IELTS tips

What would you do if you were asked in an interview to talk about how you feel about your hometown if in fact you really disliked living there?

Some people might think that by being truthful in this situation and giving a negative answer that this would not be the right thing to do and instead you should lie and talk about how you love living there to give a more positive sounding answer.

Actually, truthfulness is not important and neither is giving a negative opinion of something. The important thing is that you have something to express. If you have more to say by being truthful, even if it is expressing a negative opinion, then that is what you should talk about.

It would be much better to say “Actually I don’t really like my hometown….” and follow it up with your reasons for disliking it than to say “I like my hometown…” and then struggle to find anything to say.

In this video you will see how Joao deals with this situation in the best way.

Transcript

Examiner: What do you think makes you good at your job?

Candidate: Nothing.  I am very bad at my job.  Because I hate my job.  We are looking for a new short life.  I... do my job because I have to... I need the money but my dreams are completely different.  I am not... I am not expressing positivism, for example... you know... good vibes and I think my colleagues hate me and I hate them…and I hate them...

IELTS tips

Are job interviews the same as IELTS interviews? The answer is, in some ways they are and in others they are not.

How are they the same?
In a job interview and an IELTS interview you are asked questions and based on your answers you are judged by another person. In both you are trying to create a good impression.

How are they different?
In a job interview you are trying to showcase your experience, your qualifications and your skills and expertise that are relevant for the job you are applying for. In contrast, in an IELTS interview you are only showcasing your level of spoken English and it is this that the examiner will judge you on.

In an IELTS interview you do not need to sell yourself in terms of your job qualifications or experience you simply need to demonstrate to the examiner your competence in English. Unfortunately in our video clip, Joao does not understand this and concentrates on selling himself more than selling his English ability.

Transcript

Candidate: Fact 1, Joao is highly productive.  Evidence, I increased the sales last month for 17%.

Candidate: Fact 2, Joao is creative.  Evidence, Joao conceptualized 8 projects for his team within last year.

Candidate: Fact 3, Joao has leadership. Joao managed to increase morale within 69%.  Morale just shoot up.

Candidate: Fact 4.

Examiner: What’s the most interesting building in your hometown?

IELTS tips

In an interview situation it’s always good to express yourself and to convey your feelings, however there is a limit.  You don’t want to put yourself in a situation that causes you to become over-emotional and perhaps lose control – this could jeopardise the success of your whole interview.

In order to avoid this think about the kind of things that you may be asked about in an interview that could cause you to get emotional – a pet that died recently, an exam you failed, an argument you had with a friend. By thinking about them in advance you can mentally prepare yourself to talk about them, or our best advice would be to try to avoid talking on these sensitive subjects altogether and wherever possible answer the question using a different example.

Transcript

Examiner: Describe a person who has had a big effect on your life.  You should say how you met that person and why that person has such an impact on your life.

Candidate: My girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend really.  We were together for 6 months.  She didn’t go along so well with my father.  She manipulated me into hate my father as well.  And…then...he then hated me and then he left our home.  All this feelings of jealousy come up and you kind of… you’re angry all the time because who’s that boy… who’s you. It was unbelievable guilt.. and it wasn’t my fault.  I didn’t know that….

Examiner: Thank you.  Thank you.  Hmm…do you think hmm…shopping has a negative impact on your society?

IELTS tips

To some extent you can predict the kind of topics that you might be asked to talk about in the IELTS interview. This means that it is quite common for interviewees to prepare answers in advance and learn them by heart. Then, in the interview if the topic comes up they will regurgitate (verb; repeat after memorisation) their answer – whether it answers the question or not. There are several problems with this approach.

Firstly, it is usually very clear that an answer has been memorised as it sounds very unnatural to the examiner. Examiners have a lot of experience interviewing people and they can easily see when something isn’t quite right. If they suspect that the answer has been memorised they will probably interrupt your answer and move on to another question.

Secondly, if you have memorised an answer it is very unlikely that it will actually answer the question directly and this will be another signal to the examiner that something isn’t quite right.

In summary, you should avoid trying to memorise answers, but you can still prepare for the interview by thinking about possible topics and making sure you have the vocabulary and language to talk about the topics in general.

Transcript

Examiner: Would you like to tell me about your hometown?

Candidate: Yes!  Woo!  Thanks Internet.  Porto, the country’s second largest city, is in itself full of interest, but the district it heads, though largely industrialized, offers the visitor plenty to see.  Along the coast, holiday resorts like the cosmopolitan beach of Espinho... Splendid seafood or traditional fishing towns...  Quaint  charm of Amarante, with 17th century mansions...  Famous for a kind of sweet egg pastries called “Bellies of Angels”.

Examiner: Thank you.  What is the most interesting building in your hometown?

Candidate: The church. The old church. It’s big and some kings have been there and are there engraves…

IELTS tips

During an interview there may be a time when you do not hear or understand a question clearly. What do you do?

Well, you could have a guess at what you think you heard and then answer, or you could ask the examiner to repeat the question.

It’s important in the exam to answer the question directly and you won’t score as highly if you talk off-topic. If the question is ‘What impact has tourism had on the economy of your country?’ and the only word you hear clearly in the question is ‘tourism’, what are you going to say. If you talk about tourist spots in your country, you wouldn’t be answering the question and you stand to lose marks.

It is a much better strategy to ask the examiner to repeat the question. The examiner can’t explain the meaning of the question to you, but they can repeat it a number of times. You can also repeat the question back to the examiner as the candidate does in the video,

“Are you asking what impact tourism has had on my country?”

Here are some other useful expressions used by the candidate in the video:

Excuse me?

Could you repeat that one more time, please?

Sorry, I don’t understand, just one more time.

And here are a few extra expressions that you might find useful:

I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that, could you say it again?

Would you mind repeating the question for me?

Transcript

Examiner: What impact has tourism had on the economy of your country?

Candidate: Excuse me?

Examiner: What impact has tourism had on the economy of your country?

Candidate: Can you repeat that one more time please?

Examiner: Yes. What impact has tourism had on the economy of your country?

Candidate: D..don’t understand.  Just one more time.

Examiner: What impact has tourism had on the economy of your country?

Candidate: Your asking is what impact has tourism had on my country?

Examiner: What impact has tourism had on the economy of your country?

Candidate: Oh well, just lots and lots actually.  You know…more pollution, more consumption…

IELTS tips

How can an IELTS candidate make an impression on the examiner?

One thing you could do is dress up as a bull, but this isn’t really practical and you won’t score a higher grade because of it. However, you can stand out from the crowd by giving an unexpected answer to a question.

Candidates often answer in predictable ways. For example take the question Which person do you admire most? A predictable answer would be to talk about a family member, a teacher at school, professor at university or perhaps a famous public figure.

To answer in an unpredictable way why not talk about a fictional person, such as a character in a book or film or why not talk about someone who most people wouldn’t admire such as a bus driver. You could even talk about someone who isn’t really a person such as Hello Kitty. As long as you begin your answer by saying something like “the person I most admire isn’t a real person it’s actually a fictional character…” the examiner will know that you have understood the question.

The advantage of giving an unexpected answer is not only that your answer will be memorable to the examiner, but it allows you to be more creative with the things you talk about and will give you more opportunities to showcase your English.

Transcript

Examiner: Can you tell me something you enjoy about your job?

Candidate: Yeah sure.  I love my job.  Just like you know 6 days in the meadow and 1 day in the arena bull fighting – it’s ok.  Among the cattle, I am the only male, among 50, which is very good.

Sometimes I am in this arena and it’s like thousands and thousands of people around like just going “haaaaa… viva viva! hombre da le da le!”  (Go on man give it to him). And I think ok, they are actually cheering up for me. You know go bull, go bull, go bull, go bull.

And I managed to throw this guy, this bull fighter up in the air.  And everyone was like “hwa….”  And they actually had to stop the show and bring some paramedics because apparently it broke and the people were not so like “hoo…” it was bad.  And then we ended up early.  Just like you know with boxing matches you know sometimes knock out…I love my job.