Full video

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the speaking papers of the cambridge

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english exams are unfair

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hello my name is ben this is to the

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point english thank you for joining me

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again and welcome to any new viewers

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yes i believe that the speaking papers

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of the cambridge english exams are

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unfair

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in fact the speaking papers of all

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english exams are probably unfair but in

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this channel i focus on the b2 first c1

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advanced and c2 proficiency cambridge

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english exams

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and the speaking papers of all of those

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exams contain a task which the

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candidates must do

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in a limited period of time

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and that period of time is often very

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short

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for example in the c1 advanced there is

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a part where the candidates must speak

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about

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two photographs they must compare the

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photographs and answer two questions in

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just one minute

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and similarly in the c2 proficiency the

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long term the long term

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is just two minutes so the students need

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to

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demonstrate their fluency their high

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level all the vocabulary

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in just two minutes

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so this format clearly benefits people

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who can formulate their thoughts and

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speak quickly

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now there's a big percentage of the

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population around 25 to 40 percent

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who

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belong to a personality type which find

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this difficult to do

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and i myself am a member of this

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personality type um it's introverts

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yes i am an introvert and you may be

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thinking well if you have a youtube

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channel and you make videos which have

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thousands of views and potentially

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millions of views um that doesn't sound

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much like an introvert

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but if you think about it

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everything i do i do alone

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i plan record edit

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promote at this moment i'm speaking to a

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camera alone in a room

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and i like it that way i don't like

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working in a group so much

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but more significantly i can

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prepare what i'm going to say

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so always before i make these videos i

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make some notes and prepare what i'm

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going to say before i start recording

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and that

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really helps with an introvert if we

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have time to analyze and prepare what

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we're going to say

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so that's one of the most important

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characteristics of an introvert when

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we're talking about the speaking paper

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of the cambridge english exams

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but let's look at some other

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characteristics that introverts share

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so introverts are reserved reflective

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and introspective

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so their energy expands through

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reflection and diminishes through

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interaction so basically they take

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pleasure in solitary activities and feel

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uncomfortable in groups

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but

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most importantly when talking about the

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the speaking paper of the cambridge

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english exam introverts are more

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analytical before speaking they are

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eloquent and thoughtful

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and make great public speakers

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when they have time to gather their

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thoughts

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and that is the essence of what i'm

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getting at here when they have time to

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gather their thoughts and of course when

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you have to do a task which has a time

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limit of one minute you don't have time

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to gather your thoughts and to be

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analytical

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in 60 seconds if you spend five seconds

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gathering your thoughts just five

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seconds that's almost ten percent of the

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time you have so as i said the speaking

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paper of the cambridge english exams is

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unfair

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but all is not lost i have some good

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news for introverts because i believe

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that

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introverts have a superpower so to speak

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now the speaking paper of the cambridge

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english exams is

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unnatural uncomfortable and awkward for

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everybody extroverts and introverts

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alike

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but

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introverts have been preparing for this

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all our lives really right

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we always feel uncomfortable in these

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types of situations every time we have

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an interaction

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with with a stranger with somebody we

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don't know very well we feel

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uncomfortable so really we've been

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practicing um for this moment all our

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lives so that's a huge advantage

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extroverts perhaps don't have the skills

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to deal with this

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awkward uncomfortable unnatural

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situation

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in fact there was a study done on how

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different personality types performed in

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the ielts cambridge exam and that had

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some interesting results

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the interesting result is that it was

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kind of inconclusive and that's because

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they found that extroverts were more

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fluent

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while introverts were more proficient

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now i suspect that's because of what i

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just said that the

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introverts have to make more of an

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effort

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so technically

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they speak better in the exams maybe

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they make less mistakes they use better

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vocabulary better grammatical structures

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because they know they have to

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maybe subconsciously make more of an

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effort

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whereas extroverts just are more natural

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at speaking so they speak very fluently

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which is very important and very good

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but perhaps they make more mistakes

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because they don't make such a big

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effort so you can see that there are

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some advantages that introverts have but

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it's still a more difficult exercise

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than it is for extroverts but i'm going

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to give you three things that introverts

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can do to

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make it make this part of the exam

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easier and get the highest score

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possible

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so number one is to prepare as much as

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you can

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so that relates to practicing the more

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you practice the easier easier it gets

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the quicker you find an answer to

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whatever the question is of course you

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can't prepare for the questions because

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you don't know what the questions are

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going to be

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but you can prepare your reaction time

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you just get better with practice i

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promise i've noticed it in my students

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the more they practice the quicker it

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gets

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also you prepare

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what you can in that

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the vocabulary you can use um in certain

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parts of the exam like the the picture

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comparison you can always start with the

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same expression

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you can use certain vocabulary whatever

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the pictures are

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the more vocabulary you have the more

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structure you have the easier it will be

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on the day of the exam

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so prepare as much as you can before the

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exam also it's okay to take a few

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seconds before you speak in the exam the

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examiners are humans they know that you

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are human too we're not all robots in

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this situation so although your time is

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limited

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you don't exactly lose points

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for silence but you're not gaining

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points either

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so if you need to spend five six seven

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seconds before you start speaking just

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formulating what you're going to say

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that's okay

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as long as you answer the questions as

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long as you do the task

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obviously you'll have less time because

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you've lost those first first few

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seconds but you haven't wasted those

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first few seconds because you're

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formulating your ideas and what you're

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going to say so

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take a deep breath

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if the silence makes you feel

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uncomfortable then

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use a filler expression like

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that's a good question or let me think

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about that one just so it's no not

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complete silence but it's okay to take a

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few seconds to think but remember you

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need to use the rest of the time to

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really take advantage and

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show to the examiner your level um

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really demonstrate because it's an

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opportunity remember and finally number

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three always remember it's not so

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important what you say

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but how you say it so if you don't have

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time to really formulate what you're

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going to say and in the middle of your

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of the task you start to think oh my god

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i'm saying something completely

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ridiculous this isn't what i really

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believe this isn't true

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it doesn't really matter if it's not

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what you believe or if it's true just

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you have to speak you have to take

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advantage of the opportunity you have to

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demonstrate your level

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so are you an introvert or an extrovert

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or what personality type are you let me

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know in the comments and you can help

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each other out i hope you found this

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video useful check out my other videos i

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have lots subscribe to the channel hit

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the like button that helps me out a lot

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and i'll see you soon for another video

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take care so that's a real advantage

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[Applause]

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in fact