Band 9.0 IELTS Practice Speaking Exam

Band 9.0 IELTS Practice Speaking Exam
An IELTS student from India gives one of the best IELTS speaking tests we've ever seen.

She gives some amazing answers, and we give her feedback on her grammar and vocabulary at the end of the video so that you can learn how she got a Band 9.

0:00
we're going to start off by talking
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about art and photography do you like
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art H that's interesting um depends on
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what I like Cinema for instance movies
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music but I don't know too much about um
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paintings or Modern Art I'm not too
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familiar with so it depends on what kind
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of art do you like to take photographs
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yes I wouldn't say the photographs are
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good but I do enjoy taking pictures yeah
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do you prefer to take photos of yourself
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or other things of other things it's
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kind of hard to take pictures of
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yourself unless it's a selfie and that's
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limited so pictures of other things
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mostly now let's talk about animals do
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you like animals I love animals uh land
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animals friendly so to speak animals not
0:58
insects and not anything from the ocean
1:01
what is your favorite animal um probably
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a dog dogs for obvious reasons you can
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keep them as pets in terms of like
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non-domesticated animals probably
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Jaguars do you have any animals in your
1:16
home as pets yes I have two dogs they're
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both from the shelter the animal shelter
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they rescues um yeah I've always had
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pets our family really likes keeping
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animals right ground now let's talk
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about bags what type of bags do you like
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I
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prefer purses that are a little bit on
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the larger side just cuz I like to put
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every thing of my life in my purse um so
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it ends up weighing maybe 20
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kilos yeah larger bags probably
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structured larger bags how often do you
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carry a bag when you go out every day I
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think that's the case for most women I
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think they carry a bag every even if you
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go down to the grocery or the
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supermarket you take your bag with you
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usually
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right what sort of bags do women like to
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buy it
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depends um it depends on your outfit it
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depends on where you're going um for the
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day if you're going to the office you
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probably want something bigger that can
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fit your laptop your phone
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paperwork um everything that you might
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need during the day um if it's nighttime
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you'd want something smaller like a
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clutch something more Sleek
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elegant um so it depends if you're
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traveling you'd want a much bigger bag
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that's able to fit mhm not just you but
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all of your family's stuff as well so
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everything women like all kinds of bags
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that's why we have so many of them now
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let's talk about birthday mhm what did
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you usually do on your birthday when you
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were a child so when I was a kid when I
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was a child um in school we had a
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uniform everybody wore a uniform to
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school so when it was your birthday it
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was the one day of the year that you
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were allowed to wear whatever you wanted
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so it was a big deal I mean at least I
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would pick out my outfit like two months
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in advance it would be like a little
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dress like a princessy frock matching
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shoes matching accessories for your hair
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and then you would take some kind of
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chocolate or candy to school and then
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you could take like a period off and go
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and give the candy out to other teachers
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and other kids in the school and we
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looked forward to it every year it was
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the highlight to get to not have to wear
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the uniform to wear whatever you wanted
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and to basically be able to skip class
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and go out and hand out chocolates cuz
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it's your birthday how do you normally
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celebrate your birthday now H very
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differently everyone's allowed to wear
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whatever they want now so it's kind of
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not doesn't have the same charm um it
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depends I like to do a little dinner
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with um my friends something lowkey I'm
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not a very big party person so dinner is
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usually good um followed by probably
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like a games night or a movies movie
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night at home or at the cinema something
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low key do you think it's important to
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give someone a card on their birthday
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like a handwritten like a birthday
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card um I think so yes because I'm quite
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sentimental and emotional so I prefer
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more um emotional sentimental gifts so I
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think if someone takes the time to write
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something by hand for you I think that I
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mean I hold on to stuff like that so I
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think it's a very nice thoughtful
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present to give someone on their
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birthday the first time I met a new
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friend so I'm going to go way back it
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was my first day of school
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kindergarten and I met a girl named Aman
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prit k um she we were about I think we
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just turned four years old uh we met
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obviously in
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kindergarten um first year of school uh
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what I liked about her when I first saw
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her I mean we were sitting together with
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the teacher made us sit next to each
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other and um she had this long
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hair and it was like sectioned into two
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parts and it was just braided all the
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way
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down and she had the cutest face I've
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ever seen she had this little fluffy
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marshmallow like face I guess that's all
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it takes when you're a kid to want to be
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friends with somebody um and then I
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tried tried to so there's like this
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little thing that kids do where they put
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their thumb out to show other kids that
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I want to be your
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friend um and then if you don't want to
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be friends with them you do this it's
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like a silly little thing so I did this
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to her I put my thumb out to say hey do
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you want to be
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friends and she was like this and I was
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heartbroken I was like how can she know
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want to be my
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friend um and then I saw her again the
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next day
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um and the day the next day after that
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and the day after that and then
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eventually we ended up becoming best
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friends she she did it back to me
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obviously at some point she was my first
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best friend that I ever had in life she
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was from Punjab which is a part of
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India um and her mom used to make the
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most amazing it's called parata it's
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like this
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stuffed bread it's like they put a
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potato and spices into like um into a
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flatbread and my mom used to make
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something called CRA which is sweet
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semolina situation that's the end of the
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two minutes okay we've been talking
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about a friend that you met we're going
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to now talk about friends at school how
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important is it for children to have
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lots of friends at school to thank you
7:25
for watching this video I want to give
7:27
you a free course that has help
7:28
thousands of students improve their I
7:31
speaking score what it's going to do is
7:33
take you through every single part of
7:36
the test and give you strategies for
7:38
part one part two and part three and
7:40
also allow you to practice at home for
7:43
free and get feedback to sign up for
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that for free all you have to do is just
7:48
click the link in the description thanks
7:50
very much and let's get back to the
7:51
video it depends I would say I would
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perhaps think that quality is more
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important than quantity so I wouldn't
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say that the objective should be to make
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as many friends as you can or to be
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popular um as much as the objective
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should be to build meaningful
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friendships with people that could be
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one person that could be five people
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that could be 10 people situational I
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would say yeah so it's not so much how
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many friends you have as um it's it's
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not as important to have a lot of
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friends as it might be to have people
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that you can trust that you can kind of
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take with you in life for a longer term
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do you think it is wrong for parents to
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choose which friends their children have
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H again that's a tricky one now when I
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answer these questions I'm thinking back
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to real life situations and in some
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cases I have seen parents
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interfering and trying to make those
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decisions for their children where they
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were right to do so because the child
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was in bad company and they were too
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naive or too um I mean I guess they were
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just too naive to see that that
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situation was not right for them but
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their parent obviously was able to
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identify that my child's in Bad Company
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so in those cases I would say that your
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parents are able to read a dangerous
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situation better but there's also the
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flip side
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where everybody kind of does make bad
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decisions your parents made bad
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decisions you made bad decisions and the
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way that you learn from them is to have
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a negativist experience and then find
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your way out of it um so I would say
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that I can see certain situations
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whether it's bad relationships bad
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friendships um when you're younger not
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relationships when you're younger
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friendships when you're younger some
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times it's necessary to have that
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experience so that you know firsthand
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how to deal with that situation and you
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may not be able to get that experience
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if your parents always Shield you from
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every single thing that can go wrong so
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I can kind of see depends on the
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situation I would say now let's talk
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about making new friends can you think
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of any disadvantages of making new
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friends online disadvantages of making
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new friends online I think the I think
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there's more disadvantages to
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making new friends I mean there was a
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Show recently that came out on Netflix
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called tender swindler the thing is with
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most of what we see online isn't real
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whether it's social media or um even
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news for that matter uh everything is
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kind of edit edited and monitored to
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present a certain kind of
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image so if you meet somebody online and
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you know nothing about them they can
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really present any version of reality or
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a completely um
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curated sometimes dishonest form of
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their reality to you so it's a very
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dangerous uh game to play friendships or
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relationships both friendships
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friendships yeah
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it's somebody you know nothing about is
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a very
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everything can go wrong there right
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would you say it is harder for people to
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make new friends as they get older
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yes I think it becomes harder for people
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to
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make um friends as they get
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older I think adults are perhaps a
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little bit
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more
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um more structured I mean the older that
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you get the more set you get in your
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ways your routine where you work your
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family your gym children for children it
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becomes it's very easy for children to
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interact with other children like if you
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put two kids in a room and 3 seconds
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they're talking to each other without
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any restriction they're talking about
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all of their family secrets and
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everything you know they they're
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comfortable but with adults obviously
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people tend to be more filtered when
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they interact with other
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adults um also I think if you've been
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friends from the time that you were a
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child with somebody you've lived through
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so many life events together that that
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kind of bond is hard to build with
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someone that you meet in your mid 30s
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because you've just lost so much time
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that you're learning something you're
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learning about them from scratch where
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they went to school about their family
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about their relationships about their
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siblings so yeah I think it's a it's not
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impossible you can make a lot of
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incredible friendships
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later in life but it's probably harder
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to come by than if you were a kid in
13:06
play school so what I'm going to do now
13:09
is give you feedback on each part cuz
13:12
each part is a little bit different give
13:14
you some tips on on on how to perform as
13:17
well or even better um next time and
13:20
then there are four marking criteria uh
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fluency and coherence grammar
13:26
pronunciation and vocabulary and and I
13:29
will give you a band for each of those
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and tell you what band the top is band
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nine so let's see if you can get get
13:36
right to the top to thank you for making
13:39
it this far in the video I want to give
13:40
you 10% off our VIP course I VIP course
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is the most successful I course in the
13:46
world that is a fact because we have
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more band seven eight and nine success
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stories than any other I course in the
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entire world we do that by simplifying
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the whole I process support supporting
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you with some of the best ises teachers
14:01
in the world and being with you every
14:03
step of the way until you get the score
14:05
that you need all you have to do is just
14:07
look down in the description just click
14:09
that and you can sign up if you have any
14:11
questions about the VIP course always
14:13
feel free to get in touch with us we
14:15
answer 100% of the questions that we get
14:18
hope that you become a VIP if not enjoy
14:21
the rest of this free video so part one
14:24
it's just normal everyday questions and
14:27
you answer those very very naturally
14:29
again it was like talking to a friend or
14:31
a colleague and the length of your
14:33
answers was also quite good this is not
14:35
a criticism and it's just kind of who
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you are as a person you're a very
14:39
friendly chatty person who wants the
14:41
other person to interact so you're often
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like girls like buying bags right that
14:46
is fine in normal conversation if you
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were to do the test for real The
14:50
Examiner could be quite stone-faced cuz
14:53
they're doing their job they're not
14:55
being unfriendly they just have a job to
14:57
do and they're trying to think about
14:59
your grammar and your vocabulary and
15:00
your pronunciation and your fluency and
15:02
there's a lot going on there and for
15:04
them they cannot start to interact with
15:07
you yeah and on test day you might not
15:10
get a very friendly examiner like me I
15:14
don't know whether I was friendly or you
15:16
were but they might be like you know
15:19
don't do that or some of them could you
15:21
know be having a bad day and they just
15:23
like don't ask questions now I have
15:26
experienced with with not myself but
15:29
other students have said when they did
15:31
that they thought the examiner was
15:33
criticizing them or being rude they took
15:36
that to heart and thought Oh my God I
15:38
failed my test and they went from doing
15:41
very very well to everything fell apart
15:44
because if you feel nervous yeah you
15:46
feel uncomfortable with someone then it
15:49
really affects your fluency you can clam
15:51
up you don't want to really show your
15:53
language and who you are you don't want
15:55
to because one of the Great
15:59
uh advantages or or great strength that
16:02
you have is you you you're very open
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about about who you are as a person and
16:07
that's great because it allows you to
16:09
speak in a very fluent way if you go and
16:12
do the test for real probably don't
16:14
interact with the examiner as much part
16:17
two you did a great job because you just
16:19
picked a real event a real person from
16:22
your life and it's much easier to talk
16:24
about that some students try to pick
16:27
something high level or impr impressive
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to impress The Examiner there's no such
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thing uh the best thing to do is pick
16:33
something from your real life cuz that's
16:35
easy to talk about part three you did
16:38
very very well because you really
16:40
extended your answers again you use real
16:42
situations from your own life you don't
16:44
have to do that but it really did help
16:46
you develop your answers terms of the
16:49
scores pronunciation is pretty much
16:52
Perfect The Examiner will be thinking
16:54
about can I understand every word this
16:56
person is saying 100% I can understand
16:59
every syllable then the examiner will be
17:02
thinking about highlevel pronunciation
17:04
features such as your intonation so our
17:06
voices go up or voices go down you speak
17:09
like a native English speaker in that
17:11
respect sentence stress is when we
17:14
emphasize certain words this is my phone
17:17
not your phone so you emphasize certain
17:20
words at times again you do that 100%
17:22
naturally and then you use connected
17:24
speech the way native English speakers
17:26
talk we wouldn't say I want to talk
17:30
about my friend he say I want to talk
17:32
about my friend the flow of the language
17:34
so absolutely perfect no problems there
17:37
coherence and fluency coherence is did
17:39
you answer the questions did you develop
17:41
them enough you did that 100% of the
17:44
time and then fluency is did you speak
17:46
without any um unnatural pausing you did
17:50
pause at times but the reason why you
17:53
paused is important so in the last I
17:56
think it was the second last question
17:58
you were talking about adults and you
17:59
were saying their lives are
18:01
more structured so you weren't trying to
18:05
think of the correct vocabulary because
18:07
your English isn't good enough you were
18:09
trying to just formulate your thoughts
18:11
and come up with the appropriate precise
18:13
word which you did so that demonstrates
18:16
to The Examiner that you have a very
18:17
high level of vocabulary cuz if you were
18:21
cuz you're trying to think of the what's
18:23
the word what so when people don't
18:25
really know the language then they would
18:27
stop and also because you approach this
18:30
not as a test but more as a conversation
18:33
and you are very open and talk about
18:36
your your life in a very open way that
18:39
really helps with fluency so again top
18:41
marks for for fluency and coherence
18:44
grammar I didn't hear a single grammar
18:46
mistake The Examiner will be thinking
18:48
about the accuracy of your grammar did
18:50
you make any mistakes and the range of
18:52
your grammar so if I talk to you about a
18:54
birthday party in the past did you use
18:56
the appropriate past tenses and then I
18:58
asked you about what do you do today did
19:01
you switch tenses did you use the
19:03
appropriate grammatical structures and
19:05
tenses to talk about it each situation
19:08
and again you did that perfectly
19:10
vocabulary very natural you use a nice
19:13
mixture of just normal everyday words
19:16
which everybody uses and you also use
19:19
idiomatic language very very well so as
19:21
you can see you're using very natural
19:24
English and overall you would get a
19:27
perfect band line oh wow which is very
19:30
rare oh wow very very rare so well done
19:35
thank you