and I think in the end, don't be too scared I was really scared, and in the end I was like really better than I thought I would be learn from tutors and ex-examiners who are masters of IELTS preparation your host, Ben Worthington hello there IELTS podcast listeners in this episode, we're going to be talking with Annika, who got a fantastic IELTS result, and she did it while she was in Japan, which is quite interesting and yeah, we're going to dive into that but first, Annika, could you tell us just tell us a bit about yourself and yeah, why you decided to take IELTS in Japan yeah, I'm actually from Germany and I'm living in Berlin, and I was working in the past years and I just felt that I needed something new and I wanted to travel a little bit so I decided to go to Japan and at the same time, I was applying for a university course in London and this course required the IELTS result so right I just -- I don't know, I just figured it would be a good time to do it in Japan because I think when you're at home you're always distracted by so many things, and in Japan I had to speak English all the time anyway yeah I see yeah, I totally missed that when we were talking with I didn't see yeah, of course in Japan you'll be speaking English all day and plus with your Japanese Friends, I imagine you'll be speaking English as well won’t you? yeah exactly yeah like to be honest, most of the Japanese people, I have some problems with the English language so sometimes I had to speak a little bit more simple English but I also got some international friends so yeah, yeah, I think I spoke all levels of English yes, I know exactly what you mean like some for some friends if they insisted I spoke English and their English wasn't so good, I had to bring it down a level or two and then yeah, exactly with native speakers I can bring it up a bit but yeah originally, I had difficulties doing that and I would speak sometimes really basic English to my parents and stuff and they would get really frustrated yeah, it’s good to have the ability to switch between them so yes how did you prepare for IELTS while you were in Japan? at the beginning, I think I bought like one or two books and I tried to prepare with them, but especially when it came to the writing part, I had some big troubles because they didn't have any clear instructions on how to do they just gave the topics and said that okay write about it, and so I just wrote down all my thoughts and my essays were going nowhere and that frustrated me quite a lot and what else did I do? I went to a language café just to meet more people with whom I can speak English and I read English literature, I watched English movies, so I just tried to surround everything all my other things that I did was English language got you and but I think after a while, I realized that I got like the frustration just got more and more and more and then I did some research and found the podcast that you are doing and the courses and this helped me a lot especially for the writing part uh-huh and with the writing, can you tell us like what frustration you had uh-huh I was I think I just didn't know how to get my thoughts into a structure because when you don't know like the time when I went to school, it's pretty long ago now and so I forgot all about the essay rules, and so every time I started to write an essay, I just literally yeah, put my thoughts down and I was also very focused on the content and not about the form and yeah I really had to learn the structure and that it actually doesn't really matter what I write but rather how I write it and how I put it into words absolutely yeah, absolutely I mean, of course but for example, yeah, go on, yeah, the first essay that I tried to write was about deforestation and the topic was like search for or give some solutions how to yeah, show us some solutions for deforestation I was like yeah, if it would be so simple it will probably not be a problem but I think I tried to write something for two or three hours and then I felt like no, you're doing something wrong it can’t be -- this cannot be yeah this is it I mean like just two things you said in the last few minutes is like one that the books they don't really give you the advice they say write your essay and it must be coherent and fulfill task response and it must have lots of good vocabulary you know, they say something like that yeah but it's not very useful because if they don't tell you how to write the coherent essay or like the organization of the sentences, they might as well just say how to pass our IELTS right a Band 7 or above essay that's what you need to do and those instructions are pretty useless and then exactly yeah and this is what happens in a lot of textbooks they just say oh yeah you've got to be, it's got to be coherent, it's got to be strong, and it's not very detailed – yeah, or they give you a topic and then they give you an example text and then I'm always like I'm reading the text and it's like yeah, that's yeah okay yeah makes sense but I'm -- if you don't have an instruction how to write it yourself you won't get to the point exactly yeah exactly and then what you were saying before with the like with the content, I mean, it's it's not the quality of the content, it’s the organization it’s the format as you said and this is the thing this is something that the books kind of miss or they don't explicitly say this so it's quite confusing and plus like you said, if you haven't been writing essays for a long time if you've been out of academia, it's a real challenge to get back into it, and this is why even native speakers fail because they're just like they'll see like you did the essay deforestation, the question and they're like dussh okay I'm going to write everything I know about deforestation that’s what question wants so this is what I’m going to give them but really what the question wants is like an argument, it’s like a persuasion claim so yeah so what was your -- would you say that was your biggest challenge, the writing? Yes, definitely because yeah everything else I mean for this like before I did the listening part, I also had -- I was a bit yeah, I wasn't sure how hard it would be because both like the other two parts, reading and speaking, you can always make some corrections you can I think speaking and reading was the easiest for me but yeah, listening and writing was I think I had the biggest respect before that -- got you -- got you and then what was like what changed after you joined the writing course, what changed for you? well I felt way more relaxed I think at the beginning, I focused on the essay part most, because it was the part that gave me more – would give me more points and what changed for me? I think I lost a bit the fear and that I learned to -- yeah, as I said before I learned that it's not my opinion that gets -- that will get the points in the end but a structure that is actually pretty simple to learn if you know how to do it and then I just watched yeah, I just watched all your videos and tried to write one or two essays per day and just try to get it really into my habit uh-huh and what else changed? I think during the time where I learned for the IELTS I built almost all my English sentences and it says that way when I said like to my friends oh tonight – today we’re going to a park there is ample evidence that blah, blah, blah all this or a recent study by Harvard University blah, blah, blah, blah I like to say that to play with it yeah what do you fancy doing tonight? Oh, we could go to a cafe down the road because a recent study by Harvard showed that five out six attendants exactly yeah but it was in my mind it was fun for me, maybe not for my friends but for me and that I just learned to think of some random studies or things that yeah that some research could have found out on in the past time just to get into the habit of yeah making this exactly and it's so I think it's so amusing that you need to sort of like develop your imagination skill or your like creativity to pass an academic English exam I think it's quite bizarre, but if that's what's necessary and if that's what makes it easier, then yeah, it should do it because I guess you know you can't pull up Wikipedia and find for a real -- look for a real study but that's quite amusing if I ever hear anybody suggesting we go to a bar because it's -- there's a recent study from Oxford University then I’d be like you’ve done my course I know you have so let's get back to the to the interview so Annika what -- so you said before the you were -- took the IELTS exam because you want to go to a university in London, yeah? and what score, what IELTS score did they need from you to get into the university? It was actually quite simple it would have been a 6.5 right but I was really stressed about I had problems of like really how do you say finding out how good a 6.5 is you know like how is the 6.5 level I try to read some texts and I was really unable to say if I'm already on the level or not yeah, in the end, I scored 8 in total wow, that’s great, that’s fantastic so I was pretty surprised yeah that's awesome wow, so with your Band score 8 for IELTS, you'll be studying in a university in London in September I guess, so soon yes ah it’s fantastic great wow and what advice, just before we come to an end now, but what advice would you give to anybody who's planning on taking IELTS? what would you say to them? well the first thing I think which helped me the most was just to get really familiar with the system for all four parts, so that there won't be any surprises once you take the test that you just know exactly okay now, it's 9 a.m. and you will do the writing test and I know exactly what I will have to do I just don't know like the content but I will know like once you see the task, I will know how to write it like what they require got you that's the first thing and the second thing for me it was like something like I developed a mental strength before that because I'm always -- I'm really nervous before exams and I remember that the night before the exam, I think I slept like three or four hours, so I was really nervous and I usually like sometimes I take things as a sign you know that I woke up and I felt like I had a really bad night so maybe now the IELTS will not be bad and then I just tried to just say like no it doesn't have to be a sign you practiced a lot and you actually know what to do and you just drink your cup of coffee, you take a cold shower, and then settle down and then it will be fine and yeah, I really tried to just set my mind into this direction wow, that's a really useful skill to develop absolutely yeah, I think so you can use it for lots of different situations that's yeah that’s quite -- I think that's a really interesting point that you've mentioned there it’s like the the preparation but not like just the technical skills and the English or the language skills, it’s like the full mental preparation for the test, the night before, and well and on the exam day so well done to you there and then after you did after you convinced yourself that you're going to be okay from then on you were fine or were you still a little bit nervous? I was still a little bit nervous, but then I think maybe when I was in the building where the test took place and everything was really organized and then I just saw also all the other students in the room I think then it got easier and then once I was given the first task, I didn't have time to be nervous anymore I just said like okay now you need to focus just do what you practiced then yeah, then it worked fantastic and just one last question before we go, your IELTS examiner for the speaking, how were they? Were they kind, angry? He was like he seemed to be very friendly, but like it would have been easier for me if I would have seen like any reaction in his face you know ,like if I have a conversation with someone I really yeah, and sometimes yeah, I’m just dependent on the reaction yes and he just -- he was always smiling with the same face that I just saw I didn’t know like okay so like was that now a good answer or a bad answer? I don’t know but I mean, in the end it’s a not conversation that you have yeah, that’s so true that’s so true it is yeah yeah, I know what you mean, like looking at the person you're looking for the facial cues for acknowledgement or for approval yeah, or disapproval, and then yeah and you just get this same face smiling back at you I would imagine that would be kind of frustrating just a – yes, don’t do this -- grab him by the neck yeah but all right, but the questions did they keep going, did they keep coming when you got to part 3? did he just keep on asking you more complex questions? Yes, and I think I was lucky enough to get some questions that were like where I all had -- I knew what I could answer like it wasn't something where I would have had to invent something but it was about social media and Facebook and also my travel in Japan so yeah I think I could handle them that was fine yeah uh-huh that's that's interesting plus, I remember one thing that you did when you were telling me about the preparation you said that you went to the language cafes, you found like a speaking partner, no? and also you were watching movies and reading English literature so I just want to say to the other students like although Annika was in Japan, she still managed to completely immerse herself into the English language, and I think that would have probably helped too you know, when -- especially for the speaking or of course you were lucky with the questions as you said, but also complete immersion is definitely a big factor, I think yeah, I think so all right, so do you have anything else to add to -- for any of the current students at the moment preparing for IELTS? have you said everything? I wish everyone good luck and I think in the end, don’t be too scared I was really scared and in the end, I was like really better than I thought I would be and yeah, I think it's totally manageable if you just if you just study for a couple of weeks or it depends on which level you have, maybe a little bit more, but it's still -- it's totally manageable excellent okay, thank you very much, Annika thank you that was awesome it was a pleasure thanks for listening to ieltspodcast.com