A good way to improve your 'ear' is to give yourself quick transcription tasks.
transcription (noun) = a written version of an audio recording
transcribe (verb) = create a written version e.g. of an audio recording
Try transcribing the first minute of the recording in last Tuesday's lesson.
Tip: The real learning happens when you find a difficult part. Perhaps the speaker suddenly goes too quickly, or seems to join a group of words together. You might need to listen several times; you might even need help to hear what the speaker is saying. This is the kind of hard work that you should be looking for!
Absolutely the perfect method in improving listening power
Posted by: Franz | December 11, 2018 at 09:51
Hi Simon,
If I don'y understand a word in the question or a word in the topic card, can I ask the examiner to explain that for me or change the topic card? I've heard that examiners can only explain the meaning of words in part 3 of the speaking test and not in parts 1 or 2, is that true? Thank you.
Posted by: Yavar | December 11, 2018 at 15:50
My name is Ayla and I work in the faculty of humanities and social sciences as a postgraduate admission officer. That means I am dealing with Ph.D. applications from the point of admission to the point of office being made. The first step in applying for a Ph.D. is to find a variety of research they are interested in.
Basically, there are two types of Ph.D. that applicants can apply for. With the first step, they develop their own research proposal and then seek out an appropriate supervisor who is interested in the field of study and with the second step they apply for an existing project which is already been advertised usually on our department's web pages or the faculty website or sometimes through commercial websites.
I applied for an existing research project. Boss, they were happy to allow me to have in post into how I would proceed with carrying out the research.
If I missed anything please make it correct.
Posted by: Akter | December 11, 2018 at 16:20
Akter
I reckon the first step you mentioned is more interesting, which college you do gonna go?
Posted by: Colton | December 12, 2018 at 02:50
@Colton,
Really! I feel a slight cheer for your realization. Plz, tell me if I missed and derived something additional. The ending of the first section of reading was a little bit complex that you already marked. I gotta go one of the best colleges for sure, yeah I bet you.
Posted by: Akter | December 12, 2018 at 07:50
My name is Isla and I work in the faculty of humanity and social sciences as postgraduate admission officer. that means i am dealing with PhD application from the point of submission to the point of offers being made. The first step of applying for a PhD is to find an area of research you are intersted in. Basically, there are two types of PhD that applicants can apply for. with the first type, they develop their own research proposals, then, seek out an appropriate supervior who interests in their field of study. with the second type, they can apply for an existing project which has already been advertised, usually on our department's web pages or the faculty websites, sometimes through commercial websites. I applied for an existing research project but they are happy to allow me to have inputs into how i would proceed carrying out the research. I developed my own research proposal, so that i started officially coming up with the idea itself initially, then also filling out all the forms, answering questions, and things like that.
Posted by: PT | December 12, 2018 at 15:02
Hi Simon!
If I wrote "mini-bus" in the listening test instead of "minibus", would I get no marks for it?
Thanks for the blog! It has been really helpful.
Posted by: Andy | December 17, 2018 at 18:50
@Yavar
It's totally OK if you ask the examiner what a particular word means, even in part 1.
Posted by: Payam | December 19, 2018 at 07:41