Hi, I'm Maddie and welcome to this ideas and brainstorming session for part two of the IELTS speaking test.
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In the IELTS speaking test part two, it's sometimes very difficult to think of ideas.
That's why I have three students here with me to talk about some ideas which you could talk about in part two.
This lesson will be split into a series in which we'll be looking at lots of different questions from the IELTS speaking part two.
We'll be generating ideas and giving you new vocabulary to prepare you for your test.
Now I have Laura, Sashi, and Pesh and they are all native speakers and it's important to remind you why we use native speakers in these videos.
One, because surprisingly, there are many native speakers who take the test.
And two because they are excellent tools for you to listen to their language, and their grammar and for you to learn from them.
Well, shall we get started with the first IELTS speaking part two question?
I'll give each of you the same question, and you'll have time to take some notes. Then we'll have a little brainstorming session for you to share your ideas.
It's really going to be a collaboration for you to help each other and the people at home.
Ready, ready. Okay! Your first question. I want you to talk about a time where you helped solve a problem.
Oh okay, solve a problem. Tricky. It's a tricky one
It's hard to think of things straight away. Yes. Yeah, it takes a while. Yeah.
And is it a big problem, or is it a small problem? Once, we had a mouse in our house that was a problem.
So we had to try and find the mouse, and it was very fast, so we were screaming and running around with the Tupperware container so maybe I will write...
So a mouse issue. A vermin issue. I am struggling to think of a real example, so I will make one up. Yeah.
I think I might have to make one up as well. Although but you did remind me of a time we had mice at work. Ohh.
I think about that as well. Was it a food place? Yeah, a cafe, okay.
It's all sorted now, though. Yeah, so you definitely don't want any mice in the cafe. No you don't.
I'm thinking pretty literal like a problem like a classroom problem. Ohh. Like an actual problem in the class
Yeah, a made some makeup story like Sashi said about helping a friend with a math problem or question.
Yes. Yeah. I suppose I'll go with that. Yeah, I'm just gonna say my sister's car broke down, and then from that, I feel like I could expand on that. Say what road. How I helped her. Hmm.
Where you were going? Where were you going? Yeah. And was it a problem because the car broke down and you were going to be late.
Yes, so it's like extra pressure. Extra extra pressure, yeah. Right, we never know.
It could be real. Just add details. Exactly, I think when it, when you're lying it helps if you add real datas.
So if you live somewhere you use the roads you know. So that you can start peppering through details.
Be a bit dramatic. Yes! Yeah. exaggerated. Yeah I think I'm gonna go a story that a friend told me. So I'm kind of gonna steal that from her.
Yeah. About when she was babysitting, and the dog ran away.
She was looking after and it was a bit of a mission to find it. So, I think I'll take that from her. Great.
Oh okay, so we've talked about some of the first things that have come to people's minds.
And so, Laura what, what, what's come to your mind.
Yes, so after you said the nice thing, I was thinking about animals, and then I was thinking about the story my friend told me when she was babysitting.
And that a brand new puppy it was like extremely cute and tiny, tiny dog.
And I'm not sure exactly. I think, obviously, I could be making things up, but door was left open dog escaped, and like all, I think there's three kids.
All were crying. It was like a huge deal and they had to kind of go around to the neighbors, and we're trying to find this brand new puppy.
While all the kids were, um, screaming and crying, and I think, and then now they've found the dogs it was all it was a happy ending.
Yeah. Problem-solving was definitely needed to kind of return the puppy home. Right. That's kind of where I was.
You just said the word, you said "huge deal". Huge deal yes. What might that mean for our listeners?
Um, huge deal, like a big problem, as it's something that you need to kind of act on quickly and not be taken lightly.
That would be like a huge deal. Huge deal, yeah. Yeah, hmm. Now it's actually you've already talked about your sister's car.
Well, so I thought of a time I had to help solve a problem I panicked and kind of went to the first scenario like classic car breaks down on the road.
And I was thinking, like, I can just bring in my family member, my sister, into this, and then yeah, I was like, I can add on details like we were going to be late.
So that was extra pressure on the situation and then I wrote some notes here like I went to go and get her petrol.
Um, yeah, I can use the the streets that I know around my neighborhood to make it more realistic
Um, and yeah, I feel like I could go along, along that path for a while. Yeah.
Perhaps the solution could be I got the petrol came back we made it a couple minutes late yeah to the event, yeah.
And that's like as you said it's a classic story it's a Trope which happens in movies. Yeah.
So, you can always think of a movie and just recount the situation that unfolded in the movie. Yeah.
Yeah definitely. Yeah. And for my own I had kind of a basic premise the whole a problem in high school that a friend of mine couldn't fix.
Couldn't do it, and they realized it was a bit boring. A bit bland, so I want to add a bit more theatrical details.
So I thought maybe I could say he was in quite a lot of stress.
It was a final exam and then a bunch of us band together to unite around the common cause as a team and to help them figure it out.
And I was like thinking more and more how to build on it like the other guys did as well, and hopefully, that'll be a good soul-to-miss discussion there.
Great, awesome well, mine as I said, was we had a mouse in our house, and I was thinking about I could talk about:
Who I lived with, how we solved it, how we felt about the mouse.
Um, the, what the mouse had done, how we discovered the mouse. So it's sort of drilling into whatever you come up with.
The context around that answer. Awesome. So is this a difficult question for you?
I'd say it is a pretty difficult question it's very broad very very broad. Yeah. As I said I panicked couldn't think of a specific example.
Yeah, so I would say it's difficult. Yeah, and then thinking how I get to like two minutes of like information. Yeah. And all those details hang on to it.
Yeah, because the problem might have been solved quite quickly. So then, what do you say? All the other details kind of. Yeah. Sometimes.
And do you think you could talk about this for two minutes?
I would say I could if I was perhaps making up details or really going into the specifics.
Yeah. If you're talking about like, the weather or what you were wearing yeah there's always ways keep up like you know um adds more time onto your answer.
Yeah, it would be, could be quite difficult to reach the two minutes I'd say yeah.
Yeah, so when you like brainstorm in the regional structure, is then going back into it and adding details at every stage, details. Yeah details definitely helps.
So. And how would you feel if you had to do this in another language? Oh, God. I'd be pretty stressed about it. Would struggle.
It would be difficult to if you were adding details that you weren't necessarily planning on adding into your answer finding the right vocabulary. Yeah.
Great. Well, does anyone feel comfortable trying to speak for two minutes on this on this subject.
I have my timer ready. should I give it a crack? All right Pesh. So, I'm gonna start the clock three two one.
So one time that I remember I had to help a friend solve a problem was in year 10.
It was for our final history exam for the semester and they were, really, really stressed because there was this major issue that we had to discuss that we weren't really too like knowledgeable about.
Well at least he wasn't in the moment.
And so, it was right before the exam. An hour before he was in distress because we knew that the final essay question was going to be about this specific topic.
And he was very concerned that he was going to flunk the subject if he wasn't able to answer it.
But then he came to the help of his friends. We came to his help, sorry.
And we were able to band together and help him out by just running him through, um, the main points he had to be aware of, and that kind of alleviates concerns.
And because we did that, he was able to go into that exam via an answer.
And it really helped him, I think, be less stressed for the actual exam, as well as have to be very grateful to us.
And we don't expect much in return from my friends when we help them, but we're hoping that maybe he'll help us.
We, we help we pay that debt in the future because, yeah, we were very conscious of the fact that he was very upset and very distressed.
And when you see a friend in need, you always try and help him out, and that's why we should help to solve him with that problem.
Um ,hopefully, that doesn't set a preston where he's going to be coming to us for all his needs, right before all of his exams and stuff.
But I think it's a pretty good example of, um, hey your friends always there to help you if you need.
And even if you feel stressed the very last minute there's always resources there available to you. Great.
So that's not two minutes, but um, additionally to that, I think helping people with a problem like that also kind of helped us revise for the exam as well.
It helped us realize okay maybe we need to investigate this topic a bit more additionally.
And as a result, it kind of reinforced what a teacher said about helping friends help themselves. Ding, ding, ding. Excellent. Yes, and thank you.
Wow. Oh, it's a lot more stressful when you're actually in it. Suddenly all the ideas... Yeah.
Um, well, are you ready for another question? Yeah. Absolutely. Okay, your next task, I'm going to give you your pieces of paper.
Thank you. Here we go, here we go, there's two...
Okay, your next task is to; talk about a time you missed an important interview or event.
Now I sent in this question you might have to come up with or invent a completely fake story.
Okay, so I'm going to give you one minute to jot down some ideas, and then we'll reconvene. All right, your minute starts now.
Oh. Oh wow. I have lost track of time. It's 1:06, so pen's down. Well, what's the first thing that came to your mind Laura.
Um, so what I was thinking about actually did happen to me, and was a time during school and thinking either grade ten or eleven.
I had an after-school cross-country meet, so that's where all the other schools come together.
What is "cross-country". So that's like running for I think our course like about three kilometers, like um kind of along like trails or grass kind of thing.
So yeah, running, basically. So it's long-form running. Long distance. And it's in the bush. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah great.
Um, yeah, so I had that I had running after school. Um, I was talking to a teacher about an assignment I was needing help with.
So that's kind of the back story to kind of add some more time to what I was, what I'm saying to reach that two minutes.
I um, talking to the teacher after school, missed the bus which was taking us to this location where everyone comes to do our running.
And this place was quite a while away, like it was no other way to really get there.
So I just kind of made the decision to call my brother on the phone to hopefully, um, so that way he could drive me give me a lift to this.
What does give me a lift mean? Yeah, so I was hoping he could pick me up in his car and drive me there as a way to get to this cross-country. To get to the running meet.
Um, luckily, he was able to help me out and, um, come pick me up. In the end, I got there just as the race was about to start.
So I missed, like the crucial like a warm-up time where I'm stretching and kind of like doing some practice running to kind of get ready for the, for the race.
Um, so I missed that but luckily... So it's not, not a total disaster, but luckily I made it for the start and was able to run my race.
Although it was quite stressful, um, experience but yeah it worked out worked out in the end.
Great, awesome that had a full circle. Yes. Full. It came with all the emotions.
Yeah, and how did you go in the race? Um, I don't think I did very well, but that's okay it doesn't matter, yeah.
Sashi, what about you? So I did a combination of two stories because I couldn't think of one exact time.
So I kind of made up the event my grandpa's 80th birthday. That's the event I was running late for or missing.
Right. And then this story is a real story, so easy to get the details out of.
So my two-minute conversation would go; I was going to go to my grandpa's 80th birthday straight after my doctor's appointment.
And I came out after my appointment, walked out onto the street, and my car was gone.
It just was not where I had left it parked, so I obviously went into "a deep panic". Great.
And, nice. And deep panic? That's, that's. Very stressed. Um yeah stressed to...
Like upset. Upset about to cry and then I read the sign, saw it was in a tow-away zone. So... So tow-away zone. So that means you can't park.
Yeah, you can't park. Or your car will be picked up by a truck and taken to another location.
Um, so then I would go on in my next bit I would say I had to catch two trams to get to this location to pick up my car.
Um, which took about forty minutes, then I had to pay 360 dollars to get my car back.
And then, when I was at the location, it was in a completely different place from where I was wanting to go to my grandpa's 80th birthday.
Um, but eventually got the car back, got in the car but did arrive to his birthday very late.
So I and I think I could go into a lot of details about what trams I took, maybe how long those trams took.
Um, how nervous I was beforehand, and then maybe, and then my family's reaction when I was late to the event.
Yeah. They were very annoyed with me, angry yeah. Yeah, I think that's great, too.
If you get to the point where you've arrived at the event but you still have 30 seconds to go.
You can talk about what you saw when you got to the event was there streamers was there balloons was Grandpa eating cake you know.
So you can't actually go into those details, and it really has nothing to do with the, the missed part of the appointment, but it's about the appointment itself.
Great. Pesh, what about you? Yeah, this one was also more of a real story for me. So it's much easier to fill in details.
Um, like the other two as well. Um, so for my one, I'd set an alarm for 9:00 a.m.
What, also I thought I had it was actually for 9:00 p.m in the days, um so classic error on my part
Um, the reason I set the alarm was because one of my friends, my best friend was going on exchange the next day, and he was leaving at like one.
So we organized like a last brunch before I wouldn't see him for six months. Um. What's a "brunch"?
So a brunch is like, um, a meal between breakfast and lunch, he's like encompassing both at the same time.
Right also, I wanted to say you said I there was "a classic error". What might that mean.
A classic error is like one of those, um, moments that a lot of people go through, like one of those common mistakes people make.
Yeah. That probably everyone has experienced at least once in their life.
Yeah. And in my case, it happened at the time which I really did not want it to happen. Yeah.
Um, but yeah the brunch breakfast, lunch combined was at like 10 a.m.
I set an alarm for 9 A.M., or so I thought I had, then, therefore, I can make it perfectly on time, it didn't go off I woke up at ten.
So I had to do another classic, oh, I'm on my way when really I just woke up then.
Wow. Um, and then I just had to make a mad dash to the tram and then... I'm just gonna ask you what does "mad dash" mean?
So a mad dash is like a, a cheeky way of saying a rush. Yeah. Like as fast as I could, um, chucked on my clothes had a shower quickly.
Now another one "Chucked on". It's great Pesh you are using lots of vocabulary that is very common but perhaps our listeners might not know what it means.
Yeah, they don't. So like chucked on your clothes there's a colloquial way of saying get tting changed. Yeah. Like putting on your clothes.
Yeah. Great. And then had to make that trip to the tram stop very quickly and then ultimately thankfully, in the end, I was able to see him before he had to leave.
Which was nice. Great, awesome. Oh well, some other ideas for speaking could have been about missing lectures or missing planes and, as Ashley said, family gatherings.
So don't forget it is absolutely fine if you need to go off topic during this part of the test.
The secret is you don't have to answer the question completely. Remember, the exam is trying to test your fluency.
So that was great. We've generated so many great ideas from this discussion
I hope this has helped you, and we'll be continuing this discussion in the next video.
So make sure you come back for that.
As always, we love reading your comments and ideas, so make sure you include them in the comments section below. Bye, for now.
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