Cast Episode 22 You listening to Ayotte's cast the podcast to put you in touch with successful isles candidates from around the world, listening land as they explain how the achieved band 78 and even nine.

Now use your host, Ryan Hello and welcome to Isles Cast.

My name is Ryan, and today I'm speaking with Vita and Isles students from Russia from Moscow, Russia, who took the exam recently in Moscow and scored an overall band of eight with Band 8.5 and listing bands nine in Reading Perfect Bennett Band eight and writing and banned seven in speaking.

And Vida's been kind enough to share a bit of time with us today and explain how she did it.

And in her email to me, she she also iterated that she prepared for the outs within a week within one week.

So she's gonna share this story with us.

Hi, Vito.

Welcome.

Tiles cast.

Hi.

Run.

Thanks again for, uh, giving me this possibility to share my experience, and I hope it might be useful for other students with the same experience I have.

Well, probably for just of interest for everyone else.

I'm sure will be.

So you have a very unique sort of story.

You you say that you prepared within a week?

Do you want to tell us a bit more about that?

Oh, yes, that's right.

Actually, I learned that I needed Thio pass a total or isles.

All right.

For my application.

Tow the university on Dhe.

I need I.

Well, it was a very short deadline.

So the only possibility Thio pass some exam wars in a week after I learned that I needed to do it.

So I asked my friends if anyone had passed exam recently.

And I remember my friend who did it probably a year ago, and she also didn't have much time for preparation, so But she passed it Okay, too.

Get her a job in Australia.

So I thought that I might be a good decision for me, so I started my preparation.

I see.

That's very interesting.

So So basically you Your reasoning for choosing the Isles was simply because you spoke to somebody by chance that had taken the outs.

Prayer?

Yes, that's right.

Okay, so I'm sure now everybody's curious.

You have a week to prepare for this examination and you walk out with a band?

Eight.

So why don't you tell us a little bit About between the moment when you spoke to your friend and you decided that you're going to take the aisles and the moment that you stepped into the examination room, What was that period like, What did you do during that week?

Um Well, first of all, I decided to look cop exam itself, to understand it.

Parts on dhe, Probably some strategists for preparation or for taking it on DDE.

So after that, I understood what were my so just say stronger, um, warrants or weaker and where I was more comfortable S s.

So I decided to practice more.

Well, not really practice, but analyze more writing, but, uh uh, reading and listening on speaking.

So it's a I didn't, uh, prepare for speaking at all because I didn't have much opportunity.

And I send that probably if my score would lower.

It was still okay if I had a discourse in other parts.

Um, I took some marked it for listening and reading parts on my first day of preparation, and I understood that the they were pretty clear for me.

on dhe.

I made probably just a couple of mistakes in each part.

So he said that, uh, I would just look up some tips and tricks for taking those, but but I want consecrate much time to them.

And so my less comfortable part Waas say, because it's a long time since I started at the university and had a chance to You'll write something like that.

So, um, especially graphs, because I do academic our exam and my decision was Thio understand?

What were the types of offer stays on, what it were, the requirements.

So that's what I did in them 14 days.

I looked up kinds of times off stays and just copied them by hand and analyzed how they were made and how they were composed.

So on.

Actually, if I had that idea are because I had read some time ago that if you want Teoh right, like some right to just I just need to copy them on.

I thought that if that probably works with writers, why not try it with Okay, Very interesting.

So and that's a strategy that I'm hearing more and more successful students shared, so you basically you found reports you found this season and you copy the mod word for word and then try to reproduce what you were copying when you went to write it by yourself.

Yes, that's right.

Now, if we were just focus for a second on the listening and the reading.

Now, before we started the recording, you were telling me that that you've had quite a history with with the English language and I suppose that was probably the real thing that contributed to you getting almost perfect in listening and a perfect score and reading.

Would you say that's about accurate?

Yes, I would agree with that.

Of course, even though I haven't started English, a school or some other corner for probably lost six or eight years, I still use the English a lot in reading and watching tons off TV series or just movies on dhe My.

I would say that my preferred language for E now is English.

So if I'm interested in some book, I first to look up the English version and then, uh uh, Russian translation or some other language translation on Duh.

I think that that's what helped mostly with reading, because I do read on multiple topics which do not only include my that the top of the send my professional development, but also other areas of interest.

S O.

I was quite prepared for the test because the first text the game was on online business, online sales and that would that subject I here and read a lot about it.

Work on the second test was about some research off a bird's population in the K, and that's water.

I probably could look up on week video or somewhere else.

So the text was quite clear for me as well.

And the 3rd 1 was quite tricky.

But it was a text about different concepts of language and its relations toe anthropology.

And that's what also interests me a lot.

And I probably had read some books or articles on those topics.

So if, uh, I would do summarize my experience here and to probably give some otherwise it would be to switch on to English as your preferred English off your preferred language for very about your topics of interest and the war you reader about all the things in the world, the movie bed you get, for example, And so it sounds that you had a tech article which was the only business, you something about nature, which was about birds, I suppose, And then something sort of related to science slash history with the with the concepts of language.

What you're saying is that these are topics that you had previously had some experience reading about because they were there in areas that that you have some personal interest.

And you had read texts like this before.

Yes, that's right.

Probably not about really birds per se, but I might have looked up something different.

Animals don't like that.

So the words the scientific language about animals and the populations, the research wasn't a new for me.

Yes, OK.

And so it sounds like the Funda fundamental strategy that you're suggesting it is to try to a cz Muchas you can operate in English from in your day to the life.

Would you say that the same is true for the listing?

Yes, I agree with that.

Well, because I think what um, help me mostly eyes that I watched a lot off movies on TV series in English.

I also listened Thio English stones on DDE I think that would also help me is that it work?

I participate in the conference calls with my colleagues from other countries, and even though they're not usually native speakers, I I think it's still very helpful to listen to different accents to actively listen, I might say, because you need to understand what they talking about to provide your in butter and so on, and so that different accents are not surprised.

And you can understand the different topics, like everyday communication or probably something more specific.

Okay, interesting.

Now you had mentioned in your e mail to me that you had watched the strategies that were shared by two other successful Isles candidates, Vivid and Toby S O.

How did they fit into your strategy?

And did you follow any of the same ways of engaging the examination that they share?

Um uh, it's it's a good question because that video was one of the first that I watched s so it was more like inspiration and I think melt.

It has noted now with some other beaches that I wish after that.

But the trick that I remember from there speak it is for listening.

That Oh, when they tell you about the tasks themselves on dhe, you have some seconds to read the questions and you need to go straight to the third section is more difficult.

So yeah, it was the tip that I definitely learned from them, but for others not sure that I can Singular tips.

But the video was very traditional for me.

Would there be anything else that you would suggest students do?

Um, yes.

I also downloaded some podcasts from BBC Discovery on the scientific subjects to listen before before the exams on the following days.

So just tow get usedto to the British accent again on dhe toe listen toe some scientific subjects and I think it's it also was very helpful.

Thio have some amount of listening before the exam on DDE.

I think that while you can, um, do your usual tasks on Dwork, you can still listen on dhe.

You will collect those unnecessary hours.

OK, OK, so BBC Discovery podcast.

Now my my last question for you regarding listening and reading.

So you share the strategy of engaging lots of mock tests, and that's that's a pretty standard strategy for a successful students as they engage mark tests.

They go into the examination with the general idea of how they're going to perform in the exam because they've done so many mock tests.

So where were you getting these mock tests?

From where they out of the Cambridge books, or were you searching for them online?

What was the source there?

I said for them online.

And I think that I tried some tests on the official side.

Probably.

And some other side.

So I think that the first place where to go is just a certain line, probably to find what it can there.

Well, if you don't want to spend much money on that's books over some of the courses.

But for more thorough preparation, I would probably buy or enrolled to some online course where you can try many, many off this tusks, and you don't need to spend time on finding them yourself.

Okay.

And it was that a strategy that you you did follow though our Was there a specific online course that you engaged?

Um, no, I didn't.

For in the online course, of course, is I just tried out the tech.

The tests that I found elsewhere on different sides.

So it was just I don't remember any specific said because they were really random, But still, they had transcripts on dhe tasks on De so I could quiet.

Well, imagine what it would be at the exam and whatever the task.

So what were the time requirements and so on?

Okay.

Terrific.

And those tests that you were doing, you replacing Band Aid band night, Ben, nine of those mock tests?

Um, yeah.

I think something around Banda bait, because eyes I root in my counter on form.

I had some problems with two falls or not getting not given a kind off questions for reading on dhe.

So that was the area for my further research on tips and tricks.

OK, terrific.

Well, whatever you did, it worked because you scored a perfect band nine and Benny 90.5, and you can ask for much better than that.

Okay, now let's move on to we're jumping around a little bit.

But if we just go back to the writing section for it for a second now, you told us the preparation strategy that you followed, which is very clear, very straight forward.

It's also very standard a lot of successful students to the same.

So they're copying band nine example responses.

And then they're trying to emulate some of the language that they see and some of the structure that they see in their in their own writing.

So why don't you tell us a bit about the actual exam itself?

The writing exam itself?

Maybe about the questions that she received, how you approach them and maybe just about the experience as a whole?

Uh, yes, sure.

Um well, the first state topic waas the description off a map on dhe.

It was lucky because I studied maps, Description adjust the day before.

So it was quite fresh in my mind and I I just wrote it in one go And I think I wrote the first part in the 21st 20 minutes as Waas required.

I had more difficulties with the second part which waas I remember correctly.

Well, the question was about a conception off energy on DDE.

The means to reduce it was to propose the companies to stop work for one day.

And I think it was current kind offer Say where you need Thio Way A pros and cons and give your opinion, then.

Okay.

And so what?

Was it more?

It was more of a advantages.

Disadvantages, sort of.

Bessie was.

Was that style.

Yeah, I think that was that.

Ok, terrific.

So let's send it.

Just just jump back one sec for to the task one about what was the map?

Was it a map of a natural country, or was it a made up town or what was it?

It was a member or where?

Town Probably even real.

And there were three maps.

We showed the development off this down from my 18th century to 20th century on dhe.

Well, it's a change down.

There were nude types off our city districts, and so one.

Okay, that sounds actually quite challenging because that would test your ability to describe spatial things in English and would also test your ability to to talk in terms of time and and and deliver a response chronologically.