IELTS Speaking Topic: STUDY

Question 1

IELTS Speaking Vocabulary: Studying

Answer 1

Talking about your studies is such an important topic in IELTS. Not only in the introduction where they ask “Do you work or are you a student?”,
but also for other closely related topics such as:
* Your school
* A teacher you know
* Skills you have learned
* Concentration
* Education
* A hobby

Question 2

Here are some useful phrases to talk about your studies in IELTS Speaking

Answer 2

I’m a student at university
I’m a student at the university of London

To talk about your studies you can use either present simple or present continuous
I study French
I am studying French

Question 3

In addition, you can use the present perfect continuous to say how long you have studied.

Answer 3

I’ve been studying for 2 months
Notice we use FOR to describe a period of time

I’ve been studying since July
Notice we use SINCE to describe a point in time

Question 4

Finally, you can develop your answer a little by adding which year you
are in.

Answer 4

I’m in my first / second / final year

Question 5

Next, we can talk about whether you like your studies and your ability.
You should develop your answer a little and say why you like it (or not)

Answer 5

I like it
because I think it’s going to be really useful for my future career

I don’t like it too much
mainly because the teacher we have
is a bit boring
he doesn’t engage us at all

Answer 6

I am good at French
I’m not bad at French
I am bad at Italian

Question 7

IELTS Speaking Vocabulary: Commonly Confused
Words
Moving on, here are three words that are commonly confused when
talking about studying at school:

Answer 7

• To memorise
• To remember
• To remind

To memorise = to learn by heart از بر کردن
I am good at memorising names
I have a good memory for names

To remember = to recall
I must remember to call my sister later
I can’t remember your nam

To remind (v.) someone to do something = to tell someone not to forget something
A reminder (n.)
I need to remind you to pick me up at 4pm tomorrow.
I always have to remind my students to hand in their homework on time

Question 8

These are not the only group of words that are often confused. Here is another set of words, that commonly get misused.

Answer 8

To take / sit an exam - students take (=do) exams
To pass an exam = to do well in an exam (=not fail)
To give an exam = a teacher gives an exam to the students
امتحان گرفتن ( معلم )

For example,
I took my IELTS exam yesterday
I passed my IELTS exam 2 weeks ago, I am so happy!

Question 9

Finally, a nice word to use to talk about studying is
To cram for an exam

Answer 9

= to study hard in a short space of time

At school I used to cram for most of my exams. I was always studying at the last minute

خر زدن

Question 10

IELTS Speaking Vocabulary: Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are extremely common in spoken English, and they can help show of your knowledge and use of vocabulary in the IELTS
Speaking test.
Phrasal verbs are verbs that are followed by a preposition or an adverb.

Answer 10

For example;
To get up
I get up at 7am in the morning

Many phrasal verbs can be idiomatic, so they have a different meaning than the individual words.
For example;
To look up = to look to the sky
But it can be idiomatic, meaning ‘trying to find a word in a dictionary’.
I looked up a new word in the dictionary
1- (در لغت نامه یا فهرست و غیره) جستجو کردن
Find out more about phrasal verbs here
https://www.phrasalverbdemon.com

Question 11

Here are some less common phrasal verbs you can use to talk about
studying.
To buckle down

Answer 11

= to do a task with determination

I’ve been procrastinating (=be lazy), but now it’s time for me to buckle down and start studying seriously.
I need to buckle down for IELTS

to start working very hard
buckle down to
You’d better buckle down to some revision now.
برای انجام کاری کمرت را سفت ببندی . عزمت را جزم کنی
Procrastinating:به تعویق انداختن، طفره رفتن، پشت گوش انداختن - فعل/اسم مصدر

Question 12

To pick up something new

Answer 12

= to learn informally
Where did you learn to cook so well?
I picked it up by watching Youtube videos

Question 13

To brush up on

Answer 13

= to improve an existing knowledge or skill

I haven’t spoken French for years
I really need to brush up on it
I need to brush up on my Italian

to practise and improve your skills or your knowledge of something that you learned in the past:
I must brush up on my French before I go to Paris.
مرور کردن، تجدید یادگیری چیزی که در گدشته اموخته ایم

Question 14

To pore over

Answer 14

= To study (books, documents) with a lot of attention

I have been poring over my French course book lately
I have been poring over these reports for my boss

با دقت به چیزی نگاه کردن یا خواندن، بررسی موشکافانه، مو رو از ماست کشیدن

Question 15

IELTS Listening Task: Schools and Study
Guess whether these are true or false:

Answer 15

1. Keith loved sitting quietly at his desk in school
2. He found it tricky to learn things by heart
3. He preferred biology to foreign languages
4. He would burn the midnight oil, cramming before most exams
5. He passed all exams with flying colours
   (Read and check your guesses at the bottom of this fil

Question 16

IELTS Speaking Discussion: Study techniques
Here are three study techniques you may want to research and learn
more about. These are backed by research and ones that I also
personally use.

Answer 16

Mind mapping
https://www.mindmapping.com/

Spaced practice
https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/7/21-1

Cornell technique
https://thinkinsights.net/consulting/cornell-method-great-notes/

You can also find out about more proven ways to study via these two
links:
https://www.thebestcolleges.org/17-scientifically-proven-ways-to-studybetter-this-year/
https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-research-backed-studying-techniques

Question 16

Run-of-the-mill (adj.)

Answer 16

= ordinary, normal
I was a **run-of-the-mill **student = a normal, average student.

خیلی معمولی و تکراری
برجسته نبودن در جنس، متوسط، عادی
Synonyms: ordinary, average, bog-standard (Brit. & Irish slang), mediocre, middling, passable, tolerable, undistinguished, unexceptional

ordinary, with no special or interesting features
● a run-of-the-mill job
● These should be run-of-the-mill problems to the experienced manager.

Question 17

To burn the midnight oil

Answer 17

= stay up late at night to study
I used to burn the midnight oil the night before an important exam at
university.

to work or study until late at night
تا بوق سگ کار کردن
شب نشینی کردن و درس خواندن ، تا دیر وقت درس خوندن یا کار کردن
دود چراغ خوردن و ریاضت کشیدن

Question 18

To pass with flying colours

Answer 18

= to pass with a very good score / mark / grade

I did so well in my driving test, I passed with flying colours!’

به نتیجه رسیدن، یا کاری رو با موفقیت تمام به انجام رساندن

Question 19

To be a breeze

Answer 19

= to be easy
My biology exam was a breeze, I knew all the answers.

بی فایده بودن
Ex. College was a breeze.

دانشگاه بی فایده بود.

Question 20

To scrape a pass

Answer 20

= to only just pass (almost fail, but actually pass)
The pass mark was 70%, I got 71%, I just managed to scraped a pass.

Question 21

To go blank

Answer 21

= when you can’t think of anything to say
In the middle of my interview, I went blank. What a disaster!

to become unconscious.
He remembers trying to get up, and then he went blank until he woke up the next morning with a roaring headache.

Usage notes: sometimes used in the form everything went blank - someone became unconscious:
I heard a noise behind me, and then everything went blank.

2. to stop receiving a television picture.
   There was a popping sound, and then the TV screen went blank.
3. to forget.
   He let his mind go blank and kept on walking, thinking about nothing at all.

Question 22

To rack your brains

Answer 22

= to try and think of something
I don’t know what to put in my presentation tomorrow, I am racking my brains, but can’t come up with any ideas

به حافظه فشار آوردن برای به یادآوری چیزی
rack (your) brain/brains
to think very hard, usually in order to remember something or to find a solution to a problem.
I’ve been racking my brains but I still can’t remember who wrote that play.

rack (your) brains
to try very hard to remember or think of something.
She racked her brains for a subject they could discuss without an argument.

rack (your) brains
to try very hard to remember or think of something.
She racked her brains for a subject they could discuss without an argument.

Question 23

Let me tell you about my studies at school

Answer 23

I was bit of a slow learner at school, to be honest. Maybe I just wasn’t
very academically inclined, I preferred moving around and doing
things. Sitting in at a desk for 8 hours a day wasn’t my cup of tea.

I also found it hard to memorise dates, figures and names. The
teacher never gave us any good learning strategies. They would just
say, here is your list of 20 facts, now go and learn them by heart.

However, my academic performance improved, the older I got.
When I turned 11, I went to a grammar school, that’s a school that is
partly subsidised by the government and takes in students based on
their ability.

I was especially good at the arts but weaker at sciences. The
language teacher forbade us from speaking English in the French class.
It was so much fun. Like being a spy, talking in code!

Whenever I sat an exam, I did pretty well. I didn’t use to cram too
much, I just prepared well in advance. Some students spent hours
poring over their books the night before an exam. I never understood
that. What was the point? What a terrible way to spend the evening
before an exam.

Overall, my results were solid, but I never really **passed my exams
with flying colours **(=to pass with a very good score). That said, I did
well enough and got into university. I was thrilled to bits. And that is where my education really took off! (=to get better)

Question 24

**a bit of a something**

Answer 24

used to show that the way you describe something is only true to a limited degree