Jessica I know we talked recently about my birthday and all the freebies I got
but I can't remember when your birthday is is it coming up
no no my birthday is in January my birthday is January 16th I am a Capricorn I am stubborn and
organized and hard working but my mob is a Virgo and her birthday is today guys this episode is
being released on September 21st and that's my mom's birthday here's the funny thing my mom is
turning 71 but in my mind she's like stuck at 47. like she's just she's young I'm almost that
old like but I still think of her as being in her 40s I don't know it's so weird I do too I'm the
same I'm like in my mind my mom just turned 40 so wait how old am I it's so crazy um so guys you do
um get asked about parties and birthdays and celebrations on aisle so in honor of my mom
turning 71 today Aubrey and I are gonna do some sample IELTS answers about birthdays
nice I'm gonna ask you first a couple of part ones right and then we'll have you ask me a part
two and we'll give each other a little feedback guys so if you're new to our sample answers stay
tuned because so much good information yes guys you will learn um why our answers score highly
so you can do the same thing uh okay so we're just gonna do two part one sample answers here
um I'm ready all right do you enjoy celebrating your birthday oh my gosh yes I love
um
birthday for like at least a month and do as many different things with as many different friends
and family as I possibly can and just any excuse to go out to eat to go like do fun activity things
to buy myself presents um I will take that and run with it I love it okay what's the best gift you've
received oh my gosh that's so hard um actually I would say the best gift I received this is so cute
last week um James brought me a present because he said he and it's not for my birthday he said
that like he didn't get me a Mother's Day present and he wanted to make up for it and he found these
Christmas socks with um Will Ferrell from Elf on them and I Christmas is my favorite celebration
of the whole year I love Christmas and um elf is one of my favorite movies well Farrell is
one of my favorite comedians and it was like the cutest thing just for my son to know me that well
that he's like I got you these awesome dorky socks and um that is definitely yeah I feel like you're
going on Long on purpose to make me interrupt you I'm so I have a hard time interrupting you guys
um that I'm so glad that happened no I didn't do that on purpose um guys in part one just like you
heard happened just now um if you speak for too long and part one The Examiner will interrupt
you and guys if you've been listening to us for a while you know that it's totally fine to be
interrupted totally yes don't let it bother you okay some really good feedback on your answers
guys the first one you guys might want to go back and listen now that you hear my advice you can
hear them again and hear how Jessica does these things she starts the answer by saying oh my gosh
yes that is such good slang of course you can't start every answer but at least one at least one
of your part one answers when it's something that you're excited about or feel strongly yes
say that oh my gosh yes or so oh my gosh no yes emotion get that intonation use slang so many
score boosts for that right and then just all the intonation to say I love anything that right this
interesting intonation there's no monotone here and so you're getting a higher pronunciation score
because you're showing emotion you've got your intonations going up and down and is interesting
and engaging okay and then I loved the expression take that and run with it I'm going to take that
and run with it this is idiomatic language that means you're going to take it and then go further
you're going to take it further you're going to do something interesting with it right you're
gonna you're gonna take something you're gonna do as much with this thing as you possibly can
um you can use this when you're talking about your job and stuff too right like if you're
um particularly good or into a task or project you're you're doing right if the examiner says
what do you like about your job it's such a boring question right but you can make it
interesting with your answer you could say well just last week my boss um tasked me with taking
over our social media yeah and I tell you what I am running with this it is so fun right I'm gonna
take that and run with it and I want to point out you did a really interesting thing there when you
say tasked me which we call this verbing and we recently did an all Year's English episode about
this guy so if you're not following all your English I loved that episode when we say um you
know someone tasked me with something we're taking the noun task and turning it into a verb and it's
so interesting and Native so check that out if you didn't but we're not done with feedback here
okay because you still need to do a part two sample okay I'll be quick so for the second
answer first of all really good filler phrase you started with this is so hard right there's no pus
there's no hesitation have those filler phrases to be interesting and then just all the details
guys go and listen to all the details about the Christmas socks and the favorites oh my God you
gotta share details you got to be willing to get personal to share lots of interesting vocabulary
and get that intonation awesome awesome so before we get to Aubrey's part two I want to
uh give you guys a few takeaways here okay so um just to summarize this advice because it's
so good I just want to reiterate this in order to boost your IELTS speaking score guys you have to
put yourself in the answer you have to have fun you have to show emotion even if that's loving
something or hating something um that will come through in your pronunciation and your vocabulary
and your fluency guys so these are all things that boost your IELTS speaking score get into
it okay now uh before we get to aubry's answer I want to remind you guys that you can get a free
IELTS ebook that I wrote all yoursenglish.com new IELTS it has the five new ways that IELTS
is changing guys and this does have a lot to do with the speaking exam so definitely get
that guys it's free there's no reason not to all there's english.com new aisles okay sweet
let's get to your uh part two answer let me open my uh timer here okay you got a Time maintenance
needs to be accurate right at two minutes yes yeah so the question guys so don't answer quite
yet because I want to make a note about this question Aubry so the question is describe
a party you would like to give for a friend or family member so this is a real IELTS question
guys and I've heard students make the mistake of not reading this correctly and describing a party
that they went to in the past notice it's like would like to give all right just an imaginary
future party that you would like to give for a friend or family member okay Aubry uh you can
start speaking now please I would love to throw a party for someone where we just play games the
whole time it would have to be the right person someone like me who loves playing games and would
be okay with this scenario but when I turned 40 we played 40 game games that day it took us all
day long it was so much fun and I think it would be really fun to throw a party for someone who
loves games and then play board games but also playing outside games kayak races like we did
like there's all kinds of games that you can play and I think I mean these are my people anyone who
just loves games and could do this type of thing all day long so what I really need to do is start
asking friends say what about you would you like to you know play games during your whole birthday
party I'm gonna find that person and I'm gonna throw them a party where we play games the whole
time and then maybe if they say no that doesn't sound fun to me I'm gonna be like okay well I
don't know if we're friends anymore maybe I'll see you in a year but when I find that person I'm
gonna plan it we don't need decorations we need some fun food some party favors I'll make some
hors d'oeuvres I'll make some little canopies maybe that'd be fun and drinks gonna need some
drinks and then it's all about the activities I would have like fun group games and I would have
um lots of active games you can't sit and play cards or board games for hours I mean maybe you
could but I like active games where we're also running around like diving spoons I don't know
if you've played that it's sort of a card game but then when you get the right cards you dive
and have to grab a spoon and you're fighting to get the right spoon you have to like dive across
the room that's my kind of game make it active make it physical it's so much more fun and maybe
there will be injuries but if they're you know if no one's getting hurt are you really living is the
question so yeah I'm excited to plan that party it's a goal it's on my bucket list on my to-do
list that I just need to find the right person who wants this party did you hear I had I started
like trying to summarize I'm like oh goodness that's still two minutes that was tough okay so
here is some of my feedback I'm gonna I'm gonna challenge you a bit Aubry I'm gonna push back on
how you tackled that so you you focused on the first part of the prompt right describe a party
I would think that if we focused on the entire prompt for a friend or family member and had a
specific person in mind then there might be more specific details you could add about what that
person might like and like here's another strategy for part two as well instead of saying like we
don't need decorations you know that's kind of a missed opportunity to add details right or
um hors d'oeuvres and canapes great food vocabulary I love that food vocabulary but like
take that even further right what hors d'oeuvres what canopies pigs in a blanket cheese on a stick
um mini corn dogs I don't know like there's something that's so true right they show all
the types of hors d'oeuvres that you know get that book cover that's a good point yeah yeah so
um you can still fill the two minutes right but I think this is a great example of how if we don't
spend time on each detail or each key point then we're gonna run out of stuff to say yeah right
Aubry queen of games talking about games if you could run out of stuff to say that it could happen
to anyone I know it's so true and I felt as I was talking I was feeling myself speak really
fast I'm like I know know that I should slow down and it ended up really being a negative
it sort of burned me because I had said a lot but I didn't I had a hard time feeling that time
because I was speaking really fast and saying all this stuff dude do not hesitate you guys to slow
down so that you can emphasize different words and like you said share those details don't feel
rushed right I think I I let myself sometimes feel rushed when I'm speaking and on IELTS speaking you
shouldn't you really have to slow down that's a really good point yeah I mean these are great
takeaways for how to tackle part two slow down first of all and give as many details as you can
about everything you mentioned right until you until there are zero more things you
could say then move on to the next thing right so it's like yeah like talk about all the food
before moving on to the drinks talk about all the drinks before moving on to the game
um but like the the uh description about the diving spoons and getting injuries and all that
like that was fantastic I love it I've never heard of this game but I want to play oh you
gotta play all right guys so remember to go to ollersenglish.com new IELTS check out that free
IELTS ebook it's 55 Pages guys it's well worth a look and it's free alluresenglish.com new aisles
okay awesome Aubry uh thanks for doing some sample answers today yeah so fun I'm okay
with being like the example of what not to do because honestly the way the average native
speaker speaks is maybe not how you should speak on IELTS part two and sometimes I just had to talk
without thinking about those strategies at such a good point that it's all about the strategies
I'll be a nurse in England or whatever and uh they couldn't talk for two minutes and
they would get like mad because as an examiner you're like can you tell me
more about the topic and they're like no I already said everything so yeah definitely
uncomfortable don't do part two like a native that's right the end of the advice all right
Aubry have a wonderful weekend I'll see you next week you too see you later bye bye