How I learned English, and what came of it - part 2. IELTS with my own eyes
IELTS General-2018 Memoirs and Reasonings.
TL / DR: Waiting for results for two weeks was difficult, but not as difficult as it might seem, but - The future will be brighter than ever & copy.
Before the new year, I wrote a short note about my personal experience of learning English, you can read it here on Giktayms , in short - in the learning process it became better, but there is room to grow. Further, sheer captaincy, and even with errors, and self-evident — there is no simple way with one magic pill.
')
I came from the exam and sat down to write a note. Who cares - under cat.
Perhaps due to problems with the British Council , the note will soon not be so relevant.
I started learning English three years ago, from the level of “I read technical documentation and I know how to google”. This corresponds to an advanced school-university level.
In addition, in the background, I had a translation (through Google mostly) of any interesting Field manual format books, and the like - for myself, not for sale. Translated, of course, with Google and colleagues, so that "I thought I knew something." I thought uhh.
Testing in the school of English showed that I do not know ... well, not that anything, but I know very little - Pre-intermediate. With him, and began, combining with the work.
Each standard course from University of Cambridge is designed for approximately:
Total 120 * 3 = 360..400 hours. ON LEVEL.
Without homework and extra classes - there will be no progress. Reading at work is impossible (unless, of course, working). So get ready - high-quality study pretty much pass your personal life.
Problem: study once a week (with a teacher) - this is so, not very much, even if you work at home and on yourself. Twice a week is better, but the load doubles, you need 400 hours of training not to lay in 300 days, but in 150.
I marked three - Lingualeo, Polyglot 16 Dmitry Petrov and Learn and play from DOMOsoft. In general, there seemed to be useful modules in Fbreader, but I did not study the question.
All three programs didn’t suit me very much, so I quickly (I wrote the skeleton in a week, and I’m finishing it up with a couple of years of success) wrote my own for android, who need terrible curves source codes (it was written to the size of a Chinese tablet) - write in a personal, lay out.
It is necessary to begin work on preparing for IELTS in parallel with the basic study. Suddenly, IELTS does test the knowledge of the language, although it looks like an EGE.
At the same time, even 9 points on IELTS does not mean that you are fucking talking - no, this is the level “well, go get some bread”. You still cannot reach the JRRT, and you may not understand the local pronunciation. And the problems will be with the native - just someone like the Spaniard or the Cypriot, you will understand perfectly.
Example.
It makes sense to go to IELTS (General / Academic) at a level from the finished Upper intermediate with a good (70% and higher) level in the final test - by this time you will know such pain and humiliation that you will even start to like it.
How many lessons per week are needed - everything is individually. If your process is built, then 1-2 times a week just right. If not very well, then two classes a week is normal, three - many. This is what I write about in class, not “in general”. In general, it is necessary to engage in every day, see above about the clock.
Yes, it has. Many mistakes come precisely from unfamiliarity with the format of the exam and psychological problems. The main problem is time pressure. The clock and the knowledge that the clock is moving is very pressing.
Is it possible without it? Yes you can.
For example, my good friend passed as follows: Listening: 8.5, Reading: 9, Writing: 7.5, Speaking: 8, Overall: 8.5
After a couple of years, I retake the following: Listening: 9.0, Reading: 8.0, Writing: 7.0, Speaking: 7.0, Overall: 8.0
Go to the IELTS website and download the trial version of the task, complete and count the points.
Actually including for experts in mining and ready recipes with level B1 .
It's simple. It is very desirable to have a foreign passport, but if you do not have one, then why do you need IELTS at all?
You can give up 4 times a month, but this is not certain.
General points. The order of doing this is listening (40 minutes), reading (40 minutes), writing (60 minutes). Coffee breaks and smoke breaks are not. You can go to the toilet ... at the expense of your time and not during the first part (listening) and instruction.
The process is formalized and standardized.
Listening.
Listening. Consists of tasks like "heard-recorded". Key moments: it plays once, speak quickly, there are tasks with numbers, addresses, local indices. And often the addresses are not written as they are heard, the names also apply.
In some places, judging by the test tracks and the textbook (Jane Short - Collins Get Ready for IELTS Listening - 2012, for example - owners of a wooden leg, black mark and parrot of a marshinhnik will find it without difficulty) - this is not that trouble, trouble, but really a problem.
In the tracks there is some African named Mfu-phu-Khamba, some citizen of FRANCES / FRANClS living on CYPRUS / CYPRESS, a Chinese woman named Mfa Pfa, with a specific pronunciation of B / P.
There are visits like Date of arrival - there is not 16, but Friday 16th december.
And all this with the speed with which I do not speak Russian either.
Moreover, phonetics is different in pronunciation, in vowels - A = [hey], E = [and], I = [ay], R = [A (with very sooooooooooooooooooooome r], that's all.
And, of course, favorite places - 13/30, 14/40 and so on. They like very much the approach to numbers like “twelve hundred”, or dictate the index as “one-two-be-twenty-fourteen”.
Sometimes you sit as a radio operator with encryption, 322-223. They can repeat the number ... but they can not repeat it, and most likely they will not . Or repeat with the words "oh, I was wrong here, not 3-22-22-3, but 322-322-3."
Time to study goes something like this - It takes about an hour to work out 10 questions in a 5-minute track.
Because the track will have to listen to the first time - to check, the second time - to self-test, the third time with the script, and maybe 2 more times. Total 5 minutes * 5 times - half an hour.
Of particular surprise are tracks with the reformulation of phrases and questions. Sometimes the question - the answer is audible. Sometimes not.
The words of strangers are also full, for example, dairy foods (I do not use this word every day), or I came across something “about venomous animals”.
In some tasks, the order is IMPORTANT, although this problem has been fixed in some places. For example, you have 10 reasons for something, you need to choose three correct ones. You choose by text, then write in the wrong order as they were given (for example, DAB), but as circled, ABD.
Again! Grammar is important! Nobody canceled problems with grammar, for example, I regularly write gover (N) ment without N, or family instead of families. That is, the answers were heard correctly, but I could not write them correctly.
The same applies, by the way, to any grammar like Marlborough / Brooklin / BRIGHTON / and so on.
In the process of preparation, I found in myself thinking errors “in Russian”, for example, a car accident, but not an incident at all.
The same applies to the use of "s" - accident / accidents, family / families, child / children, person / people and so on. And, by the way, not a catalog, but maybe a catalog, as well as center / center, theater / theater, color / color. Consider the specifics.
Separately consider the use of how-it-is-called, stable phrasal verb look for / look after / look at / look over / look through / beside / besides
There are also semantic traps like “what’s wrong with this job is that we have to train to meet dangerous people”. The answer is that the problem is in the danger of work, and not in the fact that it is necessary to train. Separately, there are also semantic traps of the form:
It happens (in the textbook there was) a trap on the description of the question - it is written no more then two WORDS. This means we write two, and not 2
It is divided into several parts. Academic has its own specifics. In my opinion, the easiest part, apart from the questions on TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN. There, in my and not only my opinion, logic rests in places - although it may just be necessary to know better the language and features?
Here everything looks like in an ordinary school composition, which, by the way, I have always hated. Natasha Rostova's theme was not disclosed. One tool is to buy a book of the type “666 letter shades for the first part of IELTS” and rewrite them all. Laying down in 20 minutes.
Then buy a book “Other shades 666 letters for the second part of IELTS”, and repeat the procedure. Add attention to key phrases and words, introductory and final, to focus on a \ the \ none and other.
Speaking can be done on or before the day of the main exam. Carefully plan your work schedule.
Everything was simple. It was necessary to come to the specified place 20 minutes before the appointed time. I came for 40, counted, and sat down to wait. The place to “wait” is equipped with chairs, water in the cooler, books in English, it is warm, loving and lovely.
During the "counted" checked documents, photographed, rolled finger (one, electronically), and all.
The process itself did not differ at all from what is shown in the videos on YouTube -
Not hard ... theoretically. In practice, firstly, the country is awesome. Secondly, even if you trained, all the same, what you remembered, completely flies out of your head. So practice, practice and ... and practice.
Difficult for the following reasons
So there is no finished silver bullet, there will be no magic pills. Only a lot of good, although sometimes monotonous, work on yourself.
To the question of the extent of
Hall for 150 people. 2/3 (estimated) gives Academic, students and students, the vast majority of them will go to study in England, Australia and so on, for 1-2 years, and most likely will settle there.
100 people a week. 50 weeks. 5,000 leaving not the worst students a year. From Moscow and those who donate in Moscow.
This is a lower estimate - there is still the British Council, toeffle, all kinds of Cambridge FCE and further, that's all.
TL / DR: Waiting for results for two weeks was difficult, but not as difficult as it might seem, but - The future will be brighter than ever & copy.
Before the new year, I wrote a short note about my personal experience of learning English, you can read it here on Giktayms , in short - in the learning process it became better, but there is room to grow. Further, sheer captaincy, and even with errors, and self-evident — there is no simple way with one magic pill.
')
I came from the exam and sat down to write a note. Who cares - under cat.
Perhaps due to problems with the British Council , the note will soon not be so relevant.
A little bit about life
I started learning English three years ago, from the level of “I read technical documentation and I know how to google”. This corresponds to an advanced school-university level.
In addition, in the background, I had a translation (through Google mostly) of any interesting Field manual format books, and the like - for myself, not for sale. Translated, of course, with Google and colleagues, so that "I thought I knew something." I thought uhh.
Part 1. Introduction
Training
Testing in the school of English showed that I do not know ... well, not that anything, but I know very little - Pre-intermediate. With him, and began, combining with the work.
Study as it is. General Courses
Each standard course from University of Cambridge is designed for approximately:
- 40 (weeks) * 3 (hours per week, astronomical hours - these are 4 academic hours) - 120 hours of work in the classroom. These are 9 months, 4 lessons of 3 hours each - approximately 40 weeks. From September to May.
- 120 astronomical hours, for example from 12 to 15, or 160 academic.
- Not less than the same (120) hours of work INDEPENDENTLY is homework and the attached (to the textbook) disk.
- Not less than the same hours of ADDITIONAL classes - this is a movie, series, studying the dictionary in the subway and so on. Reading foreign literature and listening to audio books with the analysis of unknown words. Reading news in English.
Total 120 * 3 = 360..400 hours. ON LEVEL.
Without homework and extra classes - there will be no progress. Reading at work is impossible (unless, of course, working). So get ready - high-quality study pretty much pass your personal life.
Problem: study once a week (with a teacher) - this is so, not very much, even if you work at home and on yourself. Twice a week is better, but the load doubles, you need 400 hours of training not to lay in 300 days, but in 150.
Useful resources
- View performances in TheaterHD . Performances are presented not only in Moscow, see the site.
- Watching movies in the movies in the original. In Moscow, this is the Pioneer cinema , and ... almost everything - since 35mm is all closed, and in other cinemas there is a cinema in the original when it happens. The problem is that in the Pioneer there is a cinema with Russian subtitles, it is easier for me to read them than to listen to the text, so in my opinion, with the cinema, the technique is the following - first we watch a lot in English with Russian subtitles, after 100 hours we start watching with English subtitles, and IELTS would be better to have a level that allows you to watch movies in the original without sabs at all.
- Beloved by many cartoon about the watch eater
- Reading method by Ilya Frank
- TED Talks
- MIT OpenCourseWare
- Caltech's Online Education
- MS Azure
- MS Channel 9
- The new york times
- BBC Radio 3 - Slow Radio
- IELTS
Useful software for self-study on smartphones
I marked three - Lingualeo, Polyglot 16 Dmitry Petrov and Learn and play from DOMOsoft. In general, there seemed to be useful modules in Fbreader, but I did not study the question.
All three programs didn’t suit me very much, so I quickly (I wrote the skeleton in a week, and I’m finishing it up with a couple of years of success) wrote my own for android, who need terrible curves source codes (it was written to the size of a Chinese tablet) - write in a personal, lay out.
Preparing for IELTS (this also applies to TOEFL)
It is necessary to begin work on preparing for IELTS in parallel with the basic study. Suddenly, IELTS does test the knowledge of the language, although it looks like an EGE.
At the same time, even 9 points on IELTS does not mean that you are fucking talking - no, this is the level “well, go get some bread”. You still cannot reach the JRRT, and you may not understand the local pronunciation. And the problems will be with the native - just someone like the Spaniard or the Cypriot, you will understand perfectly.
Example.
It makes sense to go to IELTS (General / Academic) at a level from the finished Upper intermediate with a good (70% and higher) level in the final test - by this time you will know such pain and humiliation that you will even start to like it.
How many lessons per week are needed - everything is individually. If your process is built, then 1-2 times a week just right. If not very well, then two classes a week is normal, three - many. This is what I write about in class, not “in general”. In general, it is necessary to engage in every day, see above about the clock.
Does it make sense to take a special training course before IELTS?
Yes, it has. Many mistakes come precisely from unfamiliarity with the format of the exam and psychological problems. The main problem is time pressure. The clock and the knowledge that the clock is moving is very pressing.
Is it possible without it? Yes you can.
For example, my good friend passed as follows: Listening: 8.5, Reading: 9, Writing: 7.5, Speaking: 8, Overall: 8.5
After a couple of years, I retake the following: Listening: 9.0, Reading: 8.0, Writing: 7.0, Speaking: 7.0, Overall: 8.0
What makes sense to do before registering for the exam, and even before enrolling in the IELTS preparation course?
Go to the IELTS website and download the trial version of the task, complete and count the points.
Actually including for experts in mining and ready recipes with level B1 .
How does the exam procedure itself
It's simple. It is very desirable to have a foreign passport, but if you do not have one, then why do you need IELTS at all?
- We learn to the level when we believe that we are ready to go. At least for putting on an average score of 2 (two).
- We think once again on the topic of what needs to be passed. The list of exams "in English in general" is quite wide - IELTS General, IELTS Academic, IEIELTS for UKVI and IELTS Life Skills, TOEFL, Cambridge English: First (FCE) / Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE), and so on. The question is why do you need it and how many points should you take. Pigs have different roads, different points are needed for them.
- We study the table of points IELTS. The scale there is non-linear, but everything is simple. We consider how many correct answers you need.
- We download a trial version of the task from the official site, we perform it, we think again. The main thing is that we count the points honestly, made a mistake in grammar - it is not credited. Once again: IELTS in all parts checks including grammar. I made a mistake in writing, wrote instead of whole world - whale word, and that's all, I did not get points.
- We are looking for something like “trial delivery of IELTS with almost real tasks” on the network. We register, pay, check. Such a “test handover” costs about $ 50 (3,000 rubles) versus about $ 250 / 220E (14.000 rubles) for real life.
- We plan when we take the exam. We plan our personal time, work, that's all. Keep in mind that Speaking can be moved 1-2 days earlier. I would have known that it would be so difficult - I would have given it in the summer, after the holidays.
- Register on the IELTS website. Select the date, type and location of the exam
- We receive a payment order of about $ 250 (prices float a little because of the course, check. In different cities, prices may differ - for example, for Krasnoyarsk the price will be 21.000, for Yakutsk - 23.000). We pay through a bank or online bank
- After 2-3 days we receive an email confirmation of payment
- For a week and a half, we receive an e-mail with an indication of the exact time and place. For Moscow, Speaking is usually at Dobryninskaya / Serpukhovskaya, the rest at Partizanskaya from 9:20 to 13:40, 9:20 start of registration, 10:00 start of the event. There is no crush, the process is organized and debugged. I arrived at 09:10, a bit early.
- We come, register, rent, wait for the results.
You can give up 4 times a month, but this is not certain.
Preparation for L / R / WR
General points. The order of doing this is listening (40 minutes), reading (40 minutes), writing (60 minutes). Coffee breaks and smoke breaks are not. You can go to the toilet ... at the expense of your time and not during the first part (listening) and instruction.
The process is formalized and standardized.
- They came, everyone counted and all seated. They sit in the hall (I handed over to the Guerrilla in a healthy hall for 9 rows of 15 seats), not as horrible, but as prescribed. Places are single. They give a simple pencil, mechanical pencil, and an eraser. You can't bring your own. No pens, just a pencil. You can immediately ask for a spare pencil, give no questions. There are pencils ... well, so, my sharpener sharpens better. Probably, it was possible to take the sharpener and sharpen it for yourself immediately, but it is easier to write with a mechanical pencil. During home workouts it’s worth writing the same. While everyone is running into the hall, they count and sort them - you can even go to the toilet, even smoke. Then you will have no time for that, but it is better to drink less tea and other things anyway - still almost 4 hours.
- Checked as heard.
- Issued tasks, but you can not open them to the beginning of the countdown.
- They started the countdown and started the disk. Everything further without pause until the end of the stage.
- When the timer is over, they will say “so, everyone has postponed”, they will take away the task sheets and the answer sheet. And this is every time. Repeat.
By the tests themselves
Listening.
Listening. Consists of tasks like "heard-recorded". Key moments: it plays once, speak quickly, there are tasks with numbers, addresses, local indices. And often the addresses are not written as they are heard, the names also apply.
In some places, judging by the test tracks and the textbook (Jane Short - Collins Get Ready for IELTS Listening - 2012, for example - owners of a wooden leg, black mark and parrot of a marshinhnik will find it without difficulty) - this is not that trouble, trouble, but really a problem.
In the tracks there is some African named Mfu-phu-Khamba, some citizen of FRANCES / FRANClS living on CYPRUS / CYPRESS, a Chinese woman named Mfa Pfa, with a specific pronunciation of B / P.
There are visits like Date of arrival - there is not 16, but Friday 16th december.
And all this with the speed with which I do not speak Russian either.
Moreover, phonetics is different in pronunciation, in vowels - A = [hey], E = [and], I = [ay], R = [A (with very sooooooooooooooooooooome r], that's all.
And, of course, favorite places - 13/30, 14/40 and so on. They like very much the approach to numbers like “twelve hundred”, or dictate the index as “one-two-be-twenty-fourteen”.
Sometimes you sit as a radio operator with encryption, 322-223. They can repeat the number ... but they can not repeat it, and most likely they will not . Or repeat with the words "oh, I was wrong here, not 3-22-22-3, but 322-322-3."
Time to study goes something like this - It takes about an hour to work out 10 questions in a 5-minute track.
Because the track will have to listen to the first time - to check, the second time - to self-test, the third time with the script, and maybe 2 more times. Total 5 minutes * 5 times - half an hour.
Of particular surprise are tracks with the reformulation of phrases and questions. Sometimes the question - the answer is audible. Sometimes not.
The words of strangers are also full, for example, dairy foods (I do not use this word every day), or I came across something “about venomous animals”.
In some tasks, the order is IMPORTANT, although this problem has been fixed in some places. For example, you have 10 reasons for something, you need to choose three correct ones. You choose by text, then write in the wrong order as they were given (for example, DAB), but as circled, ABD.
Again! Grammar is important! Nobody canceled problems with grammar, for example, I regularly write gover (N) ment without N, or family instead of families. That is, the answers were heard correctly, but I could not write them correctly.
The same applies, by the way, to any grammar like Marlborough / Brooklin / BRIGHTON / and so on.
In the process of preparation, I found in myself thinking errors “in Russian”, for example, a car accident, but not an incident at all.
The same applies to the use of "s" - accident / accidents, family / families, child / children, person / people and so on. And, by the way, not a catalog, but maybe a catalog, as well as center / center, theater / theater, color / color. Consider the specifics.
Separately consider the use of how-it-is-called, stable phrasal verb look for / look after / look at / look over / look through / beside / besides
There are also semantic traps like “what’s wrong with this job is that we have to train to meet dangerous people”. The answer is that the problem is in the danger of work, and not in the fact that it is necessary to train. Separately, there are also semantic traps of the form:
: ?
2
« , – , , ».It happens (in the textbook there was) a trap on the description of the question - it is written no more then two WORDS. This means we write two, and not 2
Reading
It is divided into several parts. Academic has its own specifics. In my opinion, the easiest part, apart from the questions on TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN. There, in my and not only my opinion, logic rests in places - although it may just be necessary to know better the language and features?
Writing
Here everything looks like in an ordinary school composition, which, by the way, I have always hated. Natasha Rostova's theme was not disclosed. One tool is to buy a book of the type “666 letter shades for the first part of IELTS” and rewrite them all. Laying down in 20 minutes.
Then buy a book “Other shades 666 letters for the second part of IELTS”, and repeat the procedure. Add attention to key phrases and words, introductory and final, to focus on a \ the \ none and other.
Speaking as it was
Speaking can be done on or before the day of the main exam. Carefully plan your work schedule.
Everything was simple. It was necessary to come to the specified place 20 minutes before the appointed time. I came for 40, counted, and sat down to wait. The place to “wait” is equipped with chairs, water in the cooler, books in English, it is warm, loving and lovely.
During the "counted" checked documents, photographed, rolled finger (one, electronically), and all.
The process itself did not differ at all from what is shown in the videos on YouTube -
- Entered, the dictaphone read something-where-when, asked ID, full name, and then - again, as in any video.
- 3 minutes general question.
- Then 1 minute to prepare for the issue issued, you can make notes, 2 minutes to tell the story of what and how.
- And 3 minutes of discussion "strongly around a given topic topic." Strongly around - for example, the topic may be “Famous personalities”, and questions for discussion may be of the type “should famous personalities participate in advertising”.
Not hard ... theoretically. In practice, firstly, the country is awesome. Secondly, even if you trained, all the same, what you remembered, completely flies out of your head. So practice, practice and ... and practice.
Difficult for the following reasons
- It takes me some time to switch to English for about 5 minutes. That is, for the first 2-3 minutes I was just blunt.
- Under pressure (psychological) - you start to make mistakes. So here it is necessary to hone knowledge to automatism.
Silver bullets and magic pills (actually not)
- Watching movies in original / with English sabs. No tablet at all, not even a level test. Such complacency that I, if I’m really good at all. Not.
- A teacher from England / Australia / New Zealand / South Africa / USA, that is, native. Firstly, it only makes sense to do this, but, as I correctly noticed last time, the people take IELTS by 7.5 (out of 9) and go to teach, and secondly, the teacher must specialize in the subject. This generally helps, but it still takes time to prepare, a lot of time, and does not guarantee either 7 or even 6 points.
- Previously read (in Russian) foreign fiction. This is generally DNIWE, the Soviet translations were so cropped that only modern Russian ones are worse than them. Although no, not worse, both DNIWE. Moreover, not only were they cropped, there is also a translation that is not just lame - only tips from Evgeny V about “ -BadItemLimit 999 –AcceptLargeDataloss ” are worse . Of course, I understand that someone who starts up V. Evgeniyev. To something more difficult to refill toner is to blame for myself, but do not immediately harm yourself.
So there is no finished silver bullet, there will be no magic pills. Only a lot of good, although sometimes monotonous, work on yourself.
To the question of the extent of accounting for brain drain
Hall for 150 people. 2/3 (estimated) gives Academic, students and students, the vast majority of them will go to study in England, Australia and so on, for 1-2 years, and most likely will settle there.
100 people a week. 50 weeks. 5,000 leaving not the worst students a year. From Moscow and those who donate in Moscow.
This is a lower estimate - there is still the British Council, toeffle, all kinds of Cambridge FCE and further, that's all.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/371351/
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