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In this tutorial, you’ll learn
How an IELTS examiner would look at one of the more usual Task 1 questions - MAPS! I love map questions but many students are unfamiliar with them and so might panic in the exam! How to understand what is needed and what clues to look for before you start writing. Examples of good grammar and key useful vocabulary from our review of 2 students' essays - one Band 6 and one Band 7-7.5 as our examples. How you can practice by looking at another kind of map question. Really important vocabulary needed for talking about geographical location and change. Click here for IELTS essay correction
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0:00
hello there I students welcome to I
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podcast you no longer have to worry
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threat or Panic about IELTS because we
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are here to guide you through this test
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0:25
hello I students thank you for choosing
0:28
to listen to this tutorial from Alp
0:30
podcast.com my name is Daphne and today
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I'm going to focus on task one map
0:36
questions which like the process
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diagrams or flowcharts are a bit more
0:40
unusual but nevertheless it's really
0:42
important to be able to answer them and
0:45
to have had a bit of practice before
0:47
your exam So today we're going to do
0:49
three things we're going to look at a
0:51
task one map question from our greats
0:54
podcast.com doc course using two
0:57
students essays and seeing why one one
1:00
scored a band 7 7.5 and the other scored
1:03
a band six and we'll look at another
1:06
task map question from a course book and
1:08
see how we could answer this one and
1:10
then I want to give you lots of really
1:11
useful and important vocab which is
1:13
crucial that's to say really important
1:16
for successfully answering these
1:18
questions in your
1:20
exam okay so here we go on the website
1:24
or that goes with this you'll be able to
1:26
see all the diagrams so have a look at
1:28
these as this will will help you to
1:30
understand and visualize what I'm
1:32
talking about so to guide you I've
1:35
colorcoded my corrections and
1:37
recommendations to make sure that they
1:38
correspond really easily to the band
1:41
grades we're talking about as you know
1:44
there's four areas of assessment so uh
1:47
top comments I make to do with task
1:48
achievement I'm going to Mark in red
1:50
coherence and cohesion blue letal
1:53
resource green grammatical range and
1:55
accuracy
1:56
purple so if you haven't yet come across
1:59
the ask one map question they usually
2:01
consist of two maps which might be of a
2:04
landscape or island or a town one before
2:08
and one after some kind of change and
2:11
the question rubric asks you to
2:13
summarize the information by selecting
2:15
and Reporting the main features and make
2:18
comparisons when necessary unlike other
2:21
task ones the guide suggests 20 minutes
2:23
of time and to write at least 150 words
2:28
so the one we're going to look at is
2:29
that map question which is part of our
2:31
writing course um and you can find about
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more about that on the Alp podcast.com
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website the writing course is brilliant
2:40
we see our students making great
2:42
improvements uh with all parts of their
2:44
writing task one and task two getting
2:47
lots of practice on these different
2:49
questions so on this uh image there are
2:52
two almost rectangular Islands before
2:55
and after some development work on the
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first one we can see a beach on the
2:59
western side and then only nine trees or
3:03
wooded areas scattered around the island
3:05
some on the Northwestern Corner some on
3:08
the northeastern coast and others
3:10
located to the south in the after
3:14
picture there are some accommodation
3:16
blocks these are labeled accommodation
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blocks on the diagram uh on the western
3:21
side three larger independent buildings
3:23
in the center and next to further
3:26
accommodation blocks in a circular shape
3:30
on the right hand side of the map is a
3:31
map on the right hand side is is a lake
3:34
so foot paths and a vehicle track link
3:37
the new buildings to a newly developed
3:39
Pier so a pier sticks out into the sea
3:43
and there's a few sailing boats in the
3:44
sea so you can hear if you're listening
3:47
carefully I'm already using quite
3:49
specific language to describe directions
3:52
this is really important you are going
3:54
to need this and this kind of task on
3:56
the left hand side or western side in
4:00
the Northwestern corner to the south in
4:03
the center to the east of and so on so
4:07
make sure you're happy about directions
4:09
the north south east west and then the
4:12
more specific northwest southeast and so
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on also note in English we write these
4:19
directions uh without a capital letter
4:22
uh they can work as adjectives so in the
4:24
southwestern corner or as a noun simply
4:28
in the Northeast
4:30
so how do we start with these questions
4:33
so quite simply the same way as I
4:35
recommend you start with a pie chart or
4:37
a line graph you take a pencil and you
4:40
Circle the significant differences
4:42
between the two images look for Clues
4:45
and in this uh map there are two or
4:48
three huge Clues which many students
4:51
miss or don't really think about what
4:54
the clues are kind of saying before they
4:57
start so the Clues here are really
4:59
important to answering the task
5:01
correctly the first clue if there is one
5:04
look at the scale this is the clue to
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how big the island really is now this
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island is actually really small it's
5:12
only about 500 M at half a kilometer
5:14
long and this must give us a clue as to
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what kind of development has taken place
5:20
it is far more likely to be a holiday
5:22
Resort than a large new urban town uh
5:26
now any uh kind of questions I read any
5:29
responses I read that talk to me about
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Urban
5:32
regeneration no it it definitely could
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not be that on such a small
5:38
island also it has no roads that would
5:40
be a problem other Clues are in the
5:43
labels so look carefully if you're given
5:45
any labels look at these really
5:46
carefully too words like accommodation
5:49
and footpath are more likely to be
5:52
associated with a hotel or Resort than a
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big new town uh finally the drawing of
5:57
the two sailing boats in the after after
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picture also add to the idea of this
6:03
being a holiday Resort so let's look at
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these two students essays and see how
6:07
they answered this question so the first
6:09
one which um is graded around about a
6:12
band Six starts the illustration shows a
6:15
piece of land before and after it went
6:17
through a process of
6:18
civilization okay well the second one
6:21
which is more like a band 77.5 Begins
6:24
the two maps represent a plan of
6:26
construction for a new resort on a
6:29
previous undeveloped
6:31
Island so immediately you can see which
6:33
one gives me more information and the
6:35
second one is making some things very
6:37
clear the students looked at the scale
6:39
assumed the changes a part of a resort
6:42
development and told me the island was
6:44
previously underdeveloped so these
6:46
observations will help score highly for
6:48
task achievement the first one talks
6:51
about a process of civilization which is
6:54
not wrong but it doesn't sound very
6:57
natural the overall sentence look like
7:00
this the first one says overall there
7:03
are significant changes uh can be found
7:06
so we should correct that significant
7:08
changes can be found in the island
7:10
particularly the new accommodation
7:12
facilities public buildings at the
7:14
center and SE Transportation at the
7:16
southern
7:18
part so let's look at this in more
7:20
detail uh significant we like that word
7:24
uh so they talk about significant
7:25
changes can be found so nice passive
7:28
voice that's great new accommodation yes
7:31
fine that's labeled so we know what that
7:33
is public buildings I'm not sure about
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this so for me a public building is like
7:39
a library or a museum something big sea
7:42
transportation again not sure there's a
7:45
picture of two small sailing boats
7:47
whereas seed transportation is
7:49
suggesting to me a big cargo ship so I
7:53
don't think the students really
7:54
understood the scale of the map and
7:57
because of this their understanding of
7:58
the change isn't right this would impact
8:01
on task
8:03
achievement uh there's some language
8:05
used for directions at the center and at
8:07
the southern part but the wrong
8:09
preposition so we would say in the
8:11
center and in the south of the island so
8:14
the second essay reads overall the
8:18
resort uh the resort will be built all
8:22
over the island and will include a hotel
8:25
a reception houses an artificial lake
8:28
and a pier now you may notice here that
8:31
there is the future passive voice this
8:33
is quite unusual it runs throughout this
8:36
essay it's been done very well it's it's
8:39
correct all the way through personally
8:41
however I'm not sure about the use of
8:43
the
8:43
future here but in the first sentence
8:46
the students already suggested that the
8:47
maps were a plan of
8:50
construction which would suggest a
8:51
future idea imagine that there were two
8:54
architects looking at Maps uh so that's
8:57
why they're using the future voice here
8:59
here um I think it would have been
9:01
better to use the present perfect
9:02
passive followed by the present tense so
9:04
my sentence would read overall the
9:06
island has been transformed into a new
9:09
resort which includes and then you could
9:12
say your hotel your reception
9:14
whatever uh okay so let's look at the
9:16
first essay again uh this is the next
9:19
paragraph the piece of land presented
9:22
has a wide Seashore with only about a
9:24
fifth of its borders tied to land during
9:27
the process of civilization the area
9:29
went went through the vegetation there
9:31
was reduced extraordinarily and both
9:33
residences and buildings of social use
9:35
were built one of them being a in order
9:38
to make use of the territory Shore
9:40
another noticeable change was the
9:42
appearance of a
9:44
lake right so there's some good stuff
9:47
here nice passive verbs vegetation was
9:50
reduced residences were built and some
9:52
good lexical phrases so a fifth of its
9:56
borders tie to land during the process
9:58
of civilization
10:00
one of them being a peer in order to
10:02
make blah blah blah okay so there's some
10:04
nice some nice stuff going on there
10:07
however my biggest problem is how this
10:09
relates to the actual picture so because
10:12
this is an island none of it is
10:14
connected to land an island is not
10:16
connected to land uh so in terms of
10:19
coherence and Lexus we wouldn't talk
10:22
about buildings of social use but we'd
10:25
probably say residential buildings and
10:28
I'm not sure about for me the process of
10:30
civilization sounds more like Evolution
10:32
like how man came into being so I would
10:36
prefer to say the development F phase
10:39
something like that or the development
10:41
stage um so there there's problems there
10:43
relating to the the coherence uh and
10:46
also obviously to the task achievement
10:48
although there is some good stuff there
10:50
too so the second essay for me is much
10:52
more concise and precise and I think
10:55
from this you could probably draw the
10:57
map which is always a test if you can
10:59
draw the map then that's good without
11:01
even looking at it so the island is
11:04
about 200 M long and 800 M wide it is
11:08
surrounded by the Sea and with a beach
11:10
on the west side there are also some
11:13
trees at various places close to the
11:15
coast according to the new plan there
11:19
will be a hotel with a reception and one
11:21
more facility building in the center of
11:22
the island while on both sides of the
11:25
hotel there will be placed houses as
11:27
accommodation for guests so there's
11:30
confident use here of the present
11:32
passive voice it is surrounded by the
11:34
Sea a hotel will be placed and I like
11:38
the fact that students giv me a size of
11:40
the island and use vocabulary relating
11:42
to Resorts so nice lexical range here
11:45
Hotel reception facility building
11:48
accommodation for guests that this all
11:50
works well with the assumption that the
11:52
changes are part of a new resort and
11:55
showing me the size of the island
11:57
immediately uh reassures me the student
12:01
aha they they've looked at the
12:03
information they've been given they're
12:05
using that information to make some
12:07
realistic
12:08
assumptions uh the first essay back to
12:11
the first essay then the final paragraph
12:13
reads like this the town as it presents
12:17
itself after all the modifications
12:19
displays three main buildings at its
12:21
Center and two formations of the house
12:24
accommodations one on each side there
12:26
are two different kinds of path in the
12:28
land disposition a footpath and a
12:31
vehicle track that connect all main
12:34
areas and enable the citizens
12:37
Mobility okay so although there are no
12:40
major grammatical errors here there is
12:43
still the problem that the construction
12:45
work is clearly not a town and I think
12:47
the students therefore miss the
12:49
opportunity to use some key vocab for
12:52
adding geographical positioning so uh we
12:55
could have had to the Southwest
12:57
accommodation blocks have been built on
12:59
the Far Eastern Shore a lake has been
13:02
created uh also the tense running
13:05
through this they've just used the
13:06
simple present and I think this tasks so
13:09
like the process diagrams as well shouts
13:12
at you use the passive tense it's a
13:15
passive voice it is the the best
13:17
opportunity to show off your passive uh
13:21
which is really really important and
13:22
that gets you good points for um
13:24
grammatical range and accuracy so the
13:28
second ESS the band 7 final paragraph is
13:31
as follows the hotel the reception and
13:33
the facility building will be connected
13:35
by a vehicle track while between the
13:37
houses there will be foot paaths on the
13:39
southern coast a pier will be placed to
13:42
provide a safe port for sailing boats
13:45
there is also a plan to create an
13:47
artificial Lake on the East End of the
13:49
island comparing to the initial so
13:52
compared to should be the initial look
13:54
of the island only the beach and some
13:55
trees will be the same in the same place
13:58
while while the general prospects of the
14:00
island will change significantly okay so
14:03
I'm sure you agree this is much more
14:05
coherent and all in all a very good
14:07
response there's some great vocab which
14:10
is just what we need we're talking about
14:12
useful vocab for this kind of task
14:14
connected by placed positioned create
14:18
change significantly I love the word
14:20
significantly so for me that's a great
14:22
word and grammatically the student
14:24
continues with the future passive that's
14:26
that's how they've started so at least
14:28
they're consistent going all the way
14:30
through and use some good connecting
14:32
words while really useful connecting
14:34
word you've heard us say that before um
14:36
and also compared to obviously because
14:39
they're comparing the first picture
14:42
before the development and then the
14:43
second picture Okay so hopefully that's
14:45
given you an idea there for that kind of
14:48
map question what to do and what to
14:50
watch out for uh let's have a look now
14:53
at a different kind of map question this
14:55
image is taken from the coursebook
14:57
called ready for IELTS published by
14:59
melan exams and here there two maps uh
15:03
dated 2002 2009 representing changes in
15:06
a
15:08
town and it clearly gives the name of
15:10
the town which is Lakeside so let me
15:12
read you a few sentences from the sample
15:14
answer which is given to this question
15:16
just to illustrate some useful vocab for
15:18
this kind of task so firstly the
15:21
residential a uh neighborhood in the
15:23
southwest of the town was transformed
15:25
into a shopping center and the
15:27
industrial complex expanded to replace
15:31
the wooded area in the
15:33
Southeast okay that's a pretty intense
15:36
sentence uh so the response is using
15:39
some of the labels given so it's quite
15:41
clearly labeled this map and it's okay
15:43
the labels are there to help you uh you
15:45
can do that uh but it also uses some
15:48
really good vocabulary for describing
15:49
change and some very good passive verbs
15:52
and geographical Lexus as well so uh you
15:56
can see that the southwest of the time
15:59
was transformed so nice geographical and
16:02
nice passive and again industrial
16:05
complex expanded to replace the wooded
16:08
area in the Southeast so every single
16:11
word there is doing a really good job uh
16:15
another sentence let me give you an
16:16
example the Oldtown and derel Warehouse
16:19
in the north were knocked down and
16:22
replaced by a car park and the
16:23
construction of some offices so the old
16:27
town and derel warehous house really
16:29
useful um adjective there derel means
16:31
not used anymore abandoned in the north
16:35
were knocked down and replaced by so
16:38
you've got nice phrasal verb there
16:39
knocked down in the passive and replaced
16:42
by watch out for these prepositions
16:45
replaced by really important expanded to
16:49
um always look learn the preposition
16:52
with the verb um and construction of
16:55
some offices okay so there's some good
16:57
stuff in that one um see have a look at
17:00
the picture maybe you can have uh see if
17:02
you can write your own response to that
17:04
using some of the words that we're using
17:06
here we're mentioning and I want to just
17:09
sum up this tutorial here by giving you
17:13
some really useful words and some vocab
17:16
which you could use for these questions
17:17
so if you're not happy with this vocab
17:20
uh make a note of it because it is
17:22
really really important uh I would
17:25
suggest verbs such as transformed into
17:29
so watch out for the prepositions here
17:30
replaced by developed expanded so we can
17:35
have expand into something like that
17:39
construct demolish extend and become
17:43
these are all really really good verbs
17:45
here um now if you like playing with
17:49
words a transformation you'll know that
17:52
as an extra bonus these can all be
17:54
transformed into nans so you can have
17:57
development constr destruction
18:00
demolition extension
18:03
expansion and so on so that makes these
18:05
words super flexible and will show a
18:07
great lexical range you're showing the
18:09
examiner you can manipulate these words
18:11
from a verb to a noun um even as an
18:15
adjective some of them so that's really
18:17
really helpful uh you can also use some
18:19
Expressions so built in place of turned
18:23
into built on the site of reconstructed
18:27
to become and other really useful
18:30
Expressions so these are nice
18:31
collocations here Urban
18:33
transformation urban renewal or Urban
18:38
regeneration and not only is this quite
18:40
good vocab for the task one Maps uh it's
18:42
also really useful for your task 2 s as
18:45
well especially if you're writing about
18:46
towns or anything to do with that so
18:50
there we have it we have looked at a
18:52
band Six type task one map essay and
18:57
compared this to a band seven map essay
19:00
we've also looked at another type of map
19:02
question the one about towns and
19:05
reviewed some core vocabulary which I
19:07
think is needed for this kind of
19:08
question so I hope you found this useful
19:11
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19:13
preparation and want to get some super
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friendly professional help don't forget
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which are full of tutorials and guidance
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uh which can really help you and get
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involved in the course so the right
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good I mentioned that before that can
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help you with your task two your task
19:35
one give you lots of feedback
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personalized to you lots of essay
19:39
Corrections and examples of different
19:41
types of question uh if you have a
19:43
friend who's also working working
19:44
towards a and finding it hard do share
19:47
this podcast with them good luck to all
19:49
of you with your preparation and talk to
19:52
you soon thanks for listening
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20:11
thanks for listening to ieltspodcast.com
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