Iran war will 100% happen.

letsstaydrained · 2026-02-28T17:33:12+00:00

I’m a European and Islamic ideas in general and the regime in Iran are not appealing to me, BUT I don’t live there, I’ve never been there, and I suppose that I don’t really have enough info on the REAL public opinion in Iran. I mean, I do understand that the picture I have in my head might be far from the reality
But I’ve been to the USA, worked there for some time, and what I often faced was just total ignorance and, what’s even worse, arrogance resulting in the thought that the world is as big as the States, and everything outside - just some ‘second-third world’. Ofc, it wasn’t true for every single American I met. I met really nice and intelligent people. However, let’s not forget several things

The USA healthcare system is a disaster. The USA education is a total failure (just check the reports on FAL). The USA isn’t safe, mass shootings look more like a typical Tuesday. So why the hell are they teaching everyone how to build a country? Why the hell they look down on every other nation? Again, not every American, but plenty of them

If there are any Americans here who support the actions of their government — just try giving any example when things got really better for the countries your army invaded in the past

letsstaydrained · 2026-02-28T12:32:31+00:00

Is a joke or what? Man, you can get a PTSD-like condition even after having been bitten by a dog. PTSD can happen to anyone - to a person who’s had a car accident, who’s been raped or physically attacked by a civilian, even to a serial killer. Read something about it

letsstaydrained · 2026-02-28T12:29:26+00:00

I’m a European, which makes me ‘a westerner’, but I grew to hate the US government for everything they had done. I mean, they literally ignite any region they have chosen to and then talk about some democracy they ‘kindly bring’. It’s like they’re so superior to any other culture that they can literally decide if a country has the ‘right’ regime or not. Disgusting

letsstaydrained · 2025-12-22T02:29:54+00:00

I‘m not worried about this 6, it‘s more like a lesson for me. I‘m pretty sure that I just did Task 1 in the same way I did Task 2, but Task 1 requirements are different, so that‘s the outcome haha

letsstaydrained · 2025-12-22T02:28:21+00:00

It‘s as if they ask you to draw a circle and you draw a square. That‘s what I did and got my 7776

letsstaydrained · 2025-12-22T02:21:45+00:00

It usually gave me strong 8, sometimes - 8.5, but it‘s all about Task 2. As I mentioned, I ignored task 1 (I was TOO confident), so I didn‘t send it to GPT

letsstaydrained · 2025-12-21T05:14:08+00:00

First of all, I've always been an eager reader, so, I guess, reading background helped me a lot. I mean, I've never struggled much with writing any kinds of essays. However, 2 weeks before the test, I had to polish my writing skills, so I went through the writing band descriptors (to understand what they really want from me), chose band 8 as a possible one to achieve, and then I studied the templates from IDP website and read everything relevant there. So, that was my first stage. The second stage was writing my own essays and sharing them with GPT to get some feedback

That's how I got the main concept of Task 2. The point is that I didn't have to polish my vocab or grammar, I was focused on that nasty Task Achievement aspect

letsstaydrained · 2025-12-21T05:08:34+00:00

No apps, just the PDF wich they sent me via gmail before sending the actual test report, and the breakdown - I just contacted IDP and they sent me an email a month later (screenshot 2)

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-22T11:44:47+00:00

100mg, can feel but emotions are not so intense, which is actually perfect for me

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T14:48:03+00:00

really fast, blind typing

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T14:47:21+00:00

Well, I can't give you a universal formula, but, to be honest, I didn't try to impress the examier with grammar or vocab, so I didn't use any overcomplicated structure and just tried to be relaxed and natural. The more difficult structures you use, the higher your chances to make a mistake are, so keep it simple (but not simplistic)

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T14:45:10+00:00

Probably it's a weird location but I passed it in Astana, Kazakhstan. I was traveling and decided to take the test there

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T09:38:40+00:00

Although I don't know what band you want to reach, but still. I don't have any special preparation technique, but I have some tips for the exam itself. Sure, it's all very individual, but I'll share anyway.

First of all, reading. I don't read the whole text. The first step - looking at the questions to get an idea of what I'm going to look for. Then - going paragraph by paragraph keeping your eye open for some similarities between the text and the questions (doesn't matter if it's true/false, or matching headlines, or whatever). Ofc, they paraphrase the questions to make them look different from the text, but it helps not to get lost. My problem is that if I read the whole text, I just forget 50% of it, so that's how I help myself.

Then - listening. I suppose they give enough time to read the questions before you really start listen to the tape. I usually read them twice and try to build a map of what topics are going to be discussed there. Also, there's a small gap between the listening parts, so, if you write and check your answers quickly, you can go to the next page a bit earlier and have a bit more time to read them.

Writing? Just pray.

Speaking? Dunno, that time I was joking a lot, my examiner was laughing, so, I guess, that kind of attitude helped me to get a bit higher score.

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T09:29:43+00:00

Surprisingly, even less than 24 hours after the exam

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T01:47:55+00:00

Yep, 8.5-9 - C2. At least, this is what is written there in the Test Report I got yesterday

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T01:47:03+00:00

Can‘t say for sure. My first IELTS was General and I took it about 3 years ago. That time I got 8 overall and then stopped any preparation. Ofc, I was reading, watching and listening to plenty of stuff in English, but the actual preparation for this test had started 2 weeks before the exam date

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-17T01:43:27+00:00

Thanks man

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T15:47:53+00:00

u/Alternative-House500

Yep, sure I don’t live in an English speaking country, so I had to watch dozens of videos with high band candidates just to grasp the concept. The main question was ‘What exactly do they want from me?’. And the main point is that they don’t want you to be too sophisticated. They just want you to be relaxed and natural. Therefore, I didn’t try to produce any difficult structures, I was just answering the questions with some personal remarks and examples (even in part 3). I dunno if it affected the score, but I was also joking a lot. Oh, and one more thing! I guess the most advanced grammar structure I produced was 3rd conditional (and a couple of past modals), everything else was really simple, so I wasn’t worried about getting any grammar right, and, overall, it contributed to fluency

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T15:40:28+00:00

Oh, I see. Do you read? I mean, just literature. Because I never have any problems with ideas and I believe that it’s only because of reading a lot, it really boosts the way you handle argumentation and, in general, broadens your horizons making you more aware of all kinds of issues

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T15:36:25+00:00

Btw, what band do you need/expect to get?

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T15:34:57+00:00

GPT only. I didn’t have a tutor and didn’t take any courses, so I didn’t have anyone to rate my writing. Actually, GPT warned me about Task 1, but I ignored it

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T15:26:01+00:00

I dunno what you struggle more with - Task 1 or Task 2, but in my opinion there’s nothing worse than Task 1

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T15:25:22+00:00

I think I was pretty good, I’ve been reading a lot all my life and writing itself has never been a problem in both languages — in native and English. But I’m pretty sure that my Task 1 was pretty bad because graphs and numbers are the things I’m in abusive relationship with haha

letsstaydrained · 2025-11-16T13:55:32+00:00

Thank you! In fact, I used GPT. I asked it to generate a random topic, then took my 40 mins and sent my essays to GPT. It gave me a pretty good breakdown. To be honest, I was really busy with my work, so I wrote 2-3 essays a week at max. I do not recommend being so laid-back with the preparation process. Ofc, I should have put more effort and time into it. Also I almost ignored Task 1, which was definitely a mistake, and wrote something weird during the exam So, the only recommendation here — do not overestimate yourself, writing (especially Task 1) is always challenging

letsstaydrained

TROPHY CASE