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Band 7.5 - Going to Ireland to Study Medicine
2K views
Mar 10, 2025
https://www.ieltspodcast.com/audio-tutorials/patricia-gets-band-7-5/ She needed to score 7.5 in IELTS to practice medicine in Ireland. You know how tough that is, right? Here's the crazy part: She did it with just 4 DAYS of preparation. No, that's not a typo. 4 days. But wait - before you think "that's impossible" or "she must be a genius", here's what you need to know: This wasn't her first try. She failed twice before. But on her third attempt, she: - Scored 8.0 in Reading - Scored 8.0 in Listening - Scored 8.0 in Speaking - Got exactly what she needed overall: 7.5 Her secret? She stopped wasting time on: ✗ Random YouTube videos ✗ Outdated textbooks
View Video Transcript
0:00
hello there I students in this tutorial we are talking with Patricia and she's
0:05
got some great results from uh her latest ey Els test so um before we jump
0:11
into it uh Patricia could you tell me a bit about yourself and why you're taking the eys please um so I just graduated
0:20
medicine and I was exploring my options uh where can I go and practice medicine
0:27
and since I didn't really get that much interested in the doing medicine being a
0:34
doctor in Poland um I started exploring my options where I can use my English um
0:41
and I found um Ireland as an option for continuing uh practicing medicine there
0:49
um but I had to do iots to do that I also explored a bit um about the medical
0:55
practice in the UK and I tried doing um iots for for the UK but um it's uh it's
1:03
my fault that I kind of explored it too uh too late uh because the score is very
1:09
high which I have to to get there I have to get 7.5 in each section and to have
1:15
7.5 over all right which is super hard yeah um in a in a short period of time
1:22
because I was still a medical student so depends how much time you devote for it
1:29
but for Ireland was slightly lower I I had to uh get 6.5 in each section and
1:36
have 7.5 overall so I managed to get that score uh this this year excellent
1:43
okay and just a quick question was the English route to uh instead of Ireland
1:50
was the route to England was it slightly more uh bureaucratic because of brexit
1:55
and all of that um yeah there's a there's a lot of documents in it that you have to gather um for
2:03
example I I think some some Visa uh Visa documents uh but I think it's very well
2:10
organized um with with the hospitals because you're assigned for the hospital for two years I think I I have no
2:18
checked information about that so much um because I depended um depended a lot
2:25
on the opinions of my friends um that that friends I I found people online um
2:31
and I I asked them what do you think about the UK FP program do you think it's worth it do you think because I I
2:38
kind of have in mind which doctor I want to be um and I want to be a gynecologist
2:44
and I found out that it's not so easy uh to to get into that specialization
2:50
exactly uh they are trying to kind of fill in blanks uh in the system and it's
2:56
not Gynecology so oh I see see yeah so I uh I was thinking a lot about it that
3:03
it's a lot of effort for probably doing bureaucratic work for two years and in
3:08
Ireland it's just one year of um like kind of it's we call it stage in Poland
3:15
it's kind of a postgraduate uh 13 months of practice uh like an internship which
3:22
is which is still paid um but um yeah like there there's a lot of
3:28
documentation also to gather Ireland but for shorter period of time for for
3:33
internship I see right then that's interesting and then as you said before
3:39
both rots the one to Ireland and the one to the UK required yours exam but the
3:47
Irish route was uh required slightly slightly lower level and I
3:54
remember you you worked with us before didn't you and you took the I General
3:59
yeah yeah and uh what what results did you get when you worked with us before um so I took first my first I exam was
4:08
academic and I managed to get I remember I think I got seven I don't remember
4:13
because it was like two years ago and I I kept I kept studying for another a
4:19
already um so I think I got seven from writing but I was practicing a I was
4:25
going like mad woman really I was writing um I was trying to find a
4:31
research that is going to tell me okay you're writing this well you're using the good vocabulary um because um as H
4:40
as I told you before I I'm also a tutor but my vocabulary stays on the level of
4:46
A2 B1 maybe B2 sometimes but most primary school students are based on
4:53
this vocabulary for A2 so for me it was hard to jump into vocabulary immediately
5:00
like C1 just B2 just like use very high vocabulary so when I was using um your
5:05
website every time it was telling me you know you can use a little bit higher vocabulary higher level I was like no I
5:12
know but I'm just so used to the vocabulary that I'm using with my students it was it was so difficult at
5:20
the beginning but I I did a lot of writings I I think that's the clue you just have to even if you feel that you
5:27
you are you have no idea what is an essay what you're reading you just have to go with the flow and um even now when
5:35
you have this AI feature it's gonna kind of give you the idea what they are looking
5:41
for so it's it's really good yeah right so that was the main problem that you
5:46
were looking to solve was the the vocabulary yeah and you realized that
5:51
the vocabulary was the issue because you using the AI essay Checker
5:56
on.com yeah right I see I see excuse me
6:03
so um you took the academic yeah and that's when you said you were like a mad
6:08
woman just writing writing writing using the Aisa Checker getting that instant
6:14
feedback and just realizing vocabulary was was the issue yeah and then once you
6:20
realize the vocabulary was the issue what steps did you take to improve your
6:25
vocabulary um I had the I had some American book with vocabulary um which
6:32
is it's basically you have a list of words and then they are used in um in um
6:40
in Reading te texts so um it was sometimes I I tried really this is
6:48
actually what I teach my students to just don't look for the translation in your own language because each language
6:53
has different vocabulary so there's no sense in translating exactly to this
6:58
word at the beginning it's good but you know when you go on uh it's good to
7:03
understand it in another language um so I had a list of vocabulary uh from some topics that I
7:10
felt weak at so for example family and relationships I didn't feel bad about it
7:17
because also my boyfriend is Italian so we use English every day um and um for
7:23
for me that topic wasn't wasn't a problem but when I had uh science um
7:29
Environ I tried also to to stay in medical vocabulary sometimes it was like my uh
7:36
my safe um my safe Point uh even when speaking I try to connect everything to
7:43
medicine and like every time going topic yeah yeah that's interesting you said
7:50
that I have mentioned to do something similar before on a previous tutorial I
7:56
said look if your specialization if you know a lot about say for example technology in your case in medicine then
8:03
there's no harm in diverting the conversation to that
8:09
kind of subject obviously if they ask you about volcanoes you can't talk about
8:15
muscle groups obviously but there are some opportunities and the other thing
8:21
that I wanted to mention was just to clarify so when you're expanding your vocabulary you don't look for the direct
8:28
translation in your own language you look for the description the meaning in
8:33
English is that correct yeah that's true yeah yeah yeah I remember actually my
8:39
Spanish tutor said exactly the same you know and then she's like oh and then you look for the meaning and then you find
8:45
other words that you don't know and then you go look for the meaning for that you yeah but that's that's a yeah it is
8:53
a really effective way to uh even in the context of reading when you when you do
8:59
the read reading and you you go into the read and you're like oh okay this is this one I remember the word Myriad
9:05
right now and I had no idea what is a myriad and uh and then I looked um and it meant like something like a lot of
9:12
like you have plenty of and you can use Myriad instead and then I found it I was watching a TV show and there was a
9:18
myriad I was like okay this word actually exists I'm not going
9:25
crazy excellent so in the context just like uh kind of getting custom to this
9:30
word and then it's good beautiful I love it I love it so you took the iots
9:35
academic that's when you said you were like a a mad woman that was a while back and he was taking exam after exam after
9:42
sorry not taking exam after exam after exam Pro we'd probably be bankrupt if we were taking oh yeah yeah you were doing
9:50
then General yeah okay then you took the general yeah I talked with some friends
9:56
that were applying for UK FP because the two years ago I uh I found the the offer
10:02
for the UK without any exploring I was just okay I'm going to give it a shot if I get in I'm going to start
10:09
thinking because there was very little time uh for everything and um my friends
10:14
were like okay you got seven from writing you you need 7.5 so let's try to
10:20
do 7.5 from writing but in general because they also accepted the general training exam right um but um so so I
10:29
got the 7.5 in W I was very happy because there was the letter it's kind of more um I wouldn't say it's easier
10:36
it's just a different format uh in the academic there's the there's the chart to describe and this is this is
10:43
something that might be a bit difficult uh because you just need to kind of get
10:49
um get used to the vocabulary like rise increase and and that kind of things so
10:55
that was my study also for academic uh study this specific words for to
11:01
describe it um but for for letter it was easier because I felt like it's kind of
11:07
like an conversation kind of like a monologue with somebody but you have to just describe it in the letter yeah and
11:14
I managed to get 7.5 but because I was so focused on writing I think that I uh
11:20
I didn't practice enough from reading and from other um sections yeah so uh
11:27
listening go was okay I got limit and then I received five from reading and
11:33
that was that was my I I I felt completely I was so shocked about it
11:39
because I saw I saw first 7.5 writing and I was like wow okay that I have it
11:45
and then I I saw the reading and I was completely shocked I uh I even wrote to
11:50
to iot and I I I asked them to verify it again because it's not possible that I got I think I had like nine or eight
11:58
from academic and just a month later I get five from General and yeah that it
12:04
was completely I I I have no idea what happened really because I also felt very confident about reading afterwards yeah
12:12
and uh nothing really happened which was a bit uh disappointing and I kind of um
12:18
lost hope for it it was too late for UK kfp for me uh I see I see yeah yeah I
12:26
kind of kind of lost hope at that moment uh I got stressed on H speaking because
12:31
I was I told you I was really focused on writing and uh I lost to 0. Five Points
12:38
on on speaking and I was because I remember uh and this could
12:44
be a good advice for some other people um that I was so focused on um not
12:51
saying I like too much or not saying in my opinion too much sorry I'm I'm still after
12:59
I I had a kind of like a flu or code before um so um I I was so focused on
13:06
saying not not don't say too much I like not too much in my opinion just use use
13:11
a lot of vocabulary and I was so focused on this that I I kind of forgot that there's the time limit and then the all
13:18
of the factors combined yeah and I was like okay this is not going well oh no
13:24
I'm so sorry so to summarize you you then took the academic that was for the
13:31
UK route you possibly focused a little you were just 100% focused on the
13:37
writing you achieved your goal in the writing but unfortunately the other
13:43
three were kind of pushed to the side because you so but you got the goal in
13:49
in writing but the other ones slipped yeah and I see I see so that's why you
13:54
took it a third time is that right for the iish route yeah exactly I had my
13:59
sixth year of medicine because when you apply to when you apply to the UK you have to apply um after your fifth year
14:07
uh of medicine and uh for for Ireland kind of similar you can apply during
14:13
your six year but I said it was too much I already took two times out I have the
14:19
six year I'm graduating there's too much going on I'm going to wait uh so I
14:24
waited this until this the end of the sixth year to to decide what I'm going to do MH uh and then I I saw that um I
14:33
have to do I again for for Ireland with with a lower with my lower scores but I
14:39
just then remembered about reading I was like no you cannot just like Focus just
14:45
on the reading um so um what happened is
14:50
that the deadline last year was okay you have to do it until the end of February
14:58
but then this year they withdrew the option um they withdrew the test that is
15:04
also a part of qualification so in my mind I was I was like okay so how are
15:10
they going to qualify on the first step probably everyone is going to have to have the iot that's what I thought yeah
15:17
yeah and I was like okay let's wait until they publish act actually every
15:23
requirement but I'm going to start studying slightly uh and then I got that
15:29
requirements and there was the aisle that I have to do it until the 18th of November wow so yeah I kind of kind of
15:37
predicted but I was on the I was on the truck already for the for the whole year
15:42
I see I see wow and so you had to do it and you were kind of you had the suspicion you were you have to take the
15:49
eye out and then uh you started preparing for it the third time yeah and
15:55
what resources were you using and and like how did you approach it because you
16:00
learned probably from last time not to neglect any the other disciplines yes how did you prepare this time so um I
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knew that I I have very limited time there was limited number of dates I also couldn't take it in Poland so I had to
16:15
go to to Italy to to my boyfriend who was a bit uh yeah there was a lot of effort into into this into this take um
16:24
and I I knew that I also I I was also working I was tutoring so with with reading I felt that I'm really on track
16:32
I'm just going to like um go through a few tests and I'm just going to have the idea how it looked like what I have to
16:38
look for uh with listening I um I honestly just checked a few tips uh on
16:46
um I remember it was Pinterest I think just like what to focus on um just like
16:53
just find the similarities I I think with with listening you kind of have to
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just know what the questions look like just yeah maybe this one uh know that
17:03
you have to find similarities um in words so for example they are not going
17:08
to say a bottle of water they are going to say bottled water or something like this you you kind yeah um so I I had
17:17
this one and then I just tried to H kind of listen to the radio just like kind of
17:22
surround myself with this higher um English vocabulary which is not s
17:29
Instagram Pages scrolling around no it's not this one like you you have to avoid
17:35
easy vocabulary very much so I I try to avoid it um can I ask what radio
17:44
programs did you listen to um BBC BBC Radio um or BBC when they talk about the
17:51
weather um I have the iTune I iTune in I
17:57
think or something is up which is I think yeah but I Tred to use the BBC
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even the um when they they publish some news then I Tred to read it as well for
18:09
for for the sake of reading for example yeah and when you was doing the the
18:15
listening and and the reading when you was reading the news or listening to the the radio were you was it all passive
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like were you doing the washing up or or tidying up or something or will you sat down with a pen and writing things down
18:31
uh I had my notes on my uh on my iPhone open and when I found the when I heard a
18:36
word I tried to write it down and just check for the for the meaning and I also just now remembered that I downloaded um
18:44
downloaded audio books instead of reading a book I was I downloaded everand I'm not sponsoring anything I
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just know that this is a good resource but uh yeah it's it was a really good um idea to start listening
18:59
to audiobooks because and I Tred to focus on British English because I thought okay American English is just
19:06
fast but for me being fast is not a problem uh for me the problem was the
19:11
accent sometimes when I was listening to it uh but yeah I think audio books
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helped a lot excellent yeah and were they was it fiction non-fiction or um
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yeah what kind a it was just like a romantic I I stayed with Joo Moyes the
19:33
the the British writer it it was very um I like her a lot because the I feel like
19:39
vocabulary is not too too too too complex it's just simple relationships
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but it's kind of um it's not discouraging because some of the books
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are um I don't know you you find so many descriptive words yeah that it's um it's
19:57
a bit difficult to keep track yeah exactly yeah I've had the same when I've been learning languages like some books
20:03
i' be like oh this one's going to really push me but there'll be there's only a certain amount of vocabulary that I can
20:12
misunderstand or misinterpret and then I start tuning out and then it's just sound then and I I'm just it's a waste
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of time so you went for audio books um that weren't so challenging but it was
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more a case of like keeping yourself into in the story and keeping yourself listening right exactly I just want to
20:34
REM mention what you said about the listening uh because I think that's a great Point what you said about how the
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questions are phrased and once you get to know the structure of the questions
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um it becomes a lot easier so you did practice tests for the reading and then
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you did prati did you do practice test for the listening as well I didn't have the time no okay yeah I just looked
20:58
through my book because I have this set of iots I don't know how they are called now uh but it's like the set of I think
21:06
three very thick books and uh they are like American I think right yeah I I I
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bought them sometime ago when I was studying for the previous iot and they have some tests so I just looked okay
21:19
this one is constructed in this way and for the first I I was listening already to um I I did the listening um a few
21:28
times to have the idea and I remembered how it looked like so I see that's why I had the idea already gotcha and then for
21:35
the writing you were using the essay checkin uh service yeah on the I podcast
21:42
right yeah yeah at the beginning of the when I was studying for the last time I
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uh it was already two years uh like two years passed so I I didn't remember the
21:53
name of the page and I was very frustrated and I remember this one evening I was just right I was like you
21:59
know I check I don't I don't remember how how was it called and I was trying to find it there was some other website
22:05
that I tried to use but I don't know they I didn't feel like it's not it like
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I I knew it's not this thing I don't I couldn't describe what it is but um just
22:17
H how I could see that okay this essay is being checked or uh underlining the
22:22
words or what gram grammatical structure I was using and it was just better I I
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don't know it's just keeping the track of this uh not not to brag about the
22:34
page but really it was it I uh I really I really found this was a good research
22:40
for me really excellent okay and just for the listeners can you break down how
22:47
you used the essay Checker like did you have a a system
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like it said okay this vocabulary needs upgrading and then you went and did XY Z how did you use the Checker to um to
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improve your writing so at the beginning I tried to uh write the topic obviously
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because there's the frame for the topic and then starting to write the the essay
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uh but then H when I started to do it on the page and I put the timer it was so
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stressful to see the timer that I I I I couldn't do it um like starting on the
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page so I just opened the the docs doc and I um I I started to realize that it
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was very difficult when I was writing the topic from the book because I was doing the topics from the book not from
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the internet because uh I know that on I you when when you write something you
23:45
already have the idea what's the topic so you have kind of this extra time so I was trying trying to make a photo uh but
23:53
with scanning the te the the text so I can just copy the the text later to to
23:58
to the to the Checker right and then just writing it in the docs and having a
24:04
quick look at it and then just P pasting it on the page and checking it I see
24:10
okay so you you you didn't use the Checker to write the essay because it
24:16
was stressful you wrote the question in in a Word document then you copy pasted
24:21
it into the Checker yeah and then you hit submit yeah and then what was your next step Patricia uh so then I was then
24:30
you have to wait for the Checker to to to verify everything because the first
24:35
Mark I always I I always got this first Mark immediately but it was always lower
24:41
than the the the the mark that that got like with that they that arrived with
24:46
time oh so um I was like okay I'm just gonna give it a five five minutes I'm
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gonna like I'm going to make myself some tea I'm going to I'm going to chill for this five minutes and then I'm going to
24:57
check and and then I was checking the essay uh what I did was I was looking at
25:03
the words that it underlined which were repeated and if I can change them
25:09
because I remember my biggest struggle was the word children and there was the
25:14
word youth there was the word toddler and I think that I Love This research for this because I didn't have to like
25:21
look around all of those pages on on the internet and Find synonyms for the word children yeah it just gives you the um
25:29
it gives you the idea immediately which word you could use um it also helped me
25:35
on the on the official um iOS I had a topic about I think education or
25:41
something and I had to use the the words students uh toddlers uh I don't know
25:47
pupils I was trying to diver make it make it more diverse and the AI was also
25:53
helpful because it not didn't CH change my um essay completely
25:59
um on the on the website but it kind of like paraphrased my my my
26:06
sentences and they were better and I was sometimes writing them down and just
26:12
like um comparing them with with mine how could it be better gotcha okay so
26:18
there's two things there you um when you were using the essay Checker you were
26:24
using when it underlined words that were repeating synonyms like almost instantly once it
26:31
had done the detailed check and then um the extra AI one it kind of paraphrased
26:38
it and gave you some more sentences with new vocabulary is that correct yeah yeah
26:45
excellent excellent and that speeded up everything when you were preparing for the writing yeah yeah because I had
26:51
about four days so it was yeah I was I was writing if I said about the previous
26:59
iot that I was writing like mad woman this was it was even crazier it was
27:05
really I I just thought okay I have to the problem with uh with iot for this
27:12
time was that I still had to I had to do it for 7.5 and even though that it was 6.5
27:20
every part that I still had to have everything for 7.5 overall got oh I see
27:28
what did you score um actually before we get into the score um is there anything
27:34
that we haven't covered that you would like to share that could help a student pass the I exam
27:42
h i I have nothing on my mind right now okay no worries no wores I did my job I've asked enough
27:50
questions good St all right um right then so um what scores did you get then
27:56
in your in your latest Sam um I got eight from each section uh except for
28:04
writing where I got 6.5 but uh I'm still satisfied because I
28:10
think there was very limited time to prepare and I was just yeah but it was
28:16
so good and 7.5 overall right I see and that's got you enough um that's a high
28:22
enough grade for the Irish route for medicine yeah yeah yeah I wanted to take
28:27
it as soon as possible it was I remember the the requirements for the for the
28:34
medical truck for for the for Ireland was published about 22nd 23rd of um
28:41
October and I took I on the 27th for 28
28:46
of I was like I'm just gonna go for it because there was a very limited time and you know you never know when they
28:52
will publish your results I got mine in two days I have to say it was very quick
28:58
yeah yeah yeah yeah but I'm still very satisfied speaking for eight I was I was
29:04
very shocked I that's great did you use the speaking test simulator no no I no
29:11
time okay you didn't have time you're just focusing yeah I just I just focus on writing and um I'm still satisfied
29:18
because on the um when I was doing it with the with the page it was also telling me I have 6.5 seven and if you
29:26
if you add the stress with and you are on the time pressure and everything
29:32
um I I was still very satisfied with the with the overall score yeah I mean in
29:38
four days that's that's crazy and 7.5 overall that's really really impressive
29:44
scores there so finally as my last question what would you say to anyone
29:51
who is considering taking the IELTS exam soon um I think that they um it's a very
29:59
difficult question uh because there's a lot of factors to consider but um if um it's a
30:07
person that already wants to take the iot not to um maybe just uh surround yourself
30:14
with English and be aware that you already know know a lot of things because you you took this first step so
30:22
if you know that you can take the exam you you already have the knowledge because not the same person is going to
30:28
take I if they don't know anything true true so just just to uh stay on truck
30:34
and keep doing what you're doing and if you know that you already uh you already
30:41
know a lot of you understand speaking let's say um you uh when you're
30:47
listening to somebody you have no problems just focus on your weak points and depends how much time you have if
30:52
you can focus on each part then go for it but if there's just uh if have
30:58
limited time and you can focus on one part just just focus on this one part and this one part can also give you the
31:04
extra vocabulary for reading for um for every part of I I think yeah
31:11
yeah that's a great Point that's a great Point like you learn new vocabulary doing reading exams there's no reason
31:18
why you can't use it in your speaking in your writing yeah absolutely okay super and maybe about
31:25
speaking I I also have this thing in mind mind try not to think about this person that you're talking to because
31:31
it's only you and this person and the thing that records you uh H try to think
31:37
of this person as someone who really wants you you to get the high score I get I I I had that experience I feel
31:45
like um this person is not your enemy because sometimes we feel like the examiner is the one that wants to like
31:51
uh want us to fail um but I I had a very good experience I I have to say that my
31:58
examiners it's not like they were doing the face expressions that really encouraged me to speak more uh but just
32:05
imagine it it's like a normal conversation and even if you don't know the answer just tell them oh it's a
32:10
difficult question I don't know I don't know the answer yet I'm going to think about it and just keep on talking so
32:16
show them that you are capable of what you're doing right now that's genius yeah yeah I've said very similar on
32:23
previous tutorials and other and uh EX examin have said the same like an
32:30
examiner is looking for opportunities to give you points know so as you said if
32:37
you think of this person as your friend rather than your enemy and you know it's your opportunity to shine in exam
32:45
exactly it it gets the whole your whole mental mindset is going to be so much
32:50
more powerful than going in there nervous thinking oh I'm going to fail this examiner is making it difficult but
32:57
yeah so I love I love your uh point of view there Patricia that's genius that's
33:03
genius all right so um if you are going to take the ielt exam soon uh then you
33:09
can head over to ieltspodcast.com we've got the AIS Checker the exam simulator and a big thank you to Patricia for
33:17
joining us today
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