IELTS British University College

Oh my God.... Unbelievable another success...
Hats off to British University College!!!
Hira Zafar scored 8.0 bands as an Overall. She Scored 8/9 bands in IELTS.

IELTS Listening:
There are 4 sections and almost 40 Questions.
The recording is played once only. Listen instructions carefully and answer the questions.
Learn the following skills
1. How to orient yourself to the text?
2. Learning for Specific Information.
3. Identifying detail
4. Identifying main ideas
5. Seeing beyond the surface meaning
6. Following signpost words
7. Being aware of stress, rhythm and intonation

Please visit British University College Multan for further details.or call 0616221414
www.buc.edu.pk

British University College

Folks!
A millionaire tip for IELTS Speaking part 2 (Cue Card).

It's impossible to prepare for every question that you might get in the speaking test, but what are the essential things to prepare for?

Here's my list of essentials:

1. Favorites:
Don't go into the test without knowing what your favourites are. Prepare to talk about your favourite book, film, music, and website.

2. People:
Be ready to talk about a famous person and a member of your family.

3. Activities:
Have you prepared some ideas about a hobby? Can you describe a typical day in your life? Try to remember some special moments in your life, such as birthdays, festivals and weddings.

4. Places:
You need to be able to talk about where you live. Also, think about the places you have visited, what you did there, and why you liked or didn't like them.

5. Things:
Can you talk about the things you use every day, something you would like to buy, or a present that you received?

Tips:

1. Use the 1 minute preparation time well
Think about how you would answer the question in your own language, then write down as many ideas as possible in English.

2. Give real examples
Say what you really think, talk about your real life, and give real examples. Examples are really important; whenever you don't know what to say, give an example from your own experience.

3. Don't worry about grammar
You haven't got time to think about passives or conditionals. Focus on answering the question - ideas and vocabulary.

IELTS
Part 1
1. Tell me about the kind of accommodation you live in.
I live in a house that has a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small garden. It's not a very big house, but it's just right for me.
2. How long have you lived there?
I've lived there for about five years. It's the first house that I've owned; before that I was renting an apartment.
3. What do you like about living there?
I like living there because I think the house reflects my personality: I decorated it myself, I chose all the furniture, and everything is where I want it to be.
4. What sort of accommodation would you most like to live in?
If I could, I'd buy a bigger house near a beach or in the mountains, preferably somewhere with a warm climate.

Part 2
Cue Card

Describe a website that you often use. You should say:
• what type of website it is
• how you found out about it
• what it allows you to do, and why you find it useful.

Here are some ideas, with some of the band 7-9 vocabulary underlined:
1. Facebook is a social networking website. It's a free website that allows you to keep in contact with friends or find people you've lost touch with. It's one of the most popular websites in the world, with millions of users in different countries.
2. All of my friends use Facebook. One of my friends sent me an email inviting me to join. I signed up and I've been using it ever since.
3. Facebook allows you to keep up to date with what friends are doing. You have a profile page with information and status updates so that you can tell everyone what you're doing. You can post messages to other people's pages. You can upload photos and videos. I find Facebook most useful for organising my life, keeping in touch with friends and storing photos. I think social networking websites have become part of everyday life.

Tip: Please add your experiences and examples as are added in the answers to cover up time limit.

Describe a Foreign Culture.

1. Which culture and how I know about it
I'm going to talk about France and French culture. I know France quite well because it was the first foreign country that I visited as a child. I've been on several family holidays there, and I lived and worked in Paris for a while after finishing university.
2. Cultural differences
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about France is the bread! I love the fact that French people buy fresh baguettes every morning, usually from small local bakeries or 'patisseries'; it makes a change from the loaves of sliced bread that most of us buy from the supermarket here in the UK. One slightly negative difference I noticed in Paris is that Parisians don't seem to make friends with their work colleagues to the same extent as we do here.
3. What I like about it
I really like the café culture in France. You can always find somewhere interesting to sit and have a coffee and chat to friends or just watch the world go by. I actually put on a bit of weight when I lived in France because I got into a habit of having a croissant or a cake in every nice café that I found. Another thing I could mention is that the last time I went to France on holiday, I played a game called ‘boules’ every day. The game consists in throwing metal balls as close to a target ball as possible. It’s the perfect game for a relaxing afternoon when the weather’s hot.

Speaking Advice:
Here are some steps that you could follow when practising for the speaking test:
1. Choose a real speaking test from one of the Cambridge books.
2. Record yourself answering one or all of the parts of the test.
3. Listen to the recording and transcribe it (write down everything you said).
4. Analyse the transcript. How could your answers be improved?
5. Take some time to prepare better answers for the same questions.
6. Try the same questions again! Record yourself, transcribe and analyse.
7. Repeat the process a few times until you are happy.
Imagine if you did this kind of hard work every day for a month. I'm sure you'd be more confident and better prepared than you are now.

Why do you think some people prefer to buy products from their own countries rather than imported items?
(idea) I suppose it’s because those people want to support the economy of the country they live in. (explain) If they buy something that was made in their own country, they know that they are contributing to the salaries of workers within the same country, (alternative) whereas if they buy imported items, a foreign company and its employees will benefit. (example) For example, if I buy some meat that originates from a local farm rather than a farm in another country, I’m helping one of my fellow citizens to carry on in business. (another idea) Also, I think that trust is an issue; people might feel that they can trust domestically produced items more than imported ones.

Here are some example questions with short, direct answers. Remember that part 1 is like a warm-up; you are not expected to give long, complex answers for this part.
1. Do you work or are you a student?
I’m a qualified doctor, but at the moment I’m studying English at BUC so that I can work in this country.
2. Do you enjoy your job?
Yes, I really enjoy my job. Ever since I was a child I have always wanted to be a doctor; I’ve always wanted to be able to help people.
3. What's the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is that I can make a difference in people’s lives. It’s a great feeling to see someone recover after an illness because my colleagues and I were able to help.
4. Do you prefer working alone or with others? Why?
In a hospital you have to work as part of a team. I’ve got used to working with others, and I think you can achieve a lot more as a team than you would alone.

Describe a situation in which you were very polite. You should explain
• where the situation took place
• how you showed that you were polite
• and why you needed to be so polite.
It would be easy to waste your one-minute preparation time worrying about what situation to choose. If you still haven't decided what to talk about when the examiner asks you to start speaking, you'll be in real trouble!
Task:
Give yourself just 10 seconds to choose your polite situation. It doesn't really matter what situation you choose; the key is to give yourself enough time to prepare some ideas.

Are there any differences between the types of people who were seen as celebrities in the past and those who are celebrities nowadays?
Yes, I think there have been some big changes in the types of people who become famous. In the past, before the invention of television, I suppose there were very few national or international celebrities; maybe kings and queens, military, political and religious leaders were the only household names. With the advent of TV and radio, performers such as actors and musicians became more well-known. However, we now seem to have a completely new breed of celebrity as a result of 'reality' television programmes; these are people who don't really have any special skills as performers, but who are famous for just being themselves.