English Tutor

03/05/2022

Like to take this opportunity to congratulate my student Rian Ikbal who recently received his IELTS scores.

Listening 4.0, Reading 4.0, Writing 4.5, and Speaking 3.5.

This is what he wrote.
"I am very happy to study with Mr Rabin. Good teaching style and friendly. I can understand faster. I will continue to study again in the future with Mr Rabin."

Interesting note.

In all but one previous student, writing had always scored the lowest. Now Rian joins Punita as having his writing better than all his other results.

24/01/2022

19/01/2022

Best student for 2021 goes to Ian

Listening 9.0
Reading 9.0
Writing 7.0
Speaking 8.0
Overall 8.5

Once again congratulations.

03/12/2021

I would like to congratulate Ms Lim on her success in her IELTS.

This is what she had to say about my teaching, "Although it was a short while being a student of Mr Rabin, not only did he managed to guide me in a proper channel, but also in correcting my mistakes, further building my confidence to answer the test. I am thankful to Mr Rabin as he helped me a lot during my IELTS preparation. 😀

20/11/2021

CONGRATULATIONS

I would like to congratulate my student Imran for achieving his required IELTS band.

Listening 8.0
Reading 8.0
Writing 6.5
Speaking 8.0

He has been accepted into Bellerbys College Brighton UK.

16/11/2021

10 COMMON NOUNS and what you can use instead.

We are all in the habit of using certain words repeatedly. While it keeps things simple in everyday communication or business writing, a large vocabulary will add to your text.

Please be careful as the bigger the words the narrower their meaning.

ACHIEVEMENT – accomplishment, advancement, contribution, feat, improvement, progress, success
BELIEF – conviction, feeling, idea, notion, opinion, position, theory
CHANCE – break, luck, opportunity, possibility, prospect, shot, turn
CHARACTERISTIC – aspect, attribute, distinction, feature, peculiarity, property, quality
CHOICE – alternative, decision, option, pick, possibility, preference, selection
EFFECT – aftermath, consequence, fallout, outcome, ramification, reaction, result
EFFORT – action, attempt, endeavor, step, stride, struggle, undertaking
ENJOYMENT – activity, amusement, diversion, entertainment, hobby, interest, pastime
EXPERIENCE – adventure, affair, encounter, enterprise, escapade, event, exploration
GOAL – aim, ambition, ideal, intention, mission, objective, plan

03/11/2021

When your English teachers told you not to use the word “very” because it is weak and vague, they were right.

"… avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired; he is exhausted. Do not use 'very sad'; use 'morose'. Language was invented for one reason, boys--to woo women--and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also would not do in your essays."
~N.H. Kleinbaum – Dead Poet’s Society

Very accurate exact
Very afraid fearful
Very angry furious
Very annoying exasperating
Very bad awful
Very beautiful gorgeous
Very big massive
Very boring dull
Very bright luminous
Very busy swamped
Very calm serene
Very clean spotless
Very clear obvious
Very clever intelligent
Very cold freezing
Very colorful vibrant
Very competitive cutthroat
Very complete comprehensive
Very confused perplexed
Very conventional conservative
Very creative innovative
Very crowded bustling
Very cute adorable
Very dangerous perilous

09/09/2021

LISTENING 1

The listening component is often the easiest section for students to master. Nearly all my students have achieved their required bands. I say nearly all, because I cannot remember with surety if any have failed to reach their goal. Others, on the other hand some of my students have reached the highest level such as Band 9 in IELTS.

A loss of focus often causes the student to forget their place in the listening. They do not know which question is next and begin to scramble around hoping to locate the question. To overcome this loss of focus I ask my students to train their listening skills in crowded and noisy places (current not available) such as Mac Donalds or KFC. In this pandemic era, the creation of a similar distraction scenario is achievable by having a number of audio devices operating as the same time or during a family dinner.

In addition, underlining the key words before the listening may cause the student to remember the location of the word upon hearing. Underlining the key words is essential as it makes the student focus on the audio as the answer may be due.
Should even this fail, the best the student can hope for is that the next section comes up soon which will allow the student an opportunity to get back on track.

The last few questions are usually very difficult and many students stumble. The technique I teach students is audio recall. Unlike our eyes, our ears are difficult to fool. I ask the student to read back to themselves, in a voice soft enough for only their ears, the questions they could not answer. The answer should pop up in their memory. If the answer does not pop up, continue reading until the examiner asks to stop writing then fill in what ever comes to mind. Do not leave any question blank.

TRUE STORY

Prior to the pandemic, I would distribute my name cards at IELTS examination venues. At one of these venues, I met my student who had just finished his test. He narrated that the he did not hear the answer of the last three questions. When I asked him what he did, he said that he followed my audio recall technique. His results was a band 9 for listening. Band 9 means that he got all his answers correct.

The methodology works.

If you or any one you know is looking for a competent IELTS, MUET or SPM tutor, or are hoping to improve their speaking ability, please contact me.

I am reachable via What’sApp +60132721577 or [email protected] or [email protected]

Thank you.

25/08/2021

SPEAKING 1

Speaking is our primary communication tool. An infrequently used proverb, “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” shows that people do more speaking then listening, reading or writing. These days English tests have four main components, Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking. Some tests include a section on usage/ grammar.

The Malaysian SPM now incorporates all the four main components. Many students are worried that they may not be able to do well in the speaking section. The amount of exposure SPM students have to listening and reading greatly out-weights what they have in speaking.

Bahasa Malaysia and their vernacular, because of their familiarity, take precedence over English. This lack of exposure instills a sense of inadequacy especially when compared to how movies and YouTube influencers use the language.

Many students have a wider vocabulary then they realise. Unfortunately, recalling these wonderful words is slow and makes speech broken. Alternatively, they choose a less elegant word.

A lack of confidence in their ability makes students speak softly. In not wanting to make a mistake, they hope the listener will make correct assumptions on the words they use.

True story

I had a student in Kajang who was preparing for her IELTS. She was especially worried about the speaking section. All her education was in Chinese primary and secondary schools. With Chinese was the lingua franca at home, she was shy to speak English and would speak it softly.

My classes with her were weekly and as homework, I requested her, since she had her own bedroom, to read as loudly as she could in the privacy of her room. Her speaking voice improved as she grew with confidence.

Years later, her younger sister wanted to engage me as tutor for the IELTS. She told me that her sister had become so confident in her speaking ability that she ran and won the presidency of her university society and could speak to large number of students.

The confidence to speak comes for practice. Unfortunately, the SPM school timetable does not allocate sufficient time. This deprives many SPM students of valuable exposure to an essential and somewhat fundamental skill.

If you or any one you know is looking for a competent IELTS, MUET or SPM tutor, or are hoping to improve their speaking ability, please contact me.

I am reachable via What’sApp +60132721577 or [email protected] or [email protected]

Thank you.

18/08/2021

REMEMBER TO READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY.

Students need to read the questions carefully and provide the examiner the relevant answer. This is especially critical in English language tests. In non-language tests, often the presentation of facts is sufficient to get the grade. Language tests focus on the proper usage of the language and that includes the understanding of the question.

This is a true story.

When I was in secondary school, I had a classmate, Christopher, who had the best English. He was the one who always too first place in the English test.

For our pre-final test, we had to write an essay on “Hijack”. Hijacking, the act of unlawfully seizing an aircraft by terrorists, at that time, was regular feature in the newspaper.

For some reason Christopher read the question as “Hi Jack”. He wrote an essay about meeting his friend Jack.

To cut a long story short, Christopher did not get first place at that test. He made up for it by getting an A1 for the finals.

Remember the story of Christopher and

REMEMBER TO READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY

If you or any one you know is looking for a competent IELTS tutor, please contact me.

I am reachable via What’sApp +60132721577 or [email protected] or [email protected]

Thank you.

29/04/2021

29/01/2021

These are the results of some of my students. The good, not so good and some........
If you need an IELTS tutor contact me. 0132721577
God Bless