? Stop using ChatGPT blindly

Some IELTS test takers use ChatGPT to generate sample answers without analyzing their quality. However, there's a catch. While ChatGPT is a great tool for checking grammatical mistakes and generating ideas, the sample answers it produces are often convoluted and unnatural. Please compare the following sentences:

⛔️ ChatGPT: I'm uncomfortable with the idea of sharing my life online or documenting others without their consent
? People in their everyday life: I'm not comfortable sharing my life online or posting about others without asking them first (taken from your IELTS Speaking Assistant app, part 3, Taking photos)

Here's an example of how you can incorporate a type 2 conditional in your IELTS speaking answers. When talking about a place affected by air pollution, you can say: ? If I lived there, I would suffer from asthma or lung cancer. I mean, I would definitely…

As you probably know, you should use phrasal verbs in your IELTS speaking answers if you want to achieve a higher band score for Lexical Resource. Here's an example of how you can use the phrasal verb 'turn out' in your IELTS speaking answers. This phrasal…

? I've noticed something REALLY strange
Over the past 10 or 15 years, there haven't been any changes regarding IELTS speaking topics. But in April, I noticed something really strange.

Some students shared topics that weren't on the list. It puzzled me. These topics weren't added to the test in January. That's for sure. And new topics were supposed to be added only in May. So, in April, a lot of new topics were introduced into the test. A lot. I now have a new list with 75 cue cards and 75 part 3 topics, and 50 Part 1 topics. I realized that some changes have occurred, and we need to understand what they are. I have a few hypotheses.

1) Perhaps they decided to change all the topics at once, not just 50 percent as before (then the question is why it happened in April and not in May)
2) Perhaps they decided to increase the number of topics (again, the question is why in April and not in May)
3) Perhaps they decided to change topics more often than three times a year (but how often is still unclear)

Right now we are adding those super new topics that are in use now to your IELTS Speaking Assistant app. And I think they will be in use till August 2024. But idk now.

Learn more about the app on www.ielts-assistant.com

?‍♂️ One of the phrasal verbs that you must learn is 'FREAK OUT.' This phrasal verb means to lose emotional control due to extreme excitement, shock, fear, or joy and to become extremely frightened, nervous, or anxious. Why learn it? In the IELTS speaking…

? Want to sound more like a native speaker?

In the IELTS speaking test, when answering questions, you can make your response longer by explaining why you made certain decisions or behaved in a particular way. And one way to explain this is through contrast or comparison with what someone else did or didn't do.

For example, you want to say you worked hard to live an affluent life.
To extend your answer, you can say something like "When I was a child, my family could only afford basic things. So I worked hard to live a better life because I didn't want my life to be like that."

But if you want to sound more like a native speaker, you can use the common phrase 'to be the case' which means ‘to be true or factual’

? When I was a child, my family could only afford basic things. But I didn’t want it to be the case in my life, so I worked hard to live a better life’

Source: IELTS Speaking Assistant app
Learn more about the app on www.ielts-assistant.com

? Phrasal verbs for IELTS speaking

One of the current cue cards is 'Describe an occasion that led to a positive change in your life.' One of the scenarios you can describe is losing a job, which, surprisingly, opened up new opportunities. And this provides an excellent chance for you to use the phrasal verb 'TURN OUT' which means 'TO DEVELOP OR END UP IN A PARTICULAR WAY'.

? I lost my job unexpectedly, and initially, it felt like the world had crumbled. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had more free time, so I tried different careers, found my love for entrepreneurship, and eventually set up my own business.

Want more? Subscribe for IELTS Speaking Assistant now. You can buy a subscription in the app or on www.ielts-assistant.net

? Don't overdo it

Paraphrasing the essay question is an important step in writing an introduction, but sometimes in an attempt to paraphrase everything, you can turn the sentence into something unnatural and wordy.

Here's an example:
Essay topic: Many animal species are becoming extinct as a result of human activities on land and in the sea

⛔️Wordy and unnatural paraphrase: ‘The actions of humans on both land and sea are leading to the extinction of numerous types of animals’
?Good paraphrase: 'Human activities (not 'the actions of humans' on land and sea are causing the extinction of various animal species (not 'types of animals')’ I chose not to paraphrase 'human activities' and 'animal species' to preserve the natural flow of the sentence.

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