IELTS Energy 1475: Reddit IELTS Myths and Part 3 Easy Answers
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1475, Reddit IELTS Myths and Part 3 Easy Answers.

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

forward slash my score. Are your part three speaking questions determined by your performance on parts one and two? Find out today and hear two band nine speaking part three answers about personality traits. Business taxes was stressing about all the time and all the money you spent on your taxes. This is my bill.

Now Business Taxes is a TurboTax small business expert who does your taxes for you and offers year-round advice at no additional cost so you can keep more money in your business. Now this is taxes. Intuit TurboTax. Get an expert now on TurboTax.com slash business. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Hello, my friend Aubrey. How are you? I'm great. How are you, Jessica? I'm wonderful because we get to do some sample answers today and...

We have a little Reddit conspiracy theory about IELTS and we're going to talk about if it's true or not. Yes, I'm excited for you guys to get this answer. I can imagine you have read things in forums on Reddit and you're not sure who to believe because the people answering, you don't know if they really know what they're talking about. So we pulled one question today that I thought was really interesting. I can imagine you guys having this question and we're going to give you the truth.

Yes, and stick around till the end, guys, because we're going to do some sample part three answers towards the end of today's show. And we're going to share a fun poll, the results of a recent poll we did and announce a new Spotify poll. Yes. Okay, I'm going to share this Reddit question.

Somebody said, you know, me and one of my friends took the IELTS test yesterday for the speaking part. I got three really challenging questions on part three, and he says he got easy ones. After speaking, he got upset about it, thinking they would have asked him harder questions if he did well on the first two parts. Is this a rumor or does someone really face hard questions if they do well on part one and two?

Such a great question. All right. Now, as you guys know, I was an IELTS examiner for 14 years, and Aubrey is Three Keys IELTS certified and knows everything that I know. So we're going to read the Reddit answer first, and then we're going to tell you if it's true or not.

So the first response on Reddit was this. It's true. The examiner has three sets to choose from for part three and must choose two. They can choose sets one and three or two and three for higher level, B7 through nine, and must choose set one and two for lower level, B1 through 6.5. Sometimes if the examiner isn't sure, they may ask the harder set to see if they can push the test taker to a seven, or sometimes the examiner doesn't like the third set

and uses only one and two for all levels but they're not supposed to interesting all of that is a hundred percent true you guys like that that had to be answered by an ielts examiner this was for sure an examiner that was just nice and giving an answer on reddit for sure yeah everything in there is 100 true um yeah for like lazy examiners they are just going to do the first two sets

Because the third group of questions in part three is harder. But yeah, what we're supposed to do as IELTS examiners is if in parts one and two, you're like definitely band seven or higher, right? Our job in part three is to push you to really test that range of fluency and vocabulary to make sure that you deserve a band seven or higher. So yes, that is a thousand percent true.

Yeah. And you have to find out like, are they band eight? Are they band nine? And if so, there are more specific higher level things the examiner will be listening for. Right. Exactly. Because you're not going to really know if someone's band nine if you only ask them the easier part three questions. Right. Like you have to challenge them.

Yeah, so one caveat here, be careful with forums, Reddit. Often the answer is great like this one and it's correct, but you don't know. You don't know who's answering. You don't know if they have outdated information or incorrect. Maybe they're actually answering about TOEFL.

So be careful trusting these answers. Hopefully you are part of an IELTS community like ours where you can ask questions and get answers you know are correct, are from an examiner, an ex-examiner. So just beware of forums.

I see so many answers on forums from students who, like from students, first of all, and students who say they've gotten a high score on IELTS. And I'm like, well, even if you've gotten a high score on IELTS, like you still don't know what the examiner's job is, you know? So yeah, definitely be aware of that. And just as a side note here, Aubrey used that great word caveat, which is a callback to some vocab that we taught a couple episodes ago.

ago. Guys, if you missed that episode, it's so full of great vocabulary. It was, what was that episode?

What was that episode? 1473. That's what it was. So scroll up and listen to that one, guys. Yes. So we today are going to give you some examples of questions that might be easier on part three if the examiner is sort of choosing an easier question set. And then stick around for the next episode. We are going to show for the same topic some harder questions that you would maybe get if the examiner is choosing those harder question sets.

Yes, I love it. All right. So we have two easier questions today, guys, for part three. And remember, we will do the tough ones in the next episode. All right. Aubrey, are you ready? Yes, I am ready. All right. Do you think it's important for friends to have similar personality traits?

I would like to say that I'm fine with friends having extremely different personality characteristics from me, but in all honesty, that's not necessarily the case. I feel like I do get along better and have

more fun and pleasant conversations with people who are more like me. So I have to say, I think it is vital for you to surround yourself with people who are more like you if you want your life to be more peaceful.

I love it. I love it. That's so good. All right. So I just want to point out one phrase that Aubrey used there that I want you guys to write down for your own part three answers. So we've talked a lot on the show about filler phrases, right? And the importance of having filler

impressive and natural transition phrases and filler phrases. So something that Aubrey said was, in all honesty, that's not necessarily the case. So all she's saying there is like, honestly, no, honestly, that's not true. Honestly, that's not

100% correct, right? But instead, she expanded that into a more impressive phrase there. So in all honesty, that's not necessarily the case. All right. Very good.

And I kind of did need a filler phrase there. I haven't really thought a lot about this. Like I have friends that are very different from me and friends that are the same, but I haven't sat and thought down like, what are the positives and negatives here? Like, which do I think is better? So I kind of needed a couple of seconds to decide what I think. Yes. Love it. All right. My turn. Ask me one question and then we will announce the poll. All right. Which personal traits do you think we most want for our children to have?

Oh my gosh. You know, this is a deceptively easy question. And I say deceptively easy because there isn't a right answer, first of all. And one person's right answer is going to be the wrong answer for another person. Like, this is a more divisive question than it seems to be on the surface. Okay. Anyway.

So personally speaking, I want my child to be a healthy risk taker because that means that they know when to challenge a system. They know when to question expectations. And I think in I think that's a critical thinking process.

trait that we all need in today's world. And I also think that obviously like respect and kindness and empathy, these three traits are number one. They're all tied for number one in my mind as to how to create the best humans that we want to be in control of the world in the future.

Nice. Amazing. No, that was so great. So much good vocab here. And if you go back and listen to like the first three sentences, all of this is great filler if you are asked a question that people might disagree about.

and this happens a lot on part three it won't be an obvious answer so jessica was saying this is a deceptively easy question and that is because it's a divisive question so not everybody would agree all of that is giving her time to think if you need a little time to think

You know, anytime something now this, of course, if if it's a very cut and dry answer, this won't work. But most part three questions aren't right. We're asking about society in general and people are going to have opposing views. So all of that would be appropriate for a lot of part three questions.

And then so much great vocab when you started talking about how you would want your son to have critical thinking and know when to challenge a system. And then naming some of these traits, empathy, kindness, so much good vocabulary. Listen to that question, that answer a second time, you guys.

And I just want to give a specific example here because I am so proud of how kind my son is. For my birthday, he made me a birthday cake and he made me breakfast of like waffles and eggs and hash browns.

Like he's so kind. He's so awesome. That's so sweet. I heard something recently that said, you know, everyone should be able to blow out a candle on their birthday. And then I found out the person that was saying that like hadn't. Like no one had made them a cake or put a candle or anything. And it's a weird thing to do for yourself. So everyone in your life, make sure to get them a candle to blow out.

That's so true, though. My friend had a little birthday party for because her son has a birthday a week before me. And so James and I went over there yesterday and she had set up like all of these little cupcakes with candles and all of this stuff. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I haven't had a birthday party in so long. Like this is as an adult that just it doesn't normally happen. So, yes, I agree with you.

Everyone needs to blow out a candle on their birthday. I know you want to feel celebrated and it is I've had to do it for myself before like made my own cake put the candles on and it does not feel the same. I'm like, I don't like that. All right, guys, we got a little off track there. But still a fun conversation. Aubrey, what were the results of a recent Spotify poll we did?

We were really excited about this poll. The poll was, did you enjoy today's episode? And that was back from 1452, powerful parallel expressions for IELTS listening. And as we wrote this poll, we're like, oh, this is going to be sad if anyone says no. But luckily, we did get 100% yeses. So thank you, everyone, for answering the poll. We would have understood if there were a no or two, but I'm happy that it was 100% yes.

i know i remember writing that poll did you enjoy today's episode and both of us are like oh we hope people say we're opening ourselves up to something here um so that was good but today's poll i am also very interested in the results for what's today's poll

Yeah, it is do you post on Reddit? We're curious. It'll just be a yes or no. I often will just kind of look at Reddit posts and I'm curious about, you know, people who post there and then what kind of questions you get. It's an interesting forum. Yeah, yeah, me too. I've never posted on there, but I have read a few responses. All right, guys, thanks for joining us today and we'll see you next time. Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

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