hi there it's asiya do you know that each ielts speaking test begins with one of just
four topics these are worker studies family home or hometown and in this video
we're gonna talk about your studies i'll show you sample answers and give you some
useful vocabulary to help you improve your answers there is also a pdf guide where you
can find questions and sample answers for the other topics okay let's get started
the first question is always the same do you work or study and your subsequent questions depend on
what you answer and you get asked about your work or your studies so let's imagine i'm still at
university i could say i'm in the final year of my bachelor's degree and i'm graduating this summer
don't worry if your first answer is short it's just to warm up and to tell the examiner what
kind of questions they should ask you next let's have a look at the vocabulary at university we
count years so i can say i'm a first year student or i'm in the second year of my master's degree
and please note that it's a bachelor's degree you need this apostrophe and s
you can also call it an undergraduate degree a master's degree is a post graduate or in
america simply a graduate degree to graduate is to finish university and you graduate from
university by the way have you noticed that i said i'm graduating this summer not i will
graduate that's because it's a pre-arranged plan and we use the present continuous to talk about
arrangements and plans we've already made and know the future simple the next question is
what do you study i'm studying for a bachelor's degree in international economics which at my
university includes courses in economics business law international relations and two
foreign languages that's my answer and yes that's true i studied all that for five years just for
my undergraduate degree my second language was french and it's such a pity that i didn't pay
any attention to it because now my husband is french and we can only communicate in english
anyway please note that you can say that you study for a degree in a certain subject or you
pursue a degree you can also say that you do a degree but this phrase is british not american
and it's more informal i can say i did a masters in business management i'm meeting the word degree
all three options are acceptable in your ielts exam here are two other ways to say what you study
i have a double major in economics and business i believe this combination gives
me an understanding of how the economy works in general and also equips me with some practical
skills to run a business or i major in accounting it's quite narrow but i feel
that this degree can give me an advantage when it comes to job hunting when possible
try to give an extended answer here i said what i studied and explained why without being asked to
as for vocabulary you can have a double major if you specialize in two subjects equally or you
can simply major in a certain subject a major in accounting job hunting is a fun expression meaning
that you're looking for a job but i suppose it's less funny when you are looking for a job next
is it a popular subject at your university oh yes i've heard that this is the most sought
after subject in the whole university apparently the competition is even higher than for medicine
sought after means that a lot of people want it in our case a lot of school graduates apply to this
program let's take a short break and i'll give you a word of warning you should practice your answers
to these questions but you should not learn them by heart keep them natural remember that you'll
be penalized for memorized answers and if you want to work on your speaking skills with the teacher
a great place to do that is cambly the sponsor of today's video it's an online learning platform
where you can practice your english with native speaking teachers at any time that suits you
you can choose a teacher you like or book lessons with different teachers to get used
to a variety of accents which is great for your ielts exam you can suggest a
topic for your lesson or take their ielts speaking lessons or even a mock speaking test
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all the links are in the video description box below and now let's have a look at the next
question is there anything you don't like about your program well there are some causes that i
don't feel i need at my university there is no division between compulsory and optional modules
they are all compulsory and sadly we have no opportunity to tailor the program to our interests
for example in the uk some courses or modules are compulsory so everyone studies them and
some are optional students get a list of optional modules and choose which ones they want to take
to tailor something to your interests means that you change it in a way that suits you
next when it comes to your studies what do you find most challenging
definitely the exam periods the problem is that we study between 10 and 12 modules in each semester
which is a lot what makes it worse is that most of them are assessed based on final exams
this means that every january and june we take about 10 exams over a period of 3 weeks
the workload is just crazy so you know everything about my university is the vocabulary your studies
are organized into periods either semesters if you have two periods per year or trimesters or
terms if you have three periods per year when you have an exam you take it to take an ielts
exam it seems that some people say to appear or to attempt an exam but this is not correct in english
we take exams you may also say it's difficult to keep up with the workload because if i relax
just a little and don't do my homework for a few days i immediately fall behind with my studies
to keep up with your workload means to study as much as you need to cover all the material
required and if you fall behind you don't do everything on time you may fall behind with
your studies or with your credit repayments but hopefully you won't the next question is
do you get along with your classmates generally yes i have two close friends with whom i spend
a lot of time and i'm on friendly terms with everyone else i do my best to avoid
conflicts at university to get along means to have a good relationship with someone
to be on friendly terms means to get along with someone but perhaps you're not too close
and to do my best or to do your best is to try very hard next if you could study
a different course what would it be sometimes i think that i should have applied to study medicine
i wanted to be a doctor and i had the required grades but back then i was scared of the long
training and low salaries but now i think that the most important thing is to do what you really
like even if it's not easy so if i could change my program now i would study to become a doctor
first of all let's have a look at the question if you could change your program what would it be
could and would mean that we are talking about a hypothetical situation or a situation that's not
real if i could i would become a fighter jet pilot but i can't and if you wish to change something in
the past you need to use could would should have plus verb plus ed i could have become a doctor but
i'm not a doctor or i should have become a doctor this means that i regret that i haven't become a
doctor and when you pronounce it it's easier if you shorten have to ev have should have instead of
could have and should have using complex grammar helps you improve your grammar score but you need
to use it correctly to get a really high score i find that the easiest way to start is to learn
several phrases by heart and then change them to fit the situation i could have become a doctor
or i should have called you earlier these are the phrases i would just learn by heart next
what are you planning to do after you graduate i'd like to work at a bank so i'm already applying for
some graduate positions in corporate banking and i hope to secure a place before i graduate
to work at this is the most common proposition to work at a company
to work for is also possible but it sounds like you're not there for long for example you have
a short term contract a graduate position is a job specifically created for university graduates
i personally got into a graduate program at the central bank to secure a place is to find a job
and now here are a few questions that we didn't have time to cover today but you may still wish
to prepare your answers too the first one is why did you choose to study at your university
or why did you choose to study your subject
is it important to select a career while you're still young are there many people
with your profession in your city okay and right now you can download the pdf guide with questions
sample answers and vocabulary for this and other topics all you need is to click the link
on the screen and if you'd like to practice your speaking with a native speaking teacher check
out camly thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye