you. We're going to look at the IELTS test.

Now, before I begin, I have to tell you that I will be speaking a little bit faster than

usual because this is for IELTS test-takers. You need to get used to faster speed English,

more natural speed English. But for everybody else, keep watching. It's still a good practice,

still lots of vocabulary to learn, lots of things to learn.

So, more specifically, we're going to be looking at IELTS time management. Now, many people

tell me... I've had many students come and tell me the biggest problem they had taking

the IELTS test was that they ran out of time. They didn't know how to manage their time,

and that's why they lost a lot of points. Okay? So, today, I'm going to help you fix

that a little bit. There's lots to talk about. Let's get started.

Two things we have to worry about: mind and body. Okay? First, let's talk about the body.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they go to take the test on test day is they're

exhausted. They're just not mentally ready to take the test. It's a long test, it's a

difficult test, and it's a test in English; not your native tongue. Obviously, right?

So, what do you do? Very, very important. The night before... The night before the test,

don't study. If you don't know it then, you won't know it the next day. So, the night

before the test, go to sleep early, get a full eight hours of solid sleep, wake up early,

do whatever you need to do in the morning, go to the test center relaxed. Okay? Very,

very important. You need as much brain power as you can get on test day.

Speaking of waking up in the morning on test day, make sure that you eat properly. Don't

go to the test hungry. Your stomach does a lot of your thinking for you when you're not

prepared. If you're hungry, you're thinking about your stomach; not about the English.

Okay? Eat. Eat properly. Carbohydrates, proteins. Avoid coffee and sugar. But if you have to

have a coffee in the morning to wake up, like I do, have it at least an hour, an hour and

a half, two hours before the test. Don't go into the test room with a cup of a coffee

in your hand. Well, you can't anyway, but don't go into the test center with a cup of

coffee in your hand. Get it all out of the way early. Okay. So this is still body.

During the test, when you have a few extra seconds, maybe between sections, between questions,

in the listening section, etcetera, close your eyes. Breathe. Just calm yourself down,

relax. Remember, at the end of the day, if you didn't do well on the test today, you

take it again next week or the week after that. You can do it again. Relax. Close your

eyes. If they're burning, close them, relax. Get a little bit of energy back, move on.

Same idea, if you have a chance, stretch. Don't be afraid to waste-if you want to call

it that-take a minute of your time to stretch. Arms up, do whatever you have to do. Don't

get up and walk around. I don't think they'll be very happy about that, but as much as you

can, stretch. Legs, arms, neck, whatever you need to do. A strong, healthy body helps you

do better on a test. It actually helps you save time, believe it or not. Okay, this is

one thing.

Most importantly, your mind. We need to train your mind. It's not all about English. Okay?

The IELTS test, the TOEFL test, etcetera, these are called standardized tests. It means

they're always going to be the same structure. They're always going to be about the same

time, the same set up, the same types of questions. Okay? Know them.

So, how we... Do we train your body? Practice. I cannot stress this enough. Practice, practice,

practice every single day. What do you practice? Excuse me. Practice your listening and speaking

as much as you can. The easiest thing to practice is your listening. Okay? TV, music videos,

YouTube, internet. Like, English is everywhere. Very, very easy to practice your listening. Okay?

Practice your vocabulary. Learn vocabulary. Learn vocabulary. Learn vocabulary. You need

a lot of words for this test.

Practice your skills. Note taking skills, paraphrasing skills, just writing skills.

Notice I wrote this here, "write legibly". If the reader, if the grader of your essay

can't read what you're writing, then you didn't write anything and you're losing points. If

you have very bad handwriting, practice doing it nicely. This is actually the best that

I can get. But when I was in high school, my teachers told me that I will be a doctor

one day because I already know how to write prescriptions that nobody can read. So I had

to change. If you have to change, practice and change.

Okay, now, this is probably the most important one: know the test. Okay? What does that mean?

Instructions. Every section has instructions. Okay? Know these before test day. Okay? Don't

go to the test and read the instructions. Big, big waste of time. You should have practiced...

You should have taken practice tests so many times that you know every instruction for

every section. You take the time they give you to look at instructions, you're already

looking ahead to what is coming. You are getting ready. Maybe you're closing your eyes, maybe

you're stretching. You are not reading the instructions. Okay? That's one.

Structure. Know the structure of the test. It doesn't change. We're going to look at

that in a second, what the structure is, but make sure you know it. There should be absolutely

no surprises on test day. You should know everything about this test; what's coming,

what you can expect. No surprises.

Okay. You know what? We're going to leave it there. We're going to come back in a second.

We're going to look at the structure, and what you have to do for each section to save

yourself time and do better on this test.

Okay, let's start with the listening section. The listening section has 40 questions, about

30 minutes for the entire section. Okay? Again, always going to be the same. Always 40 questions,

always 30 minutes. You got four sections in the listening section. Your first section

has two speakers. Your second section has one speaker. Your third section, two speakers.

Your last section, one speaker. Okay?

The last section is the most difficult because it's a lecture. It's usually one person speaking

the whole time, you're going, answering the questions, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks,

etcetera. But just understand it's always going to be like this, so you're always...

Know exactly what's coming, how to listen. How you listen to two speakers is different

from how you listen to one speaker. Two speakers, you have to be aware of the shift, when you're

switching from one speaker to another. Man and woman speaking, easy. Two men, two women

speaking, not as easy; you have to listen for the cues.

Now, another thing you have to keep very much in mind, they're going to give you... Each

section they give you a little bit of time to look ahead before the recording begins.

Okay? Look ahead. Take this time, use it wisely. Now, what are you looking for? Are you going

to read everything? Are you going to try to read everything before the recording starts?

Of course not. You don't have time to read everything. I think the first section, they

give you about a minute to look ahead at the first part. Don't try to read everything.

Read around the blanks. You have blanks to fill in, for example, this is one question

type is the blanks. Read what's around. Look for the words that you're listening to to

give you a hint or a cue that the answer is coming. Again, that's why vocabulary is very

important, and learning and practicing your skills. Paraphrasing skills also very important.

Multiple choice questions, like for example, section four, there's often multiple choice.

If you see multiple choice questions and you have time to look ahead, don't try to read

every question and answer. Go to every question, identify the main question word. What? Who?

When? Where? Etcetera. All these words, find out exactly what you are listening for. Are

you listening for a time? Are you listening for a person, a place, a thing, an idea, an

action? Etcetera.

Also, listen for numbers, names, milestones. For example, if you're listening for numbers,

then you know where they are. For example, if you have a table, you see all these numbers,

you're listening for the missing numbers. Dates, time, etcetera, these are all numbers.

Names, names of places, names of companies, names of people, etcetera.

Milestones. Okay? Milestones tell you you're getting to this point. So you need to be ready

for this word. Here was a question, here's a question, look at the milestone. This tells

you that you've past this one, you need to be getting ready for this one. This is very,

very important in terms of time management. Why? Because if you are aware that this is

a milestone, that this is where you need to listen to between these two questions, if

you get to this milestone but you didn't get the previous question's answer, you missed

it. Don't worry about it. Don't try to listen to it, because you won't, it's gone. Get ready

for the next question. If you're trying to figure out what this was, you're going to

miss the next one too. So be very careful about these milestones. They are your markers,

they are your guides along the recording. Okay?

There are a few other things, let's see what they are. You're going to have like a table,

or a graph, or a diagram, something visual that you have to label, for example, or you

have to fill in the blanks, for example. Always look at the headings. Always look what is

here, always look what is here. Always look what is here, always look what is here. Okay?

Again, this is with the time they give you to look ahead, this is where you're looking.

And if you have extra time, look at the words around the blanks, look at all the little

clues. But make sure you know what the headings are so you can match things up.

If they give you a diagram, the thing that... That extra time that you're given, what you're

looking for is the starting point. This is where you're going to start. This is the first

blank you have to fill, this is where the recording is going to begin. Now, if you have

let's say a few... You have like these. This is the first one. This is question 14, let's

say. This is question 15, this is 16, 17. Make sure you know the direction. This way,

you're always listening: what is this? This is next. This is next. What is this? This

is next. What is this? This is next. What is this? This is next. Etcetera. Always know

where the recording is going.

Now, very, very important... Okay? Let's say you... You come to an end of a section. Oh,

let's say you have fill-in-the-blanks.

This is one of the sections, let's say. This is your last question, let's say question

13 of the section. Let's say you've heard the answer, you've written down the answer.

Are you going to listen to this? No. Why? You don't need to know what's being said here.

Well, once you have this answer, you have two options. One, close your eyes, relax.

Get your energy back. Get ready for the next section. Better choice: take this extra time

that they're speaking here to look ahead at the next section. So instead of having one

minute to look ahead, you have a minute and a half, a minute and 45 seconds. That gives

you more time to prepare for the next section. Okay? Remember: this is all about time management,

and about keeping yourself calm, and fresh, and ready to go.

Now, another thing, if you're looking for this answer and suddenly you realize that

you heard something here and this answer you didn't get, it's gone. Let it go. Move on.

Don't try to answer this question from the recording because you can't. If you missed

it, you can try to guess or just let it go, move on, get ready for the next one. Okay?

Very, very important to do this.

Now, and I can't stress this last point enough, spelling counts on the IELTS. A lot of students,

they try to... They worry about the spelling here. They're trying to write the word perfectly.

Remember, at the end of the section, they're going to give you time to write the answers

on the answer sheet. That is when you should worry about spelling. Here, just get the answer

down. If anything, use your note taking skills to write it quick and short, but enough that

you understand it, and worry about writing it perfectly later on the answer sheet.

Use abbreviations, shorten the words. Use your little codes, "B4", for example. You

don't need to write the full word. You need to write enough that you understand what the

answer is, worry about spelling later. Don't worry about it here, because as you're thinking

about this, you're missing the next question. Okay? So it's all about keeping up with the

recording and staying ahead of the recording. Okay, that's it for the listening section.

Let's look at the reading section.

Okay, so now let's look at the reading section, which again, same structure every time, get

to know it. You have 40 questions, you have 60 minutes. Basically the breakdown is 13

questions, 13 questions, 14 questions, or any combination thereof. Could be 13, 14,

13. Doesn't matter. But more or less, that's the way it is. Now, most people think that

you should do 20 minutes for each reading section. Don't do that.

Break it down like this: first reading, 15 minutes; second reading, 20 minutes; third

reading, 25 minutes. Now you're asking me: why? Okay. Two reasons. One, and the most

obvious one, reading number two is harder than reading number one, so you need more

time. Reading number three is harder than reading number two. The readings get harder

as you go along. Okay? You want more time as you go along, that's one.

Two, you've just finished a 30-minute listening section. By the time you get here, you've

just done 40 minutes or so, 35 minutes of reading. Your brain is tired. It's English.

You're frustrated, you're angry, you're... Maybe you're hungry because you didn't eat