Successes in ToC-10 and ICC-10

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A couple of days ago, I posted about how I had finally returned to Icecrown Citadel for raiding. I mentioned how we had a lot of trouble on the gunship fight, spending hours with no success. Well, last night I got invited to another Icecrown Citadel 10-man raid and this time we had some more success.

Trial of the Crusader 10-man Raid

Before I did ICC- I got invited to a ToC-10 (Trial of the Crusader) raid.  Actually, originally I was rejected because they wanted people with a minimum GS (gear score) of at least 5K and I was only 4.9K.  I appealed to the raid leader and he invited me. I was angry when I messaged him (not knowing he was the raid leader) and he said I didn’t message him and he didn’t reject me. I admit he was right but I responded by saying that I figured that they talk to each other before accepting/rejecting people. Anyway, I got in and had a bit of trouble recalling all the fight mechanics but we still did OK and completed all the bosses and I got a couple of achievements as well.

An interesting sidenote is that the person who originally rejected me for being sub-5K gearscore, only had a GS of 4.7K. Sure, that made sense. My GS is 200 points higher than your own but you reject me because mine isn’t high enough.

Trial of the Crusader 10-man Achievements

Gear Upgrades

Most of the gear that dropped was for casters, so it was useless to me. There was also a really nice staff that dropped, but Paladins can not use staves.  I was lucky enough to pick up a shield upgrade from Splintered Door of the Citadel to Bulwark of the Royal Guard. (402 GS).  Adding this shield got me to 4984 GS which frustrated the hell out of me, because I thought it would push me over the 5K mark for sure.

Icecrown Citadel 10-man Raid

I was on Bancy, my Rogue who I need to get to level 40 so I can continue leveling Inscription passed 225, riding along in Thousand Needles on my way to mark the Flightpoint in Gadgetzan, Tanaris, when I noticed in Global chat (channel) that a group was at the Gunship Battle and needed a tank. I took a chance and let the poster know I was real close to 5K GS and that I had recent experience on that fight. Once I logged into Golvan I got an immediate invite and soon discovered the other tank, who was geared a little better than me, didn’t have much experience with that fight as a tank. I was quickly assigned to the away team, which meant it was my job to jump over to Orgrim’s Hammer to tank High Overlord Saurfang.

The Gunship Battle

Having learned from my mistakes in the previous group the other night I did much better this time around. I jumped over at the right moment and jumped back correctly, as well. Unfortunately, the results were the same. However, this time we failed because DPS wasn’t downing the Kor’kron Battle-Mage fast enough and the healers ran out of mana. We repeated our efforts a couple of more times making some tweaks here and there but we kept failing.

One of the changes we made was we took two of the three Druids out of the guns and let them Innervate the healers.

Change in tactics

Eventually, the raid leader had me try something different. He had me jump over, taunt Saurfang and jump back to our ship immediately. I spent the entire fight jumping from one ship to the other non-stop. I didn’t understand the purpose of this until after I started doing it. Since Saurfang bugs and chases the tank back to the friendly ship, my jumping back and forth meant that he just kept following me and he spent more time traveling back and forth and less time hitting me or the other players. In short, it was a brilliant way to achieve success in a situation like the Kobayashi Maru.  Yes, I am exaggerating.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work either. The first time we still were not killing the battlemage fast enough and so our ship died first so we wiped. The second time I button mashed and screwed up the whole thing. I publicly took blame for my mistake and we set about trying it a third time since we were having more success this way than any other.

The defeat of Orgim’s Hammer

This time proved to be the charm, mostly because someone asked me to keep my jumping, and Saurfang, off to the side and away from the rest of the group. So, I stayed between the left gun and the lifeboat and we finally got our act together and annihilated Orgrim’s Hammer by a huge margin.

I got ANOTHER new shield and broke the 5K GS barrier

I guess this is shield day or something, because I got yet another shield upgrade.  This time I got Neverending Winter which has a 457 GS getting me to a GS of 5039.  I can’t begin to describe how happy this made me.

Deathbringer Saurfang

Right after the Gunship Battle is Deathbringer Saurfang. It’s important to remember this is a completely different Saurfang from the Gunship Battle, although they are family. Literally.

Although, this is a pretty simple fight and a DPS race we wiped on the first attempt because we went with a single tank, me. After the wipe, I knew something was missing. I did a little research and watched Tremor guild’s tutorial (below) and figured out a couple of small things that helped us turn the tide.

  1. Do not tank the adds. Instead, let DPS kite and single target kill them ASAP. With that being said it is important that neither tank uses AoE. Doing so might attract the adds which is bad because every bit of damage they do adds to Saurfang’s Blood Power and that is bad.
  2. You have to have two tanks because you have to taunt off each other similar to the Toravon the Ice Watcher fight in the Vault of Archavon (VoA). He casts a debuff on his target (tank) called, Rune of Blood which lasts about 20 seconds. It’s important that the tank without the debuff taunt the boss off the tank who does have the debuff so that it can’t be used to heal Saurfang. Initially, I was the only tank and with no one to taunt him off me he kept himself near full health until we wiped. Once we added the second tank he was toast.

The Deathbringer is dead!

As I said, once we made the adjustments he was a piece of cake. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any loot from him.

The Plagueworks and Festergut

WIth Saurfang dead we moved on to the Plagueworks to take on Festergut. By this time it was 630 AM and I was exhausted, but we were progressing so I stuck around.

Unfortunately, we hit a few bumps in the road almost immediately. The main tank (MT), who was different from the original main tank, was a superhero who kept charging ahead with only 2 or 3 people and so we wiped twice on that big dog looking sub boss thing. I had to run back to the fight, from death, twice and finally we were able to down him. I was furious but too tired to complain.

Festergut

Once we got to Festergut we were doing fine but the raid leader, tired as he was, screwed up a callout/instruction and so DPS wiped which meant the rest of us wiped as well. So we started over and this time we downed the boss pretty easily. Again, I got no loot.

At this point the raid broke up as most people were ready for bed. It turns out I got myself invited to a guild run and most of the people from that guild were from Finland or something. I wanted to go on, but I was happy to end it and go to bed.

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ICC: I have returned!

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Last night I was contemplating playing one of my alts, but in the end, I decided to log into my main. Not long after I logged into Golvan, my level 80 Paladin, I got a message asking me if I wanted to do ICC 10-man.  At first, I was hesitant because I knew I only had a 4.7K GS, which is usually not acceptable when a group intends on doing bosses. ESPECIALLY on this server, where they frequently demand 5.2K GS or higher to do VoA (WHICH IS RIDICULOUS AT BEST!)

Anyway, I told them about my GS and they didn’t seem to mind so I accepted the invite and when i got there I noticed I wasn’t even the worst geared there. Hell, the raid leader started out with a 4.2K GS. I took on the role of OFF TANK or OT as the MAIN TANK or MT had a slightly higher than 5K GS. (I think it is interesting to note that he had a piece or two of PVP gear on as well.)

Lord Marrowgar

Anyway, we blew through the initial trash pretty easily, but that didn’t last when we got to the first boss, Lord Marrowgar. I lost track of how many times we wiped on him, but it was mainly due to the fact that very few members of the raid knew the tactics to defeat Lord Marrowgar. What is sad is that even after we told everyone what to do they still didn’t seem to understand the concept of: KILL SPIKES!!!

Lord Marrowgar hurls a spike which traps a raid member causing 10% damage per second. If you do not free the victim they die pretty fast. This is called Bone Spike Graveyard. Most raids assign specific members to kill the spikes and free the affected raid member. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that. Instead what we did was I created a macro which allowed me to say, both in raid chat and via /s,

KILL THE SPIKES

At that point whoever is closest was supposed to rush over and, well, kill the spike. I don’t know if DPS was just slow getting to it, or if they didn’t notice the spike was near them or what but they just weren’t getting the job done.  Note: I just learned that I could have freed them using Hand of Reckoning. I wish I knew that last night. Unfortunately, I haven’t done ICC since just before World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was released,  and even then I was a Holy Priest and not a tank.

Continued Frustation

Also, we were having a problem getting people to move out of the way of his Coldflame ability. This is basically a line of frost that does massive damage. Fortunately, it is easy to avoid, unfortunately, we had morons in our raid.

After a few wipes, we lost a few people and replaced them with a few smarter ones. That and a few others learned their lesson. Heals did a pretty good job throughout given what they had to work with. I am not sure why but the main tank kept moving away from me which is not smart given we are more or less supposed to stack to divide the damage during Bone Slice. I kept stacking and he kept running away from me, which I do not understand considering I told him what to do.

To the victors go the spoils

At any rate, once we got him down we were all filled with confidence and the satisfaction of knowing we finally succeeded and that we didn’t give up. Well, most of us didn’t give up. In addition to that satisfaction two of us were rewarded with drops. The first item we rolled on was Frost Needle. I asked if I could roll on it for Heal spec but someone pointed out it had hit and I agreed it wouldn’t be proper for me to roll on it. The second item was Bonebreaker Scepter, which I did roll on and won. I actually rolled 100 so I was doubly surprised. The MT tried to guilt me into giving it to him but I wasn’t leaving that raid empty handed and it boosted my GS to just over 4.9K.

Lady Deathwhisper

With Marrowgar dead we headed to our next challenge, Lady Deathwhisper, who was considerably easier to down as the fight was pretty straightforward. We split the raid into two groups. I, as the off tank took group two and we handled the adds that spawn, randomly, from both sides of the room. The main tank took group one to engage the boss lady.

After ensuring everyone knew to avoid the green spots on the floor we started the fight and breezed right through it with ease. Two things about this fight surprised me.

  1. We did not wipe.
  2. There were only two waves of adds. I spent most of the fight standing there looking for adds that never showed up. I finally took the hint and fired off a couple of Exorcisms at the boss and when she was low enough I was able to fire off 2 or 3 Hammers of Wrath. (Yes, I know this is not the right link for WotLK. Blame Wowhead.)

Unfortunately, she didn’t drop anything I could use. I think one piece was leather and another was cloth, but I am not 100% sure.

The Gunship Battle

The tactics for the Gunship Battle are not difficult but it does require some coordination and it requires that DPS have their act together.  They have to remember to jump back and forth and the Tank, who jumps over, has to remember to wait untill the entire group is back aboard The Skybreaker / Orgrim’s Hammer before jumping back after downing the Kor’kron Battle-Mage / Skybreaker Sorcerer.

I started off as the Offensive Tank, which is the one who jumps over to the enemy ship, so it was my job to tank High Overlord Saurfang while allowing my guys to do their thing against the Battle Mage. Then, after they jump back, I am to follow. Saurfang returns to his post and we basically rinse and repeat. While this is going on the other tank is supposed to tank the Horde troops who assault our ship. There isn’t much needed by way of healing or DPS because the NPC’s do most of the work. All that tank has to do is keep them grouped on him and away from the healer, who was doing double duty healing both tanks along with the other healer who concentrates solely on the offensive tank.

The monkey in the wrench

Yes, I know that’s not the correct saying/term, but I like it better so…Bite me!  We had a couple of problems to contend with.

  • As I said I was the offensive tank, but it has been a long time since I did ICC and when I last did it I was a healer. So I was a little rusty on the tactics and I jumped over too early on the first few attempts. I was going as soon as Orgrim’s Hammer was in range. I didn’t realize it was a mistake until the healer’s switched off and I got the more experienced healer who was getting tired of getting killed because the tank couldn’t hold aggro aboard The Skybreaker. (I later found out he had the easy job.)As a result, I kept dying relatively quickly despite the healers’ best attempts.I know what you are thinking. Why didn’t I research them first? Right? I know I am supposed to, but I will say it again.1. My gear score was too low (4.7K) when I was invited so I had no reason to even think about researching the tactics yet.2. Being invited was a total surprise. Hell, I had even considered playing a different alt last night. It was by pure chance that I played that toon.
  • The second problem we had was that Saurfang kept bugging on us. He is supposed to stay on his ship after the tank jumps back to our ship. However, he kept jumping over to our ship and he couldn’t be taunted or tanked once over there. So, as to be expected, he kept killing our healers and once they are gone there is nothing left to do but wipe.

There are several bug reports about the gunship battle on the Molten WoW website.  I have of course commented, and someone had replied with a tactic to try but I don’t think it will work because it involves maneuvering the boss, in our case Saurfang, to the edge of the ship so he resets. My question to this poster was, HOW? How do I maneuver him when I can’t taunt him or get aggro on him because he is hunting down my healers?

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Happy Second Birthday Samantha!!!

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Today was Sammi’s second birthday. My little munchkin was born a little after 1 AM two years ago today. She is not my first child, but she is the first one whose birth I was actually there for. Although, I wasn’t in the delivery room at the time, I was at least at the hospital.

Both of my daughters are special to me in different ways. Nicole is special to me because she is my first born and she was a dream come true. Samantha is special to me because of the hospital thing and the fact that she is such a daddy’s girl, whereas Nikki is more of a mommy/grandma’s girl.

At any rate, seeing Sam turn two is a big moment and I am still in shock over how fast it came. She’s making great progress as she is able to do the alphabet song even if she can’t really pronounce the letters correctly. She knows the parts of her body as well. If you ask her where her hair, nose, eyes, belly, etc… are she can tell you. As much as I hate to admit it, the credit has to go to all those Barney videos she watches.

Since I mentioned Barney, that is the theme we used for her party. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend so Jenn made do and did a pretty good job given the limited funds available to her. I have to give her a lot of credit for what she was able to accomplish.

She bought a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and added some candles and a couple of Barney figures. There were also some candies that looked like fruit. The cake read,

Happy 2nd Birthday Samantha Ashley
Love: Mommy and Daddy

We had different color balloons that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY as well as purple and pink streamers that Jenn’s friends made. All of this is in the pictures and the video below.

Video

Pictures

[Insert Pictures Here]

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Why US jobs are sent overseas

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With the economy the way it is these days a lot of people are complaining about how what were once US jobs are sent overseas leaving many Americans unemployed. It was definitely a big theme with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. What is funny though, is everything those people are doing is just another reason why companies are sending American jobs abroad.

How this all happened

Well, like any great empire, as America grew into a world power her people started to become complacent. We stopped being “hungry” because we started to feast on our own success. This is something that has happened rather quickly as well.

Example:

John Kennedy made a comment during a presidential debate with Nixon where he states that the steel industry in America was operating at 50% capacity. Today the United States produces such a small amount of steel compared to 1960 that is it downright embarrassing.

Why the American Worker is so expensive

American workers are so expensive because we demand things like medical and dental insurance. We demand days off in the form of vacation  and sick days, maternity leave,  etc… Companies are also forced to pay all sorts of different employee related taxes. All of this doesn’t even include the costs of having to maintain a safe and comfortable working environment as well as lost work time in the form of one hour lunch breaks, smoke breaks, and bathroom breaks. As if that isn’t bad enough, many American workers will abuse the facilities available to them by stealing office supplies or by using the office internet or phones for personal reasons.

The role of unions

It is the power of the union that has and does enable employees to suck companies dry. However, I do recognize that, at one time, unions were necessary and they served their purpose well. The problem is that they have become too powerful and corrupt.

The NJEA

Take the NJEA. for example. Governor Chris Christie went to the NJEA with a proposal to help the state cut spending to help balance the budget by temporarily halting salary increases for educators. Instead of pitching in to do their share for the welfare of the state the teacher’s union rejected the governor’s proposal and the two sides have been at war ever since.  Not only that, but the NJEA has been so powerful that no previous NJ governor has had the courage to stand up to them.

Hostess

I am sure all of you have heard that, in 2012, the parent company that makes Hostess and Drake’s brands cakes and breads filed for bankruptcy. The company was eventually broken up and pieces sold off. What was the driving force behind this? Union demands and legacy pension payments that made the company’s debts/expenses into a juggernaut that couldn’t be handled.

What is really funny is I just watched a video where a Hostess shop steward is complaining that the reason for the company’s failure is corporate greed and that the union employees are just innocent victims. Sure. That’s what happened. Yet, all those huge pensions had no impact whatsoever on the company’s balance sheet I suppose?

Update: In April 2013, Hostess was sold and the new company is reopening the bakeries but WITHOUT union labor. I have to say this is a step in the right direction.

Union Corruption

For years the Teamsters had been floating pension loans to the Mafia to build casinos in Las Vegas. Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa was convicted of corruption charges and when he got out of jail the union reelected him to the presidency of the union. It’s even rumored that it was Hoffa who gave the idea, to Carlos Marcello, to “whack” John Kennedy.

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Iraq, The US economy, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton

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This is in response to some comments made between two gentlemen on Facebook.

First of all BOYS the Afghanistan War is NOT a Bush war. The American people demanded that war. We wanted revenge for 9/11 and anyone who says differently was either in the extreme minority at the time or they are simply full of shit!

Secondly, the Congress was PART of the reason for the surplus during the Clinton years.. The big reason was the economic internet boom.

As for the current economic situation, that had more to do with Bubba Joe Clinton deregulating the banks (repealing Glass-Steagall) than it did with Bush who caught the blame. Also, let’s not forget the economy had already started to slide BEFORE Bush took office…aka on Clinton’s 8 year watch. Did 2 wars help the situation? Of course not.

Again, one of those was a war the American people demanded. The second one was a war that had to be fought because of Bush Sr. and Powell not finishing the job the first time and then pulling a Kennedy Bay of Pigs on the Iraqi rebels who tried to take down Saddam after Gulf War I.

How do you fund 2 wars? First thing you do is ignore the liberal jackasses who said this is a war about oil. YOU DAMN RIGHT IT WAS AND WE ARE TAKING IT YOU FUCKTARD LIBERALS MORONS!

Oil is the lifeblood of the world and instead of us paying to rebuild that country they should be paying us for liberating their asses!

1. Iraq is doing better economically today then they did under Saddam since 1991.

2. Even with terrorists blowing up markets there are still less deaths and violence there than there was under Saddam. The difference is now we see it on the news whereas before it was hidden by Saddam’s government.

3. I would rather see soldiers getting blown up in Iraq than civilians getting blown up in buildings in New York. The soldiers are trained and equipped to deal with them and civilians….well, the liberals are intent on making sure we’re not equipped to fight back. Add to that it is their job to fight. That’s WHAT THEY GET PAID FOR!

4. Yes, invading Iraq was necessary for national security. Our country, and the world, collapses without oil. Securing our supply is VITAL. It just sickens me that we get very little Iraqi oil after liberating their asses and then footing the bill to prop them back up again.

5. For those who say it was wrong. If removing Saddam was wrong then removing Hitler was wrong as well. Find me a difference between the two? You can’t. Simply put I think it is hypocritical for liberals to say we are wrong to remove tyrants. Yet, when you look back at the US wars fought over the last 100 years it was a Democrat in the White House. A couple of those had to be ended by a Republican. How ironic!

6. When did it become wrong to come to the rescue of people who are suffering? Isn’t that the liberal mantra? Or do they object because by liberating these people we are freeing them where as liberals prefer to take freedoms away?

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IELTS Speaking Test – Basics

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 IELTS Speaking Test – 15 Minutes Total

Part 1 (3-4 Minutes)

This is very similar to an interview. The examiner will ask you some simple questions about you, your experiences, your opinions, etc…

You want to try to limit your responses to between 3-5 Sentences per answer. This is a guideline and not a rule.

Listen to a sample Part 1 answer

Part 2 (3-4 Minutes)

In Part 2 you are given a question along with several points you should discuss in your answer.Then you are given one minute to prepare your answer.. You want to use this preparation time very wisely. The better you organize your information the greater the chances are that you will do well giving your 2 minutes answer.

Part 3 (3-4 Minutes)

Part 3 is a conversation format about the same genera topic as your Part 2 question..Since you have the same 3-4 minutes you had in Part 1, and because two people are talking in Part 3, you will have to limit your answers to 2-3 sentences per answer.

In other words, you need to learn how to be CONCISE.

Misconceptions about the test

  • I have to speak very formally on the IELTS Speaking test – This section does not have an academic version so your answers can be made in a less formal way. In other words, you may speak naturally and you do not have to worry about speaking like a lawyer or a politician.
  • The questions on the Speaking test are all very difficult and require a long detailed answer. This is simply not true and you want to be concise when you answer.

Key Factors that will determine your success on the IELTS Speaking Test

  1. The time and effort you spend practicing
  2. Your ability to control your emotions. Nervousness will lead to more mistakes.
  3. Remember that no one is perfect and no one speaks perfectly. Accept the fact that you are going to make mistakes and try to minimize them as much as possible.
  4. Your English ability – grammar, pronunciation, etc…
  5. Remember that simple questions get simple answers – Learn to be CONCISE while following the formula.
  6. Listen carefully to the question and make sure you understand the question. If you don’t understand something YOU ARE ALLOWED to ask a question.

What are you being scored on?

  1. Pronunciation
    Example: Many of my Chinese students tend to pronounce the “V” sound as a “W” or they have trouble pronouncing the “Z” sound.
  2. Grammar
    Example: Gender pronouns such as he/she, him/her, his/hers
  3. Flow
  4. Ability to understand the question and answer it fully and logically.

(This is not a complete list of what you are score on.)

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Secrets of the IELTS Speaking Test Part 3

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IELTS Exam Preparation CourseOver the passed two weeks my students and I have been focusing heavily on Part 3 of the IELTS Speaking Test. As a result, we have developed a couple of new techniques that I am going to share with you. This information is only available here, because I have developed these techniques with two of my IELTS Exam preparation students

IELTS Speaking Test Part 3

Part 3 of the Speaking Test is nothing more than a conversation between yourself and the examiner. Many of my students have a bit of difficulty with this part because it is so difficult to prepare for. Actually, that is not true. It is not difficult at all. The problem is that you need to have someone to practice with.

Generally, I tell my students to try to keep their answers between 2-3 sentences long. It is important to remember that this is a guideline, and not a rule. You can give a one sentence answer or even a four or five sentence answer. However, it is best to try to limit your answer as mentioned above.

The reason for this is because you are given the same 3-4 minutes that you get in Part 1 but now there are two people talking instead of just one. This makes it necessary to limit your speaking time so that the examiner can participate as well. If only you talk it is not a conversation and the entire purpose of Part 3 is not achieved.

Purpose of Part 3

What is the purpose of Part 3?  Well, that is simple. It is to test your conversation skills.

TIPS and Tricks

When you make a powerful or controversial statement at the END of your answer it almost demands a response from the examiner which is good because it continues the conversation.

If they agree that is good too because they respond and you build on that.

“Philosophy is the most important subject, most important course for everyone.”

IELTS Part 3 – Discussion – 3-4 minutes long – 2-3 sentences per answer

The topic of your part 3 questions will be the same as the topic of your part 2 question.

Let the examiner control the flow of conversation.

  • Advantage – You don’t have the extra stress/responsibility of trying to influence/control the direction of the conversation or thinking about what to say. All you do is respond.
  • Disadvantage – The surprise factor. You don’t know where the conversation will go and you don’t know what the examiner will ask or say.

Influence the conversation

  • Advantage – If you control the conversation you will know (or at least have a good idea) of what is going to happen next
  • Disadvantage – You have to be confident in yourself and comfortable enough to take charge

Hybrid

How do I influence or take control of the conversation?

1. Is to keep asking questions of the examiner after your answer. But not a reverse Part 1

Examiner: So what is your favorite movie?

Student: Star Wars Return of the Jedi is my favorite movie because I really liked the special effects.

[Example here] How about you? What is your favorite movie?

Examiner: Goodfellas is my favorite movie because there were so many good actors in it and they all did a great job in their roles. [Possibly asks you a question]. or [You respond to their answer.]

2. At the END of your answer make a strong or controversial statement.

“Philosophy is the most important subject.,,most important course for everyone.”

When you make a powerful yet controversial statement at the END of your answer it almost demands a response from the examiner which is good because it continues the conversation.
_________________________________________________________________________

 Listen to a Part 3 Sample Conversation

YOU CAN IGNORE THE FORMULA  AT TIMES

 

http://writefix.com/?page_id=333

http://www.stgeorges.co.uk/blog/tips-to-improve-ielts-speaking-test-part-3-sample-answer/

http://www.splendid-speaking.com/exams/ielts_speaking.html

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SAMPLE: NEW DOLLAR COINS MISSING THE “In God We Trust”

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When I first saw the post on Facebook that “In God we trust” was missing from the new one dollar coin I ranted about how it was an idiotic thing to get angry over.

After the show was over I did a little research and discovered that this was actually not true. As it turns out there were a few (relative term) coins that went out missing the “In God we trust” but the initial error was corrected and future coins did contain the phrase just like every other piece of legal US tender (money).

If you would like more information about the new dollar coins or visit the Presidential $1 Coins page on the US Mint’s website..

 

 

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What to do if you make a mistake on the IELTS Speaking Test or the TOEFL Speaking Test

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ETS TOEFL and IELTS logos

If you make a mistake during either the IELTS Speaking Test or the TOEFL Speaking Test, then you have two choices. Each option has its advantages, unfortunately each one has disadvantages, as well.

 OPTION #1: Correct the mistake and move on/continue

Advantage

Correcting your own mistakes shows the examiner that you knew you made a mistake and that you knew how to correct it.

Disadvantages

  1. It brings the error to the examiner’s attention.  This is like waving your hands in the air while screaming, “I MADE A MISTAKE! I MADE A MISTAKE!”
  2. You risk making an additional mistake while correcting the first mistake.
  3. You might get stuck or tongue tied trying to correct it.
  4. You are interrupting your flow.

Result

The single big advantage is negated, or canceled out, by the four small disadvantages.

OPTION #2: Don’t correct it and just move on/continue

/continue

 

Advantages

  1. If the examiner did not catch the mistake then you get away with it and do not lose any points.
  2. You will not be risking making an additional mistake
  3. You do not have to worry about getting tongue tied.
  4. You are not interrupting your flow.

Disadvantage

If the examiner does catch the mistake, and if you do not correct it then he/she will assume your English skills are not very good.

Result

The single big disadvantage is canceled out by the four small advantages.

Final Verdict

This is, what we call, a Catch 22 situation. In other words you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. What this means is no matter which choice you make you you are both right wrong at the same time.

Recommendation

Make the decision to either correct the mistake or ignore it at the time you make it. Regardless, of which option you choose make sure that you don’t spend too much time on the correction and just keep going. Don’t stop and don’t get stuck.

Guidelines for the decision making process

  1.  Is the mistake a big mistake or a small mistake?
  2.  Do you definitely know how to correct the mistake?
  3.  Can you quickly and easily correct it?
  4.  Do you have the time to correct it?

Do you still have a question? Feel free to leave a comment below or contact me.

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It’s not a gun issue. It’s a society issue

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Here is what you all don’t seem to understand. This isn’t a gun issue. That simple concept is what liberals fail to grasp. This is a society issue.

A guy on my Facebook (Jim Turpin) said,

“Clearly there is a reason we don’t give kids guns to carry around, or let them drive, etc. Of course a lot of our laws are based on physical age than subjective emotional maturity…”

Yet what he isn’t grasping is, that we’ve moved ourselves backwards on the maturity scale. We’ve allowed ourselves, and our kids, to forget what responsibility is. There was a time in America when kids understood what it meant to be responsible and to be mindful of their elders. There was a time when it was common for a father to teach his son how to SAFELY handle a gun. Let me show you what I mean.

You’ve all seen the old movies and stuff with kids carrying guns to go hunting with dear old dad. Hollywood fantasy? No. Here is an excerpt from Tom Brokaw’s book The Greatest Generation. This book was published back in 1998, well before this latest round of gun issues so it is not a propaganda add in.

In the chapter about Bob Dole they mention another man, James DeVane, who grew up during the Depression.

“DeVane carried a shotgun to school every morning so he could shoot game birds along the way for the kitchen table..”

CARRIED A SHOTGUN TO SCHOOL. Noone had him arrested. It wasn’t odd or out of place. It was normal because parents took an interest in their children back then. They taught them something about responsibility. We taught our kids how to SAFELY handle a gun and to respect it.

Today, this is not only unheard of but if a kid did this he would be arrested, the parents would be arrested, and it would be plastered all over the evening news for weeks to come.

A gun issue? I think not.

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