Fodd Fylusaeth sgwetthaf ac yn gwneud i gael eich f tunaa hwn, Cazerdogdill Hywr angen? Fodd Fylusaeth angen, yn gwneud i gael eich fflasiwn i gael digwydd ddiag i ddweud i gael eich fflasiwn i gael eich fflasiwn i gael i Peirhanol. Cazerdogdill Efallai y mี o oedd ymdangosau sgwethaf o'r Eidliadol mewn tungur o'r eithaf o'r bwrnau yn gyffinno agliadau newid. In February, teachers told this Parliament that it could be a catastrophe. Head teachers warned of a disaster. They asked to delay the new hires and ministers chose to ignore those warnings. Last week, it all ended in tears, specifically the tears of pupils trying to set higher maths, which has widely been condemned as flawed and too difficult. Over 17,000 pupils and parents have signed a petition in protest. What has the First Minister done about it? The picture that Kezia Dugdale seeks to paint of our exams is an unfair one. It is an unfair one to pupils who are studying so hard right now for those exams. We know that the annual exam diet is a tense time for students and their parents, and young people work hard throughout the year. I do not think they deserve that kind of characterisation of the system. Obviously, we are aware of concerns that have been expressed about the recent higher mathematics exam, and we take those concerns very seriously. The Scottish Qualifications Authority is responsible for ensuring that exams are set fairly and that they are set to the correct standards. It is also responsible for ensuring that rigorous processes are in place to ensure that candidates get fair treatment every year and that standards are maintained. The Scottish Qualifications Authority has assured us, and more importantly, the people of Scotland, that no candidate will be disadvantaged if any exam paper is proven to be more demanding than it was intended to be. That is why those processes are in place every year, and they are there to make sure that our students who work so hard get the best treatment because that is what they deserve. With respect, Presiding Officer, it is the concerns of teachers and parents that I am bringing to this chamber. The First Minister is right that the SGA has said that it will change the pass marks, but changing the pass mark can only help candidates who tried the questions. Those who were too upset to complete the exam or spent too long trying to interpret the questions will get no benefit whatsoever. However, that is the SGA's answer. I asked what the First Minister is doing about it, because the Minister is perfectly happy to sit back and allow the Scottish Qualifications Authority to attract all the accusations and criticism. It was the Minister who forced the authority to introduce the new examination, and the Minister should have been able to prevent such a deplorable outcome. I hear that SNP-backed benches are not happy with that, but those are not my words. Those are the words of Nicola Sturgeon when she was shadow education minister back in the last Estuary crisis. Does the First Minister agree with Nicola Sturgeon that politicians should stop passing the buck? Of course, what Kezia Dugdale is referring to there is the episode under the last Labour Government when there was a comprehensive failure of the administration of the exam system. What we are talking about here is the content of the exam paper in a particular subject. I am sure—at least I hope—that Kezia Dugdale is not seriously suggesting that the First Minister, or indeed any other politician, should either set or mark the exams that our young people sit. The responsibility of the SQA is to ensure that exams are set to the correct standard. The SQA has given assurance that the live question paper for the maths exam was designed according to the course assessment specification for higher maths. It was developed by experienced teachers and both the current and the new higher maths papers were overseen by the same principal assessor. More importantly, as I said in my original answer, the SQA issued a statement last week, making clear that it has not new processes in place to take account of this. It has standard processes in place to moderate results each year if a paper proves either to be unexpectedly difficult or unexpectedly easy. The point of that is to ensure that consistent standards are maintained year on year. The SQA has also emphasised that no candidate will be disadvantaged if this year's exam is proven to be too difficult. The SQA also said that, as I would assume Kezia Dugdale would know, that it will take account of pupils sitting in that exam who were distressed because they thought that it was more difficult than expected. Those are the processes that are in place to ensure that we have a consistent and a consistently high-standard exam system. It is right that it is overseen by the professional SQA, and I would assume that that assurance would be positive for Kezia Dugdale and, more importantly, for parents and pupils across the country to hear. We are talking about the future prospects of thousands of children across Scotland. In January, I alerted the First Minister to the fact that the SQA appeal system is not fit for purpose. Access to it now depends on the school's ability to pay, and appeals have been replaced by reviews and remarks that take no account of circumstances on exam day. Parents in private schools are paying for a second mark of their children's exams. They can even pay extra for a priority review for just £39.75 as advertised on the SQA website. The appeal system is about to be tested to destruction by this year's higher math exam. It has been four months since I last raised this. Has the First Minister done anything to fix this unfair and unjust system? The implication lying behind Kezia Dugdale's question here that somehow better-off parents can buy better exam results for their children is simply not true. The SQA introduced its new post-results service in 2014 to replace the former appeals system. The new service is the result of very wide-ranging consultation between the SQA, schools, colleges and other education professionals, who all recognised that a review of the appeal service was required. The new service was introduced precisely so that there was a fairer, more rigorous system in place. I say this in all sincerity. Those are important issues. I do not, for a second, deny or demur from that point. However, it is not fair to pupils around this country right now to come here with particular concerns such as the concern over the higher maths paper, which has been addressed and will be addressed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, and somehow suggest that our entire exams system is flawed. Why is that not fair? That undermines the efforts and is in danger of undermining the results of those students who have worked so hard to achieve exam passes. Where issues are raised by pupils and parents, as was the case with the maths exam, they will be addressed and responded to. We will do that responsibly, and we will do that while still wishing all the students across the country who are still sitting exams the very best of success. The First Minister questions the unfairness of this. Perhaps I can remind her of what Larry Flanagan said when I last brought this up. Appeals should be based upon the professional judgment of teachers rather than on the wishes of the parent, and what is now happening is fundamentally wrong. There are serious concerns and she should reflect on that. We heard this week that 25 per cent of medical students come from private schools. Some of the pupils who are defeated by this unfair exam in maths and those who are in chemistry today might have been hoping to change that. They are afraid that their chance could be gone, and so are their parents. The back benches are gafoing, but here are a couple of quotes. Chloe Thompson from Hoik, I have studied very hard all year in preparation for my exams in the hope of attaining five A's in order to apply to university to study medicine. This dream now seems completely out of reach due to the awful maths exam that I endured yesterday. Alana McRone from Dumfries, my son studied hard for this exam. He came home devastated afterwards, and this has added to extra stress to him as he still has exams to sit. The First Minister took two pages of the daily record this week to tell us how well she was served by the education system, but perhaps she should worry more about what is happening in our schools today. The appeal system and the new exams need sorted out. She said that education is her sacred responsibility. Surely it is time for some divine intervention from this First Minister. The First Minister is very clear indeed that Kezia Dugdale was not listening to a word that I said in my earlier answers, or maybe she was listening and just could not change her script to respond to it. Kezia Dugdale read out the very distressed comments of somebody who had sat the higher maths paper. I have huge sympathy for anybody who sits in an exam and comes out of it feeling like that, but surely Kezia Dugdale's responsibility is to relay back to that young person the assurances and reassurances that the SQA has given and that I have outlined in this chamber today. Let me repeat it. No young person sitting the higher maths exam will be disadvantaged if it is found out that the exam was more difficult than intended. How can we say that with confidence? The SQA has the processes in place every single year to moderate results to take account of the fact that an exam might be found to be easier or harder than was intended. Those are the systems that are in place precisely to protect against the understandable fears that that young person has expressed, but instead of trying to play up those fears surely Kezia Dugdale's responsibility is to join us in reassuring that young person. I think that that would be more responsible. I do not think that Labour members who are shouting abuse across the chamber right now are remotely interested in the fortunes of our young people. As always, of Labour members is simply to hurl abuse at the SNP and that will not be lost in anyone. I wanted to come on to the second substantive and important point that Kezia Dugdale raised around the new system for appeals. Now, as with all SQA charges and it is important to emphasise this, local authorities will meet the costs of requests by any public sector schools to use the service. The Association of Directors of Education in Scotland made clear in a statement back in February that no young person will be disadvantaged under the new system. Headteachers are also clear that decisions are made on an educational basis, not on a cost basis. Ken Cunningham, the general secretary of school leaders Scotland, said that the decision to appeal will not be reached based on looking at the books but on what schools feel is right for their pupils. Those are the kinds of assurances that are important for our young people and instead of trying to scare monger, Labour should be doing their bit to get those assurances out there. The First Minister is meeting parents from the fair funding for our kids programme today, which is a campaign group dedicated to ensuring that promises made on childcare are actually delivered. We spoke to them this morning and they raised the case of a single mum in Glasgow called Marisa. She is working now, but last year, when she tried to get back to work, she had to turn down three separate jobs because she was restricted to three hours' nursery each morning for her four-year-old daughter. For a woman trying to get back into the workplace, that is not good enough. She needs to be able to fit the hours of nursery around the demands of her job, not have to reject jobs to fit around nursery hours. Parents should be able to take their free nursery hours whenever they want and wherever they want, and surely the First Minister would agree with that. I do have a lot of sympathy with that. On the case that Ruth Davidson has cited, she is absolutely right to say that I with the Education Secretary will be meeting fair funding for our kids later this afternoon. This will be the second time that I have met them. I am very happy to take the case study that Ruth Davidson has cited and look into that in particular. Let us put the issue into context. We have, as a Government, increased entitlement to childcare for three and four-year-olds by almost half, up from 412 and a half hours when we took office to 600 hours a year right now. We have ambitions to go even further. That commitment is fully funded. Uptake is high. Every child is offered a place. There is certainly no evidence to suggest that children are not offered places. However, that said, I do appreciate—this is the substance of the discussions that I will be having with fair funding for our kids later—that some parents believe that there is insufficient flexibility and choice in the implementation by local authorities to enable them to take up their entitlement. For example, a patient who is offered a place at a council nursery that perhaps does not suit their working patterns and then cannot get funding in a partnership nursery. We have given a commitment to look firstly at how we improve the gathering of data so that we can get a better idea of the extent of that particular issue. Secondly, to look at how we work with local authorities to make sure that there are increasing levels of flexibility and choice in the system. There are examples of very good practice already around the country. I commend Ruth Davidson and the examples of the council in this city in Edinburgh and Dumfries and Galloway Council, who offer places in any of their partnership nurseries as long as a place is available. We will continue to look at how we improve the system, but let us be clear, Presiding Officer. Those are issues that arise out of an expanding system. They are issues arising because we are improving the provision of childcare and we will continue to do that. Once again, we seem to have an acknowledgement of an issue, warm words, someone else's problem but no actual clear plan. Listening to the First Minister just then, it is no wonder that fair funding for our kids said just this morning that there is a great deal of smoke and mirrors around the free nursery policy. No one is on top of how it is being delivered. I tell you what, it is certainly not delivering for people like Marissa. As always, it is not the better off families that are hurt most. It is the single parents or the families on low incomes who have no other options. The 600 hours of childcare is there to help families, but it is only a help if they can choose when to take it. Can the First Minister give us assurance that we have had enough of the smoke and mirrors and that, when she meets parents today, she will simply promise them something like more flexibility and a real plan on its delivery? I do not expect the leaders of any of the opposition parties to listen to my answers and then treat them fairly, but any objective person listening to the answer that I gave to Ruth Davidson would not have heard me say it is someone else's problem. They would have heard me talk in quite some detail about the work that we are seeking to do with councils because councils are statutially responsible for implementing early care. There are many parties across this chamber who frequently and wrongly accuse this Government of being centralising, but then when we trust local authorities to implement policies, they tell us that we should centralise the responsibility, so they should make up their mind what side of this they are on. Ruth Davidson is right that this is an issue of real importance to parents in Scotland. The vast majority of parents are accessing and benefiting from the policy that is in place. There are a small number of parents who believe that there is not sufficient flexibility in the system. We need to understand exactly how many that is, and that is why I have committed to the further work. On an on-going basis, we are seeking to introduce greater flexibility. We have introduced a statutory responsibility on local authorities to consult parents about the flexibility that is required. As I have already said, many councils across the country are already delivering this policy in a more flexible way than some others. That is on-going work, and we will get on with doing it and let the opposition carp. The First Minister knows that porters from Ninewell hospital are in a long-running pay dispute. They are being paid less than other porters in NHS Tayside hospitals. This is a matter of fairness. The porters are here in Parliament today. Will the First Minister now ask NHS Tayside to bring in ACAS to resolve this dispute fairly and let the porters get back to work? First, I take the opportunity to welcome the Tayside porters to the gallery today.  I had the privilege of meeting some of them when I attended the STUC Congress a few weeks ago. More importantly than that, they, with porters right across the national health service, do an absolutely fantastic job. They are often among the unsung heroes of our health service, the people without whom the health service would not be able to deliver the excellent patient care that it does now. As Jenny Marra will be aware, discussions around this particular dispute are on-going, and the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee's stack, which is the appropriate body within the national health service bargaining framework, is involved, has spoken to both sides, has had a number of exchanges over the past two weeks. I am very hopeful that that process will lead to a resolution. It is right and proper that we allow it to reach its due course, but I am hopeful that it will lead to that successful resolution. I hope that all of us will join with us today in thanking not just the Tayside porters, but porters everywhere across our national health service. To relieve Scottish fishermen from the financial burden of new EU rules on the discarding of fish, Ian Duncan MEP secured a change in EU law, ensuring that the Scottish Government covers the cost of transporting and storing unsellable catch. However, it has emerged from correspondence with the Shetland Fishermen's Association that Marine Scotland is refusing to foot the bill despite its new obligation under EU law. Can the First Minister explain why the Scottish Government will not support Scottish fishermen, and can she further explain why, in not complying with the law, the Scottish Government is willing to pay financial penalties to Brussels that are greater than the cost of supporting the Scottish fishermen in the first place? Jamie McGregor raises what certainly sounds like an important and serious issue. I will undertake to him today to look into this issue, to discuss it with the fishing secretary who is sitting a couple of rows behind me in the chamber right now, and we will write to the member with a detailed answer to the question. If the member, when he receives that detailed explanation, wants to meet with Richard Lockhead, Richard Lockhead will be very happy to meet him. Nigel Dawn Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. The First Minister will be aware of a very serious road accident that occurred on the A90 in my constituency at the Lawrence Church South junction last Friday, and I am sure that she shares my concern for those who were affected by it. Given that the junction has already been identified as one that does need to be grade separated, can the First Minister give me any assurance of how quickly that will be done, please? My first thoughts—I am sure that this is the case for everybody across the chamber—are with the individuals involved in the accident, and I extend my very best wishes to those who were injured for a speedy and full recovery. The circumstances of the particular accident that the member raises will obviously need to be fully investigated, and he will know that the Scottish Government, working alongside Nestrands, Angus and Aberdeenshire councils, is currently examining whether improvements are required to the Lawrence Church South junction. Indeed, Transport Scotland will publish a study next month, which will then help to inform how access to that junction can be improved. When that study is published, I know that the transport minister will be very happy to meet Nigel Dawn to discuss it further. Question 3, Willie Rennie. To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the cabinet. Matters of importance to the people of Scotland. Willie Rennie A freedom of information request has found that 350,000 Scottish photographs have been added to the police national database. The biometric commissioner has concerns about accessing that database using new facial recognition technology that does not have legal underpinning. Does the First Minister agree with the biometric commissioner? First Minister Well, in all of these things, the right balance has to be struck between the need to protect the public and keep communities safe, and the need to safeguard the rights of individuals. Police Scotland operates in accordance with human rights and data protection legislation. Scottish legislation regulates the information that is uploaded by Police Scotland and how long that information is kept for. Legislation also outlines the alignment of case information and associated retention periods of those records. There are rules, regulations and safeguards in place. On the particular issue of facial recognition that Willie Rennie raises, he will be aware. I understand that the way in which Police Scotland uses this is more restrictive than certain other police forces in other parts of the UK. It is only images of those who are either convicted of or arrested and or charged with an offence whose image would be uploaded to the police national database, and it is only images of those convicted that will be kept on the database. I think that when we look at that balance between the need to protect the public and the very important need to protect civil liberties, it strikes me that we have got it right in this case. Of course, those things continue and always will continue, rightly so, to be kept under review. Willie Rennie. I thank the First Minister for that answer, but my question is not about the retention of the photographs in the database. It is about the photographs taken to check against the database that we are concerned about. There are strict rules on taking fingerprints and DNA to check against those databases, but the same rules do not apply to the photograph database. The concern is people's privacy. If the police can take photographs that say football matches or political demonstrations to compare those photographs with the database using this new technology, their safeguards are in place for fingerprints and DNA. Does the First Minister think that there are adequate safeguards covering photographs, too? I am very happy to look at that particular point in more detail and perhaps correspond or discuss this with Willie Rennie in the future. I suspect that, although those are matters for front-line police officers and those involved in the investigation and detection of crime, most routinely it will be images from CCTV cameras that will be used to identify people through the images that are held on the police national database. I am only speaking personally here, but if I or a member of my family was, for example, the victim of an assault in the street and there were CCTV images of somebody who there was a suspicion that might be guilty of that, I think that I would want that to be used to see if we could identify the perpetrator of that crime. Let us not lose sight of the purpose and the objective of that. It is to apprehend and bring to justice criminals. In my view, that is a good thing. However, yes, civil liberties and human rights are important. As technology advances, we have to keep the ways in which we protect those civil liberties under review, and we will always do that. I will look at the particular point raised by Willie Rennie and come back to him perhaps with some more detail once I have had the opportunity to consider it. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Queen's speech. The Scottish Government will be a constructive critic of the programme set out in the Queen's speech. The proposals from the UK Government failed to recognise that Tory policies were roundly rejected by the Scottish electorate earlier this month. Where we disagree with the provisions in the Queen's speech, we will make our opposition to those plans very clear. We will not support policies that continue with austerity, we will not support policies that put more children at risk of poverty and we will not support policies that put Scotland's membership of the European Union and our valuable human rights protections at risk. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Does she share my concerns that the Scotland Bill published this morning will not deliver the Smith commission proposals in full as promised, let alone those pledged in the pre-referendum vow? The UK Government had a very clear test today to deliver a bill that lived up in full in spirit and in letter to the Smith commission. The bill has been published within the last hour or so, and from my glance at it, I think that it falls short in almost every area. The bill, for example, does not contain the full welfare powers recommended by the Smith commission, and in some key powers it retains, unbelievably in my view, given the amount of concern that was expressed about this. It retains a veto for the UK Government on key policy areas. So, for example, if this Parliament wants to abolish the bedroom tax, as I hope we do, the UK Government would still have a right of veto over whether we could do it or not. I am sorry, but that is not devolution, so I hope that all parties will support us and indeed support the recommendations of the All Party Devolution Further Powers Committee as we seek to get a Scotland bill that really does live up to and deliver the Smith recommendations. To ask the First Minister how much revenue has been raised by the land and buildings transaction tax and the landfill tax since April 2015. Land and buildings transaction tax was successfully introduced by Revenue Scotland on 1 April. Revenue Scotland published its first set of monthly statistics on 21 May, based on returns submitted in April. Those show that a successful first month was over 7,500 returns received and almost £18 million collected and taxed from residential and non-residential property sales. Those results are in line with our expectations. We are, of course, in discussion with the UK Government on the impact of forestalling, which the UK Government has agreed to compensate us for. Scottish landfill tax is collected quarterly with the first returns due from landfill operators in August this year. Revenue Scotland will publish quarterly statistics for Scottish landfill tax from September 2015. I am sure that even Jackie Baillie will agree that this is an encouraging beginning for Revenue Scotland, which launched on time and on budget. I thank the First Minister for her response. If you were to look at the overall figures anticipated by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, you would probably be looking at figures in relation to about £41 million in the first month of operation. I absolutely accept how spying is seasonal, there was some for stalling and the figures may well improve. But what it demonstrates is the variability of these taxes, as will be the case with the new tax powers in the Scotland Bill. There is a direct relationship with ensuring continued funding for our public services. Given the importance of that, what capacity is the Scottish Government developing to support better forecasting and a robust fiscal framework? As Jackie Baillie rightly acknowledges, there is variability. That is why we make predictions on the basis that we do. In relation to LBTT, the early results are in line with our expectations. We always anticipated a degree of for stalling, which is precisely why the Deputy First Minister is in discussion with the UK Government about how we are compensated for that. In terms of her wider point about how we make sure that we have robust information underpinning the modelling and the projections, that is precisely why we are taking steps to put the Scottish Fiscal Commission on a statutory footing and making sure that, as we take more responsibility for more tax powers, the Scottish Fiscal Commission is properly equipped to do that very important job. To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government agrees with the concerns expressed by parents and pupils about the recent SQA higher mathematics paper. As I said earlier on, we all know that this time of year, with the annual exams, is a tense time for students and their parents. Young people work really hard throughout the year and, for many, the exams are the culmination of that hard work. Yes, we are aware of the concerns expressed about the recent higher maths exam, and, as I said earlier on in this session, the SQA is responsible for ensuring that exams are set fairly and to the correct standards, and it has rigorous processes in place to ensure that candidates get fair treatment. I thank the First Minister for that. I listened extremely carefully to her response to Kezia Dugdale. I do not think that the issue is quite so much that the maths higher was seen as particularly hard, as she rightly pointed out, SQA can address, but the structure of some of the papers and the style of questioning does not appear to be in line with what many schools adopting the new higher had in prelims. Given that half the schools actually opted to have the old higher, if she thinks that that, combined with the concerns of the criticisms that we had in this last week, reflects deeper concerns about the deployment of exemplar materials for the exam? I do not think that it necessarily does that, although those will be issues that we want to study very carefully. The double running of the old and new hires this year for one year only was, as a result of careful discussion, consultation and agreement, that that was the right thing to do. Liz Smith rightly acknowledges that there are processes in place to moderate results based on the difficulty or otherwise of exams compared to what they are intended to do. Of course, if there are other issues raised after the experience of the exam diet this year, the education secretary will raise those with SQA. I am sure that the Scottish Qualifications Authority would be very happy to meet Liz Smith to discuss those issues in more detail. We now move to members' business. Members should leave the chamber and should do so quickly and quietly.


Where's my coffee? This reminds me of my very first vlog. So there's been a beef. I can't even take it seriously. Hoop, mixtape, Isaiah Rivera. I didn't even say that right. Hoop, mixtape, Isaiah Rivera. Why does it matter? What's my take on it? You wanna know? Well watch right now. Nothing matters, nothing matters, but the people need to know, the people need to know. Okay. So, Hoop, mixtape called out Isaiah Rivera for using low rims. Did he use low rims? Is that true? Back number one, yes. On all his dunks? No, but a lot of LA Fitness rims are 9'9", or such. And I put that in every single video description because I'm the best. Nobody can live up to my standards, but I'm not saying he lied. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm gonna show you my two sides of what I think is going on. So, Hoop, mixtape called him out because they think it's bad for the dunking culture because I feel this is my opinion, I don't even know if this is what they think, but it would make sense that they are trying to legitimize the community. So if people are dunking on lower rims, especially inventing new dunks, which I think is the main point as Isaiah's incredibly talented and he's invented new dunks such as the 360 behind the back between the legs, that was on a lower rim. So if people just keep lowering the rim, looking forward to the community and where dunking is going as a professional sport, it makes everything look skeptical. The people that aren't as deep as we are in the community will see these dunks and immediately be skeptical that they're lower rims. Now that's why I think Hoop, mixtape was angry and mad. When it comes to Isaiah, I think he put low rims and he tried it because he's trying to push the limits of the game. I think it's fine that he's doing it on low rims. I think maybe he should have put the height. I don't think there's anything wrong with saying, oh, I landed it on 98, 99. Now next up is 10 feet or 910. Every fraction of an inch counts like I am quoted as saying. The only other thing is that he's trying to get views on Instagram. We have to remember Instagram is just a marketing tool. It's just something for him to raise his platform. In the grand scheme of things, if he raises his platform to a million followers, then he becomes a professional dunker, one of the best dunkers in the world, which he wants to be, which is why I think it's okay. And dunking goes farther than we could ever imagine and he was a big part of that because he was able to raise his platform. That's also good for the community. So should he have put the heights in the rim? It's up to me. It's up to the person. Isaiah, the reason why I think it's okay is because I believe Isaiah wants to be the best dunker he can be, which means 10 feet, which means competing in contests. He's not satisfied with that rim height. If he was and he was trying to scam the community and trying to sabotage it, which he's obviously not, then I would be upset. Long story short, conclusion, both sides. Hoop, Mixtape and Isaiah want to raise the dunk community. They're not trying to sabotage the community. They're trying to raise the sport. Isaiah might be trying to be a little more personal about it by raising his platform, but overall he wants dunking to be its own sport. He wants the best for the community. Hoop, Mixtape wants the same thing. They both want the community to do things. That's how I see it. I always bring the love. That's all I know how to do. It's all good. It's a great sign that the dunk community is getting serious and legitimate, which is a really awesome thing for us. It started from just a hobby to it's getting something super, super big.    Everybody's trying to do it. Have some integrity with yourself. And my community members, if you guys are watching me, put that rim height. We're not focused on that nine. We're going for that 10 feet. I've put it every single video. Hoops, I measured wrong. Sometimes I had my bounce wrong, but I'm always striving for that 10 feet. You know that. That's always a standard until our bodies evolve in 10 feet. It's like four feet because we're going to keep getting taller and it's going to get weird and gravity is going to get less or something. I don't think either one was trying to sabotage community. They both want to raise it. It's all love. Enjoy. Push yourself. Don't shortchange yourself by making progress by lowering the rim. Just have fun. Every milestone counts. Every fraction of an inch counts. Keep it going. And as Dunk Life, baby, if you want more information on my training, check out my daily frigging podcast where I fuel you every single day. And here's some dunks for my past week.  And one more note.  We go by the tenths of inches on this channel. Boys rapping. I love basketball TV. Check me out as a coach. More videos coming soon. And on my channel, current goals. Dunk easy on 10 feet in games on people's entire skull cavity. Dunk it on their throat. Dunk it on their entire family. Dunk it on my own team. I really don't care. I'm just dunking in games. One of the hardest things that I'm trying to do is make difficult things look effortless. For mothers, that's what I've done. But you have to learn how to learn and learn how to train yourself. Because everybody's body's different. Everybody's path is way different. So that's where my intents are. So check him out. You see this bruise? It was a 9-10 rim. But that's vert games right there. And he's on. That pushes you to be your best self. That's a dream you can't live without. Because then every moment of work is enjoyable. Because without that dream, you're just not happy. That's the type of dream I want you to go after.


This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Happy Aloha Friday and welcome to Perspectives on Global Justice Think Tech Hawaii program. This is your host Beatrice Cantelmo. Today's episode is devoted to democracy and we will have a very special guest with us, Laura Nevitt, Executive Director of the Democratic Party for the State of Hawaii. Join us in this exciting and candid dialogue about the State of Democracy in the U.S. under the Trump administration and about what the Democratic Party of Hawaii is up to and much more. On that note, welcome to our show, Laura. Oh, for having me. This is fantastic. Absolutely. So to all viewers who do not know much about you, just give us a little blabber. I will try to keep it short. So my name is Laura Nevitt. I came here in February to take over as Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. First time, they've had a full-time paid Executive Director in forever. So finally, decided to put some resources into that. So that's kind of exciting. I come out of campaign work. So I really have spent 20 years doing political campaigns, candidates, progressive Democratic candidates, and issues all kind of all over the country. I've worked in Minnesota and Wisconsin and Michigan and Louisiana and Washington States and Ohio and Iowa. So kind of been all over doing primarily like as a candidate, we're going to electing Democrats to office and a couple of issue advocacy pieces. So kind of this is my life and what I've done and love party politics. So that's kind of my passion. It's where I come from. And when Athens lost election, I was kind of horribly devastated by a loss for many reasons, not just from a party standpoint, but from a gender standpoint as well. I kind of crawled into a bed after election day and I think we've had a month to crawl back. A million of us. I thought it was dead. And it's the ones. Even after, yeah, and so we took about a month to crawl back out again. And when I kind of looked at what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to go work for a party, a state party, instead of going back to campaign work. So Hawaii just ended up coming up on my list, looking for an executive director. So I applied on a lovely whim. And lo and behold, they decided to hire me. It's been quite a joyous ride. I love being here. I love our members. I love the work that we do. And we're really in a state of trying to rebuild a state party that this is going to sound really strange. But because it's so blue here, it's an inactive party. They just haven't felt the need that they need to because what does it matter? We elect Democrats either way. And so trying to figure out how to move members into action around legislation or just helping, you know, the rest of the country. We did phone banking into congressional districts that were special elections this past year and trying to get people used to actually doing stuff again. So that's kind of where we're at. Very exciting. So well, let's talk a little bit about the Democratic Party's role with regards to not only working with constituents, but also elected representatives right now who are Democratic, but are they really not embracing Democratic values and bills and... Exactly. Well, this is the challenge, right? So you have what most people don't understand is while elected officials run as Democrats, we don't own them as a party, right? They run as a Democrat, but they are elected by their constituents. And so they really answer to that constituency because that's who left them. Our work is, you know, to grow our membership, have our members be someone that push on elected officials. We have legislative priorities that are important to us. And so, you know, we hope that as you're going to run as a Democrat and put a D next to your name that you're going to carry our mantle of what's important to us. That doesn't always happen. But when you don't have an active membership, there's no, right? Accountability away from... You know, that push and pull kind of has to happen. In a healthy democracy, you would have lots of things. You would have an active Republican Party. You would have active members. You would have elected officials that you're in conversation with. And you're all working together to kind of come up with good policies that affect people's lives, right? And in Hawaii, it's an interesting thing. While, you know, Democrats own the majority of elected seats, you've kind of lost the active membership in the Democratic Party, like I said, out of this sense of apathy. Like, why should we bother a Democrat that gets elected either way? And so that... And you certainly don't have an active Republican Party at all, right? They hold four seats in the house and that's like it.  And so we're trying to change that. We're trying to change that We're having better conversations with our elected officials. We're engaging our members. We're holding discussions and forums around issues as we get ready to go into a legislative session, right? Teach our folks how to like track legislation that they're interested in, you know, make sure you're in contact with your legislator, know how to get in contact with them, all those kinds of things, you know, which stuff that has not been happening over the years. So it's really back to the basics, which for me is kind of fun. It's about teaching people how to be civically engaged again, right? So at that core, that is fundamentally what we should all be doing anyway, right? And to me, in a true democracy, that's how you understand what people want, what the majority want, and that's how we should legislate. And so, but if you don't have that happening, you then end up legislators just kind of doing their thing. And so we as a party have to be better about them hearing from our members. And then an election time that we're out helping them get elected or not, right, depending on, and we're out knocking on doors and we're talking to our neighbors and we're having conversations. And this is what the Democratic Party is about and support, right? So all of that stuff kind of has to get re-activated with the Democratic Party in Hawaii. So sounds like you're going to be very busy. I am very busy and inspiring. It's in a good way. It's the work that I like to do. And in some ways, it's better for me no longer not to advocate for a specific candidate, but really, I'm advocating for democracy. I'm advocating that we be an engaged community around issues that are important to us. So let's talk a little bit about the core priorities that the Democratic Party holds right now. Oh, goodness. Well, we actually have, you know, we have a platform that we vote on every two years at our state convention, which will be happening next year. And so that's an ongoing thing that, you know, if you wanted to go to www.HawaiiDemocrats.org, you could look up our platform of resolution. And those are things that we fight for at a legislative level. Generally speaking, you know, we're about social justice and taking care of people and making sure that, you know, there's equity across the board for folks that are disenfranchised and doing that kind of work and making sure we're taking care of our Kapuna and, you know, our native Hawaiian family and doing all those kinds of things. So it's really, you know, a lot of, if you look at that platform and those resolutions, it really is about taking care of each other and making sure we all have opportunity and access to everything equally that there's, you know, trying to strike a balance. And so that's generally. So you just moved here on February. And I think sometimes it's really nice to have an outside and fresh look of Sutton's data. I'm also not from here. I've been here for three years now. What was it about Hawaii that you thought was together? And what's the reality? Oh, what are the things that you found? They're like, oh. Well, I think anytime anybody applies for a job in Hawaii, it really is like, oh my god, I could go work in Hawaii. Like it's this dream, kind of this idea of a dream place. You're going to go be in a tropical paradise, paradise, right? I know. However, that exactly. So you're like, why, you know, why wouldn't I do that? Right? That'd be awesome. And some of that is true, right? And it's certainly in terms of weather and, you know, being on the ocean, you know, those are the things for me and I'm very much affected by my surroundings. So I love that and that I can be outside every day. I come from Minnesota. So this time of year, we would be starting to get cold and layers would be happening and the start to shut the windows and the doors and the things. So I love that I don't have to do that. But the things that I that I found one that were the same anywhere I've been, like I said, I've lived in many different states. It's kind of the inside politics that happens. Party politics is kind of interesting and kind of the factioning and everybody thinks that they're, you know, we're way different than everybody else. And the reality is, I mean, in that, in that arena, you're not right. That is politics is politics. I don't care where you go. So, so we're right on the cuff. Right now, you're right where everybody else is. I think the downside, like I said, is the inactivity over the years has caused some inability to have probably some real political push where you would in other places. But that's, you know, something you can fit, you know, totally fixable and with work and building, you change that. And that's what we're working on. And that's really exciting to see happening as members are like, I just had a district chair in the other day and we've been putting together these manuals to like, because another one thing I heard when I caught here is like, we don't know what we're supposed to do. Like, nobody's told us what we're supposed to do besides show up for meeting. And even that, we're not really sure. So we actually said, okay, let's work with that. Let's give you instructions, right? So we put together, you know, we put together these binders that we're getting ready to actually pass out to all our districts that, like from a constitutional bylaw standpoint, here's your job duties. If you get elected as a, you know, let's say a district treasurer, like, what is it you're supposed to do? What are you responsible for? Right? And then here's some best practices, right? So giving them some guidelines and we go through the entire state party structure and like, lay it out for them. And then we're giving them stuff about why you should organize and how to organize in your community, right? And then just contact information for their state central committee and their state legislators. And they're like, you know, so it's kind of this really good resource that they can have in their district that they can use if they have questions that, you know, and I was just going through this with a district chair and they were just like, oh my God, this is fantastic. Like, oh my God, this is kind of, you know, we're really back to basics, but sometimes you got to do that. That's just the nature of the beast. You kind of, when apathy happens, that's you got to go back and start over. Well, the part of the apathy also has a lot to do with complacency, you know, when you feel so secure, you know, that nothing is going to change for much more so that it may not change for the better either. You just kind of put all that. And so then those very basic knowledge, you know, gets lost in the trenches. I actually have a suggestion for you. I'm Wisconsin, you know, I lived in Madison. And one of the things that the community did a lot was walking with the kids, starting an elementary school level. Yes. To not only help them understand how the entire process works, what is the role of each representative. And also what they could do. So even though they can't vote, I mean, it's an amazing practice to how to be able to go back to civics 101 in school, which they stopped teaching a long time ago. The challenge is most schools don't want a partisan group to come in. So we don't often get to go do that because they don't, that makes them very uncomfortable because it feels too political. So about, you know, there's working with like legal women voters and other organizations that are non-profits. Oh, bipartisan, perhaps. Oh, that's what I said, you know, how you get around that is go ahead and invite the Republican executive director or Republican chair, whatever, and have us both come in and talk about the difference between parties. But because really it is, it's about how do you engage in this. We know that the earlier you can teach someone to be participating and voting, if they can get them right out of the gate, they become lifelong. Right. And they have to grow up in a family where it's an important aspect of, right. Exactly. Like I grew up, my dad wasn't particularly political, but I just always remember him, you know, you always wouldn't vote it. They never talked about it per se, but just even the act that I knew every year, like this was, it was voting day. So I remember on my 18th birthday, I was off and cut my college. And while having never, like my parents, he never took me to the voting booth, but I just remember that my first 18th birthday, I got to go vote like, I got to go vote. It was a big deal. It was a big deal. And I'm just having that thing like, I don't remember anybody explaining that to me per se, like explicitly, but I just was like, it was just because I grew up in a family where like voting was what you did, right. That's wonderful. It was just part of life, right. So the sooner you can get folks to do that. So yeah, anytime you can get to kids early. Absolutely. Especially if they grew up in a family where their parents don't vote. So you have to get at them some other ways. So we're going to take a quick break and be right back. I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2pm, I hope you'll join me for a likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science. You care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for a likable science. Welcome back to Perspectives on Global Justice, Think Tech Hawaii. This is your host, Beatrice Contelmo. And we're here with Laura Nevitt-Nevitt, executive director of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. So here we are talking about democracy and voting, which is something that, you know, it comes so naturally. And yet so many people don't vote. Right. Or disengage politically. And we often forget how much we can take that for granted. Because of the privilege of living in a democratic country, I grew up, my former TV years, I was spent in Brazil. And so until 1985, it was under a military dictatorship regime. And so we had no democracy for decades, like the most old decades. And I remember as a child, being in awe and admiring democratic countries in the United States, being one of those countries that I so much aspired, that our country in Brazil would be more like in terms of democracy. And I think my generation, everybody was just so pumped and ready to be on the streets, to be civically engaged, to finally be able to learn about democracy and to be able to vote. You know, I was able to vote at the age of 18 for the first time. So proud. Like to think about my mother and my father, where they really never had a chance until 85 to really vote. And it's a huge thing. Well, I think, you know, we need more people like you in our lives, like where they come from places. I was before, while we were breakers, telling you we have an intern at the office who's from Tonga. And they just switched from being a monarchy to a parliamentary democracy. And so part of why he came to intern when I, you know, he's a student at BYU, which is why I kind of was like, interesting, not generally known to be Democrats. So I saw with it one day and was just like, okay, I kind of have to ask, like, what made you want to come, you know, intern at the Democratic Party of Hawaii, given kind of political, right? Not that I want to make an assumption about all, you know, BYU folks, but generally they tend not to. And so he said to me that he's like, yeah, you know, I'm from Tonga, this thing happened, they're in their first year of transition. And he is just passionate about wanting to be able learning everything he can about democracy. Because he, when he's go, he'll go home, he's in a senior year, he'll go home. And wanting to really make sure it sticks, right? That they, that, you know, we can continue a democracy. And when he said, you know, when I researched kind of both political parties, it ended up being kind of a no-brainer about which one more embraced that ideal than the other. And so I was like, wow. I was like, okay, that's, I mean, talk about inspiring.  We recently met with a bunch of wonderful gentlemen from India who came over through the state, through a leadership program through the state department, and so got to sit and talk with them about how democracy works in their country and the gender. You know, they were talking about the idea that they're actually trying to pass legislation that minimally requires that 33% of their parliament be women, right? With a goal of getting to 50 at some point. And so we talked about, you know, that how that was different from a country like America, where we're one of the only industrialized countries to have never have elected a woman as president. So let's talk about that. You know, it's an interesting, I had last year an opportunity that I kind of got to live in both camps for a while. So I, lots of very dear friends of mine, Hillary supporters. I was never an anti-Hillary. I've admired her for years as a woman in politics, not that I've ever experienced anything at the scale she has. I at least understand where that comes from, that misogyny in politics. And so it's a struggle, and so it's hard. So I've always just really that her fortitude is amazing. But I ended up going to work for Bernie Sanders for a while. And didn't, I last, I was there for about six months.   So kind of left that after having built up kind of the Bernie movement in Minnesota, and kind of basically having it ripped away from me in some pretty bad ways. But I think kind of kind of quietly left the scene for a while, because I didn't want to, you know, people who were supporting one other candidate support, you know. Again, whoever's going to inspire you to be engaged, I want you to do that, right? But I in the end kind of came back to Hillary because a lot of it around gender politics that I just really as much as I kind of appreciate the economic inequality message Bernie had. He never understood, Ronan only understood, but didn't seem willing to really be able to connect how gender and race impacted that inequality. And he really kind of wanted to erase that from the equation and really just said if we, if we fixed income inequality, that would fix everything. No, there's so much more to that. And I was just like, no, it actually doesn't. Yeah, you can't. I as a woman cannot disconnect my gender and what happens to me as a woman and how it impacts how much money I can make. I cannot separate those two things. As a woman of color, I'm sure that you even have the added, right? Oh, yes. And I didn't even go into it on top of it. So it was really hard to like talk, to like get his supporters or even, I think he understood it in some ways because he didn't, he didn't up surrounding himself with a couple of really amazing women like Simone Sanders and a couple other people, but generally he always seemed to kind of miss the mark on that piece. And so for me, ultimately, because I felt like he really couldn't get there. I just, in the end, and I am, you know, also felt like in the end, he really was about, because when he started the campaign, one of the reasons I could be supportive was, we have to make sure a Democrat wins the White House. That's how we started. And at the end it became, it was about Bernie winning the White House. And that and just kind of the gender stuff I realized I couldn't. I kind of came back. And then she went on to win the nomination. And I just honestly, I was one of those people that I'm like, having watched Donald Trump, who's like, I just, there was a piece of me that I honestly just was like, there's no way. No bias. There's no way that we could elect this man, given all of the stuff we knew about him, especially with the, you know, the tapes about the sex scandals. Oh, the kind of sojourney. And I was like, there's no way that we will elect. I mean, just as a country, I just couldn't. And so, you know, so when he ultimately did win, like there were two things, it was just the loss itself. But it also was the gut punch of a country saying to millions of women, it was more, more important that we elect, that I don't know, I don't know how to phrase this in the right way, so this might not come around. But the idea that like, we still couldn't elect a woman and so no matter how qualified and awesome and whatever she was, there, you know, when our choices were this woman and this horrible man, we went with the horrible man. And I just don't underthink a lot of people, whether you voted for him or not, understood the impact really of that. And mostly because we live in still horribly misogynistic society. Very patriarchal society. Very patriarchal.  And so, but I thought, you know, in at least that step, the next step, maybe we'd be okay, but instead we would even farther backwards as a reaction to kind of that. And sadly, we're all going to pay the price for that, right, in ways that I just don't even think, I mean, we're even seeing it the last couple of days. Every day, it feels like, is an onslaught on our freedoms, on democracy, our constitution, our country, everything we value. This man and this administration and this GOP Congress just have no regard for whatsoever. And it's more important for them to stay in power and pass tax reform for their rich friends than it is to actually take care of people, the average person. And I think like one of the positives of the despair of Trump administration, whether, even if you are a Republican supporter, is that the policies are impacting people across parties. I mean, and so at the one level, I hope that there will be chances for reparations where both parties will have to work in the bipartisan level, which I don't know if it's possible under this administration. But it's also igniting people who were either complacent about being civically engaged or who were involved, but maybe go a step further. And really looking that this is so beyond the gender issues, which is big. I mean, women are being so attacked under this administration, but so minorities, so immigrants and the poor, the middle class, there's really not much to call. And I think in some ways, you want a glaring example of all of that. Just look at Puerto Rico, you have Florida and Texas who experience the same devastation and you look at the different responses. And to me, that is purely one. I think we literally have people in Congress and our president who don't understand that Puerto Rico is actually part of America. But I think it also has more to do with their brown people and we don't care. And so it's the part of institutionalized racism and how government parties can continue to reinforce that pattern and not wanting to revisit it and fix it. Because it's not a problem to those who don't see it and don't want to see it. It doesn't have anything at all, so why do I care? And it's very hard. I can't believe how quickly our show ended. Please do it, I would love to have you back as many times as you wish. Bring guests along, let's have live conversations about this. Bring a Republican. I don't actually know nobody here though, it's just really funny. I actually know a couple back in Minnesota, but I haven't run a conversation. Oh, we can connect with them on social media and really have good forums. But I mean, thank you so much for bringing us so welcome, sister. I don't know, so that concludes another episode of Perspectives on Global Justice. Think Takawaii. Thank you so very much our viewers for watching us today. I hope that this program was inspiring to you. Plug along and be engaged, be involved and see you next Friday. Ahui ho.


Hello everybody, Andrew Maeski here with Dental L. So in my practice Dental L Mobile Hygiene I focus on prevention but much much more than that is I focus on the individual needs of every single person because we're all different. It's not just about having to brush twice a day and having to floss every day limiting sugar, drink lots of water, it's so much more than that. If I said that to everybody and then said okay thank you see you in six months I wouldn't be doing my job properly. So just another way how I am doing dental differently is I look at the whole person as an individual. So let's just say you have been to the dentist before and you get six cavities every time you come in. You were probably told in the past you know you need to brush twice a day you need to start to floss every day you need to not have sugar drink lots of water and see you in six months you know and that's it right but there's so much more than that. If you're getting a lot of cavities it's not it's probably not because you're eating sugar every day every second every day you know it's so much more than that. The pH level in your mouth is probably on the more acidic side and it just makes it easier to get cavities but the good news is that can be helped. So I would use something like a toothpaste let's see here a toothpaste that contains xylitol okay so whoops French side there we go xylitol. So it's so much more than just simply saying to use crest or Colgate because there's sodium fluoride in there and that does help to protect the teeth against cavities but you need to take it a step further where you don't want the cavities to have a chance to form in the first place right so with the sodium fluoride which you've all heard is a good thing for your teeth topically it does help to protect the teeth so it is wonderful stuff it is excellent stuff but at home I want everybody to be using a xylitol toothpaste because xylitol actually helps to neutralize the pH level in our mouth to not cause a cavity in the first place so if you're coming to me because you get cavities every single time you just simply think that normal it's not I'm going to ask you to use a different toothpaste see you back in six months I can almost guarantee you will not have a single cavity as long as you're using the toothpaste twice a day it is recommended of course to floss every day but not a lot of patients do and that's okay as long as you're able to use that toothpaste I might be seeing you more often for cleanings if you can't get in there in between the teeth every day but still you don't having to floss every day isn't the be all end all yes I said it I'm a dental hygienist but I'm kind of doing my own research with other things there are other things that you can do or what about you have sore gums all the time and you're afraid to go to your dental hygienist to get your teeth clean because your gums are so sore there are things that we can do so we can look and say okay why are the gums sore are they sore because you haven't had your teeth cleaned in 10 years that's possible all that means is that we do need to clean in there to get that plaque and tartar out the gums heal up so quickly you will be amazed but doing that cleaning would be uncomfortable but there are things that we can do to make the gums not feel any pain I like to use something this little bottle here it is a desensitizer so it's not your typical needle local anesthetic where they numb the whole mouth it's not that this is something that I can I I can actually apply to those areas that are sensitive it works right away and it's localized if it's been 10 years since your last cleaning I might have to apply it a couple times but it does work you will be amazed I have patients who I see and they and they ask for this every time they say can I have that desensitizer stuff because it does work this is the first cleaning that I have ever had that I have not been in pain and that's an amazing thing to hear this little bottle works it's magic you will be amazed you do not have to be sore for your dental cleanings even if it's your first cleaning in 10 years it doesn't matter I don't care I'm just happy to see you and clean those teeth I'm a dental hygienist it sounds crazy but I like dirty teeth because I get excited to clean everything off for you and then show you how amazing things can look let's take something else let's say you are cold sensitive all the time there are toothpaste that you can use to help to seal up those tubules actually in your teeth that are open causing that cold sensitivity reaction there are toothpaste that you can use to cover that like entire thing up it leaves a nice thin layer over the teeth that you're not cold sensitive plus you should be having a sodium varnish with the fluoride applied by your dental hygienists at least every six months I like to say even every three months because it just helps to really coat those teeth you will not be cold sensitive anymore using again my little desensitizer I can actually place this over those areas and it does last for six months you guys six months so I would apply this you would use that toothpaste and it works for six months you will not be cold sensitive anymore so it's so much more than just simply saying okay your teeth are cold sensitive use sensitine see you later thank you so much we need to be doing so much more another thing what if your mouth has limited saliva if you're one of those people where your saliva there's just not a lot in there your mouth is dry most of the time using toothpaste helps but but um specifically a toothpaste with xylitol xylitol helps to stimulate saliva finding a toothpaste in the store though with xylitol is next to impossible talk to me I can try to find something for you if you are a patient of mine I always have all of my fun stuff in stock so you can have this okay this makes you happier makes me happier the teeth the mouth everything is is a lot happier but if your mouth is dry along with a toothpaste you should also be using a mouth wash with xylitol it doesn't have to be this company but again try to find a mouth rinse with xylitol in it it's very very difficult this has 10 percent xylitol I believe yes use this twice a day it does help to bring back that saliva so it doesn't just cover things up and make the mouth feel better it helps to bring back saliva can we say amazing have you ever heard about this before probably not there are new things out there that works it it truly truly does I do a lot of research I attend the dental convention so I learn about all of this I test this first on myself on people I know plus I do my research so all of my stuff has been tested over the past five months and it works you guys I see children adults seniors it works you just have to take the time to kind of go what do you need what does she need what does he need figure dental cleanings do not have to be painful you do not have to be lectured about brushing and flossing it's so much more than that so just a way how I do dental differently I am very happy to help let me know you guys if you're a patient if you're a dental professional if you're a student talk to me I am more than happy to help anybody because it's so much more and it should be so much more than brushing and flossing thank you guys for listening and I'll see you in the next one


I interviewed four students who were struggling with IELTS reading and eventually got a band nine so that you can learn exactly how they did it. Interestingly, all four band nine students said the same four things and that's exactly what we're going to teach you in this video so you can go from struggling with IELTS reading to getting the score that you need more easily. Let's start off with Valentin who went from a band six in reading to a band nine. What tier would he have to say about strategy? I had a big struggle with destruction. I could be easily distracted by true false not given questions and I really hated all the questions related to topics so when you should place topics for different parts of the text I really hate them. So what Valentin said there was that he found certain question types distracting and he talked about hating true false not given and hating matching headings questions and this is very very common for students who deserve a very high score like they deserve a band eight or a band nine but they're getting a low score. They're getting a five or a six and the reason is that they hate certain questions which means that they go into the test and when they see the question they're very distracted as Valentin said and that wastes a lot of time and leads to lower scores. So in terms of overall strategy what we did with Valentin was give him a step by step strategy for true false not given and for matching headings and this removed all of the fear and ensured that he got all of those questions correct which improved his overall score and don't worry we will give you those strategies at the end of this video and the other students that got band nine will show you what they did for those questions as well but overall we want to remove any distractions or any fear from the test so that we can perform to our best ability on test day. Now let's check out what Priyanka said about strategy. So she went from band seven point five to a band nine. Each type of question has a trick like for filling the blanks or just answering the question you can skim the paragraph you should not read the whole paragraph but like for the true and false and match the heading questions like that you have to read the paragraph so you should focus your time over there instead of the matching or filling the blanks. So what Priyanka said was each question has a trick now I corrected her on that and said you know what you really mean is a strategy. So there are no tricks that you can employ but you can employ step by step strategies for each different type of question and this is something that every single band nine student that we interview they all say the same thing you must have a strategy for each of the different types of question you learn that strategy you apply it on test day and then you're able to do what Valentin and Priyanka did which was go from you know band six to a band nine or seven point five to a band nine and don't worry she's going to go into more detail on the matching heading strategy later in this video but let's check out what Jazwan said in the video and he went from a band six point five to a band nine a huge increase. You don't have to have in a good knowledge and vocabulary especially for the reading part the main skills you needed are you know skimming and scanning and understanding different formats of the exam I mean like different question types and as you can see he agrees with Priyanka what he says is that each different type of question is testing different things they are different therefore you need a unique strategy for each of the different question types this is a huge difference between students who get like a band five point five six six point five and the students that get band eight and nine generally the lower level students will have one strategy for all of the different types of questions whereas band eight and nine students will understand that each question is different and they will learn and apply a unique strategy to each of the different question types and we're going to give you all of those at the end of this video finally let's take out Shorbani Shorbani went from about six point five to about nine and what she says in this clip blindly follow the strategies totally I would say that all the strategies that I learned from I'll disadvantage I just blindly followed those strategies I used to be highly confused and used to take so much of my time thinking that where is the answer but when I got the strategies and I blindly just followed the strategies and that that was really helpful so band nine students don't just look at strategies they don't look at a few YouTube videos or read a couple of books and look at the strategies they memorize the strategies they practice the strategies so that on test day they can blindly follow them they are not deviating at all from exactly what the strategy does you might think that this is a lot of work but it's all about putting in the work before your test so that your test is easy when Shorbani talks about blindly following the strategies what she is really saying is that she didn't even have to think about the strategies she had practiced them so many times that when she saw each question she automatically without even thinking applied those strategies this makes test day much much easier because you are not thinking about what to do on the test you're automatically applying everything which reduces stress reduces cognitive load and not only improves your reading but also means you have far more energy to apply to the other three skills you will be doing on test day now let's look at what the students say more specifically about the two most difficult the two most challenging question types matching headings and true false not given so what Priyanka says about matching headings is this I always used to do is like I always read the questions and all the headings which question is asking us to but we should not do that we should just straight away go to the passage and read the passage and with each passage we should give them particular idea of that passage or write somewhere that idea so that in the last you can match it what's your idea and what's given in question so this advice shows you how important strategy is if you were not following the strategy you would be getting lost because what most students do is they look at the headings the questions first and then they read the passage that means that they're going to waste a lot of time and they're going to be looking for things that are not there and they're going to get highly confused not know what to do we do exactly the opposite we taught Priyanka to look at each of the question paragraphs first and actually create their own headings for each paragraph and then you'd look at the list of headings and it's much much much easier because all you have to do then is match your headings with the list of headings in the question there now let's check out what Jaswant has to say about matching headings I love your tips Chris you know before I used to start you know just going through the paragraphs and you know I used to do all that but then you told me that you know you know don't see the headings before even starting the paragraphs right so that's the one key important that helped me to you know score that perfect mind in the reading exam so exactly the same advice exactly the same strategy and when you see successful people doing the same thing there's a quote success leaves clues whenever you see successful people in any walk of life doing the same things you should copy them now let's check out what Shrabani has to say about matching headings when it comes to matching headings we have to read the passage first make our own headings and then match those headings with the headings given so you know practicing this strategies and remembering those strategies this takes couple of sometimes need a lot of slow slow practice so not only did Shrabani give advice exactly the same as the other two Band 9 students she also gave advice about how she learned the strategies because Band 9 students as I said before don't look at a strategy once they memorize it and she talked about slow practice slow practice is when you get some real practice tests and you don't try and do them as quickly as possible you don't do them under exam conditions you open up the book you find the question type that you want to work on and you work on learning the strategy not on getting all the questions correct it doesn't matter at that stage that is why we call it slow practice you might take 20 minutes for one question or one hour for one question because your focus is on learning your focus is not on getting up to exam speed so very very good advice from another Band 9 student there so I'll give you that matching heading strategy in a lot more detail at the end of the video for free but let's see what they have to say about true false not given because it is completely different so let's check out what Shrabani has to say about true false not given for true false are not given next for example I used to read the passage first and for not given questions I used to be highly confused and used to take so much of my time thinking that where is the answer but when I got the strategies and I blindly just followed the strategies and that that was really helpful so as you heard there Shrabani would read the text first for true false not given and this would lead to a huge amount of confusion and this has knock-on effects on the rest of your test is if you think about it if you get lost with one type of question it wastes a lot of time and it also really increases stress so a lot of students that we work with deserve a band 8 8.5 9 but because they mess up one part of the test that means that the rest of the test is messed up as well because you're running out of time you're very stressed when you're stressed your brain is not working optimally so it is really really important that you establish what your weaknesses are and have a strategy for each of the different question types so let's check out what Priyanka has to say about true false not given and the differences between what is true what is false and what is not given if you have read the paragraph first and then you are reading the question then it's really easy to know that it's not given in the paragraph so you should market not given so what she's saying there is not that she read the text the paragraph first and then read the questions she's talking about comparing the paragraph that you think contains the correct information and the question statement and if you can't find any information in there then it's not given and really what band 9 students say over and over again is you must develop the confidence to write not given because searching a paragraph for something that is not there is like me telling you to go into the next room and find something that is not there it's going to take you a huge amount of time and you're going to get lost and you're going to get confused by practicing the strategy that will give you at the end of the video it gives you the confidence to immediately look and say okay this isn't here I can't find it let's move on and not given and then she says when something is there so when something is there then you have to think about is it true or is it false so if it's not there not given if there's something in there related to the question statement then you decide is it true or is it false but when something is there and you can correct that sentence that means it's a false so what she said there was if you can look at the text and think this is wrong I can actually correct it I can change it to something that is true then that is false but there are many other ways that you can do that but that is a very logical way of thinking about it so first of all is it there if it's not there it's not given if it is there then you need to decide is it true or is it false if you can correct the statement then it is false if you can't correct it if it's the same then it is true importantly don't just look at this short part of the video and think that you have mastered true false not given questions you need the strategy and you need to practice it slowly you need to master it and then apply it on test day we'll give you that at the end of the video now let's move on to time management it's very common for students to email us and ask us for time management tips but what by nine students say is completely different from time management tips let's have a look at what Priyanka says actually I never faced problem with time management since I started practicing like from first day I was able to complete my test in one hour so she never faced an issue with time management at all does this mean that you can't learn from her no because this is reflected in what Jazwan said as well for reading I've did like more practice on it I was reading some online articles as you always suggested in the course like I've been going through when reading the BBC articles so that really improved my skills a lot so he talks here about reading in a spare time to be honest with you Chris I was more interested in like you know wildlife so I was reading more more that kind of you know things that interested me that will make you to you know I'll read anything with ease right I don't have to struggle with anything he talks about reading something that he loves reading about wildlife find any like new vocabulary I will make a separate note of it and then here he talks about making notes about new vocabulary what has this got to do with time management so both these by nine students were reading in their spare time they were practicing that skill they were reading things that they enjoyed so they were doing it sustainably and regularly and they were actively reading they were improving their vocabulary as they were doing it this means that time management is not an issue at all you do not improve time management by learning time management tips you improve time management by becoming better at reading let me give you a quick analogy so Usain Bolt was the fastest man in the world is Usain Bolt better at time management than these guys are these guys behind Usain Bolt because they don't have the same time management skills no Usain Bolt is better at running these guys are not as good at running as Usain Bolt exactly the same with not only the reading test but also the writing test students that get a band nine do not think about time management at all when I did the real IELTS reading test I got a band nine in 20 minutes after 20 minutes I just went to the toilet and then came back and just stared at the ceiling that is not because I did anything magical or looked up top 10 magic time management tips the night before the test in fact I was in the pub drinking the night before the test it's because I'm a native English speaker and I am an IELTS teacher of course I should easily be getting a band nine but there is one extra thing that band nine students do related to time management that lower level students don't do so there are three sections in the reading test section one section two section three and they will get more difficult as you go through them let's have a look at what Shrabani has to say about that what I did I did some time bounding practice and I checked that each and every section how much time I'm spending and I realized that initially I used to spend a lot of time in the section one and section two so I used to have very little time left for the third section in an Excel sheet I marked my times like I'm taking seven minutes usually initially I used to take 10 minutes after that it came to seven minutes I told myself that I have to make it finished by five minutes and so this this type of practice actually helped me to you know complete the test within time and just once there's a very similar thing here so I don't know you know how much time I should allocate for each section so I try to complete you know first two sections in 30 minutes so that I will have plenty of time for my section three right so what they understand is because the questions get progressively more difficult they spend a lot more time on the more difficult questions later on in the test so most bad line students that we work with tend to not think about I must spend this number of minutes on each question or this number of minutes on each section what they generally do is they try to get section one and two done as quickly as possible correctly but as quickly as possible and then that gives them a lot more room a lot more time at the end to really think and focus in on the last most difficult questions so to summarize band 9 advice real band 9 advice from real band 9 students each question is different and you must have a separate strategy for each of them true false not given and matching head questions are difficult and can cause problems but not if you practice them and master them and apply a real strategy to those questions and then finally time management tips just don't exist it's all about improving your reading your reading skills and your vocabulary and if you get to that level band 9 is inevitable it just will happen for you so what you need to do now is check out this video or this video it will be here which gives you every single question type and strategies for all of those get some practice questions and practice them slowly until you've mastered them don't book the test until you're ready if you need any help with your preparation feel free to get in touch