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Written by IELTS Mentor

IELTS Speaking Mock Test # 45

Part 1: Introduction & Interview

Q. What is your full name?
A. My full name is Vineeth Venugopal. Currently, I am living in the UK but I am originally from Kerala, India, which you may guess from my name.

Q. What do you want me to call you?
A. You can call me "Vineeth" if you like. You can also call me simply "Vinu" which my parents often call me. Even just ‘Vin’ will be fine as my grandmother calls me 'Vin'. That’s going to be easy I reckon!

Q. Do you work or study?
A. I have completed my graduation from a university in India, and now I work as a "medical professional" in the United Kingdom for the time being. A few months ago, I moved to the United Kingdom.

Q. What part of the day are you busy?
A. As a medical professional, I remain busy both during the day and night. However, I am busy in the morning hours most of the time because that's when I need to treat the most complex patients in the hospital. Moreover, whenever I have a meeting with other doctors and hospital management, my time does fly!

Q. What part of the day do you like the most?
A. Well, that would be more than one part of the day! I tend to take a short nap, not a sound sleep, at the noon after my lunch when it is hot outside. After that, I feel refreshed and motivated to work more dedicatedly. That's the time I enjoy a lot. Apart from that, after I return home after a busy workday and get inside my blanket in my room and enjoy reading a book, that's something precious to me. I also like the serenity of the night and when I am off duty, I read books or watch movies. This is also a very special time for me.

Q. How many languages can you speak?
A. I can speak Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Urdu very fluently. Those all are local languages in India. Besides, I speak English most of the time as I work in a multicultural environment where people from different languages and countries come and gather. I also know very basic of Arabian language that a few local people here speak. I am not sure how good I am in speaking English, well I can tell you after the IELTS test result... I guess.

Q. What are the languages that you will love to learn in the future? Why?
A. I would love to learn English more efficiently as I need to use this language most of the time. Given an opportunity, I would love to learn new languages like French with which I suppose I would be wobbling around in a few years from now, as I aspire to immigrate to Canada where it is a predominant language apart from English. Learning a new language always comes with a bonus to communicate, I believe.

Part 2: Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Topic:

Describe a job that you would like to try.

You should say:

• what job it is
• what skills are necessary to do this job
• if it is a good job or not

and explain why you would like to work in this job.

[You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish. ]

Click here for the answer to this Cue Card Topic

Follow-up Questions

Q.  Is it easy to work in that job?
A.  I would say definitely ‘No’. This job has never been easy nor will be as there are no definite protocols to help you all the time during your job. It is basically your conscience and presence of mind, your gut feelings, a daring attitude that are gonna help you come out of it. Not many people would dare to get engaged in such a job. It requires the utmost passion and mentality to embrace the unknown and challenges. All you can expect from this job is the "unexpected"!

Q.  Are many people working nowadays in that field?
A.  Not many people are working in this profession, but yes, one could easily find many amateur explorers on YouTube, and all. I have neither heard of any school or institution for studying such skills nor about people who can get the necessary training for an explorer job. Many are into this as part-timers or they see it as a hobby and passion. But as a mainstream profession on exploring, we will seldom find people in this profession, at least in my country.
 

Part 3: Details Discussion

Q. What is the most common way to get a job in your country?
A.  Someone needs a university degree with a good result and also relevant job experience to apply for a nice job in my country. It is very common among the young generation to apply online, through the job portals, where employers have submitted their job details. For the government jobs, one has to take a tough exam and a few top scorers are offered government jobs. There is a huge competition in this exam though.

For job seekers, a common way to get a job would be to go online and search for a job circular and then apply for it. If you are selected for the interview, the job might be yours. Finally, social media like LinkedIn and Facebook have also become a platform for new job seekers.

Q. What do most young people do to find a job in your country?
A. It depends on the place they live in and the type of organisations they are applying to. In village areas, newspaper advertisements, local government employment exchanges and bulletin are the way of knowing about a job circular and young people there rely on these methods to apply for a job. In urban areas, it’s basically newspaper, the internet, and social media are the way of knowing about and applying for jobs. The interview of any job is the main criteria for ensuring a job. Most of the private companies decide the deserving candidates for a job during the interview. If someone can make a good impression during the interview and prove his or her worth, he or she is assured to get the job.

Q. Would you say if it is easy to find a job in your country? Why/ Why not?
A.  India is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and does not have many jobs for job seekers. So, it’s definitely not easy to find a job unless someone has a really impressive academic and job qualifications, or maybe sometimes enough contacts! So we, Indians, know that getting a job is not that easy in India as the competition is pretty high. It is not unlikely that for a single job opening more than thousand of candidates compete! This is the reality of our job sector.

Q. How do schools support students to help them select the job they like?
A.  Some schools provide vocational training, career guidelines and practical training to young students which are important to get a good job. Nevertheless, other schools just train students with formal education. So on average, most of the schools in my country prepare students academically, and jobs are not the main concern of their studies. But yes, there are few schools, especially modern schools, that pay much attention to future job aspects of their students by ensuring necessary amendments on the syllabus, providing necessary training and welcoming prospective employers to visit them.

Q. What are the improvements that schools must have to identify the talents of students?
A.  I would recommend that schools should arrange more "surprise tests" outside the academic lessons to find out which students do better. The school authority should also have a rich lab, playground, library with numerous books and other facilities to let students choose which activities they are good at and feel passionate about. The teaching method should be more innovative and students should be allowed to present their opinions on how teachers should teach better.

Apart from that, school authority should allocate a big budget to foster talents their students might have. For instance, the school should find out which students have certain talents in singing, painting etc. Then they should be provided with special classes and training to bring out the best among those students. Finally, a creative and talented teacher can help a lot to identify the talents of students. So the school should encourage more creative and innovative teachers to join their team.

Q. When is the right time for students to end their study and get a job? Why?
A. I think a student in India should finish his university before he or she gets a job. This is mainly because, unlike some western countries, without a graduation degree, Indian people can't go further in their career. However, students who would like to take "teaching" or "research work" as their profession should complete their MPhil or PhD. Having said that, I would also like to mention that we have many youths who are forced to leave school to start earning to support their family financially. For them, the government should facilitate night schools and distance learning education so that they can continue their education and do better in future.

[ Written by - Vineeth V. ]

• IELTS Speaking

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