See what's new on the Burlington Wall. Good morning to my viewers. This is Melinda Moulton, and I am the host of On the Waterfront. And my guest today is John Kalaki, who is a dear friend. It has been a dear friend for a long time.   I think that pretty well sums it up, doesn't it, John? Well, thank you. My favorite thing is that we're buddies. And you know, it's nice to do this virtually, but I sure wish we were in the same room. So you are one of the most tactile people. And every time I would see you, I just love hugging you. So I'm just sorry that I can't hug you right now. I know, and I love touching you, too. But one of the things that I've been loving touching is this book that you've written. John Kalaki has finished an extraordinary book called Because Art. And it's commentary, critique, and conversation. And this is what we're going to talk about today is your book. And the feeling of this book is so tactile. You want to talk about it just feels good. It's almost like it's a skin on this book. So anyway. So John, explain to my viewers, why did you write this book? What inspired you to write this book? Well, I come from an Irish Catholic family, and there's five kids. And I'm a third child, first boy. And the youngest brother, Bill, is the one who sort of keeps family histories. And about a year or so ago, he said to me, oh, you know, once daddy gave me a cassette tape. And I had never heard of this. And I said, what's a cassette tape? And he said, well, if any of my kids ever interested in my life, I just put some thoughts down. And I thought that was a really good thing. So I began to think about, OK, well, what's my legacy for my family or my friends? And I've been a writer now since the early 90s. I've been doing lots of different kinds of writing, artistic writing, commentaries, political essays. And I just started looking over my writings of the past. Since 1993, I guess it is, it's the earliest piece. And some of the pieces suddenly made sense to tell the arc of a story that was some of it was first person narrative. But other parts of it is that there's a whole section where I review artists, but it's outsider artists. It's radical artists. It's artists who died from AIDS. And by telling their stories, I found I was able to tell my own story as well. So the book has three sections. The first section are these commentaries, the commencement addresses, me going off to the Himalayan mountains, to the very same monastery, that your husband, Rick Moulton, went to. The room tech monastery in Sakeem, of all places. It's just astounding. I was there in the 70s. And so there's part of that, me being confronted with Auschwitz. But really me living through the culture wars of the 90s, to some of the artists like David Warnanovic and Karen Finley-Ron Athe that I had presented, living through the AIDS pandemic. And both my own experiences there and artists that I write about in the book, I felt was really important because Peter Hujar, Keith Herring, Arnie Zane, all these people are dead. And the next generation don't know what happened with AIDS. And I felt like it was important to tell their stories. Some of them became famous artists. Some of them were, but they were so important in their day. So that's part of it. The third section where I interviewed people like Tony Kushner, which was such a trip, but he talked about Israel today, and this was in 2004 when he was talking. He had just taken a trip to Israel or our own Alison Bechtel. And it's just artists I really admire. I get to have these public conversations with them. And it's all about resiliency. It's all about beginning again, grappling with the artistic practice. So as I pieced it together, I thought, well, this actually is my cassette tape for the world. And so I was so grateful for my brother to give me that kind of idea that these things matter somehow. They do matter. Your book matters. You matter. So we're gonna step back a little bit in time. And I want you to share with my viewers a little bit about your childhood and how you grew up. Could you share a little bit about your childhood and your relationship with your father and with our viewers? Sure. Thank you. Some of this is in the book, but Irish Catholic working class, my father and my grandfathers all worked at the Chicago Stockyards. And in Chicago in their lives, that was the entry level jobs and the Irish got them. And so every morning, four o'clock in the morning, my father would get up and go to the yards and work. And then he'd come home at three and we had to be quiet. But my father was also an angry man and he had demons with alcohol. And I was the third child, as I had mentioned, but the first son. And I was a little effeminate sissy and it was really complicated for my father to deal with me. It's not what he imagined his first son would be. And so we had a very contentious relationship, especially when alcohol and with kind of triggers anger. And so we had a very hard relationship for many years.  Cause you can do it in person or you can do it at the wake. And so, and I write about this in the book where I did go home and, you know, he greeted me at his door and he said, well, why come? And I said, well, I hear you're dying and I thought it'd be good for us to sit and talk.  And you talk about that beautifully in your book, but I wanted my viewers to understand that. And this book is so tender about your past. And it takes you from that into pursuing your dance career. You became a dancer. I did, I went to school, I went, I was my school class went to, you know, a performance of the Alvin Ailey Company in Chicago. And I think my eight year old self came home at dinner that night and said, guess what, everybody? I'm gonna be a modern dancer. You know, and my parents were like, what's a modern dancer? But I did become a dancer. And it was because of that school trip, the Alvin Ailey. And I was very lucky at the age of 20, I moved to New York. And by that point, I was a really good dancer in Chicago, moved to New York, and I was a mediocre dancer on the world class stage. But I had a performing career, which, you know, for about a decade, which was very great. I danced in New York and Winnipeg on tour. It also was a moment where things were radically changing in the art world because this was 1973. Stonewall was 1969. So everything was politicized. Modernism was being exploded. Postmodernism was happening. Punk was happening. York was falling apart. And the possibilities were endless. And so part of this book starts talking about when I went to New York and this whole world changed. And I was able to go from classical ballet studio into Meredith Monk's loft and sing and roll around on the floor and find an artistic way forward. And that's when you met a lot of these folks. For my viewers out there, I'm talking with John Glackin, who has written this incredible book called Because Art. And we're talking about his life and his book. So I want to talk a little bit about your illness and how that was a turning point for you. And you can also go describe it in the book.  And I'd like you to share with that and share with us how you learned to walk again because there was a period in time where you could not walk. Well, it was 25 years ago that they found a tumor. The doctors found a tumor inside my spinal cord. It was way up high at C2 up here. And so it was blocking 60% of the cord. So they said, well, we can't really do a biopsy because it's in the cord to find out. But so we really have to take this tumor out even if it's benign. So they said I'd be in the hospital three or four days with a sore neck for a month. I woke up quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down. And after I stopped dancing, I'd been a marathon runner. So I was pretty physically fit. And the night before surgery, I ran five miles, thinking, okay, great. I'm a little nervous, but this will be okay. And to lie in that bed and not be able to move anything was just mind boggling to me. And it was a very chaotic time. My husband, we had been together just almost a year at that point and he stayed right next to me and everybody'd sleep on the floor. Every morning I'd wake up to his eyes looking at me, making sure I was okay. And so I was in a rehab hospital for six weeks. And by that point, I was able to, the fingers in my right hand returned. And I remember the first time I realized I could switch my finger and some friends had come over and I said, okay, I have something to show you. And Larry goes, okay, where do we look, John? Because he wasn't sure my toe or what. And I just, I mean, I'm raising my hand now for the camera, but it was just on the bed. I said, look at my right hand. And I just wanted to wave, you know. And so it went from there to the right, you know, took weeks at the right side uncurled. And then I was sent home in a wheelchair, but when I was in therapy, I said, you know, I don't have any sensation in my legs, even today, 25 years later. But back then that was the problem that I'd lost sensation and location in my legs from the surgery.  I think I can learn to stand up visually. And we're like, what? And I said, no, I was a dancer and we learned in the mirror. So that's what happened, Melinda. And this is in the book, the chapter called spinal journey where I stood in front of the mirror. I had braces on both legs and I said, okay, this is now what it means to stand up. And then after that, they put the parallel bars and they hooked me in my, and then I would try to move my feet. And so, you know, even like when you and I are walking down the street, I'll trip every once in a while because if I don't see where my feet are, my brain doesn't know where they are and I don't have any relation to the ground. So I still walk visually. And, you know, I'm so grateful that I've been a dancer because I really don't think I would be able to walk unless I could do it visually. Well, what a credible determination. So I wanna talk to my viewers to let them know. I'm talking to John Claggy who's written this book because our new three sections, commentary, critiquing conversation. And the first section is really a lot about your life but I wanna move into the critique section where basically there are discussions that you've had and identifying folks in your life and a lot of it has to do with the AIDS epidemic of which you live through. And I was hoping, John, that maybe you could read a section of your book called Unforgiven Fire on page 156 for my viewers and do a reading of that. And then we'll talk a little bit about that on the other side. You can do that. Sure. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I really felt the need as I was at the Walker Arts Center in the late 80s and early 90s. And so many of my friends were dying and there was such chaos and there were such malfeasance from the government about people with AIDS and there was such hysteria about the body and the body fluids and stuff that I really felt I had to call out their names to hold on to them. And so this excerpt is from a voice over a film I made in 1993 and it's a combination of some of my friends and it's called Unforgiven Fire. Late night phone calls still frighten me. Years ago, my neighbor Charlie would call in the middle of the night screaming through his dementia for help, begging us to get him out of the hospital away from his real and imagined demons. I wouldn't answer the phone. I could only listen to his voice coming through the answering machine, silent and paralyzed with fear. I thought there was nothing I could do. I never did visit him in that hospital. I was too ashamed and he never came home again. I remember holding Peter trying to warm his shivering body, hoping that somehow I could heal him even for a short while so he could sleep. Both of us were drenched in his night sweats. He kept apologizing as he cried. I wept too, but my tears were filled with rage. Earlier that day, we had spent hours waiting in lines, filling out forms that enabled him to get medications. He had no health insurance and each stop demanded that he be present to sign the proper forms. So he's had exhausts that consumed by his fevers while I held his place in line. Once later, I dreamt and called only to speak to his dad. Peter had died that morning in Michael's arms as his mama urged him to go on. I called my friend Lee at home to see how he was feeling. I just returned from an extended business trip and wanted to re-establish contact. His sister answered the phone, thank me for calling and asked if I wanted to share something with those gathered in the apartment for his memorial service. Selfishly, I felt cheated. I wouldn't have any private closure with him. Weeks afterward, I called his disconnected number hoping we could talk one last time. Once later, I called his phone number again explaining to the newly connected household how special Lee had been. When the call came ending Kevin's death watch, I was relieved. Three weeks prior, the doctors had stopped his feeding up the morphine and said he would go in 48 hours. But they didn't know the Kevin I did. We were lovers a decade ago. We trained together, made love and dream together. Upon hearing the news, I thought at least I wouldn't have to call the hospital anymore. In his last month with the morphine obliterating all feeling, I would call and be continually told his condition was satisfactory. Satisfactory. Satisfactory. Satisfactory. Most recently, I cried with my friend Margie over the death of her brother Christopher. Margie told me of crawling into Christopher's death bed to hold him. As the spirit began to leave, instead of releasing, his body contracted as only a dancer could and tightly embraced her. She held on knowing that he was going, leaving her the unfinished legacies of all those prematurely lost. It chosen to die peacefully with great clarity, letting Margie know that his work was now done, but hers and ours only begun. They're all gone now, 96 of my angels. For too many of them, I didn't get to say goodbye. I still need to somehow resow the forlorn reality of their death. The impact of the grief and mourning of each new loss remains as intense as the first. Oftentimes, late at night, it's hard for me to breathe as I cry for all the devastation among us, heroes, all of them. So needlessly lost, I am truly blessed to have been touched by them all. To have been loved by angels, for all of us that have gone before, and for those that remain, they either be passionate, unforgiven fire. So beautiful, John. Thank you so much. Thank you. So as we move on through your book, that was beautiful. Thank you, John. It's hard to get through. The last section of your book is called Conversation. And those are individuals that you sought to have conversations with in basically an interview style, from Trisha Brown, to Allison Bechdel, to Bill Jones, Meredith Monk. Talk a little bit about that section and how your connection with these people and how you chose these people and what it meant to you to have the opportunity to interview them and know them probably intimately. Well, thank you. And Jan is seeing so many people friends. I think, let me talk a little bit about Trisha Brown, because in the early 80s, I was Trisha Brown's manager, her dance company manager, but that sounds grander than it was because I worked in the air shaft between the loft and the living space. And I was the only person in the office. That's what modern dance was at that time. And I had a great three years with her and she premiered a piece called Set and Reset with Rauschenberg and Laurie Anderson's music. And it became, you never know this, but it became a masterwork. It became a game changer. And suddenly we opened up Europe and I was traveling with her and it was a very exciting time. And my career went on, her career went on and it was in 2009, I got a call from her office and they said, she's gonna be at Dartmouth. Would you mind coming out and doing a public conversation with her about Rauschenberg? Because I knew Bob as well. And so I said, sure, but it seems odd. I haven't worked with her in such a long time. And her manager said, well, it's really not public yet, but Tricia is having a really difficult time with memory. And she's frightened now to speak in public. And she just said, ask John to come because if I start getting lost in the stories, he'll remember the stories. And so we did this and it really was the whole talk is about collaborating with Rauschenberg and who was this extraordinary human being. They pushed each other, but they did things, they always challenged each other, but they led each other to do their same thing like this set and reset. It was 18 minutes long, right? And so Tricia never saw the set till we'd loaded it in the theater because she knew whatever Bob was gonna do was gonna be okay. And then Laurie Anderson was making music and I remember one time we were in a meeting with Bob and Tricia and she was like, okay, do you want the version with these words or without the words? And Tricia said, I don't care. Just give me 18 minutes, which do you want, Lord? But so they challenged each other, supporting each other, came up with crazy ideas. Some were terrible ideas, some were good. They kept pushing each other. And Tricia and Bob had this lifelong relationship. So it's a great interview about friendship and about collaboration and about artistic process. What was amazing, Melinda, about this is six months later, Mills College was doing something in an exhibition of Tricia's work and they again said, would I come and talk with Tricia? And the veil was gone. We did a talk and it was her last public talk. She could no longer really remember and then the last years of her life, she had no memory. And so it was just a profound gift for me to kind of talk with her and, you know, say, well, oh, I think that was Tom Judd. I don't think Bob did that to me. Oh, you're right. That was Don's piece. Let's go back talking about Bob. And to hold that kind of artistry, you know, and to share it was such a gift for me. And there's so many lessons for me in my life about resiliency with all of these interviews that I really felt like it's their voice, but as you know, I did a concert documenting with Janicean and there's an interview with Janicean about being 15 years old and confused on the road with the hit songs Society's Child and how you struggle and what you do. And then all of these artists, how do you make work? How do you make new work? How do you fail? How do you continue your practice? How are you political? And I think you'll see that many of these artists, Tricia's not, but many of them are queer. Many of them are political, Bill T. Jones and other folks. And that's important to me because I think artists create a safe place for society to have really complicated issues happening. And also artists, these artists were change agents, aesthetically and in society. And so I really felt like I honor them. They were my role models and I hope that some of the work I've been able to do as an artist, as an arts administrator and not as a politician, is modeled on their kind of activism.  And as we come to the end, John Kalaki, I want you to just end with a quick explanation because you talk about the state of Kensho in your book when you were studying in the Himalayans at the monastery. And so as we end this interview, can you share with our viewers? Because I'm feeling, I feel like I'm in that state listening to you and certainly I felt that way after reading your book. Talk to us a little bit about that as we come to the end of this interview. Well, I had been sitting with a Zen teacher in New York, Ishimiro Hiroshi. But when I got there, Anthony Tudor had actually brought him over for the First Zen Institute. But that didn't work out. And so he had four students and he was an elderly man.   And then once a month we would sit for eight hours. And so it was fascinating for me to have a relationship with a teacher who wasn't my teacher, who I wanted desperately to be my teacher, right?  And one time it was so painful. And I just, so I looked up and I looked over at him. And in my mind, oh no wonder, he's asleep. I never looked, I said, that old guy's asleep. That's how he can do this. And as I was looking over, thinking that, that raises his eyes and just stares at me. Then he goes back and does meditation. So what it did was I got into the Tibetans because they were friendlier and they would teach me. And so then I went off to the Himalayan mountains for to be with the Karmapa at the room tech monastery that your husband was at. On my way back, I went to San Francisco and this is in the book. And because I didn't know what I was gonna do, I thought, well, Roshi's in New York. I'm not gonna, I'm not a student. I have to figure out my new life. Harvey Milk was assassinated. Jonestown happened. I get a call from New York saying Roshi, the Japanese teacher from New York, had been in Japan and he's coming to San Francisco. And he wanted to see me. I thought, oh, I'm gonna be his student. This is so great. This is like his dream, right? Well, there was a reception firm that night. And apparently when he got to the airport, he didn't feel well. And so they took him right to the hospital and he died. I didn't get to greet him. So suddenly I had to make with his students, I had to make funeral arrangements. And so I called Japan and got someone who could speak a little English. And what I understood, because I don't speak Japanese, is that when the Roshi left, the dog cried. And so they went into his room. Until they played out his cremation robes. And what I remember, and when in the book itself, the part of Kensho that you talk about is something he would say sometimes to his students. Not to me, but I would hear him say to his students. And they would ask what Kensho was. And I just wanna make sure I get in the part of the book here. So Kensho is Kensho. And Kensho is Kensho is exactly, but it's like, here we go. A state of being, it's a state of being. Yes, and he talked about it's like, Kensho is a state of seeing into your own being, your insight into your own nature. And, but when he was pushed, they were like, Roshi, what is Kensho? And he would just say, Kensho is just Kensho is his being. And so I feel so blessed that I was able to experience that man. Also go to the Himalayan mounds and experience miracles because they taught me so much about the possibilities and also about just being true to ourselves. Just being authentic, whatever that means. And to find your voice and that's all we can ever be. It's just Kensho, nothing more. Just Kensho. Well, in this moment, which is this moment, is as it should be. And all things are, they are because that's the moment that we're living in. I honor you on so many levels. To my viewers, speaking with John Glacky, the author of Because Art, this book is available at Phoenix Books. Any other places, John, where this can be, your book can be found? Is it on the Amazon yet or? Oh, it is on Amazon and Target. But I love Phoenix Books and an independent bookstore, but you can go to your own bookstore, wherever it is, and they can order it for you as well. As well, I want to mention that you will be at the Pride Center on September 23rd, where you will be reading. A book launch. Yes. On the 23rd of September at the Pride Center. And on the 27th of September, you will be reading from your book with Mark Redman at the South Burlington Library, correct? My buddy, Mark, and he's an extraordinary man and he has a new book called It's a Memoir. And the first chapter in my book is called To Serve. And so I think both books are about a vocation. And vocation is vocari, which means call. So we are called to our vocation. And I think Mark's has certainly been about working with youth and mine has been about working with artists and social change. Well, thank you to both of you for meeting your measure in your life to serve others in your selflessness. I also would like to send my viewers to your website if they want to know more about your book. It's JohnKalaki.com. It's my political website. You'll get my blog in there too. But there's also a section dedicated to the book.  Your fierceness and righteousness is so important. And continually you've spoken and written about things in a very profound way for me. You've made me see things differently.  So thank you. Well, I'm very grateful to you. I cherish you on so many levels. So thank you for your time. I want you to stay on after I end this recording so I can say goodbye to you. And to my viewers, thank you for being with us today with John Kalaki, the author of Because Art. Go to your local bookstore and buy it and read it. It's a beautiful read. And thank you for joining me and Mr. Kalaki. And I will see you all next month. Be well and stay safe. Thank you.


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that every day and even if it's just watching movies, you know, that's good too. Yeah, I agree with the speaking part because like before I moved to the US, I had very difficulty in like speaking because even though I knew English, but I was not confident enough to speak in English. So when I went there, when I started speaking with people, it helped me a lot. So practice makes perfect, but it's not just practicing the exam, it's practicing English for your life. Yeah, and I think that's what a lot of people don't get about the IELTS test is it's an English test. So your English needs to be at the level of, you know, there's no magic way of getting there, but it's also a specific test. So if you combine a high level of English with test taking strategies and all of these things that you're learning, then that's where you get the band lines and the band 8.5s that someone like you can get, you know? So congratulations. So we've talked a lot about listening and reading. Do you want to give some advice to people about speaking or writing? You've got a really high score in speaking and writing as well. If you were giving advice to yourself 12 months ago, what advice would you give for speaking and writing? Okay, sure. So for both the parts, the one thing that I would say is start practicing early on. Like what I did, the mistake like I started practicing from May, like I decided to take the exam in May. So from the month of May, I was just practicing listening and reading every day like for one hour and then I never concentrated on listening or sorry, speaking or writing. So at the end like in the month of July or something, I got serious about doing the writing and the speaking part. So that's when I joined your course as well. So yeah, that's one thing. So start practicing early on. And the second thing is know your weakness in both the parts because when I started writing, I mean, I never wrote anything like I'd never practiced it. I just used to watch videos on YouTube and then see what all mistakes they make and how I can write something very similar. But instead of that, take a mock exam or take your correction like service and then get the feedback on what you've written. So this helps you to find out the weakness and then you can improve on that one. That's the same thing for writing and speaking as well. There's a huge difference between learning on YouTube and getting your individual weaknesses assessed by a real expert. YouTube don't get me wrong. There's some great YouTube channels right there that will familiarize yourself with, familiarize you with what you need to do. But you know, it's like you're a, you work in software development. You can't really go onto YouTube and watch lots of YouTube videos on how to become a better coder and then just go and do it. You know, you need someone looking at your code and telling you what's wrong with it in the same way with your writing and your speaking. The difference between reading and listening and writing and speaking is you're producing language when you are speaking and writing. So you need someone to look at that production, that product and say, this is great, keep doing this, that's wrong, change this. And it's a simple process, but not a lot of people follow it. And again, I think it's because a lot of people think that you just go onto YouTube and watch lots of videos and then you're gonna get the score that you need, which is not true, I don't think. Sure, I mean, like you can learn a lot of strategies by watching such videos, but unless you get the feedback, you won't be able to improve on yourself. Yeah, and it's a shortcut as well. We don't teach shortcuts or hacks or things like that, but it is a massive shortcut in terms of time and if you get your weaknesses assessed, because then you know what to focus on. We teach IELTS in the same way that a doctor would treat a patient or a mechanic would fix a car or a dentist would fix your teeth. What's the problem? That's what's the root cause of the problem and identify that and fix that. That is the most efficient way. It's not easy, but it's very efficient. Yeah, that's the one thing that I liked about your course. The main point that you say is clarity is king, right? So whenever I was watching YouTube videos, I give a lot of strategies, but they never tell us the purpose for which I'm writing or the purpose for which I'm speaking during the exam. So that is one thing that I learned from your course and then that made it really easy. For anyone watching, I'll share that with you from the course. What is the purpose of writing? What is the purpose of speaking? It is not to show off how amazing your vocabulary is, how many grammar, tenses and structures you know, how many words you've memorized. It is to clearly communicate with someone. Why do you send a text message? Why do you send an email? Why do you write a book? It is to take the things in your head and clearly communicate them. So if you could forget about 95% of all the strategies and tips and tricks and just focus on that, just focus on clear communication and it won't only help you in the aisles, it'll help you in your jobs as well. I run a company with nearly 40 people working for me now and once 40 people all start talking together, if one of them has poor communication skills, then it's really bad. So we preach that to our team as well. Just be super clear and simple with communication and that's much better than memorizing a bunch of nonsense and putting it in the paper. That would be one of the advice that I would give to anyone. If you're learning for aisles, don't learn for the exam. Don't prepare for the exam. Prepare for learning English for your life, like for the betterment of your life. Exactly. Same with the vocabulary improvement plan that we put together. A lot of people look at that and they're like, oh, this is going to take a long time. But if you want to move to Canada or Australia or UK, you're going to need a wide-ranging vocabulary because you want to live there.  And I think that's also a really good point for motivation. Because a lot of people are like, I don't want to do this aisles nonsense. It's boring, it's tough. Don't think about that.  And that really helps you with motivation, central. Yeah, I mean, that was the main difference for me. I was preparing for my TOEFL like four years back. I was like, I went to the US to study, so I was preparing for my TOEFL and then I just prepared for the exam. So it was not that good. I did not do good at my speaking section or the writing section, but when preparing for aisles, I prepared in order to get better at my English. So it helped me a lot. Yeah, it not only helps a motivation, helps your score, but just makes everything much easier if you think one step ahead and improving your general English. And your boss and your team leaders and the people working under you and with you, they will thank you for it as well because you'll be a much better colleague to work with if you can clearly communicate. So thank you so much, Vikas. I really appreciate you helping everybody. You gave some great advice and I wish you the best of luck in the future. If you need any help in the future, myself and my team are more than happy to help you in any way we can. So stay in touch if you need anything, Vikas. Yeah, thank you very much, Chris. Hi everyone, Chris here from aislesadvantage.com with another success story. So we have Navjot and she's going to share her success with you guys so that you can learn from her. So Navjot, can you introduce yourself to everyone, please? My name is Navjot Kaur and I am working as a lecturer in mathematics since 2012. And I wanted to migrate to Canada on a permanent resident basis. So I needed CLB 9, which is listening eight and best of three, seven. So I was quite desperate to get this score, but this has become only possible because of the AP course. So this is all the information I can tell about myself. So before you joined our course, what were you struggling with? What did you find difficult about the IELTS test? I was finding difficult that I can part because I had appeared three times before my successful attempt. And even though I was thinking that my attempt was perfected, I was thinking that I am able to get this seven, at least a seven, but it was not possible. Even if I thought I have written very well. So first of all, it took a long time to make my mind that it is not the fault of IELTS, it is the fault of students because I have listened from a lot of people that they are doing it intentionally and they are not going to give you a seven. So my last attempt was on 10th February and then I had almost given up. So this was the only portion that because I was getting quite higher score in listening, reading, and a seven in speaking. So this was the only portion that I was struggling with. And what score did you get before and what score in writing did you get after? I scored 6.5, always. 11th. How many times?  Three times, yes sir. And then after we helped you, what score did you get? Seven. After we helped you, after you joined the course, what score did you get in writing? I got 7.5. Congratulations, amazing. Thank you so much, yes sir. So that's a very common problem for a lot of people. A lot of people are stuck at 6.5 and they need seven or 7.5 in the writing test. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about the differences between what changed from when you were getting 6.5 to when you got 7.5. What did you do differently? Firstly, when I was taking classes from their teachers, I joined three different teachers in a quite big city in my state. They were not telling about the different type of essays. It was like they are saying that we have to answer the question in a similar way. Whether it is a discussion essay or it is an opinion essay, then we can make an opinion essay a discussion one. This was the biggest mistake I have done in the previous attempts. So this time, things were more clear because I knew what I had to do in the exam. Everything was crystal clear in front of me because I knew there are five type of essays as you told and there are different approaches to attempt all these questions. So I was quite confident this time that I will certainly get my score in the writing section. Apart from understanding the different types of questions and having a different approach, was there anything else that you think made a big difference in changing your writing from 6.5 to 7.5? Keeping the thing simple. Yes, because I was making everything complicated. I don't think whose fault is this, but by default, we are thinking that we had to write quite complicated vocabulary and we had to use a typical type of sentences. That is not the main thing because we had to convey our ideas and our opinion to the examiner or whoever is reading. Then this is the main thing. I think it can take a long time for everybody to understand that this is the main thing. We cannot use any random words which we have learned from random sources. I think if everybody can understand it, but there are a lot of things. I think this is about... I think we've done over 30 videos now with VIP students and every single student has said, yeah, keep it simple. That's the thing that helped me more than anything. It's the thing that is very difficult to explain to someone because when you fail a test, what you think is automatically, naturally, you think, oh, I have to do things in a more complex way or a more complicated way. So when you tell a student the opposite of that, they find it very difficult to accept it and especially it's the opposite to what a lot of other teachers are telling them which is use complicated grammar and vocabulary and then you'll get the score you need which is not true.  Imagine you were talking to a group of other students and they were like you, they kept getting 6.5, what advice would you give them? First of all, I will advise them that making a plan is compulsory in the writing because in my previous attempts, I was not willing to waste my two 10 minutes on planning but this time, even in practice, when I was practicing my writing and in the exam as well, I spent around eight minutes to plan and surprisingly in the last 40th minute, I completed my writing task group because I always attempt my essay first and later in the last 20 minutes. It was amazing to see that it worked quite well because a couple of minutes spent earlier are worth it because it is very important to plan. It's an investment of time, is how I always describe it. Because a lot of people think of it as wasting time and it's like no, it's investing the time so that you won't be wasting time when you're writing so that's excellent advice. Anything else you would say to them? Um, join the course. Apart from that, apart from that, yeah, apart from that. Um, apart from that, um... I'm putting you on the spot now. I think those three things that you said would make a huge difference to a lot of people so, you know, approaching each question individually and having an individual approach to each question, keeping it simple, especially when it comes to, you know, clearly communicating with the examiner, clearly answering the question rather than trying to use fancy vocabulary and grammar and planning and time management also, investing the time to plan out your answer, which will lead to a much clearer answer, fewer mistakes, and you'll get it all done on time. So I think, sorry for putting you on the spot and I know you're not an iOS teacher. Yes. So what will you be able to do now in the future that you've got your scores? Uh, I'm now eligible for the express entry because I was getting a quite close score in the process and at present I have boosted my score by 60 points, which has made a huge difference. And I think I will be able to move to my dream country Canada within six months, which I had before this exam on 12th of May because I had lost all the hopes and I was still hoping to move to Canada but I had changed my plans and I was thinking to move as a student because I just, but that was quite a difficult path for me because it will take around four to five years to get all the things which I can do with this score now. This has made a huge difference in my life and my family. I was talking to a lot of students today and they were saying to me, you know, I don't have enough time to do what you want me to do.  There are a lot of people who are trying again and again by thinking that luck will get to them soon and they will get a seven. Suddenly, I know this will not work because I had tried three different approaches in my writing in my previous three attempts and I was not able to get seven. Then I thought there is something wrong with my writing so I made an expert advice so I said it's not the fault of us. I think a lot of people who are failing over and over again I was speaking to one guy yesterday and we were talking about whether he could join the course and on the call he was saying he was blaming IELTS, he was blaming the examiners, he was blaming everybody and I said listen, you're not welcome on our course and he said why? I said because you won't accept that it's your fault. It's your fault that you're getting those scores and blaming everybody else is only going to lead to further failure but it's when you accept that it's my responsibility to get the help that I need and my responsibility to do the work and to improve then every single time we see students moving up and getting the scores that they need but I see students every single day that aren't members of our course that are maybe on our Facebook page or things like that just blaming everybody except themselves like never actually saying oh maybe I just didn't find the right teacher or didn't find the right approach or didn't work hard enough and I think accepting that is a big, big, big step not just for IELTS but for pretty much anything if you blame other people for your problems then it doesn't normally lead to success so thank you very much for sharing that with everybody and I wish you all the best of luck in Canada You're going to be a mathematics lecturer? Yes sir Excellent Excellent Yeah Excellent Alright so thank you very much and I'll see you again soon Bye bye Hi everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another success story So today we have Ashok from our VIP course Ashok can you introduce yourself to everyone? My name is Ashok Dabi I'm a dental surgeon and I'm from India Great Can you tell everyone a little bit about your experience with IELTS and how many times did you do the test what scores did you get what did you struggle with, things like that Chris, it was basically a long journey it took around one and a half year to reach this score You don't believe My first score was a 5.5 brand but I just wanted to achieve my score at any cost because I wanted to move to Canada So that is why I worked hard and right now my score is 18 listening, 18 reading 7 in speaking and 7 in writing So from 5.5 overall to 7.5 overall Yes That's amazing, that is a huge jump Even in a year and a half that requires a huge amount of work and effort So congratulations on that So can you share your journey with people a little bit to go from 5.5 to 7.5 in a year and a half is a massive achievement So how did you do it? Share that with people Actually Chris, I didn't know anything about IELTS about this, what's the test My friends told me that it's just an English test So every time I read English, that's enough and I also read, initially I also read some sample essays but I never practiced, means I never wrote essays and I never practiced a lot So initially I also took up some local training course from India but it didn't work After that I got 6.5 So one of my friends, he is also a dentist and he is also a member of Pal Academy Do you know Manthan Solanki? He is also my friend So we both decided to take and roll your course So after that you don't believe I got 3 times 7 and 7.5 in writing So the writing was the big hurdle for me initially because I didn't know anything about writing I didn't know the different types of the essays So it was the main hurdle for me So after that what I did, I strongly followed your advice 2 main ideas, then explanation, then example Initially what I did before enrolling your course before taking your course, I mostly started writing whenever I got my question So I started writing immediately without planning my essays But when you told me, strongly, when you told me that I had to plan essays before starting writing So after that I planned, I gave at least 5 minutes for writing, planning essays and then after I started writing my essays Secondly you always told that read newspapers I also prefer to read newspapers So what happened, after reading newspapers it became very easy for me to write down the examples So I didn't have to think about the examples at the time of writing Apart from this, it also benefited me in speaking portion Because in part 3, speaking part it's quite a typical question The examiner asked some typical questions So it became very easy for me to answer all these part 3 questions So that is why I mostly concentrated on reading newspapers So I downloaded The Guardian, The Hindu So at least I gave one and a half hour to read newspapers Every day And you don't believe, I wrote more than 300 essays That's a lot I didn't correct you And I also advised each and every member of the Pal Academy as well as other students that never miss Monday as well as Wednesday's essay classes I cancelled my appointments for Wednesday and I strongly read different students' essays So it helped me to get all these ideas of different students So at the time of exam, I didn't have to worry about the ideas I didn't have to worry about the examples I didn't have to worry about the explanations So all these things just stuck in my head So it became very easy for me to write essays particularly on exam days So there was no room for nervousness So when you were sitting down on test day how did you feel compared to the first time and the last time? Was there a big difference in how you felt? First time I didn't know anything about essays different structures of the essays But after enrolling your course it became very easy for me Initially what happened, you know Our local trainer always told me advised me to write down heavy vocabulary so-called heavy advanced vocabulary so many ideas without explanation That is why I got around 6 and 6.5 bank It was very careful with local trainers Some of them are really good Most of them aren't, you know So it's a shame So initially I also believed that I had to use heavy vocabularies and I had to use so many ideas without any explanations without providing examples But all these things are very necessary if you want to get more than 7 banks And secondly Newspapers also, I forgot one thing that newspapers also play a very important role to learn grammar because grammar is a really boring portion But if you, really for me it's quite boring Whenever I read the grammar Even though I created a whole grammar course like that I didn't enjoy it So when I read newspaper I was familiar with the prepositions and articles So if anyone knows about the prepositions and articles then they will definitely win this game Because you don't have to write down heavy active, passive voices or conditional sentences in this particular exam The main aim of this exam is that you can convey your message in English in a simple way So keep it simple Read newspaper And third most important thing I would like to share with you is that if you have a good friend who is also preparing for IELTS then discuss with your friend It will not help you to improve your English but it also helps you to provide so many ideas related to essays as well as your speaking portion And last thing is that many times people always advise that watch BBC But I mostly prefer I mostly advise students to watch Discovery as well as National Geographic channels Because in reading and listening portion you will get the same topic in your last sessions So it becomes very easy for you to predict the answer That's excellent advice You seem to have just surrounded yourself with English and IELTS for a long time and working hard It's great to hear that because you are an example of someone who has followed the system that I encourage everyone to follow which is not very complicated Find out what your weaknesses are find those weaknesses into strengths Surround yourself with English Practice every day Work hard Anyone can do these things It's great to see someone a shining example of someone who just followed that system blindly and got the scores that they needed Yes sir Sometime during Venice days you many times scolded me because I mostly prefer to do some experiments with my essays particularly in your class because there is no room in exams So I mostly prefer you to advise me very well I really followed your advice and during test time You hear me? Yes, yes, yes Keep going So looks like Ashok has hit the wrong button and ended our success story a little bit early But that's all right He pretty much said everything that he needed to say Maybe he lost power or maybe he lost the internet or something like that But now that you have me alone if you look at all of our success stories all the students who were on the VIP course they pretty much followed the exact same formula You'll hear all of them talking about keeping it simple, simplifying everything using grammar and vocabulary in a way that helps you convey your message and clearly communicate with the reader surrounding yourself with English practicing your vocabulary improving your vocabulary every day reading every day listening every day to English planning out your answer following a certain structure that we use on the VIP course and all of them get the scores they need if they follow that system It's really really simple It's not simple as in you do have to do a certain amount of work but if you're prepared to do the work and get the scores you will get the scores you need So that's pretty much it I'm talking to myself instead of normally speaking to a student but that's it Thanks guys, bye bye Hi everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another success story Today we have Disha who is going to share her success with all you guys so you can learn from her and be successful yourself Disha, can you start off just by introducing yourself to everyone Yes, hello everyone I'm Disha I'm from Punjab, India So I got my score listening 9, 8 in reading 7 each in writing and speaking just after the first attempt after joining the VIP course and I am just over cloud 9 right now Congratulations again Those are amazing scores and dream scores for being able to get to Canada, isn't that right? Yes, I waited for a very long time to get this score Excellent, so you said that you joined the course and then you got the scores you needed the next time but was that the first time you had done the test or how long were you preparing for the test can you tell us a little bit about your IELTS journey Yes, actually my IELTS journey started in February 2018 so it was my 6th attempt In the first attempt itself I got 777.5 so I was lacking in listening so I got to know that I was not focused at that point of time and I just gave the test after watching some of your videos only on YouTube but later on my struggle was more kind of by managing the different modules that because I was lacking every time it was 0.5 band in one or the other modules that was the biggest challenge for me to try to get that consistency in every so score in all modules to go from about 7 to about 9 investing is amazing most people never get a band 9 even native English speakers would struggle to get a band 9 so yes, in fact in my third attempt I lost in listening only I got 7.5 in listening then 8, 7, 7.5 in others at that point in fact one day before the test this time also I was so nervous about listening that I don't want to face that recording again because I'm so afraid of it Yeah, fear and stress can cause a lot of problems and things like that so would you say that your biggest challenge is your biggest struggles were consistency or were there any particular things as weaknesses or struggles that you had I think in the beginning my struggle was with consistency and focus and with the time as I got to understand about art skills in various modules my writing was quite fine but now and after failing a lot of times because I used to think like I failed my struggle was with the mindset so when I purchased this VIP course I first got through all the videos of mindset and even every time I was a little bit demotivated I saw your videos mindset course and I just buckle up again Yeah, I think it's so important especially when you're just missing by 0.5 it's quite easy just to a lot of people blame themselves and think I'm not good enough but our attitude is the opposite of that is okay learn from your mistakes use those to get better and turn your weaknesses into strength so that is not easy that's very difficult because most people don't want to hear that and so well done for having that because I always used to be a kind of topper you can say and even my family was looking at me like what are you doing you're not able to get the score it's just an English exam you go and do it then so now I saw your videos like we feel like this but eventually we have we can change our mindset anytime we can every time I watched your videos I got the motivation I needed so we'll come back to mindset but you talked a lot about focus especially in regards to listening and a lot of Indian students that I speak with need a band 8 or even higher for the Canadian PR so if you were to give advice to someone who needs to increase their listening score to a band 8 or band 9 what advice would you give them in listening I think most of the people they try to they focus more on the words they don't make try to make the connection what exactly the speaker is trying to say in fact I found it very useful that the way speakers talk in listening even by their intonation by the way they speak we get to know many things like this can be the answer by the tone itself so instead of just focusing on getting the answer we should relate to them that makes things easier excellent advice so instead of focus instead of going very in close into the individual words to kind of zoom out a little bit and understand the general sentences the general meaning the intonation and all of those different things and in fact in listening because we always we have short time duration so it is very important when to make the best use of that time when we have to look at all the questions just to understand quickly and then when to focus on the connected speech when to just eliminate the options which we feel like they are not the answer so this helps in MCQs especially too yeah intonation carries a lot of different meaning like if for example let's say I'm teaching a class and a student comes in late and I say please sit down or I say please sit down like it's exactly the same words one is very friendly no problem the other one is I'm angry it's the same words or if I come home late to dinner and my wife says that's fine or she says that's fine one is I'm getting dinner you know so intonation is very important and that's what I have understood I have understood how to connect with people by their intonations excellent excellent let's say imagine you have a friend who is at a band 7 in listening and wants to get to a band 8 or band 9 what would be the main things what would be the advice that you would give that friend for the listening part I would say that meditation it really helped me excellent because I'm a kind of person who gets a lot of thoughts at a moment so just to sit in the present moment was a big challenge for me so I started meditation after that I would say that we should go strategy question wise in the listening also what is the kind of question I would practice it strategically so that yes because I have practiced a lot like in these 3 years if we say practice makes a man perfect I know one person not just a man so much in the listening also and my score was not increasing so when I listened to your videos I got to know that we have to fix I started analyzing my mistakes what kind of mistakes I make it was not of spelling it was sometimes of plural singular but most of the times it was like I did not know the strategy of the question and I did it wrong if you got 2 students one student does 100 practice tests and another student just does 5 practice tests but that student looks at the 5 practice tests on all of the mistakes and analyzes the mistakes and then learns from those mistakes the student who does 5% just 5 tests compared to one who does 100 will do much, much better because it is not about practice, practice, practice it is about practicing strategically that is what I learned analyzing my mistakes which I was not able to figure out so that made all the difference it is really interesting what you said meditation, because meditation not only helps with focus but it can help with stress and it can help with many other things so there is some great apps you can get there is one called Heads Bay Calm The Waking Up app I meditate myself I find it really does help but also a good way to think about the listening test, on the reading test it is a lot about focus and to use it a different analogy imagine you have to run 10 km but you are not very good at running so you don't try and go from 0 to 10 you go from 0 to 1 km and then 0 to 2 and then 2 to 3 and then 3 to 4 exactly the same thing with listening you might be able to completely focus for 5 minutes then the next day try to focus for 7 minutes and then 9 and then 12 and then 15 you will build it up like a muscle and I think that will really help and do a little bit every day try and push yourself a little bit every day and that will help with your listening and one more thing like in the listening I used to take deep breaths whenever I felt like I am losing the focus it helped me to get into the present moment I already knew beforehand that in the exam also I am going to be stuck somewhere in the listening but I will take deep breaths and I will just go with the listening test I think there is something to learn from that as well is like focusing on the present moment if we look at that from a higher level a lot of students when they are preparing for the test don't live in the present moment they look at the past and think I failed the test which means I am terrible I am going to fail again and then they look at the future and they fear the future so I think meditation living in the present each day what little thing can I do to improve I am really focusing on what is my biggest weakness that I need to work on today do a little bit every day don't even think about booking the test in the future don't worry about that just every day try and get better and then one day oh I am ready to book the test I am ready to do it whereas I think a lot of students first and then panic and then they don't do anything and then they get really upset and stressed out so that's why we always say don't book this test until you are ready to get the score that you need all these things have already actually helped me because I was also this kind of student every time in the past I booked my test first and then I started preparation then there was a one week or two weeks before the test and I was totally nervous I don't know where I stand now I have to go through it and I just started fearing this exam and how did you cope with feeling nervous and feeling stressed how did you manage your stress levels when I saw one of the videos in the mindset course that you have to work every day and the test day will not be that much stressful I put in a lot of work I got good score in writing also in listening one day before as I mentioned that I was not I knew that I have done a lot of work but still I had this thing that anything can happen in the exam but I was prepared that this time I will not let anything ruin my exam so I will do my best I don't know what will happen if I have lots of problems in my business a business is just basically a bunch of big problems that you have to solve so it's stressful but what I always tell people working here is as soon as you take action on that stressful problem the stress goes away what is most stressful is when you know that you have lots of problems and you don't do anything about them that's really stressful what I always say is first of all what are your problems what are your weaknesses and then just systematically go through each of those and attack those and take action and then on test day you are like I have done enough work I am a little bit nervous but not very nervous whereas what most students do is do nothing do very little maybe look at youtube look for some tips and tricks and then on test day they are extremely nervous because they know deep down in their heart that they didn't do anything I did not want any such thing in my mind this time that I would regret I could have done this or I didn't do this so I was prepared I prepared a question type wise I did a lot of practice tests listening was the one module which I never missed doing it so yes I was able to do it on the exam day excellent well Disha thank you so much for sharing how you got a band 9 in listening and an amazing band 8 in reading and 7 in speaking and 7 in writing and thank you so much for sharing that with everybody and do listen to Disha like the basic things fundamental things that she said such as practicing strategically learning from your mistakes learning how to focus on the test and managing your stress levels those things are very very important but if anybody needs help from us feel free to get in touch with us and we'll be happy to give you any advice that you need Disha I wish you all the best of luck in the future and if you need anything in the future get in touch with us any last minute advice for students I would say to everybody who is selling the same board that don't give up because I was about to give up but I don't know how one of my friends he called me on my birthday last year he told me that you why are you giving back, you just take eyes at one page I was thinking okay so for my dreams I will do it and I never knew that I will talk to you so soon well thank you so much Disha you deserve all the success because you work so hard thank you so much again for sharing everything Susan here on part of the academic team as you probably know and we're here again to record another success story and to offer our congratulations to Nishta so Nishta could you just introduce yourself and tell the students a little bit about yourself I am Dr. Nishta Arora and I've been working as a consultant dentist in a private dental college in a small city in northern region of India and I plan to immigrate to Canada so I wanted to take this IELS general training course exam so I looked up online and I came across IELS advantage course through a video in which a person had failed IELS exam for six times and when he took this course IELS advantage course he could get through the exam so that really motivated me I didn't want to make that kind of a mistake and I wanted to clear the exam in the very first course so I took this this VIP course I registered myself in the waiting list took this course and fortunately I was able to crack the exam with high scores in the very first attempt and you've never taken you've never taken IELS before? Never this was my first attempt and what score did you need in order to achieve your desired score? The basic score that we need is 8777 that is 8 in listening and 7 in the rest of the part and would you like to tell everyone what you achieved? Okay so my score was it's 9 in speaking sorry 8.5 in speaking and 9 is in listening 9 in reading and 7 in writing So that's pretty impressive scores especially on your first attempt it will now allow you to migrate to Canada What did you find most difficult about the IELTS exam when you were preparing was there anything you were particularly worried about? Yes in reading section I was very worried about true false not given section I took a lot of time to grab the actual strategy to attempt this kind of a question and in listening section the multiple choice question was something that I was worried about so these two things made me a bit nervous but eventually after practicing and listening to the tape scripts of the listening section I was able to understand the accent the slang used and where paraphrasing is done so those things were clear to me after listening to the tape scripts that is given in the official Cambridge preparation textbook at the back so that was really helpful for me and I was able to get such high score. And how did you get on with the writing part of the course? I scored 7 so I'd say there is a scope of improvement but basically I listened to Chris's videos and he told that there has to be a good structure for the answer you have to think about ideas make a structure and then attempt the question and you have to address the question as it is it's not like you can write everything that comes to your mind no you have to make points then clearly communicate your message precisely shortly using good vocabulary and punctuations and synonyms and sort of keep it simple and accurate accuracy is what he taught us in the videos. I was just going to say keep it simple I think is the main key for the writer to try not to make it complicated and also you have to keep to the right length because if you write too much you won't have time to check your accuracy so well done and the speaking were you concerned about the speaking at all? Speaking exam was like a roller coaster ride for me it was so quick because he kept on asking me questions and I went on answering at that point of time I just had one thing in my mind that I have to use correct vocabulary and communicate my message clearly because if the examiner is not able to comprehend what I'm speaking then there's no point and I think it's all about the comfort zone and how comfortable you are while speaking this language so that is what I had in my mind and I listened to quite a lot of podcasts and stuff like that to you know grab the slang and try to speak like native speaker and I record in myself the most important thing is I always used to record myself I used to read a question then answer it for like 2-3 minutes and then see what mistakes I was making so that really helped me so that is something and then when you were analysing your speaking did you record the mistakes that you were making and to try and avoid them the next time? I attempted same question thrice or four times with different methods to really understand what I was lacking in and whether I was confident enough to you know appear for the exam so that was I am a teacher myself so I teach students okay dentist as well as teacher so you understand exactly so I tried my best and then when the results came through did you get a text message how did you find out what you scored? we have a website and it quoted that the exam result will be out in 13 days so I had an eye on that website like and on the 14th day I clicked for the result early in the morning at 6 o'clock when I woke up and I was so happy to have a nine in listening and reading was something which I really appreciated absolutely fantastic that's 100% yeah okay so there's going to be other students watching this just like you watched that video the first time with the student who failed six times they're going to be watching this now and they're going to be seeing you passing first time and achieving those great results do you have any advice for students who are in the middle of their at the beginning in the middle or towards the end of their IELTS journey? first section is the listening part and I think one should really learn how to focus and concentrate while attempting this listening section because that is the key you have to be there and you have to forget the world while attempting this question and one should hear podcasts and see web series or stuff like that to understand the language and along with that sometimes you have to go you have to guess also there is a particular pattern how the question is asked and you should read two sections at one time I tried to be a little quick so that I could get what the person was speaking clearly so focus and concentration one should focus and that is the key message I'd like to say, forget the world when you're attempting the listening section and think about anything else and I think that same piece of advice would apply to reading, writing writing the whole exam the focus is so important is there anything else that you'd like to share with everyone mock tests one should at least give five to seven mock tests before appearing for the exam and watch all the videos step by step and not skip the videos because that is really important and be confident and believe in yourself because if you don't believe in yourself then it's not possible thank you very much Nisha that's some really excellent advice and on behalf of Chris and the rest of the team here congratulations and best wishes for your life in Canada hi everyone Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another success story and today we're going to talk to Siva what we're specifically going to talk about is how to identify your weaknesses and the importance of identifying your weaknesses and how to turn those weaknesses into strengths so that you can improve your speaking scores and your writing scores so Siva was really struggling with her writing and her speaking she was going to lots of different schools and looking at lots of different things on the internet when she joined us we were able to quickly identify the exact reasons why she was not getting the score that she needed and then she was able to get a Band 8 in speaking and a Band 7 in writing so let's learn a few things from Siva's journey on the Miles Test and then we can hopefully improve ourselves so Siva, can you start off by just introducing yourself to everyone sure I'm Sivaranshani I'm a working professional I work for a product based company here in Chennai, India and I have attended IELTS twice before joining your course I have made my attempt once after joining your course to check how far I have improved and surprisingly I got the marks what I needed so thanks to you Chris so let's start off by talking about speaking so we're going to talk about speaking and writing those are the two things that you needed the most help with so when we did a one on one speaking with you what were some of the things that we identified the reasons why you were not getting the score you needed actually I gave my mock speaking test with Jason and I set my mind I should not be getting less than 6.5 because in my previous two attempts I got 6.5 so I should learn all those things whatever I have done in the past I should give my best so surprisingly in my mock speaking test I got 8 and he said the only thing I need to improve was I'm speaking really fast so that the examiner can barely able to understand me what I'm doing it so because I'm speaking really fast there are many chances for me to go my marks I mean low in aether and grammar and also in the lexical resource so he wants me to slow down so that was the only advice he gave me also from that day on I literally try to slow down it speaking quickly is it's caused for maybe one or two different reasons number one people can be very nervous when they're speaking in front of an examiner and often when people feel nervous they want to not waste the other person's time so they subconsciously speak very very quickly or maybe because you just are filled with nerves and stress and you speak too quickly the other thing is a lot of people think that speaking quickly means high fluency and a lot of people are taught that in school or maybe it's a misconception about what good fluency is good fluency is not about speaking quickly it's about speaking naturally and the problem with speaking too quickly is you're being tested on fluency pronunciation grammar and vocabulary so fluency if you're speaking too quickly you're not speaking as naturally as you could so you might have a lower fluency score but it can also affect the other three because if you're speaking very quickly it's difficult for the examiner to understand what you're saying so your pronunciation could suffer but also remember our brain is kind of like a computer if you're trying to do too many things at the same time and too quickly on a computer it starts to slow down and it can make mistakes same when you're speaking too quickly you can make more grammar mistakes more vocabulary mistakes so that is why if for you Siva that was the one thing and it improved everything for you so on anybody watching exactly you might have a problem with speaking quickly but you might have you know one of other 50 other problems it's really important that you try and work with someone who knows what they're doing to help you identify that in the same way as if my car was broken I would take the car to a mechanic and get the mechanic to fix it because he or she knows what they are doing and so what was the improvement in your score in my first two attempts I constantly got 6.5 in speaking and in my third attempt I got 8 that would make total sense because if you are getting if the examiner can't understand you you can't get above a 6 for pronunciation and then you might have got 6 in one of the other things because you are making more mistakes so it's totally normal to get 6.5 because of just one thing you know and that's frustrating for a student but it's very satisfying when you understand what that one thing is and then you can fix that so well done and congratulations for getting your band 8 and speaking thank you and even the worst part was even I was not like speaking really fast could affect my score I was not in that consciousness so later when I attended zoom session I learned that like you have to speak naturally and you have to let the examiner understand each and every word whatever you are trying to say so that is the key thing I've also found out sorry, sorry there's a delay between I've also found out with many of our Indian students because I think when you're speaking in your native language you naturally speak very, very quickly and then you start to speak English in the same way and that can cause a problem for the examiner to understand not every Indian student but many of the would you agree with that in your native language you speak more quickly than you speak English even in the zoom session I could see many Indians speak at the same pace whatever I say so it is like it's a common problem in India actually and then often you will have you don't have a problem with your pronunciation but often the Indian students will have a little bit of accent interference and that's not a problem but when you combine speaking very quickly with a little bit of accent interference that causes an issue because the examiner can't understand 100% of what you're saying and that will lower your score to a 6 for pronunciation so you will be able to help you with that hello Tommy come here look hi Tom hi say hello how are you I'll be up in 5 minutes okay I know it's ready 5 minutes alright you're telling me my breakfast is ready sorry for interrupting so now we've talked about speaking do you want to talk about writing now what scores were you getting in writing before you joined us in my first attempt I got 6 and the second attempt I got 6.5 between my first and second attempt I just follow your dollar one course like you used to do previously so I just go through your videos and try to learn on my own like what is the structure I need to follow and I could see an improvement of 0.5 there and after joining the I'll school in my area I couldn't find any improvement in my writing like they were just telling what you need to write but they're not identifying my mistakes so I decided to join your VIP group and I submitted my first for the correction service and I was so shocked and I felt really bad because I got 6 in my writing and you people were literally able to identify each and every mistakes even in the sentence like articles the subject verb agreement the tenses like I could see these many mistakes I was doing it so that's where I realized like I was not getting the score what I want because of all these mistakes then what I did was I did so much of things in between I made like a mini plan like I started reading books I started reading articles and I did so many things to improve my grammar because grammar was my biggest part especially the articles so I did so many things and the second time I took almost 3 months between my first and the second essay and when I submitted my second essay I got 7.5 so I was so happy because I did so I put so much of effort and hard work in that and I got the scores and again I submitted my third essay there I got 7 but still articles was an issue at that point so I was trying to work on it then at one point I decided maybe I'll just book for an exam and I will give a try to check what is the improvement I have made then surprisingly all my scores were I was so happy and I thought like maybe I got the score whatever I needed and you got a band 7 in writing overall at the end so two things number one it's really satisfying to hear you say after my first correction I took a lot of time to work on those things because when somebody sees our corrections they just see all of the mistakes and it's quite like oh my god what am I going to do because it's just red, everything is red when I first opened that pdf everything wasn't red exactly everything was I was like what is this even in IELTS I got 6.5 but here I'm getting 6 that was so hard breaking but I knew like because of my mistakes you're giving the corrections I could figure that out it's difficult for me as a teacher sometimes because if you tell people you've made this mistake this mistake this mistake this mistake this mistake it can be a little bit demotivating but also it's my job to tell people exactly what the situation is so that they can fix it but the most satisfying thing is when people see that for the first time they react in one of three ways number one they either pretend that you know put their head in the sand and pretend that everything is okay when it's not and they don't take any action number two they just immediately go and do another essay instead of actually focusing on the mistakes number three some of them which is the correct way which is they look at each mistake and they work on fixing those mistakes and then they're going to see improvement so it's very satisfying to hear that you did that and that's why you were successful when we talk about in the mindset course you need to see each mistake as an opportunity improvement points yeah because some people look at mistakes and think that oh no I'm going to fail and other people look at mistakes and think good now I know exactly what to do to improve it will help you to avoid the mistakes whatever we are going to do in my real test so it is actually you should take it as an improvement point for us exactly exactly and I know that's difficult I know it's not nobody likes to be told you're not good enough yet or you need to work on this and nobody likes to hear that but if you have the right mindset you're going to really really improve and I'm so happy that you watched the mindset course that we include and you got it from that and the daily motivation stuff that we do exactly even I felt frustrated at many points and I almost gave up at so many points and I thought like even if I if I'm not feeling good I would write email to your team and I would like to thank Mike Jason and Sam like they always motivates me and they reply back me in a short span of time saying that maybe you should take a break like just give a break when you're studying for continuous hours maybe like once in a week you should not think about IELTS at all because that is also really needed because if you constantly think about IELTS nothing is going to work out you should give your brain some time to relax and to focus on other things like you should have a healthy routine so that it will help you to boost your confidence and your mental power sometimes you just need sometimes you need because you feel like you're hitting your head against a wall and nothing is getting better and sometimes you need to just step back and allow your brain to actually learn something and relax a little bit and then you can come back and see oh I have improved and I need to keep going so it's knowing when to work hard and when to take it back and that's difficult for everybody including me I find that difficult so well done so any other last advice before we finish the video any other if you if you were giving yourself advice one year ago what would you maybe tell yourself maybe like give yourself enough time to prepare because I feel like many people are they want the marks in a short span of time like they may be pressurized they may be like they have their visa interview or some kind of a commitment so they're just rushing to attend the exams like they're not actually improving it so give yourself enough time get yourself assist by a proper mentor who know what else really is all about and try to improve try to make a mini plan like based on your work schedule and try to work on it like surround yourself with English what I actually did was in a day I would read at least 5 pages in a book maybe any journal and I started reading BBC articles like education the topics related to education travel ads because those points helped me in my speaking as well as in writing and I started watching web series continuously like maybe 2 episodes per day and I started watching some Ted Talks because those will be really helpful with the lexical resource every time whenever I hear a Ted Talk I would get at least minimum 2 or 3 new words I would straight away not go and jump into dictionary to find out the meaning I'll just try to understand the meaning of it from the sentence whatever they're trying to convey and I will compare with it the dictionary meaning so it will be so that I will not forget easily so it will stay with me for a quite span of time so these are things I did it almost maybe like 6 months continuously and for speaking what it was I daily I took a mock test with my roommate and I attended zoom session like every week and try to incorporate what are the comments they are giving in my weekly mock test so daily I used to practice that and also for writing I try to write at least a letter and essay daily and post it in the FB group so that people will give me feedback like I was constantly doing all these things and I was not worried about my results that is the most important thing you should stay positive and you should not be worried about the end result you should see only the progress and how far you're exactly the process and also the progress how far you're going to make it so these are the things if you just look at the end result all the time if you're trying to you know if you're focused on a band 7 and you're trying to just get to a band 7 every day you'll never get there because you'll be frustrated every day but if instead of focusing on the result focus on the process which is improving your vocabulary improving your grammar, improving your writing improving all of these different things just focusing on the daily work and then you will look up one day and be like oh I'm at a band 7 it's like if you're swimming if you were swimming from one point to the next and you look up every after every stroke you'll be very frustrated but if you keep your head down then you just get there before you know it you know so that's an excellent advice and also during on your test day you should not worry about whatever you have done in the past or the marks you should give your 100% even if I'm particular in listening if you miss out one question like if you didn't hear what was the answer leave that and move on because you should not panic and you should focus properly so that is the key point and in speaking you should be very natural like you're talking to a person and you should try to put the standardized phrases and the fancy words because that is not going to work out at all because examiner will immediately find out like these are the things that people have already memorized it is very easy for them because they have seen so many people yeah so see someone who got a band-aid didn't use fancy phrases or fancy words I don't know how many times I have to say this but I'm very very proud of you because it's very satisfying for me to give people the advice and then someone takes it and then actually gets the scores that they need because we give a lot of advice in the group free advice but not many people take that advice and actually do the things and the people who do everything that we say they always get the scores that they need and I know we have very high standards and we expect people to work very hard but it's the only way you know there are no tips or tricks or hacks and you know and if you do the work you'll get the scores that you need and thank you so much for sharing that yeah congratulations again and I wish you all the best luck in the future is it Canada you're going to? yeah I'm applying for Canada excellent well good luck in the future and if you need anything in the future always feel free to get in touch I miss all those zoom sessions because I can't attend right now excellent well thank you so much again and thank you for helping everybody who's watching hi everyone Chris here from Isles of Vantage with another success story today we have Alba who recently got a band 8 overall am I correct band 8 overall and she is coming over to Ireland to help us out soon and she has agreed to share her success story with you guys so that you can learn from Alba so Alba can you start off just by introducing yourself to everyone yes well I'm Alba and I'm from Spain and I joined the chorus this Christmas the last Christmas and I just work really hard and go and I went all through all the models that Chris has there complete all of them practice as much as I could as he always advice and it took me three times but I finally did it excellent and can you tell them a little bit about like what scores were you getting before when you tried to get the scores that you needed yes I was pretty close honestly every time because I always got like 7, 7, 7.5 and always the famous 6.5 in the writing that was exactly the same two times in a row and after I got 8, 8, 9, 8 and the 7 in the writing excellent you got band 9 in reading 8 in listening and speaking and the 7 in excellent amazing so when you were going through the course or we were giving you feedback could you identify the reasons why you were struggling or what were the big challenges that you had yes always so I was like focusing just in the key mistakes that they in the feedback I already had and I think that was the key of the of the success because if you have a lot of them as you always say once you raise then your score rise a lot and what were those key challenges that you had in me in my case it was the articles a review and always the third person that I always I was always missing that in the in the writing I don't know why and they were the fossilized ones that you always say in the course and what else and was mainly that and keep it simple because I was always trying to impress the examiner and trying to maybe look fancier or something like that and in the last try I did it really simple and it was when I got the 7 yeah I've noticed that with a lot of dentists and doctors I think it's because you guys have gone through medical school and it is you're dealing with complex things all the time and often especially with the more intelligent the person is the more complex they make everything and it's often they have a fear of writing in a simple way because they're like oh if I write in a simple way I'm going to fail again. Is that how you felt? Sometimes yes because sometimes I have the feeling of if I write in this simple it sounds like a primary school you know but making it more complicated it was always more mistakes always so I just kept it simple and it worked yeah and you mentioned also that you had some mistakes in your articles for example so often what we will see is that the student will use complex ideas and then find it difficult to explain those clearly and then when you combine that with lots of small grammatical errors you read the essay and because it's complex but the grammar isn't the best either it makes it very difficult for the reader to understand if you have clearly answered the question whereas if you write in a primary school way of just like you know this is a very simple obvious answer I think one of the other difficult things is writing your explanations in that way I was working with students today and we had to it was a question about tourism and how tourism increases pollution and then I said you know you have to explain how a car if you turn the car on that creates pollution and the students were like well everybody knows that why do I have to explain that the commoner doesn't know you know that and I think a lot of people fear maybe that's a dentist or a doctor thing as well where they are used to talking to other very intelligent people who just know everything that they're talking about and they find it difficult to explain things in a simple way would you say that well I don't think I am that intelligent or my friends are but maybe maybe yes maybe we try to we take things for granted and if you take things for granted then you are not conveying the meaning because if you say if you are writing a thought that you have and you are trying to convey something but if you didn't explain from where it is coming from you are not doing anything I was at the dentist yesterday with my little boy and he explained in a very simple way there is a hole in your tooth and when you eat sweets the sugar goes into that hole and it makes it go crazy okay okay he is 6 years old but that's like the level of explanation that you need in an IELTS essay just cause and effect exactly if you do this this will happen just read the sentence it was my trick and I asked myself what are you trying to say here what are you trying to convey it really says what you are trying to say or it doesn't make any sense just rewrite the plain in a more simple way exactly you also talked about that you had problems with articles this is a very common problem for most English learners how did you overcome that problem I took the course that you have there it really helped what process did you go through with that course I took the course and after follow your advices of reading a lot and paying attention of the articles that they were following the rules that you said in the course and just practice yeah I think the best writers I know are the best readers they read a lot so you could get a book that you are interested in and while you are reading just notice if it is articles for example every noun that you see look before the noun why did they use the definite article why did they think about what rules apply to this and that will help you while you are reading you will also improve your grammar and vocabulary and your ideas if you are reading each day so that's really really good advice and if you if there was another dentist who was struggling with the same problems as you what advice would you give them I would say keep it simple don't try to to get the IELTS scores if you don't have the level of English that you need for example for Ireland you need a C1 if you don't have a C1 no matter how many courses you take you need to have first the C1 and after learn how to use your level to get the scores absolutely because it's a lot of people think that it's an English test and then other people think that you need just test techniques so it's not like you have a system and you learn the system and you just pass it with the English that requires the band that you are looking for and after learn the system the one that you teach to reach that band with the level that you already have because it's not a course of English it's a course of how to optimize your English for IELTS and at the end of the day it is a communications test because the testing when you move to Ireland is going to be a letter to a patient or an email to your new boss explaining that this thing has happened can you clearly explain that to them and that's another reason why we teach the simple method because when you move if I was your new boss and I asked you why have you done this thing and you send this very complex essay with and I can't understand it you know good communication is just clear and simple as possible exactly, it's a communication test you have to convey always meaning thank you so much Alba you will be moving to a place very close to my brother and about two hours away from me so if you need any advice on moving to Ireland thank you I will need it for sure and it's a wonderful place that you're moving to and I wish you the best of luck thank you very much Chris thank you for all because this is thanks you it's our team and you your team thanks very much


Iran-backed groups targeted the U.S. base in Al-Omar oil field in Derezzar countryside with missiles, where some missiles landed in Al-Qariyah Al-Qadr that is near the field. However, no casualties were reported, according to Al-Mayadeen Channel. Meanwhile, explosions were heard in areas of the Iranian militias in Derezzar countryside, after international coalition forces launched airstrikes on Ain Ali Shrine in Al-Mayadeen desert. However, no casualties were reported.3 explosions were heard in Al-Mayadeen city in Derezzar countryside, after U.S. forces stationed in the U.S. base eastern of Derezzar fired missiles on military checkpoints of Iran-backed militias in the vicinity of Al-Mayadeen city in Ain Ali Shrine, where these positions are considered major checkpoints of these militias, coinciding with the flight of warplanes over the region. Drones of unidentified sources, which are believed to belong to U.S. forces, targeted a farm in Al-Shia Bliyari in near Al-Mayadeen city in Derezzar countryside, where Al-Amam al-Sadiq militia that belongs to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards used the farm to store missiles. Since October 19, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 116 attacks carried out by Iranian-backed militias on coalition bases in different areas across Syria.