IELTS Energy 1605: Why Your IELTS Vocabulary is Not a Lost Cause

This is an IELTS Energy Podcast episode 1605, why your IELTS vocabulary is not a lost cause. 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. 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 slash myscore. There's a good chance you'll need to describe situations on IELTS that are less than perfect. Today, you'll learn four flexible idioms that will boost both vocabulary and pronunciation scores for IELTS speaking.

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Hey there, Aubrey. How's everything? I'm great. How are you, Lindsay? Good. Doing excellent. Excellent. Aubrey, what is a nightmare that you've dealt with recently?

Has there been anything? I have a good answer for this. I was trying to book flights for my husband and my two older daughters to when they leave Idaho after 4th of July, they're coming back earlier than us. So they need to fly from Idaho to Arizona and I'm going to stay with the twins and drive later.

And so I was trying to book flights and when I would put everything in, credit card information and hit submit, it would be like working and working and working and it would time out. And so then I could, sometimes I couldn't tell if it had charged me or not. And I, so I'm waiting for a confirmation email, not getting, I was trying to call customer support, but all they had was a chat bot.

We talked about that last time. I was so frustrated. Yeah. I had to do it like three or four different times before it finally went through. I think it was just an issue with their website.

At least I wasn't charged multiple times. Oh, that would be more of a nightmare. It sounds like a total nightmare. That's a good example where you're just getting more and more frustrated.

Yes. Because every time I would finally, it would time out and then I would have to put in all the information again for three different passengers. Yeah. That's the problem.

You're talking about middle names. You're talking about birth dates and all these things. You have to put all of that in every time. No, thank you. This is great vocabulary.

Clearly, I wasn't talking about an actual nightmare that I had at night while I was sleeping. We use this idiomatically to talk about a frustrating or annoying situation. We'll call it a nightmare. Yeah.

And you're likely on IELTS to talk about situations that weren't perfect and you need high scoring vocabulary, idioms to describe when something went wrong. And it's also kind of, we talk about the value of exaggerating on IELTS for better pronunciation. So we elevate something to the level of a nightmare, even if it's not a

These situations are really frustrating. That's such a good example. And you do want to vary your tone as you hear the examples we use today. Notice we don't say it was really a nightmare.

Like we really punch that hard because we're exaggerating. It was such a nightmare. Yeah. Yes, exactly. So I mean, let's go through some vocab for today, Aubrey, to address these types of situations.

Yeah, let's do it. So for part one, for example, you might get a question about commuting or traffic. What could you say, Lindsay? Yeah, you could say so the question might be, or your answer might be driving during rush hour in my city can be a nightmare, especially on rainy days.

Exactly. Right. There's so much higher scoring than just to say it's bad. It's annoying. Right. To call it a nightmare is that variety of language the examiner is looking for.

Is that idiomatic language? Or you might get a part one question about parking where you live. And you could say looking for parking in the city center is an absolute nightmare. So I usually take public transportation.

I love that. So really useful word phrase to deploy will lead to some exaggeration. I don't know. Yeah, it helps that pronunciation piece there. Absolutely.

And you'll notice often native speakers will add total or absolute before nightmare to exaggerate even more, right? A total nightmare, an absolute nightmare. So you have the option to do that too. And then we could say lost cause, a lost cause.

This is interesting. Yeah. So for example, part one, you might get a question about staying in touch with friends and family. I would probably, cause I'm really terrible about this.

I am a lost cause, meaning like there's no hope for me. I'm really bad at this. So I might say for a while, I tried to call my parents whenever I was driving, but it's a lost cause because they never answered their phones. Yeah.

This is true for me. It means it's like impossible to fix, right? Exactly. It's hopeless. It's useless. And this is a good idiomatic way to say that it's a lost cause.

What about, Lindsay, if you get a part one question about free time? We talked about this recently. You could use this too. Yep. You could say, ideally, I'd like to sit around and binge a show, but I've been so busy lately that watching any TV at all is a lost cause.

It means it's hopeless. It's not going to happen for you. Exactly. But it's a much higher scoring than to say it's unlikely or it's impossible. Those are band six or lower.

Exactly. Exactly. And then a train wreck, another really fun one. I actually enjoy using this phrase. I do too. I say this a lot. Yeah. What about part one?

If you get a question about cooking, what could you say, Lindsay? The first time I tried cooking a complicated recipe, it was a complete train wreck. I think that's just cooking in general for me. Every time you cook, it's a train wreck.

Things everywhere, flour all over the kitchen, you know, just like... Yes, right. It's a total disaster. Oh, that one's coming up next. That's a little spoiler alert, but this is so great to call something a train wreck and it's very versatile.

It could be for cooking. It could be for schedules, for being too busy at work, right? I'm so swamped at work. It's a total train wreck. All this means is like, it's bad.

That's really all it means. Whatever's happening, it's not ideal. Not good. Or a question about sleep could come up on part one. And what would you say, Aubrey?

I could say, I have to go to bed super early to be able to function. If ever I stay up past midnight, the next day is a complete train wreck. That's the great example, which means it's not going to go well. Yeah.

And we're talking about vocabulary today, but the structure you used here, if ever I, is really unique. And I feel like you could score some points there too, because it's unique. Yes. And that signals the subjunctive mood.

So depending on the verb that comes next, you have to be aware there. But yes, if ever I, because it's this conditional, like if you write the whole sentence, it would be, if I ever were to stay up late. Yes. That's the subjunctive mood.

If ever I were to stay up late. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect. Love that. And then a disaster. You already hinted at this. Maybe you get a part one question about study habits.

What would you say? I could say trying to study late at night when I'm exhausted is always a disaster. So I prefer to review my notes in the morning. Yeah.

I'm kind of that way. I struggle after like eight o'clock. I don't want to have to do any mental work. It's just hard. It's so much harder. I'd much rather get up at 6am and feel fresh.

Absolutely. It's a total lost cause after 8pm. It's a disaster. A lot of these are very interchangeable. So if you've already used one and you have another chance to say something like this, use one of these others to boost your vocabulary scores.

Yes. And then you might get a question on part one, asking you if you're good at fixing things, right? What might you be able to say, Lindsay? I once tried to fix a laptop, but it was a disaster.

So I ended up buying a new one. Yeah. That'd be me if I tried to take apart a laptop and be like, nope, this is a disaster. It's very impressive. When people can fix things, it's amazing.

Physical things like fix a desk or something, or even just like a technology project. I agree. I'm always so impressed. It's really impressive. Yeah. Think about your last English conversation.

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All right, Aubrey. So this vocab is also really useful on part three. Yes. A lot of the examples we've provided so far in this episode were for speaking part one, but we are now going to give you two sample answers for part three.

How could you use this vocabulary on part three? Do you want to ask me one first, Lindsay? Yeah. Let's start with you. So here we go, Aubrey. Here's the question.

Why do some governments struggle to solve traffic problems in big cities? Yeah. Well, in some cities, traffic congestion has become so severe that many people believe that solving it is a lost cause. Governments have difficulty keeping up with urban sprawl, which causes populations to skyrocket.

So as more people buy cars, traffic becomes an absolute disaster. Having lived in New York City, I'd love for there to be an underground subway wherever I live. However, in Phoenix, the solution is impractical since it would be too costly. So instead, governments usually work to widen roads in order to handle packed freeways and streets.

It's not ideal, but it's the most affordable solution. Oh, very nice use of a couple of the key words here, Aubrey. We had solving it is a lost cause, congestion. You're talking about traffic congestion, right?

Yeah. And this, think about how flexible this is where you're saying you kind of name the problem and then you say many people believe it's a lost cause or solving it is a lost cause. That could be about any, any problem, right? Throw in this vocabulary.

Yes, I love that. And then what else did you say? You also said, as more people buy cars, traffic becomes an absolute disaster, right? An absolute disaster.

This is so much higher scoring than saying like a big problem or something else that means the same thing. But this is easier for that interesting pronunciation because I can punch that harder for that variety of intonation. And it's also much higher scoring. Yes, really good answer.

I love it. Fantastic, Aubrey. All right. Are you ready for yours, Lindsay? Yes, I'm ready. Let's do it. What's the question? What problems do people often face when living in large cities?

Oh, great question. There is a huge number of problems that people face when living in large cities. For example, cost of living is the first thing that comes to my mind. Honestly, when I think about the prices to live in New York City, it was a nightmare for me trying to afford my apartment.

I had to have three roommates. completely insane. Another thing that people don't think about as much but is an actual fact is trash removal and a lack of good sanitation.

On the streets of New York, it can be a train wreck if trash removal doesn't come on a designated day or if there's some kind of strike. It can be a complete disaster because you will have bags of trash on the sidewalk in a city like New York and And you'll end up seeing rats running around the subway. Honestly, it feels like a lost cause at times being able to solve these problems.

Another thing that we can find is building layouts. When you don't have an elevator in your building, it's fine when you're in your 20s. But honestly, if you have kids and you're trying to haul a stroller up a fourth floor walk up, it can be a total nightmare. Yeah, I can confirm.

I have two kids and a big stroller. Luckily, I had an elevator building, but sometimes we'd go visit friends and they were in a walk up and we're hauling that or the subway usually didn't have elevators or they weren't working. So we're hauling the stroller down the stairs into the subway. And also you wouldn't want to go in those elevators either.

It's usually like a toilet basically for the homeless people. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking about you with that answer there, Aubrey. That's a great example of things that are a total disaster.

You used all of our vocab here to call it a complete train wreck, a total disaster, some of these problems. So this is interesting. Keep in mind, whenever we're sharing vocabulary like this, that's talking about how bad or how good something is, you can always use the opposite for something that's good. You have to say like, it's not a lost cause or it

It's definitely not a train wreck to say that something's positive, right? So keep that in mind as well. Really good way to sneak in that extra high value vocabulary to impress the examiner, right? Exactly.

Yeah. So as a takeaway here, this vocabulary is very flexible. Anytime you want to share that something's negative, that something's bad. These are the extremes.

This is how we exaggerate to call it a disaster, a train wreck, a nightmare. And then be sure to use that interesting intonation, punch it harder. All right. Great episode today, Aubrey.

You have a good rest of your day and yeah, enjoy that warm weather that you're having there. We'll see you next time. Take care. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.

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