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From Struggle to Success: How Marta Achieved Her IELTS Goals and Secured a US Scholarship
Have you ever felt stuck while preparing for the IELTS exam? Meet Marta, a bright student from Ukraine who turned her IELTS struggles into triumph. Let's dive into her story and see how she went from a 6.5 to a 7 in both writing and speaking!
Marta's IELTS Journey
Marta needed high IELTS scores to join a university programme in the United States. She faced three big challenges:
No feedback on her practice attempts
Worry about missing the required score
Fear of wasting time on confusing online resources
Does this sound familiar? Many IELTS students face similar issues. But don't worry - there's hope!
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0:00
hello there Al podcast listeners in this
0:03
tutorial we are speaking with an
0:05
exceptionally smart student from Ukraine
0:10
Mala and she's got some pretty
0:13
impressive I res
0:19
OHS got my micophone let's do okay
0:24
sorry let's do it again microphone's
0:27
right in front of me now so three two
0:31
one hello there I students in this
0:34
tutorial we are talking with an
0:36
exceptionally smart bright student
0:40
called Mara from Ukraine did I pronounce
0:43
that correctly yep yeah okay super and
0:48
she's going to tell us how she scored
0:50
some pretty impressive IELTS scores and
0:53
how she overcame 6.5 in the writing and
0:57
the speaking
1:00
and got into a program in the US so uh
1:04
welcome to the podcast Mata could you
1:07
introduce yourself and tell us why you
1:08
were taking the ILS exam please sure
1:12
happy to see you so my name is Mara I'm
1:15
from Ukraine and I needed to take I exam
1:18
to to get a high score to enter for a US
1:22
program at
1:24
University um and I really struggled
1:26
with writing and
1:28
speaking uh and I was was pretty much
1:30
stressed about the scholarship deadlines
1:32
and the level of competition it has
1:35
interesting right and um like what
1:39
issues were you facing when you were
1:42
preparing for the Els
1:45
exam um I think the main issue was the
1:50
the absence of feedback I couldn't see
1:53
my mistakes when I was practicing and
1:55
preparing and also I had constant fear
1:59
of missing the required
2:01
score um and also I would say that I was
2:06
I was having fear of wasted time on all
2:08
the confusing online
2:11
resources right I see I see so when you
2:14
first decided to start your preparation
2:17
you were just like researching online
2:20
and just looking around and you did did
2:23
you consider getting a private
2:26
shooter uh well yes I consider it but
2:30
local classes were too expensive and
2:33
sometimes generic and I was just looking
2:36
for online materials available but was
2:40
so many of them and it was difficult to
2:42
choose which one to use right I see I
2:46
see so this is how you were preparing
2:47
before you found us before you found us
2:51
and our team at I podcast.com and then
2:55
you decided to to join um at what point
3:00
did you decide to join or what did
3:02
doubts did you have before joining
3:06
us um well the doubts I was unsure if
3:11
the simulator covered complex writing
3:13
tasks but it actually did I was also
3:17
worried
3:18
about about of course being rigid but it
3:21
turned out flexible and also I was
3:24
skeptical if online practice would match
3:27
in-person classes but work great yeah
3:32
why were you skeptical about the online
3:35
like using the AIS a correction tool or
3:39
the speaking simulator why were you
3:40
skeptical about using
3:43
those um I don't know is always a
3:46
concern about online courses because you
3:49
you're never sure what actually you're
3:51
going to get versus how product is
3:54
advertised that's why I had my concerns
3:56
and
3:57
doubts right I see I see and then what
4:02
was there a specific moment you realized
4:05
like the speaking simulator was going
4:07
well for
4:09
you um well I realized that my reading
4:13
and listening scores improved quickly
4:15
and like writing feedback fixed my
4:19
structure and coherence and also
4:21
simulator mock test boosted my speaking
4:24
confidence I felt great doing speaking
4:28
tasks oh super how did you was it from
4:32
doing repeated um simulation exams that
4:36
boosted your confidence or was it the
4:38
feedback that you got detailing like
4:40
your mistakes or how to improve which
4:42
one do you think was the most
4:44
valuable I think
4:47
uh feedback when it's quite person
4:50
personalized it helped me a lot to see
4:52
my weak
4:53
points um and I seeing my weak points I
4:57
could improve it right right interesting
5:01
um just to dive into this a little bit
5:03
deeper were you making like notes on the
5:06
feedback you got and then implementing
5:09
it or what kind of approach did you have
5:12
to implement the
5:14
feedback uh well I used uh the course
5:18
word list for for S simulator and I
5:22
focused on topic specific vocabulary it
5:25
gave me and I was trying to integrate
5:28
new words into my dat
5:30
conversation I see I see that's pretty
5:34
smart actually Mata you know if you
5:36
learn in the lists and then trying to
5:38
implement them uh that's fantastic so
5:41
did you do quite a few speaking tests or
5:43
were you just limiting it to like one a
5:45
day or were you doing
5:47
more um I completed several mock tests
5:51
um and each was boosting my confidence
5:55
definitely yeah how was it boing your
5:57
confidence was it like the familiarity
5:59
with the questions or like the improved
6:02
speed of responses could you tell us how
6:05
it did help your confidence I think
6:07
familiarity with the questions helped a
6:09
lot I was ready to I knew for what to be
6:13
prepared and also the vocabulary leas
6:17
that I practiced helped me
6:18
also excellent that's great that's great
6:22
and then what happened on your test
6:25
day uh so my test day um
6:30
I would say that writing task was one I
6:33
had practiced and I approached it with a
6:36
confidence and um I used my new
6:39
vocabulary during the speaking test and
6:42
I had less hesitation and it was really
6:45
nice and smooth and also listening and
6:49
reading uh I think it also were really
6:52
smooth thanks to focus practice um and
6:56
overall the test day was I felt
6:58
confident and I felt like I can do it
7:01
excellent and how was your exam was just
7:04
examiner with they friendly with they
7:06
professional what could you share some
7:09
details there if you don't mind yeah
7:11
sure I think the everyone was really
7:14
professional and even though the
7:16
atmosphere was like a exam atmosphere
7:19
still people around were kind to us and
7:22
it helped a lot to to quite to quite
7:26
distress inside and I think it was fine
7:30
excellent that's great I'm happy you had
7:31
a um a piece u a productive um Camp exam
7:37
day and then what were your results what
7:40
did you get in the
7:42
end uh so my I I scored eight in reading
7:46
and listening and I scored seven in
7:50
writing and speaking amaz Yeah and it
7:54
actually it helped to secure my
7:56
scholarship and I'm really thrilled with
7:59
the result
8:00
that's great well done Mara well done
8:03
and just to um for the listeners you
8:05
were stuck at 6.5 beforehand is that
8:08
right for both the writing and the
8:10
speaking yep right I see yeah a lot of
8:15
students do struggle with when they're
8:17
at 6.5 with the writing and just for the
8:20
listeners um it's usually a lot easier
8:24
to go from 6 to 6.5 than it is from 6.5
8:28
to 7 so even though it goes up in 0.5
8:31
increments and it looks like it's all
8:34
equal what I found from over 12 years
8:37
experience doing this is that the jump
8:40
from 6.5 to seven
8:43
is considerably more difficult than six
8:46
to 6.5 so well done you uh Mar that's
8:50
fantastic and what would you say to
8:52
somebody who's just maybe thinking about
8:55
joining the the course and using the new
8:57
tools like the sa checker in the
8:59
speaking
9:01
simulator um I would say just do it um
9:06
the simulator and feedback were game
9:09
changers for
9:10
me um next thing I would say is that you
9:15
don't need a private tutor course
9:17
feedback was enough to improve and to
9:20
see the results and also it helped me
9:23
achieve my dream score and boosted my
9:26
confidence in taking the E exam
9:29
that is amazing well done well done and
9:32
how is the scholarship going in the US
9:34
is it good fun yeah it's amazing I'm
9:38
really happy that I I managed to get to
9:41
this
9:41
program yeah well done you well done so
9:45
massive thank you Mata you've been an
9:47
absolute staff and just for the
9:50
listeners you can find all these tools
9:54
that Mata has been using and used to get
9:57
to band seven and her scholarship for
10:00
the US you can find them all at
10:02
ieltspodcast.com
10:05
and one admission lately because of all
10:10
the users we've got using the speaking
10:12
simulator it has crashed once or twice
10:15
but the developer jumped on that and we
10:16
got it solved within a couple of hours
10:18
but hopefully these issues are sorted
10:21
now so when we publish this you'll have
10:23
a smooth experience uh Mara did you
10:27
experience any crashes when you were
10:30
using the simulator or was it all plain
10:32
sailing for you um for me everything was
10:35
fine I didn't had any problems beautiful
10:39
all right well SS like the developers
10:41
fixed it already so um thank you very
10:44
much again Mara and have a super day and
10:48
thank you for doing this and just be
10:50
ready for internet stardom when we
10:53
publish this all right thank you
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