IELTS VIP Podcast Episode 15: How Planning Can Help You Get the IELTS Score You Need
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of the IELTS VIP podcast, the host emphasizes the critical role of planning in achieving high scores on IELTS writing tasks. Addressing common concerns like time management, staying within word limits, and fully developing ideas, the host shares strategies and analogies to illustrate the benefits of planning. The podcast also discusses the importance of structure in writing and how it can guide students to a more organized and effective approach, ultimately leading to improved performance on the exam.
Takeaways
- 🎙️ The podcast is part of the IELTS VIP series, focusing on providing in-depth solutions to IELTS writing tasks.
- 📅 The host plans to release a podcast weekly for the next six months, ensuring consistent content for listeners.
- 👥 The VIP group offers personalized assistance to a limited number of students, addressing their specific needs and questions.
- ✍️ The podcast addresses common issues in IELTS writing, such as finishing on time, staying within word limits, and developing ideas.
- 📈 Success stories from students who achieved a score of 7 or above often attribute their success to effective planning.
- 🗂️ Planning is emphasized as an investment rather than a waste of time, with analogies provided to illustrate its importance.
- 🏆 The podcast offers step-by-step structures for various writing tasks, which help students plan their essays systematically.
- ⏱️ The average planning time recommended by successful students is about 7-8 minutes, leaving ample time for writing and editing.
- 📝 The planning process involves thinking about the question, generating ideas, and creating a skeleton structure before writing.
- 💡 The podcast suggests that planning helps maintain focus, prevents changes in direction during writing, and ensures a structured essay.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the IELTS VIP podcast?
-The main focus of the IELTS VIP podcast is to provide in-depth solutions and advice for IELTS writing tasks, particularly addressing common issues faced by students in Task 1 and Task 2.
Why did there seem to be a break in the podcast episodes?
-There was a break in the podcast episodes because the host was on holiday before Christmas, and then there was the Christmas holiday period.
What is the frequency of the IELTS VIP podcast episodes going forward?
-The host plans to release at least one podcast episode every single week until they go on another holiday, which won't be for at least another six months.
What is the VIP group mentioned in the podcast?
-The VIP group is an exclusive group within IELTS Advantage where they work very closely with a small number of students, providing personalized help and support.
How does the podcast address students' concerns?
-The podcast addresses students' concerns by asking them for their specific questions and worries, and then creating a podcast episode that goes in-depth into those issues.
What is the most common advice given by successful IELTS students according to the podcast?
-The most common advice given by successful IELTS students is the importance of planning, which they say significantly changed their performance.
Why is planning emphasized as a key strategy in the podcast?
-Planning is emphasized because it helps solve multiple problems such as finishing on time, staying within word limits, using the right number of ideas per paragraph, fully developing ideas, and staying focused during the writing task.
What are the analogies used in the podcast to illustrate the importance of planning?
-The podcast uses analogies such as going on holiday without planning, millionaires budgeting their finances, and daily planning for productivity to illustrate the importance of planning in IELTS writing.
What is the 'skeleton structure' mentioned in the podcast for IELTS writing?
-The 'skeleton structure' refers to a pre-planned outline of an essay that includes the introduction, main ideas, explanations, examples, and conclusion, which serves as a roadmap for writing the essay.
How much time should be allocated for planning according to the podcast?
-The podcast suggests that on average, successful students plan for about 7-8 minutes before starting to write their IELTS essays.
What is the host's advice on how to handle the IELTS writing test effectively?
-The host advises to follow a step-by-step process that includes thinking, planning, writing, and editing, and to use a structured approach to ensure a systematic and focused writing strategy.
Outlines
🎙️ Podcast Introduction and IELTS VIP Group Overview
The speaker welcomes listeners to episode 15 of the IELTS VIP podcast after a holiday break. They announce a commitment to producing weekly podcasts for the next six months. The IELTS VIP group is introduced as an exclusive course that offers close interaction with a limited number of students. The podcast's purpose is to address specific questions and concerns raised by these students, delving deeply into IELTS writing tasks one and two. The importance of planning in IELTS success is highlighted, with a promise to provide a solution to common writing issues.
🗂️ The Power of Planning: Analogies and Its Impact on IELTS Writing
The speaker emphasizes the critical role of planning in IELTS writing, comparing it to planning a holiday trip to New York and financial budgeting by successful individuals. Planning is likened to an investment that saves time and ensures a structured approach. The analogy of planning a trip illustrates the need for foresight and organization, while the financial planning analogy from 'The Millionaire Next Door' underscores the value of time investment in planning. The speaker also shares a personal daily planning routine to manage tasks efficiently.
✍️ Planning Strategies for IELTS Writing Tasks
The speaker outlines a step-by-step planning process for IELTS writing tasks, advocating for the use of specific structures tailored to different types of writing questions. These structures provide a roadmap for students to follow, ensuring a uniform and structured planning approach. The process involves understanding the question, brainstorming ideas, and creating a skeleton structure before writing. The speaker advises against starting to write until the plan is satisfactory, as this prevents wasting time on redoing work. The average planning time for successful students is noted to be around 7-8 minutes.
⏱️ Time Management and Structuring the Essay
The speaker discusses how planning helps manage time effectively during the IELTS test. By allocating specific minutes to planning, writing, and editing, students can ensure they finish on time and within the word limit. The speaker also addresses how planning helps in using the right number of ideas per paragraph and developing those ideas fully. They explain that by doing all the thinking during the planning stage, students can stay focused while writing, avoiding the temptation to change their minds mid-way. The speaker concludes by encouraging students to adopt a strategic approach to IELTS writing and offers contact information for further queries.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡IELTS VIP
💡Podcast
💡Planning
💡Word Limit
💡Ideas Development
💡Structure
💡Success Stories
💡Editing and Proofreading
💡Investment of Time
💡Skeleton Structure
Highlights
Introduction to the IELTS VIP podcast and its return after a break.
Commitment to produce weekly podcasts for the next six months.
Explanation of the VIP group and its close interaction with a small number of students.
The importance of addressing student questions in depth through podcasts.
The significance of planning in IELTS writing as emphasized by success stories.
Common student questions about finishing writing tasks on time.
Concerns about staying within the word limit for IELTS tasks.
Queries on how many ideas to include in a paragraph and how to fully develop them.
The challenge of staying focused during writing to avoid wasting time.
Planning as an investment of time, not a waste.
Analogies used to illustrate the importance of planning, including holiday planning and budgeting.
The impact of planning on achieving financial success as seen in 'The Millionaire Next Door'.
Daily planning as a personal productivity tool.
The role of structure in planning for IELTS writing tasks.
The process of thinking about the question before planning.
The importance of noting a skeleton structure during the planning stage.
The average planning time recommended by successful students.
How planning ensures finishing on time and staying within word limits.
The structured approach to developing ideas and staying focused in writing.
Contact information provided for further questions and engagement.
Aim to produce at least 50 podcasts for the year ahead.
Transcripts
hi everyone and welcome to the IELTS VIP
podcast welcome back after a long break
we are up to now episode 15 of the IELTS
VIP broadcast we took a little bit of a
break and I was on holiday before
Christmas and then there was the
Christmas holiday as well but we're back
now I will probably be making at least
one of these podcasts every single week
until I go on another holiday but that's
not gonna be for at least another six
months so you're good for for at least
six months with one of these per week so
as always let me explain what this
podcast is and and what we do so one of
the things that we do here at IELTS
advantage is we have an exclusive group
called our VIP group our VIP course
where we work very very closely with a
very small number of students one of the
things that we do with them is every
week we ask them well when I'm not
holiday that's a rare and what we do is
we ask them what do you need extra help
with and ask us any questions that you
have any worries that you have and we
will make a whole podcast on it going
really really deep into that problem and
really answering that question as deeply
and as thoroughly as possible so because
we were off for a few weeks when I asked
this question yesterday we got a quite a
few responses so but what I'm gonna do
today is give you one solution to many
many many many different problems that
come up with IELTS writing task two and
task one as well so I'll just going to
give you a selection of the questions
that we got about tasks to writing and
there is one really really important
solution that you should be aware of and
this is something that if you look at
our success story so if you go into
YouTube going to look at our webs or our
YouTube channel you will notice and a
part of that channel which just deals
with success stories so these are all
people that we've helped get a 7 or
above on one of
things that they say over and over and
over and over and over again is planning
I think 90% of them say that that
planning changed everything for them so
let's look at this in a bit more detail
so these are some of the questions that
we were getting a lot of people were
saying how can I finish writing on time
so either I struggle to get tasks what
one done in 20 minutes or tasks to done
in 40 minutes or both of them in 60
minutes a lot of people were also asking
how can I make sure that I don't go like
way over 300 words and for task 2 or way
over 200 words for task 1 and how could
I complete everything and do everything
properly and do it in a reasonable word
limit a lot of people were also asking
but like how do I know how many ideas to
use sometimes I have more than one idea
per paragraph or sometimes the question
asks and for multiple things like
advantages or solutions or problems like
can I put more than one idea into a
paragraph and then other people were
talking about how can I fully develop my
ideas how can when I take one idea how
can I know that I am sure that I have
fully developed it and then another
interesting question was how can I stay
focused on what I'm supposed to be doing
when I'm writing because when I'm
writing different ideas pop into my head
and I changed my mind and then I waste
time and everything's a mess and there
is one solution and it's a very elegant
solution because it solves all these
problems by doing one very simple thing
which is planning like anytime that I
mentioned planning to students then the
majority of people say one thing I don't
have time to plan or I have enough
things to do I don't want to add one
more thing in there my response to that
is don't see planning as a waste of time
or just an extra thing to do see it as
an investment
so let me tell you about a few
ooh analogies that will help you
understand planning and its importance
and then we'll talk about how to plan
and what to do during the planning
process particularly for writing task 2
so an analogy I always use is if you
were going on holiday so the holiday I
went on recently was to New York to see
my sister and would you if you were
going on holiday to New York would you
just decide on the day to just go to the
airport booked your tickets at the
airport get like without any planning
whatsoever get on the plane get off the
plane just walk into New York and just
start walking towards where your hotel
where it's going and then when you get
to your hotel just walk out into New
York and just you know try and find
things no you wouldn't you would plan by
booking the tickets by comparing the
different flights by my book a taxi to
bring you to the airport and when you
get to the airport you probably a pre
pre plans how you're going to get from
the airport into the city could be taxi
it could be a train once you get to your
hotel you'll have already pre planned
out and booked your hotel and then you
will have like research the different
sites you want to go to so it's all
about planning why do you do that you do
that because you know that if you don't
do that you're going to be wasting a
huge amount of time and money and
everything so exactly the same as
planning an IELTS test if you do not
plan you're going to get lost you're
going to waste a huge amount of time and
you're going to be doing things you
shouldn't be doing the other analogy I
always use is the most people who are
the most successful people financially
so there's a lot of studies done there's
a really good book called The
Millionaire Next Door and it was a the
biggest study ever on millionaires in
America and they were looking for like
commonalities common factors why are
these people millionaires and the the
surprising answer was budgeting they
spend a few hours every month sitting
down and planning out everything that
they
and so that could be on their groceries
on their travel and their mortgage or
whatever really boring and like you know
most people would never do that but it
is an investment of time
I'm not investment the time actually
made them millions and millions and
millions of dollars because what they
would do is they would always have a set
of mind over what they spend every month
and they would invest that in that
investment and would turn into millions
and millions of dollars and interesting
book you can have a look at it another
story this is the third and final story
about why planning is an investment of
time I try and do this every single day
myself I have a lot of different things
that I'm trying to do a lot of goals
that I'm trying to achieve a lot of
different departments within this
business trying to manage and what I do
every single day or try to do is when
I'm when I'm disciplined enough to do it
before I go home write down exactly what
I achieved that day so I know where I am
there and what I want to do the next day
so I'll plan it like 7:00 a.m. to 8:00
a.m. I'm doing this it a.m. to 10:00
a.m. I'm doing this 12:00 to 1:00 I'm
doing this and then when I wake up I
know exactly what I'm doing and I'm have
a very very very productive day if I
don't do that I wake up and I just like
I come into the office and there's
emails here and meetings here and like
messages from other and there's nothing
gets done it's a complete mess so always
think of your planning time as an
investment and it's absolutely crucial
and out of all the the factors that are
successful students talk about planning
is probably the number one thing so
let's think about how to plan and why
it's going to help you solve all of
these problems so one of the things that
we do on our VIP course is we teach
specific step by step structures for
each of the different types of writing
question if we're writing tasks to on
writing tasks one like we've got a
structure for and agree or disagree a
structure for discussion questions a
structure for two-part questions this
discussion for
if a chart comes up or a process comes
up or whatever comes up I'm one of the
reasons why we do that is so that
students can plan in a uniform
structured way so that when they see the
question they immediately go into the
planning stage and they plan every
single question that comes up what
depending on the type of question so if
it's an agree or disagree question they
have that structure in mind they know
exactly what to do and they plan
everything right if it's a task one
academic bar chart question they know
exactly what to do and they plan
everything like so provides that
structure and that certainty on what to
do and what the the reason for that is
not so much that these structures are
magic or these structures are going to
guarantee that they get a good score the
structures are more so that it is the
planning process so that they know
exactly what they're going to be doing
so the first step is to have some sort
of structure and I learned that there's
a lot of different structures that there
one thing I'd say is just be careful
there's a lot of teachers and websites
and you know YouTube channels and a lot
of things out there that say you know my
structure is magic and my structure will
guarantee you about nine none of those
things are true but if you have a decent
teacher if you have a good teacher who
has got past you know good past results
from some other students and they give
you a structure shoot you should be able
to to to help you with that and but
you're going to use this structure in a
very specific way during the planning
process so once you you have learned all
of these different structures and you
have them memorized by heart the next
part of the the process is when you see
the question you are not going to pick
up your pen or pencil or do anything at
all the first part of the actual
planning process whenever you're in the
on test day is just to sit and think
about the question because you know like
like my analogy of going on holiday in
New York you wouldn't just run out of
the hotel
and just like try and find the Empire
State Building or you wouldn't run out
of your hotel and just try and find like
Trump Tower or whatever you are you know
wherever you want to go you look on
Google Maps and think about it and think
about where you're going and planted
your journey and everything a lot of
people that might sound really silly and
but a lot of people look at the
questions and just immediately start
writing without really thinking about it
so the first stage is actually think
about do I understand the question what
are they asking me to do what are some
ideas that I could use here how would I
explain those ideas how would I support
those ideas with examples well how do I
want to answer this question what is my
opinion on this question what is my
position on each of the the questions or
each of the parts of it so just spending
one or two minutes thinking about it and
then the next stage will be after you
thought about it thinking specifically
about the ideas the content that you
want to come up with so your ideas your
explanations your examples specifically
your opinions your positions all of
these different things again that's
going to be another one or two minutes
so before you've even you know really
started planning you've already invested
not wasted and three or four minutes of
your time and we'll talk about time
specifically in a second then what
you're going to do is you're going to
quickly note our skeleton structure
so by skeleton structure I mean like
paragraph like just having like I for
introduction and then like part PR for
paraphrase and then below the part
phrase your two main ideas and then you
know main MVP one like main body
paragraph one I'm just populating this
like skeleton like you're creating like
the skeleton structure I'm populating
all of this with your your arguments
with your positions with your ideas with
explanations and I don't mean writing
them out completely
just in shorthand just so that it
provides like a roadmap think about it
like as Google Maps for you for your
essay and then what you're going to do
is you're going to
take all of that so you should have a
piece of paper with a skeleton essay and
then you're gonna write your whole essay
based on that plan and the key here is
that you don't start writing until
you're happy with your plan because if
you start writing and you're not 100%
happy with your plan then you're gonna
change your mind and you're gonna you
know go go over or you know change your
mind and have to go back and have to
redo the whole thing and that is a waste
of time and it by surveying my
successful students and asking them how
much time did you plan for the average
is about eight minutes so some of them
only plan for about five minutes
some of them plan for 10 minutes or more
than 10 minutes but I say the average is
is about 7-8 minutes something like that
so if you plan for 8 minutes you still
have 32 minutes left so if you let's say
you take another 5 minutes
off that for checking at the end for
editing at the end and proofreading at
the end that is my maths is terrible so
you're 40 minutes to say 8 minutes
that's 32 left and let's say you take
five minutes off that that leaves you
with 27 all right so let's divide let's
say there are there's not always 12
sentences in an essay but let's say for
argument's sake you write a 12 sentence
essay so 12 divided by 27 is going to be
just over 2 minutes isn't it if my math
is correct yeah to put just over 2
minutes yeah so that means that you have
to write a pretty much pre-prepared
sentence because you've already planned
everything out in 2 minutes you should
not be complaining about that at all you
should not have the audacity to say I
want to bind 7 and writing but I don't
want to write a sentence in you know
less than 3 minutes like you shouldn't
be doing
the test and hoping to get about seven
if you can't write one sentence in two
minutes or over two minutes when you
break it down and think about it that
way think about it strategically and
logically it just makes everything much
much much easier which is why a lot of
our successful students were able to go
from someone who was you know really
struggling and really worrying about the
test and had just no idea what to do did
a very systematic way of thinking about
it I'm gonna do this then this then this
then this it's just like a I don't want
to say formula because I don't I think
you should always have the freedom to to
change things a little bit and shouldn't
be too formulaic but to just make things
much easier for yourself by being a
little bit more strategic about it so I
think that is is about it but what I'll
do is just go circle back to these
questions the students were asking and
talked about hard planning solves them
so how can I make sure I finish on time
you literally will be spending like X
minutes on planning then X minutes on
sentence 1 and sentence 2 and sentence 3
or X minutes on introduction if X
minutes on main body paragraph 1 then
you know X minutes on editing at the end
you know exactly what you're doing
because it's just a process you're not
like one of our main principles for
students is a process is better than a
journey by a process better than the
journey means that like most students
are like oh it'll be okay like I'll be
lucky I'll get a nice question I'll be
able to write a nice essay and I'll be
fine like no you it won't be and but by
following a step-by-step process it
makes everything much much much easier
and word limit so because you have
memorized the structure and you're using
that structure each part will be you
know not exactly a set number of words
but you should definitely be within that
sweet spot of like you know over 250 but
under like
300 but you know if your 301 it's not a
big deal and ideas how many ideas to use
again because you're using a structure
you just stick to that structure don't
use a structure and then you know be
like ah but I'll only use 80% of it or
not you know just stick exactly to it
and then you won't go wrong and how do I
develop my ideas the structure will do
that for you because for example the an
agree or disagree question for the main
body paragraph the structure will be
state your first main idea explain how
your first main idea answers the
question support your main idea with a
example so you're just following that
and doing exactly what that says
obviously you're populating it with your
own ideas in your own your own thoughts
and but it's going to help tremendously
and and then the last question was like
how can I stay focused on what I'm
supposed to be doing and not change my
mind by doing all your thinking in the
planning stage I'm like that's that's it
that's done you've done all your
thinking ie decided all your ideas and
then you're not going to change your
mind because it's like you're splitting
up the the process into thinking
planning or started thinking planning
then writing then editing all right
so stage 1 thinking planning stage 2
writing stage 3 editing proofreading so
that's it that's why people who plan get
higher scores and people who don't very
very simple and it solves so many
problems and so try that out and if you
have any other questions or anything
like that you can feel free to get in
touch with us and my email address is
chris at il2 advantage com Chris that I
also Vantage con we answer every email
and either myself or one of my team will
get back to you
and if you have any questions or
anything like that and hope you enjoyed
our first podcast of 2019 and hopefully
we'll make at least 50 let's say let's
shoot for 50
that'll be one a week and that'll give
me two weeks holidays so thank you very
much again I hope you enjoyed that
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