IELST Energy 1628: Back to School Part 3: Let's Tackle Task 2!

This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1628. Back to School, Part 3. Let's Tackle Task 2. Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.

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Education is one of the most common topics for IELTS Task 2 essays. Be ready for these questions on test day with today's vocabulary and strategies for writing high scoring essays.

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Join before Sunday to save up to $100 on our brand new course. Go and grab the special deal now. Go to allearsenglish.com slash s o c i a l. Hello, Lindsay.

Welcome back to our Back to School series. Yeah. Welcome back to the Back to School series. Love it. Good stuff, Aubrey. Glad to be here. How are you doing today?

I'm great. It's fall and this is the time of year that many of us go back to school. And even if it's been a while since you went back to school, maybe you've been working for a while, but you're prepping for IELTS. These questions about schooling when you were younger would be even trickier.

It's hard to remember some of the details. Yeah. So we want to understand what kinds of questions could we actually be asked when it comes to education? I mean, some of them are learning styles, online versus in-person learning, technology and education, I'm sure AI and education.

Aubrey, what else? Student discipline, studying abroad, whether students should take a gap year, the value of degrees, right? Do people still need a college degree? There are so many different topics that are common on IELTS Task 2.

So you need to be ready to write about this with topic-specific vocabulary. Yes. So today we're going to show you exactly how to write high-scoring essays about this topic. Exactly.

We're sharing an episode with strategies to boost IELTS Task 2 writing scores. So Lindsay, let's hear the episode. All right. Looking forward to it. Hey, Jessica.

How are you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing good. Yeah. I'm sort of sweating inside already, but it feels good. It feels good to be like, ah, to wear shorts again.

I know. I know. Actually, it's funny. Last week here on the East Coast, it was actually like 97 degrees on Thursday. Yeah. We had this freak hot day, and then it got cooler again over the weekend, but it was 97.

Actually, 97 by the ocean. So isn't that crazy? By the ocean. By the ocean. It was like in the mid-90s. It was completely nuts. That's insane. Did people just go crazy and like just everybody played hooky from school and just went to the beach?

I don't know. I actually didn't see too many people around the beach. It was just a work day for people, just like a normal Thursday, but it was this random really hot day. Very strange.

So we get these weather swings, but whatever. That's okay. I wasn't complaining. You know, Like if that happened in Portland, there would seriously be so many people calling into work and just going outside.

I think it's just, it just shows like, cause we've talked about the difference in priorities in the East and West coast. I think where you are like sort of like work ethic and that sort of thing is more important. And here like other spheres of life take over more often. I know.

Sometimes I wish that I lived on the West coast to soak up that culture. Yeah. I read this article about like the similarities between Portland and Brooklyn. And this was like last year.

And how like people in Brooklyn are like Oregon hipsters, but with motivation. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. All right. Guys, just to show you how useful this beginning conversation is, guys, just a couple things that we said that you could use to stand out on your speaking exam.

Lindsay said, freaky hot. I love that idea of using freaky as an adverb just instead of like crazy. That's so native speaker, so slang. No other student's going to use that.

And then I said, played hooky. Yeah. That's kind of like an older idiom, but we still use it. It means to like pretend to be sick or like ditch school or something.

Just like ditch school or work and go do something fun. Yeah, exactly. You also said hipster, which is a good word to know. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we got lots of hipsters.

I'm sure our listeners know what hipsters are. I hope you guys do. If not, just Google image that word and you'll understand. Definitely Google images.

Yep, exactly. And before we get further into the show, I want to say thank you to some of our listeners who reviewed us in iTunes. Guys, these reviews help our show a lot. So thank you to...

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All right. So today, guys, we're going to do a sample brainstorm for you and then give you sample answers from the exam that you could use to practice these ideas and this vocabulary that you're going to get today.

You know that education is like the most common topics today. topic on IELTS, right? On all parts of the exam. Listening section, all the sections on listening, reading passages, academic subjects, stuff like that.

Also, questions about this on the writing and speaking. So, we're going to take one specific aspect of education, just brainstorm spontaneously, just like you would do for writing task two, and then we're going to show you how you could use this on the exam. So, The topic is opportunities for continued learning.

What's the first thing you think of when you hear that phrase, Lindsay? I think of just kind of expanding our knowledge. I think of adult learning. So I think of, you know, after when we're not kids.

I think this is not necessarily about kids education in school. This is about kind of maybe non-traditional forms of education or continued education. That's what I think of.

Yeah, that's the first thing that came to my mind as well. But then my mind also traveled to this place for like all ages because I've been looking into summer camps and stuff like that for James. That's why, right? Just personal experience.

That's what comes to mind. So there's everything here, man. There's science camps. There's like hiking nature clubs. There's even... an art center that does special classes for scrap art.

So it's taking like recycling and garbage and learning how to make awesome stuff out of it. That's so cool. Like that's a thing. Yeah, it's awesome. Wow, wow.

I wish I had gone to that camp when I was a kid or even now as an adult. I mean, it sounds kind of cool. It does sound fun. James does this on his own.

He comes home and goes to the recycling and he like gets out three things and tries to make something. It's just, it's a thing. It's fun. Fantastic. I think it is normally for adults, right?

So that's where our minds would go for the most part. I think the most obvious examples would be community colleges because those provide affordable classes and a lot of night classes. So ways to extend your work experience. So stuff connected to your profession.

So like Continuing education for certain skills or languages you might need for your job. Maybe IT skills that you need to move up in your position that you didn't get when you were in school because you went to school a while ago. I think there are a lot of specific examples here.

And I think to make it more interesting, I sort of went with the intrinsic value, right? So like extrinsic value is motivation from the outside. You're doing this so you can get more money, so you can get a better job. But I'm more fascinated with the intrinsic motivation for continued learning, like taking a gardening class, joining a Tai Chi club, you know, like these are all of this exists as well.

Yeah, exactly. Or just wanting to expand your kind of your awareness of what's going on in the world. It makes me think of also more kind of less traditional, less formal education situations, right? Like recently, a friend of mine started an article club where she invites instead of a book club, it's an article club, right?

So she basically just invites friends over in the evening once a month and Hello. Can you hear me? Are you there? It just cut out for a second. Okay. Okay.

Yep. So just the idea of more informal circles towards learning, right? So the idea of an article club, right? Instead of a book, instead of everyone having not enough time to read the book, you just read an article that's going to have different viewpoints.

And then you all come together and you discuss that article and everyone brings up their perspective and their angle on it. Do you replay conversations in English after they end? Maybe you think of what you should have said or wonder if you missed a signal, interrupted or came across the wrong way. That constant second guessing can make you pull back even more.

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You know, I think these days as well, in the sort of political climate that we're living in, and by extension, people in other countries who we might affect with policies, I think there are a lot of meetups these days where people are trying to get together to explore different viewpoints, right? So people are very motivated now to sort of lessen the hate. So there are meetups that invite like a diverse group of people who Different races, different backgrounds, different religions, and trying to encourage productive, positive dialogue between people.

So I think that's continued learning. That's self-development, which counts as continued learning, I think. You got it. Exactly. Love this. So guys, your next step now would be to brainstorm examples from your own city country culture.

I would try to find the meetups, do some research. What's happening to get people together for self-development in your city? Maybe you could join one yourself. That would be amazing.

That would be incredible experience before test day. So do a little bit of research and then brainstorm what are the options for different age groups? What are the options for kids, teenagers, adults, elderly people, right?

Get specific examples and then you can practice writing and speaking about these examples for these questions, guys. Here's a writing task 2 question that you could definitely see on the exam.

Many people believe, by the way, guys, you should take some notes here. Many people believe that it is necessary for adults to keep learning throughout their lives. How possible is this? Why is it important?

So I like this question because it's a mixed question. It's not a straight argument, right? There are two questions there to answer. So paragraph two would be about how possible is this?

Paragraph three would be about why is this important? So you need specific examples in both. And then speaking part three, what opportunities are there for continued learning as an adult where you live? That could definitely be on the speaking test.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So this is why, you know, getting into the habit. I mean, we've heard on past episodes, especially when we interview students, that brainstorming is not something that's intuitive for a lot of you guys because you don't necessarily learn it as a skill in school.

So that's why it's so important to take these common themes on the test and brainstorm, brainstorm, practice this skill. Yeah. Yes, this would be such a useful practice brainstorm, guys. Make a mind map.

Have different bubbles, like one bubble for children, one bubble for teenagers, one bubble for adults, one bubble for elderly, and then just write everything you could possibly think of for that, okay? Clubs, societies, meetups, organized meetings, classes, you know, paid, free. There's so many directions you could take this in, especially if you broaden your perspective as to what is learning.

It's not just memorizing dates. It's not just learning a skill. It's also learning about yourself and learning about others, right? This like self-development, developing cultural awareness, all of this counts.

Yeah. And that might not be something that you think of at first when you think of learning or education, but it certainly is. And that may be cultural as well, right? So we want to broaden our perspective

as much as we can. Yeah, really interesting. And the cool thing is, you know, if you guys are, if you do decide to join our course, the Three Keys IELTS Success System, you don't have to do this by yourself, right? Because Jessica just posted this question in the Facebook group this morning and someone already just updated and we're going to get more ideas, more students writing in.

So that's the beauty of studying for IELTS with a community, with a group. Yeah, exactly. Because as Lindsay said, we do recognize the fact that brainstorming is a new skill for a lot of you guys. It's a tough skill.

It's something that has to be explicitly practiced on its own. So that's what we do weekly. Every Tuesday in our Facebook group, I post a brainstorm challenge. And so you get to practice yourself, but also learning from what others post and what I post.

I try to always put an example in there of my own brainstorm. So yeah, that's just awesome extra practice that our students get. So good. So cool. Yes.

So important, guys. Don't overlook the skill of brainstorming. It's a huge part of our writing module, right, Jessica? And it's one of the core skills that you need for IELTS to get your seven or higher.

So don't look past it. Don't overlook it. There you go. Awesome. And guys, remember, if there's anything you picked out today that you liked or even that you have a question about, maybe how would you answer this question?

That could be part of your review. Right. You can say this episode got me thinking and this is these are my ideas. Right. We would love to see that. Yep.

Ask us your questions in your review. You know, let us know what you think of the show. Let us know whatever's on your mind going over there. If it's relevant to the show, obviously, let us know.

Don't like post a picture of your awesome lunch. Yeah. You know, it's not a Facebook wall. Exactly. Exactly. All right, Jessica, thanks for hanging out and bringing this topic to our attention.

It's important. My pleasure. It was super fun. Cool. All right. See you next time. All right. See you tomorrow. Bye. Aubrey, I love this brainstorm on the topic of continued education.

So important to hear this and prepare. Yes, it's so helpful to hear sample brainstorms for IELTS Task 2 topics. Once you can brainstorm ideas, details, and examples, it's so much easier to write an organized and high-scoring essay. Yes.

Our challenge for you is to complete your own brainstorm on this topic and then go ahead and write the essay as we're finishing up today's episode. Exactly. And take all of these different topics that we shared, search a question about it or come up with your own and do the same, right? You should be brainstorming all of these different common topics so that you can much more easily come up with ideas, details, and examples on test day.

All right, perfect. Well, a great episode today, Aubrey, and we'll see you in the next one. All right. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. Okay, bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.

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