IELTS Energy 1598: Are Your IELTS Speaking Answers Up to Scratch?

This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, episode 1598. Are your IELTS speaking answers up to scratch? Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams.

Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com forward slash my score. Are you worried that your IELTS exam experience will be a letdown? That's why we're here to help. Listen in today to hear part two of our series on words to avoid.

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Hello, Michelle. How are you? Hey, Aubrey. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. How are you? I'm great. When's the last time you had a rough day? I think you're laughing because I could say today.

The technology is not technology-ing for me today. Everything's going wrong that could go wrong. Michelle, I apologize for all of the patience you've had to have. Oh my gosh.

That happens. That happens. You don't have to apologize. Yeah. Yeah. So but yeah, something technology could cause a rough day. I've had definitely days where my kids were not listening to anything I say.

And it's, you know, or it'll be just a rough hour of the day or a rough two hours. And then they're little angels. And, you know, we often call that a rough patch, right? 2pm this morning, but we're all good now.

So but yeah, it's interesting, Aubrey, because you said a rough day, you didn't say a bad day. Yes, this is part two of a two-part series of ways to say bad in a much more high-scoring way. So stay to the end for details about part one with band nine idioms to use on IELTS speaking instead of the word good. You can definitely listen to these out of order.

But yeah, often the way to avoid saying a generic word like bad is to get a We wouldn't call everything rough, but some things we would. I've had a rough day, had a rough week, I've had a rough hour when it comes to situations going bad. So today we're going to give you quite a few ways that you can describe something as bad while avoiding that three-letter word.

Don't want to say bad on IELTS if you can avoid it. Yes, exactly. So today we're going to go over seven more specific ways to describe something as bad on IELTS speaking. So guys, as always, make sure that you hit follow wherever you're listening to the IELTS Energy Podcast.

Never miss anything. So Aubrey, what's the first one? Okay. The first one is a mess. Okay. So this just could mean something's going badly, could also mean something's very disorganized.

So for example, Michelle, if you were asked on IELTS part two to describe a time when you were very busy, what might you say? Yeah, so I could say this past week was a complete mess. I had multiple deadlines overlapping and I hadn't planned my time properly. So I was constantly rushing from one task to another without finishing anything efficiently.

It was not great, Aubrey. Perfect. Perfect. Yes, exactly. So you see how she said this past week was a mess. She could say, you know, this past week was bad, but that's much lower scoring mess.

You've probably heard traditionally to mean like cluttered. My house is a mess, but we use it idiomatically this way to just say something is going poorly. My life is a mess. My job is a mess.

Anything could be a mess. It just means my house is a mess. And then the next one is a pain. So this one is more so annoying or difficult, right? Exactly.

Yeah. Aubrey, here's a question, an IELTS question. Describe something that annoys you. Yeah. So though this would be an IELTS part two question, I won't give the full two minute answer, but as part of that answer, I could say commuting during rush hour is such a pain.

The traffic is unpredictable and I often end up wasting a ton of time sitting in my car, which is super frustrating. Yeah. This has happened to me a lot lately because EV cars in Arizona are no longer allowed in the carpool lane. You have to have two people in your car.

And I have an electric vehicle, so I'm spoiled. I'm used to being able to go in the carpool lane and I can't anymore and I hate it. That is a pain. That is such a pain.

Yeah, that would be a really good description. All right. What's the third one? All right. This is a letdown, which means more disappointing. Like anything could be, you know, bad.

That's a letdown if it disappointed you in some way. So what about on part two, Michelle, if you were asked to describe something you were excited about, but didn't end up enjoying?

Oh, yeah. So I recently saw a movie. I won't say which one it is. We don't want to throw anyone under the bus who created this movie. Yeah, I don't want to.

Yeah. Exactly. So but it actually turned out to be a real letdown. So I had super high expectations because of the cast. But the storyline was weak and quite predictable.

So it just it didn't live up to the hype at all. Oh. Oh, I could say this about so many TV shows lately. I'm so excited. And then there's such a letdown.

And this brings up a good point that some IELTS students feel like they need to be positive on IELTS. Like maybe the examiner won't like it if they're negative or won't give them as high of scores. That is not true. That's a myth.

You can be negative on every question if you want, as long as you're using impressive vocabulary and pronunciation. That's all the examiner cares about. That's what the scoring system is based on. They don't care if you're negative.

They're like, go for it if you can say it in a really interesting way. Yes, yes, exactly. So should we do the number four is a flop. And this is more about something failing if something fails completely.

So for example, if I were asking, if I were answering a part two question to describe a plan that failed, I might say, you know, I helped organize a community gathering that ended up being a total flop. Hardly anyone showed up. probably because we didn't promote it enough. It was a gigantic disappointment after all the effort everyone put in.

That's too bad. Yeah. So this is interesting because you couldn't, this isn't totally interchangeable, right? You wouldn't call a film that was disappointing a flop or,

Right. And that would be different. That would mean that a film, maybe a lot of money was put into a film and then it failed. It didn't get the viewership.

So it was a flop. It's a failure. But if you're just disappointed with it, but it was a blockbuster, you couldn't call it a flop. Right. These mean something specific.

So you have to use them in the correct context. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And oh, yes, we'll go to the rest after the break. Fluency doesn't mean speaking perfectly.

It means speaking without tension, with ease, and in a way that will build connection, without translating, without second guessing. If English still feels heavy for you, you need clarity on how to get better, not more effort. Our free two minute fluency quiz helps you understand what your English needs right now. Plus you get your English level.

Take it today at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. All right. So our next one is to go downhill or something has gone downhill, which means it became worse over time.

Michelle, if I were to ask you on part two to describe a place that has changed, what might you say? Maybe this isn't true for you. I gave Michelle a little answer about a neighborhood going downhill, which is probably not true. But if your neighbor...

I've only lived here for... Yeah. So you could say, unfortunately, my neighborhood has gone downhill in recent years. It used to be vibrant and well-maintained, but now there are fewer businesses and more empty buildings, which has changed the atmosphere a ton. Yeah.

So this is interesting where... This might not be true for where you live, but it might be true for an area you're familiar with, the downtown of your city or somewhere you traveled to and then went back and it had gone downhill. It wasn't as nice or exciting. Something had changed.

This would be perfect to say it's gone downhill. It means it has decreased in quality. But we could also use this about the service at a restaurant, the quality of food somewhere. Anything that has decreased in quality, we can say it went downhill.

Exactly. And then the number six is not up to scratch. I also hear not up to snuff. Do you hear that? Yes, both. Not up to snuff, not up to scratch means not good enough, not meeting the expectations you would have.

Yeah. So, Aubrey, for an IELTS question, it's describe a time when something didn't meet your expectations. Yeah. I might say I used to frequent an adorable restaurant near my home, but the past few times I went, it was not up to scratch.

The staff was really disorganized. We had to wait a long time for our food. And to top it all off, when it finally came out, everything was worse than in the past. Bland, flavorless, cold, you name it.

Oh, that's very disappointing. That would be so sad. And keep in mind, guys, if you're asked something like this, describe a time something didn't meet your expectations. If you can't think of something off the top of your head, feel free to make it up.

Imagine you went to a restaurant you loved and the quality had gone downhill. This doesn't have to be true. The examiner doesn't know, doesn't care as long as you're using that interesting vocabulary.

Yes. All right. And then the last one is rough, which we mentioned earlier. So yeah, this is a great one. This is difficult or unpleasant. Exactly. So if I asked you, Michelle, on speaking part two, describe a day when you felt stressed.

Okay, so last week, I had a really rough day. Several unexpected problems came up at work. They were just coming out of the woodwork faster than I could handle everything. And I felt under a lot of pressure to resolve them quickly.

So by the end of the day, I was completely exhausted. amazing answer, this great bonus vocabulary for something to come out of the woodwork. That's like, it's unexpected. You didn't see it coming and now you have to deal with it, right?

Such great vocab. A lot of these questions, hopefully you guys are noticing it as you're hearing it. Impressive vocabulary, linking phrases, and our intonation. We are not speaking in a monotone.

We're varying for those higher pronunciation scores. Go back and listen to these answers again. They're all band nine. but just chunks that would be in a longer part two question.

Practice answering today's entire part two questions. Practice speaking for two minutes using like that last one. Describe a day when you felt stressed. Use this vocab and practice spilling that full two minutes.

Tell a story. Make sure that you can get those high pronunciation and vocabulary scores. Love it. And guys, check out episode 1595. That was, have you ever, have you been given bad IELTS advice?

That was a really... Yes. Don't miss that one. You may have been given this bad IELTS advice. So if you missed that, scroll up, check it out. And as a takeaway here, you do not want to say bad on IELTS.

Avoid that three-letter word. You might say it a couple of times. That's fine. It's so much better to use idioms, to use this high scoring vocabulary that's less common to boost your vocabulary scores.

Yeah. All right, Aubrey. Well, thanks for talking about this with us today. And I hope your day is not rough. Same. Don't have a rough day, guys. We will see you next time.

All right. Bye, Aubrey. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.