最棒的聖誕節禮物! 恭喜雅思班內生拿到Band 8!

聖誕節快樂！最棒的聖誕節禮物🎁

#恭喜雅思班內生拿到Band 8

閱讀跟聽力穩穩的拿8.5是拉高平均的關鍵！

最開心的是我的閱讀法有學生徹底的學起來！以你為榮！

我的閱讀法不是教學生投機取巧，而是教閱讀的本事、邏輯的思維。

只要你願意花時間練起來，這個本事到了你之後出國讀書都還受用無窮。

#培養閱讀的實力

托福寫作從18分到29分的練習分享

托福寫作從18分到29分的練習分享
(托福寫作滿分30)

有輸入才會有輸出！原來有更好的中文說法：厚積才能薄發！
我又學到了這麼棒的中文句子！謝謝清忠的分享！

圖是清忠在Gabby 凱妃老師粉專的留言，大家不只要把好的方法筆記下來，更要確實的去做到。

這樣下一個進步的人就是你了！

回覆托福考生的問題－如何練托福口說?

Hi Chu-iu,

Congratulations on your awesome improvement! You did all the hard work - you should be really proud of yourself! Thank you so much for telling me about what you’ve done.

Improving speaking through self-study is possible, but you’ll need to be super sensitive to everything you say in your practice sessions. Here are a few simple but important steps:

1) You must speak English out loud every single day. Ideally, that will include TOEFL practice under timed conditions. The more you speak, even if it is unfocused speech, the better your fluency will be. There are two main ways to improve fluency:

First, you can simply say what you are thinking out loud. You can say things like what you are doing, what you want to do, what is happening, what you think will happen, etc. Simply doing this for one week will improve your fluency an incredible amount.

Second, you can practice what I call the “Fluency 大招” technique - basically, you randomly choose one word from a book or website (the source doesn’t matter) and—without preparation—you say whatever you can that is related to the word. You could explain something, you could tell a true (or invented) story, you could teach a principle, etc. The important thing is that you stay on topic, don’t stop speaking, and don’t speak Chinese. This is one of the best ways to practice for Q1,2&5 because it develops your ability to think quickly and say something related to the question. Then, your speech won’t become too choppy (卡卡的) in Q1,2, or 5. When you do this practice, your focus is 100% on fluency, not on grammar, so don’t correct your grammar. Just keep speaking.


2) It is possible that you have issues with your pronunciation. If the ETS raters cannot understand what you’re saying because of unclear pronunciation, then increasing your fluency (or improving your content) will not improve your score. The ONLY way to improve your score in this case is to improve your pronunciation. If money is not an issue, then a speech therapist or a pronunciation teacher (either native speaker or non-native speaker with native-speaker pronunciation) is best. Their coaching can probably get you better results than you can get on your own.

If you must study on your own, though, I have a couple of suggestions. First, I recommend the YouTube channel “Rachel’s English.” If possible, try to figure out what specific pronunciation issues you have first and then watch the relevant videos and practice with her. Working on pronunciation directly in this way can be very tiring and boring for some students, so it’s important to take it slowly - no more than about 5-10 minutes per practice session. It can also take months to improve in certain areas of pronunciation. However, if it’s important, persist. You will be forever grateful if you keep with it.

Second, you can practice “mirroring” (or “shadowing” or “echoing” as the technique is called). Find a YouTuber or TV personality who has the accent you want and who has a similar voice to your natural voice. As you are male, do not choose a female. (Of course, females should copy females). Then play and pause: play a sentence or part of a sentence, and then repeat it, trying to copy the person’s intonation, rhythm, and pronunciation. Play around with it - vary the length of time that you play. When you get good at it, play continuously and try to keep up with the speaker, speaking about half a second after the person. It’s hard in the beginning, but after a few days (or weeks), you’ll start to get better at it. Eventually, that speaker’s tone, rhythm, and accent will become a part of your natural speech.

3) Record your answers. This technique is TOEFL (or IELTS) specific. You do a question and record your answer. Now, you have several options:

First, you can fix your content issues. Listen very carefully to what you said in your answer, and think about it extremely critically, as if you were an ETS rater. Use the Speaking Rubrics to guide you. Is what you said really accurate? Are you really answering all parts of the question? Have you missed important points from the listening or reading? After you have analyzed your answer, do it again. Try to avoid writing scripts because you’re trying to improve your SPOKEN English, not your WRITTEN English. Keep doing the same question, recording it, and analyzing it until you’re satisfied with the content and the timing.

Next, you can fix grammar issues, if you have any. This is massive task, though, so only attempt it if you think that grammar is definitely the source of your low score. Remember: you have been speaking with your current grammar for years, so changing these grammatical habits will take considerable time. Still, it’s worth it if it’s really important to you on a personal level or if your grammar is causing misunderstanding (misunderstanding = low score). Record your answer and write out every single word, every single grammatical mistake, and every single “umm” that you say. Don’t leave anything out! Now, read what you have written. This can be a shock because most people don’t realize how many mistakes they make. Next, focus on one grammatical mistake to correct. Re-record the same question, and focus completely on fixing that one grammatical mistake. Listen and check. Repeat this until you aren’t making that grammatical mistake in that question, and also do it with other questions until you don’t make this mistake anymore. This can take weeks of focused effort, but I have had students correct grammatical errors in this way before, so it is definitely possible for you, too.


4) Understand how to answer TOEFL questions correctly. Basically, make sure you give the raters what they want. Fulfill the requirements of the rubrics and answer every part of the questions. Even if you’ve heard “experts” say that you must say, “….,” think for yourself. Is that really answering the question? Is that what the rubric wants? Remember that there is no such thing as a 萬能理由/萬用模板. Templates must be used with considerable thought and adaptation. If you unthinkingly use a template, it will almost certainly lower your score, but if you adapt a template to suit the question, and the template sentences are grammatically correct and appropriate, then it will help you answer questions with more certainty. Finally, templates must be internalized (內化), otherwise they’re almost useless and obvious to the rater.


I hope that these tips will be helpful to you. After you’ve used them for a while, let me know how it’s going.

If you diligently practice these tips, your TOEFL score will improve. If you don’t sense any improvement after seriously working on them for over a month, it could be that you’re missing something.

Enjoy

SAT/ACT Bridge Courses:天母校邏輯閱讀班和中級文法班 Logical Reading and Intermediate Grammar courses (TianMu School)

天母校的邏輯閱讀班和中級文法班(SAT/ACT Bridge Courses)，春班課表出來了。

https://lindsaysat.blogspot.com/2018/11/2019-satact-bridge.html

邏輯閱讀班是銜接SAT/ACT的閱讀，中級文法班則是銜接SAT/ACT的文法。適合不需要考TOEFL/IELTS的國際學生(G7-9)，G10可以開始準備SAT或選上文法班。(Suitable for native English speakers)

需要考TOEFL/IELTS的國際學生(G7-9)，先考進班測驗，確認程度適不適合。如果已經是G10的學生，會考另外一份考卷，看程度適合先準備SAT還是先準備托福。

預約進班考試(找Amanda) : 02-2831-3275


Course schedules for Logical Reading and Intermediate Grammar are now available for the 2019 Spring Semester.

https://lindsaysat.blogspot.com/2018/11/2019-satact-bridge.html

Both courses have been designed as bridge courses for the SAT and ACT. Logical Reading will give students the reading skills and thinking tools to prepare them for the more rigorous SAT and ACT Reading sections, and Intermediate Grammar will train students (not by simply teaching grammar theory, but by applying theories to a multitude of questions within passages: learning by doing) to notice and correct grammar and structural patterns, laying the foundation for both the SAT Writing (grammar) and the ACT English (grammar) sections. As a bonus, the grammar is learned in such a way as to heighten students’ awareness of their own grammatical shortcomings in their writing.

These classes are specifically designed with native or near-native speakers in mind: those who study at certain international schools and are not required to take the TOEFL or IELTS. The best time to take these courses is G7-9. Doing so will enable students to adapt more quickly to the more rigorous SAT classes in G10.

Students who require the TOEFL or IELTS and are in G7-9, will be required to pass a reading or grammar test to assess their suitability for these courses. Students who are already in G10 will be given a different test to assess suitability for SAT or TOEFL courses. Results on these entrance tests will determine the most appropriate course(s) for the students.

Please contact Amanda or me (Brett) for inquiries or to set up an appointment for an entrance test on 02-2831-3274.

雅思必備書單與練習資源介紹

我去年把舊的書單拿下來，那是因為當時我重新讀了之前推薦過的雅思書單，發現其中有幾本書，並沒有我之前想得那麼好。像是母語人士寫的書，他們的措辭或是文章過於複雜，也有文法跟單字用錯不少。另外也想花些時間沉澱，近一年的時間細細閱讀各方出版的雅思新書，看有沒有值得推薦給考生的，但可惜沒有特別突出的。


雅思閱讀 

1. 新平行閱讀法
2. 無詞閱讀法

近年有幾本新的雅思閱讀書出版，我大概讀了七八本左右。只是沒有一本書教的內容有"新平行閱讀法"好，所以以雅思閱讀來說，新平行閱讀法這本書仍然是首選，跟之前講的一樣。

另外我還會想提到"無詞閱讀法"，作者有出幾本書，但是你只要買他教無詞閱讀法的技巧那一本就好。新平行閱讀法也是，只要買那一本教技巧的就好，其他不要買。這兩本書都只要學書裡的解題技巧，而不是學書裡的英文，因為有不少英文的錯。

而以閱讀來說，"新平行閱讀法"教的技巧比"無詞閱讀法"還要好一些，但是無詞他有一些不同的技巧，特別是有關畫單字的方式。基本上，這個畫單字的技巧目前還管用，但是如果是用在機考上，那就沒有那麼管用了。不過他有關介係詞或是要怎麼找定位詞之類的想法，這些都非常好，考生要學起來，而且也特別適合用在聽力的部分 : 他有教很多怎麼去認讀關鍵字，例如介係詞等，他會教你怎麼去細看題目，因為你考聽力時，會先看考卷上的題目，然後考卷上有填空的這種題型，這種題型最理想的答題方式是你要看是哪種詞性，而判斷詞性的方式就是看周圍的單字，而這個無詞閱讀法就會訓練你，讓你更會注意到這些，所以聽力的部分，"無詞閱讀法"一定要學起來!

把這兩本書的技巧學會後，便要將技巧應用在劍橋9~13或OG的閱讀做答裡，來熟練技巧! 記得做閱讀的題目，務必要計時，遇到不會的單字一定要檢討完後背起來，不要練過了，卻沒有學起來! 還有練過的題目，是可以反覆練習的! 反覆練也會有顯著的進步! 

另外免費練閱讀方法，有我之前寫給閱讀偏弱或是平常沒有在閱讀英文的考生，用來打底雅思閱讀的方式 : 針對性最高的雅思閱讀打底方法。如果你是雅思新手，也可以用這篇的方式來練習，像之前就有不少外地考生自己用這個方式自修，閱讀有進步一個級分。


雅思聽力 

技巧的部分有出版的書 : 只有上面提到的無詞閱讀法比較管用。我看了很多簡體跟少數繁體的聽力書，基本上沒有一本是夠格的。也讓我不得不說凱妃教練的雅思聽力技巧是獨步江湖。若要練聽力的話，有兩個方法 : 一個是泛聽，就是多聽一些比較不相干的東西，像是看歐美影集，多多益善。另外一個是BBC，他們的英國腔跟雅思聽力的腔還蠻接近的，所以多聽是有益處的。如果是更針對雅思的，只有劍橋雅思官方出版的一系列書，並搭配凱妃教練的聽力九九神功來練習。這樣用"對的書"+"適合的練法"，可以讓聽力偏弱的考生進步，也可以讓有企圖心想要聽力拿到滿分的考生來練習。

凱妃教練有拍教學影片，考生可以看下面的連結來練習 : 
雅思聽力必練技：聽力九九神功（教學影片）

1. https://www.facebook.com/IELTS.Gabby/videos/2111923265516289/

2. https://www.facebook.com/IELTS.Gabby/videos/2113700255338590/

3. https://www.facebook.com/IELTS.Gabby/videos/2116029821772300/

另外，如果你是剛入門的雅思考生，練雅思聽力我會推薦劍橋出版的雅思官方指南(The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS - 我們會簡稱"雅思OG"或是"OG")和劍10，因為這兩本的聽力速度比較慢。現在考的雅思聽力比這兩本的語速還要快，是快蠻多的，所以你考前不要太常用這兩本。(這邊也要特別留意，我說的是劍橋出版的雅思官方指南，不是British Council英國文化協會(簡稱BC)出版的IELTS雅思考試官方指南。考生不要搞混喔! BC出的官方指南一書，上面的官方是指BC本身，並不是寫雅思考試題目的劍橋雅思官方。所以BC這本書的英文是IELTS ESSENTIAL GUIDE，而不是"Official" Guide。考生不要傻傻的以為差不多，因為題目的難度跟考點邏輯是差很多的。BC出版的不是不好，只是難度跟真正的雅思相比，偏易許多，並且沒有真的考到邏輯的部分。然而對於想要多練習英文的考生來說，還是可以買來當作額外的練習。

如果要找最接近現在考的雅思，劍9,11,12,13這四本聽力的部分都很不錯。

對了! 閱讀的話，劍橋系列倒是正好相反，OG的閱讀反而是偏難的，所以這是可以留到比較後面來練習。然後其他劍9~13的難度是比較平均。以及也是要看個人，例如同一篇，有的人覺得特別難或是特別簡單，其實這只是純粹代表你的字彙量，你對某個主題熟不熟悉而已，而並不是說因為文章本身特別難或特別簡單。這也是為什麼常常閱讀能力屬於中等或偏中上的學生，有時考閱讀可以拿到7或7.5，但是有時卻會掉到6。其實不是他們的閱讀退步了，只是他們的閱讀能力本來就還不夠好，而且考試常常也是運氣，拿到高分是因為剛好遇到熟悉的主題，拿到低分也只是遇上陌生的主題。所以想要在閱讀穩穩地拿到高分7.5以上，是需要一定的閱讀實力，因此長期廣泛的閱讀就很重要了!

以劍橋雅思官方出版的書來說，OG和劍9~13是最好的，也是必備的。
劍8就還OK，劍8之前的就不要浪費時間用了。除非劍8~13你已經練到超熟，練到沒得練了，而且裡面的單字你也是徹頭徹尾的全部都會了，那你要再往前練也沒有人會阻止你。


雅思口說

口說最好的資源，目前免費的有兩個 : 一個是雅思哥(APP)上面有很多的題目，只要用"高頻題"，其他的一律不要用，不要想說要用猜題那些，基本這些對你準備雅思是不相關的，對你的益處沒有很大。但是高頻題，是有被過濾篩選過的，所以題目不會那麼畸形，但是用猜題的，你就會覺得題目很奇怪啊~常常會看不懂，那是因為題目的英文是有問題的。高頻題大部分的題目就比較沒有問題，少部分還是有一些文法錯，所以你覺得某一個題目很奇怪，你就不要管它，跳過就好了。另外一個免費的資源是Simon的blog，他上面的口說是不錯的，因為他上面有一些蠻簡單的回答。只是他的答案對於我來說比較算是缺點，因為他的答案都過於完整，不太像是口語說話的方式呈現，所以答案都是用完整的句子。可是我們真實口說是不可能用這麼完整的句子回答，因為我們是人，我們不是機器。這是考口說，而不是考寫作，所以口說很自然的是不會有這樣完整的句子出現。但是他的點子，可以讓考生看得出一個好的答案是長什麼樣子，所以仍然可以學習的，算是不錯的口說資源。

書的話，我最近也看了大概至少十本比較新出來的口說書。以有出版的書來說，還是Andrew寫的IELTS Speaking最好，這也是之前有推薦過的。他裡面有很多技巧是考生一定要注意到的，裡面該教的都有教到，是一本值得考生好好學習的口說書。

以還沒出版的教材，我編寫的雅思口說教材是雅思口說資源裡最完整精實的。但是我也不知道什麼時候有時間出版，所以考生如果時間搭配的上雅思聽說技巧班的上課時間，就可以用這個雅思口說教材學習。因為只要考生徹底將教材裡面的內容練到精熟，雅思口說要進步2~3個級分是可以的。我們之前很多學生就是這樣在雅思口說拿到更高的分數，因而拉高了整體的平均。其中有一位我最佩服的學生，她每天花6個小時練習雅思口說，把書裡的句型和滿分示範答案練成自己的口說能力，口說從Band 4.5 進步到Band 7.5。而最近凱妃教練(她本身已經是雅思強者)為了精進自己的口說，花半年的時間專注在練這個教材，口說從Band 8進步到Band 9滿分，非常厲害! 值得考生效仿。

另外我之前也有分享一個免費的雅思口說答題思路: 雅思口說必備的神思路! 以及我們的雅思學生分享的練習方法 : 一個月內飆了兩分的雅思口說練習方法，都非常推薦大家學習。

口說最現實的地方就是你天天花點時間練習就會越講越順~越講越好，但是你只要一天停下來不練，你一講就會開始卡了，所以持續的每天開口講英文對於即將要考雅思的考生，是每天必備的練習!


雅思寫作

我一樣謹慎的看了幾本近年有出版的雅思寫作書，現在唯一能推薦的是我們上課也有在用的Improve your skills for IELTS: Writing for IELTS(4.5-6.0)。這個系列有兩本，另外一本是Band 6.0-7.5，但是這本我不推，因為內容太過頭，用詞和文法過於複雜，如果你學這本，你可能在雅思寫作是沒辦法拿到比較高的分數，因為太難駕馭，容易寫錯。但是Band 4.5-6.0這本該知道的雅思寫作知識，基本上這本書都有教。然後大家不要被書名的Band 4.5-6.0誤導，以為這本書教的寫作程度很低。錯! 這本書裡面的內容，如果考生都有學起來，是足以讓你考到滿分Band 9的! 所以以準備雅思寫作來說，其實用左邊這本藍色的Band 4.5-6.0就已經綽綽有餘，真的不太需要右邊深紅色的Band 6.0-7.5那本，深紅色那本如果你買了，可以用來額外欣賞~閱讀~進修。

另外一個當然是Simon的範文，我們的IELTS雅思考題討論區裡面的檔案庫有整理好的範文Task 1和2，大家都可以直接下載來學習。因為我常建議考生要練抄寫，而透過練Simon範文抄寫讓雅思寫作分數進步1~2個級分的考生已是不可勝數。

雅思寫作-抄寫的方法(總整理)

另外Simon的blog上面也有幾個免費的影片可以看，內容也都很好。我自己的雅思寫作範文有兩本，一本是搭配我前面推薦的Band 4.5-6.0這本所寫的範文，另外一本是搭配劍橋雅思出版的考古題而寫的範文。前一本在我們的雅思寫作能力班會教，後面這本則是在雅思讀寫技巧班會學到。說真的，我有想要出版我寫的範文，因為這樣外地的考生也可以學到。但現在除了要教課(SAT/托福/邏輯閱讀)外，也要顧Lindsay SAT(林熙留學考試學習中心)，所以我想應該在幾年後的雅思考生才有機會在書店看到我的書的身影吧! 

文法的話，劍橋出版的雅思文法書:Cambridge Grammar for IELTS是不錯的，基本上它的概括性是很夠的，夠到有點過頭，但是它目前仍然是最好也是針對性最高的雅思文法書。

然後單字，劍橋系列出的這兩本雅思字彙Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS和Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS Advanced 都很不錯(以前也有介紹過 : 弱底同學打底雅思的方式)。
只是我沒有選這兩本來當雅思字彙班的教材是因為書裡提供的練習題不夠多，如果你要背單字，你是需要練很多才能把單字變成你能使用出來的字彙，因為你能用出來的字彙量才是你真正的單字量。而不是只有背了一堆單字在腦裡，卻沒幾個是講得出來~寫得出來~並且是精準的用對的。用海量的方式來背單字，已經過時了! 能正確的使用出單字~用進句子裡，才是你真實擁有的單字量。這樣才有能力銜接國外的留學或工作生活。所以我比較喜歡字彙班在用的這本 : Check Your English Vocabulary for IELTS : Essential words and phrases to help you maximise your IELTS score。

雖然雅思考試最理想的就是用Cambridge出版的書學習，但還是要提醒一下，因為有的劍橋的書的內容也是有點舊了，就沒有了現在雅思考試會考的Fu，例如: Official IELTS Practice Materials 1 & 2，這兩本就不要用了! 

Critical SAT and ACT Advice: Don't take your school brain to the test!

Critical SAT and ACT Advice:
Don't take your school brain to the test!

What in earth does that mean?

Basically, if you are in a typical western schooling environment (e.g. TAS, TES, KC, etc), you are taught to draw conclusions in a big way. Teachers like to push you to use your imagination and infer all kinds of things that are not in reading passages. In fact, for many school teachers, especially literature teachers, the more you infer the happier they are.

So, what's the problem?

SAT, ACT, TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, and GMAT are standardized tests, which means that there can be only one correct answer. The kind of inferring that is common in school leads to multiple possible answers, so it's unsuitable for standardized tests.

The basic rule is this: only make one tiny inference - the smaller the better. Let me illustrate what I mean.

If your friend looks like he's in pain, and he's massaging his leg, what can you reasonably infer?

Only one thing: his leg hurts.

What can't you reasonably infer?
He got injured playing basketball.
He had an accident.
He woke up with a sore leg.
His sister kicked him.
A dog bit him.
He's malnourished.
He's got a rash.
Etc.

Even though this is boring as an inference, it's the only thing you can REASONABLY infer. Anything else is evidence of an overactive imagination and will give you a LOWER SCORE!

Remember: in a standardized test like the SAT and ACT, make the smallest inference possible. In fact, if you see direct evidence of an answer choice, that's even better than a choice you have to draw an inference about.

Always use what I term "the point test" - if you can't point directly to the evidence for an answer choice, it's probably wrong.

Thinking about it mathematically:
No inference > small inference > large inference

Remember: there is no place for imagination in a standardized test - always find evidence in the passage.

SAT/ACT vocabulary in the news #1

SAT/ACT vocabulary in the news #1

Just ran across this article.

Can you figure out what the word "scores" means in this context? Leave your answer in the comments.

This type of usage is fairly typical on the SAT - they love to test second or third meanings of words. The SAT almost never tests the first definition.

Remember: to do well on SAT vocab questions, it's not enough to simply know the basic definition of a word. You MUST grasp the meaning from the context.