a course and have private lessons. SGI offer them at our schools. Otherwise, look for a class or teacher in your area.

Good luck.

Phil

The student in the recording is female so I refer to her as ‘she’.

Just click on SUBMIT TEST. It is at the bottom on the right. It will then tell you your score and if you got anything wrong.

Just to help regarding your scores issue:-
When you have done the questions on a Quiz page, there is a button for you to click in the bottom right-hand corner – it says SUBMIT TEST.
Click on that BEFORE you click on NEXT at the top of the page.
If you do that, you will see your Quiz test results. OK?

Go on in this way Phil and keep posting entertaning articles about the Enligsh culture, traditions and lifestyle!

Studying English with SGI is so great fun..

However, if a student takes this test and is comfortable with the grammar and vocabulary being tested here, then the CPE test could be suitable for them with a lot of exam preparation for that particular test. The comments with your score at the end of this test are not meant to accurately represent an official result which is equal to an examiner’s report from a 6-hour exam… It’s just a short multiple-choice test for people who want to practise some higher level grammar.
Congratualtions on your CPE result. In which country did you take the exam? And can you remember which number questions that you got wrong in this test???

thank you for this article, it is very useful. I have an exam on Monday and I was looking for some polite busness english phrases.
Tansulu

Thanks so much for your well-informed comment!
To show how much I appreciated it, I’ve written a post on the SGI teacher training blog (and commented myself), where it might be more appropriate to continue the discussion, as I think it’s a really interesting point in terms of teacher development.

Phil,

ditto!

Sorry to jump in but I think I know where Bren is coming from. I always tell my students to practise their 2 min speeches so they ‘finish’ i.e. conclude but to continue talking until they are told to stop. I used to be an examiner and had lots of students who stopped early and I’m sure that they just spoke faster in the test. If they do stop early the examiner has to ask them to continue and then asks more questions to try to draw out their points. Yes, they could make a huge blunder by just sticking on a 15 second filler but that would mean they only spent 105 seconds addressing all the points.

From a teacher’s perspective, I would say practise until you can do 2 minutes and just add a relevant example or extra bit of info at the end until they tell you stop.

From an examiner’s perspective, I would say that I assess the whole 2 minutes of speech for organisation, grammar, vocab and pron so as long as the output is relevant then it could earn points in one or more categories.

As for the ‘strong concluding statement’, I don’t think it’s that important to the examiner as he has to follow the script so even if the student has been silent for 2 minutes he continues.

Personally, I don’t like teaching IELTS as an English class like IELTS English where students just learn about how to get a good band. If a student has the level then he just needs to learn about the exam, practise a bit and there you go, in my opinion. I’ve had several students like this who’ve done CAE, BEC and IELTS with little preparation.

I do agree though that students get shaken when told to stop but that will happen in every section so they need to get used to it. The average IELTS speaking test is around 12 minutes and a student who talks more in parts 2 and 3 will impress and be given the ‘able/willing to speak” band. You know a band 7/8/9 student because you often have to tell them to stop otherwise you will run over and that initial band, more often than not, is very similar to the ones they get in other categories.

Well, there are my ideas. It’s a tricky area with no right answers except that the student gets a high band.

Some excellent stuff. I’m an IELTS teacher, and have found some of your ideas useful.

However, I disagree on the notion of “don’t stop speaking until you are told to stop”, particularly in part 2, for the following reasons:

1) A concluding statement can add valuable coherence to a long-turn answer
2) Some students can be slightly shaken by being interrupted and told to stop by an examiner, should they exceed the 2 minute limit. This can then knock them off stride for part 3
3) English is an IELTS-taker’s second (or 3rd or 4th etc) language. By nature, the longer we speak in a second language, the more mistakes we make. A 110 second answer, well rounded off and coherently handled, will yield less errors then a 140 second answer, by sheer effect of being shorter
4) A strong concluding statement will naturally lead the examiner to continue to Part 3, thus eliminating the dreaded ‘silence’ to which you point.

I am Nicolas , 39 years old French Male.

I think that your podcasts are really fantastic as I have learnt English in language schools but in a more academic way and found it sometimes hard to mingle with other people in pubs , for example and have an informal chat.

Having said this, I am back in London . I got a CELTA last March and I am still trying to find a job.

I must say that I am a bit worried about it as I should be able to work a few hours a week somewhere.Don’t you think?

Equally, I have passed the main Cambridge suite such as FCE,CAE and CPE which means I have experiences in Cambridge examinations.

Thank you for your advice.

Kind regards,

Nicolas

What are the benefits of going to university?
What are the advantages to join university?

I prefer their first album and their early live stuff. They used to improvise a lot in their concerts. The BBC sessions are very good.

Phil

There are many books out there but they are different in each country so have a look in your local shops, online suppliers or even see if you can buy an e-book.

Phil

You need to find out why you find it hard. Maybe you don’t understand the words and grammar or you read too slowly or perhaps you just aren’t used to answering so many questions in the given time.

Once you understand your weaknesses you can improve.

Good luck!

Phil