Hello guys how's it going today I'm Atsu. It's been a long time coming.
I'm going to finally conclude the material series by talking about my
IELTS experience, the way I prepared for it, materials I used and what not.
So it occurred to me that I want to do this video in English so I added CC
subtitles. So let's get started. First thing first I would like to give you a
quick background on why I decided to take the IELTS examination. When I was
studying at the Australian National University I was thinking about getting a job after
graduation and in order to get a job you need to apply for a work visa right and
in order to apply for the visa you need to prove your English proficiency by
taking an English examination like IELTS and TOEFL. The first time I took the IELTS
examination was 2014 when I was in my first year at grad school or the
Australian National University. I normally start my exam preparation with
putting in a lot of time to memorize vocabulary that I expect to see on the
actual examination. Some people actually say it's a little bit freaky to spend so
much time on memorizing vocabulary first but it comes really naturally to
me and it makes me feel kind of at ease now that I've got used to it. And this way
of getting yourself prepared for the English examination has been tried and
true by me so I don't think it's a bad approach at all. That being said I think
I'm over the hill when it comes to my memory because your memory is at its best when
you are maybe a teenager, so that is why I designed the way I memorize vocabulary
so that it automatically makes a change of pace and also let the
vocabulary stick to your brain. Like I introduced if you're going to use my
methods you focus on the number of times you go through the vocabulary and also
you sometimes draw diagrams here and there and link some vocabulary each other
where there is a connection that's how you memorize vocabulary using my methods
right? And I can't emphasize enough that it's very important to link vocabulary
you are memorizing to the image that each vocabulary has, that
way you can remove the Japanese part because otherwise I think it refuses
the purpose of learning those vocabulary which is to actually use in practice
in speaking and writing. Of course the purpose is not only that but
practicability is always the key, right? You know how people often stop memorizing
vocabulary in the middle saying well I ain't got the time anymore or I'm
bored to death or stuff like that but I don't want you to make such excuses
anymore because I think that's a point where you have to toughen up a little
bit especially if you are student it's now or never that you can spend so much
time on this kind of stuff to your heart's content
and even if you pass the phase I think it's better late than never.
So just walk the talk, commit yourself to doing it because I'm pretty sure that
that will pay off in the future, I think that will definitely accelerate the
speed at which things will start looking up, and you know that will definitely do a
lot of good things around your reading listening speaking writing from every
single perspective that would definitely have a positive impact on your English
studies. To take that first step I used IELTS EITANGO 3,500 which is marketed
in Japan. It contains a number of good words
it's got good example sentences, it also has phonetic symbols, so I can easily give
5 out of 5 to that book. From the content perspective I'm pretty sure that that
will fit the bill but it all comes down to practice so you have to work as hard
as you can to get the most out of it. And speaking of IELTS examination as a whole
learning vocabulary only wouldn't cut it so the next step I took was solving
questions. I used IELTS official materials to practice or solve questions
the quality's superb because it's an official material right but it's just
very expensive it's like 20 to 30 bucks or 2,000 to 3,000 yen, so I wouldn't say
it's a ripoff but if only it were cheaper. You could possibly access
like a pdf version but I think it's sort of a gray zone so to speak. And last
but not least, I used a couple videos on Youtube as well to practice my
speaking. They were not shabby at all. I added some links below so you can check
them out after this video if you want to. Using these questions I kept solving
questions again and again day and night and got myself prepared for it. So
on my first try long story short I screwed up big time
in the writing section. My score was 8.5 in listening, 8.0 in reading, 6.0 in
writing, and 8.5 in speaking, so I had to do a double-take, you know? Looking at
this score report, if I didn't know better I'd think, well, something must be
wrong with this. Because the same person got 6.0 in writing as opposed to
8.0 and above in the other sections, so it's hard to swallow. And I did a lot of
thinking, a little bit of research as well and came to know that the IELTS is an
accuracy test. That was a big piece of information I was after. I don't want
to come off pedantic at all but from what I heard right IELTS is an accuracy
test, meaning IELTS focuses on the accuracy of grammar
vocabulary much more than the content or complexity of sentences that you use
in writing. So you need to change your mindset if you think like the more you write
the better your score gets, or you know the more difficult words you use the
better your score gets. IELTS is not that kind of examination
unfortunately. And not that it matters, I had taken the TOEFL iBT
examination at the time and it's a test like that, so what I mean is if the
writing section requires you to write like 250 words, if you write 400 words
and more, that would do the trick. But there is no such an unwritten rule anymore on
the IELTS examination but how I took the IELTS examination was definitely the
TOEFL iBT way. So I wrote a lot of words without caring too much about the
accuracy of my grammar in vocabulary but That was one of the biggest mistakes I made
because they were disparate from that perspective. And clearly my results goes
to show that the IELTS examination takes a gold medal when it comes to difficulty
of writing so you got to watch for it. Sorry I sidetracked like always so
let's bring it back. With that in mind in order to prepare for the second try
I relied on Ryan's channel on YouTube. I watched his videos, I bought his books
and I took a couple of personal courses from him as well. The best part of Ryan's
method is how it is structure, so you can easily follow his template in order to
write a perfect structured writing so that was the part I liked a lot. And truth be
told I think he uploaded a number of videos where he explained his methods so
I think checking all his videos is the first step to take and then think about
whether you need to take courses or buy books. And then I did my second try the
result was shocking. Tou know how its score is lined up in the actual score
report in the order of listening reading speaking and writing so the way I enjoy
the moment of checking the score is I use that right hand and cover the whole
thing and gradually shift the right hand to the, to the right to check each score
one at a time so that's how I enjoy the moment so this time I got 8.5 in
listening and 9.0 in reading. Off to a good start, right? And this is where it tends to
get a little bit mind-boggling you know because I already knew that I did pretty
well in reading and listening especially reading I finished with time to spare so
I was pretty sure that I was able to you know score it or nail it down, but
writing and speaking you never know right? So this is where I get a little
nervous. So once I shifted my right hand to the right and check the speaking
section, speaking score, it was shattering. I got only 7.0.
What was my first score? 8.5. So I was like man who said IELTS
is an accuracy test, you guys are not accurate at all but now requiring us to be accurate
That's not fair. So was my 8.5 just a fluke or was it just a
normal hit and miss or... I wasn't really sure. I was so confused because no matter how
you look at it right I cannot, I cannot think of any reason that explains a
1.5 difference between the two performances on the two trials. And some
people actually say IELTS is subjective on some level but well
there may be some truth to that but what do I know, right? So I just walked it off
and remained strong-minded and decided to do the third try. By the way I have to
touch on writing actually so I got 7.5 in writing this time so Ryan's method
was effective, however you know what I was after was 8.0 and above so it
was not actually really what I was trying to achieve but still 1.5 is a
big improvement I think. So when I prepared for the third try I took a different
writing method or approach by using hacktheielts which is available on Facebook
and I sat down to take the test and got the score report as always, did this
ritual and this was a final score. Listening, reading 9.0, writing 7.5
again and 8.0 in speaking, so I think I proved that my speaking or 7.0 on my
second try was just an accident, hopefully. So I've had it, the next try
is not happening soon I need to take some time from the IELTS. Overall I
got 8.5, well overall it looks good right but that was not what I was after
really because I was looking to get 8.0 and above in every single
section but unfortunately I failed it in the writing part so it was not really
a success story but hopefully sometime in the future I can take it
again and nail it down. And it was a good wake-up call to me
that there was much more room for improvement and I needed to practice
harder and harder, so it was a great opportunity to me too. That is it
hopefully I was able to give you much needed answers in terms of materials the
way you prepare for the examinations and stuff like that through that series
of videos. So to wrap it up there's a first time for everything and when you
start it looks as if it's going to be a long shot but I'm pretty sure that
everyone has what it takes and if you have strong mindset that you really want
to achieve it one way or another I'm pretty sure that you can do that so
let's get the ball rolling and see how it goes if it doesn't succeed
you just need to take a step back and see what's wrong with it and then make
necessary changes and go with it. That's how things work so hopefully
this could be a piece of advice that I can give to you. Alright? Thank you
very much for watching this video, see you next time. Bye.