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you are now listening to the I podcast
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learn from tutors and ex examiners who
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are masters of I outs preparation your
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Worthington hello there I students in
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this tutorial we are talking with an
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exceptionally smart bright student
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called Mara from Ukraine did I pronounce
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yeah okay super and she's going to tell
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us how she scored some pretty impressive
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ielt scores and how she overcame 6.5 in
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speaking and got into a program in the
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US so uh welcome to the podcast Mara
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could you introduce yourself and tell us
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why you were taking the I exam please
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sure happy to see you so my name is mar
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I'm from Ukraine and I needed to take I
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exam to to get a high score to enter for
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University um and I really struggled
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speaking uh and I was pretty much
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stressed about the scholarship deadlines
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and the level of competition it has
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interesting right and um like what
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issues were you facing when you were
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preparing for the I exam
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um I think the main issue was the the
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absence of feedback I couldn't see my
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mistakes when I was practicing and
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preparing and also I had constant fear
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of missing the required
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score um and also I would say that I was
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I was having fear of wasted time on all
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resources right I see I see so when you
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first decided to start your preparation
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you were just like researching online
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and just looking around and you did did
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you consider getting a private
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shooter uh well yes I consider it but
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local classes were too expensive and
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sometimes generic and I was just looking
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for online materials available but was
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so many of them and it was difficult to
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choose which one to use right I see I
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see so this is how you were preparing
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before you found us before you found us
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and our team at ieltspodcast.com
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and then you decided to to join um at
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what point did you decide to join or
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what did doubts did you have before
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us um well the doubts I was unsure if
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the simulator covered complex writing
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tasks but it actually did I was also
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about about of course being rigid but it
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turned out flexible and also I was
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skeptical if online practice would match
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in-person classes but it worked great
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yeah why were you skeptical about the
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online like using the Aisa correction
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tool or the speaking simulator why were
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you skeptical about using
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those um I don't is always a concern
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about online courses because you you're
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never sure what actually you're going to
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get versus how product is advertised
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that's why I had my concerns and
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doubts right I see I see and then what
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was there a specific moment you realized
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like the speaking simulator was going
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you um well I realized that my reading
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and listening scores improved quick
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quickly and like writing feedback fixed
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my structure and coherence and also
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simulator mock test boosted my speaking
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confidence I felt great doing speaking
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tasks oh super how did you was it from
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doing repeated um simulation exams that
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boosted your confidence or was it the
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feedback that you got detailing like
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your mistakes or how to improve which
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one do you think was the most valuable
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uh feedback when it's quite person
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personalized it helped me a lot to see
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points um and I seeing my weak points I
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could improve it right interesting um
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just to dive into this a little bit
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deeper were you making like notes on the
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feedback you got and then implementing
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it or what kind of approach did you have
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to implement the feedback
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uh well I used uh the course word list
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for for S simulator and I focus on topic
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specific vocabulary it gave me and I was
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trying to integrate new words into my
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conversation I see I see that's pretty
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smart actually Mata you know if you're
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learning the lists and then trying to
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implement them uh that's fantastic so
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did you do quite a few speaking tests or
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were you just limiting to like one a day
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more um I completed several mock tests
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um and each was boosting my confidence
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definitely yeah how was it boosting your
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confidence was it like the familiarity
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with the questions or like the improved
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speed of responses could you tell us M
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how it did help your confidence I think
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familiarity with the questions helped a
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lot I was ready to I knew for what to be
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prepared and also the vocabulary lease
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that I practiced helped me
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also excellent that's great that's great
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and then what happened on your test
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day uh so my test day
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um I would say that writing task was one
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I had practiced and I approached it with
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confidence and I used my new vocabulary
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during the speaking test and I had less
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hesitation and was really nice and
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smooth and also listening and
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reading uh I think it also were really
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smooth thanks to focus practice um and
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overall the test day was I felt
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confident and I felt like I can do it
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excellent and how was your exam was your
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examiner with they friendly with they
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professional what could you share some
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details there if you don't mind yeah
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sure I think the everyone was really
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professional and even though the
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atmosphere was like a exam atmosphere
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still people around were kind to us and
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to to quite to quite dist stress inside
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and I think it was fine excellent that's
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great I'm happy you had a um a piece u a
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productive um cam exam day and then what
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were your results what did you get in
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end uh so my I I scored eight in reading
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and listening and I scored seven in
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speaking Yeah and it actually it helped
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to secure my scholarship and I'm really
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thrilled with the results that's great
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well done Mara well done and just to um
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for the listeners you were stuck at 6.5
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beforehand is that right for both the
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writing and the speaking yep right I see
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yeah a lot of students do struggle with
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when they're at 6.5 with the writing and
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just for the listeners um it's usually a
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lot easier to go from six to 6.5 than it
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is from 6.5 to 7even so even though it
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goes up in .5 increments and it looks
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like it's all equal what I found from
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over 12 years experience doing this is
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that the jump from 6.5 to 7
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is consist considerably more difficult
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than 6 to 6.5 so well done you uh Mar
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that's fantastic and what would you say
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to somebody who's just maybe thinking
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about joining the the course and using
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the new tools like the essay Checker and
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simulator um I would say just do it um
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the simulator and feedbook were game
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me um next thing I would say is that you
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don't need a private tutor course
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feedback was enough to improve and to
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see the results and also it helped me
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achieve my dream score and boosted my
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confidence in taking the E
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exam that is amazing well done well done
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and how is the scholarship going in the
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US is it good fun yeah it's amazing I'm
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really happy that I I managed to get to
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program yeah well done you well done so
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massive thank you Mata you've been an
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absolute staff and just for the
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listeners you can find all these tools
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that Mata has been using and used to get
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to band seven and get her scholarship
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for the US you can find them all at
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and one admission lately because of all
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the users we've got using the speaking
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simulator it has crashed once or twice
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but the developer jumped on that and we
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got it solved within a couple of hours
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but hopefully these issues are sorted
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now so when we publish this you'll have
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a smooth experience uh Mara did you
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experience any crashes when you were
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using the simulator or was it all plain
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sailing for you um for me everything was
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fine I didn't had any problems beautiful
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all right well sounds like the
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developers fixed it already so um thank
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you very much again Mara and have a
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super day and thank you for doing this
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and just be ready for internet stardom
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thanks for listening to IP podcast.com
