IELTS Listening Summary Completion | Example 10

Section 2 

Good morning, everybody. I’m Richard Smothers from international students consulting and welcome to today’s talk on what you need to know and think about prior to going to study in the UK. Probably the biggest question is that of housing. It can be very expensive, especially in London and the halls of residence in most universities are certainly not cheap. That’s what you pay for convenience. Probably the best thing for most of you, I believe it’s the first time any of you have studied in the UK is to try to find a vacancy in a co-op house with other students. If you are keen to make maximum progress with your English, I would suggest that you try to find accommodation with at least one native speaker. So many foreign students end up living only with people from their own country and I’ve actually known cases where their English is worse after 3 years, than when they arrived. One advantage of living with British students is that they’ll probably have experience of dealing with landlords, looking after the bills and other things that might be done quite differently in your home country. So how to find shared housing? Any housing? Arrive early. It’s best to try and be in the town or city where you’ll be studying at least a week, before the start of term. If you leave it too late, you’ll be competing with thousands of other students all looking for a place to live and one of your first stops should be the housing office. They have a database of all types of off campus accommodation and the early bird catches the worm, as they say, you’ll probably meet other students, at there, in the same boat you are. And chat with people. If you meet any that seem to be the type of people you could get along with, then you might well sort out your accommodation quite quickly with them.

Now, I know that a few of you will be going with your sponsors. Sharing a house or a flat with other students is probably not what most of you would prefer. If you are trying to save money, a studio flat which has a bedroom and living room combined and a place to cook is usually cheaper than a flat with a separate bedroom and a kitchen. But remember, you will probably need somewhere to study at home.

Once you have found a place to live, there are a few things. you should check out very carefully with the landlord or the estate agent. Quite a few estate agents, look after the renting out of housing for one or several landlords. First, how are you going to pay the rent? By the way, I forgot to mention that you should open a bank account very soon after you arrived. You might want to open a savings account for the bulk of your money and keep some in a current account for paying the bills. The advantage of the former is that you get more interest on your deposit, but you usually can’t write cheques or arrange to pay such things as electricity, gas, telephone and water bills plus what you owe the landlord. These are normally paid on a monthly or quarterly basis with what are called direct debits and standing orders. The rent, of course, is usually paid monthly and most landlords want a deposit of one or two months rent to pay for any damage you might do. Accidents happen and it’s sad but true that there are thieves everywhere. Make sure you have good locks on your doors and windows and insist that the landlord or estate agent changes them, if they are not up to scratch. You should take out insurance for major items such as personal computers. If you have a car, then insurance is required by law. And if you think you may want to get a car, make sure you take your current driving license with you, because it may help you get cheaper car insurance. But the most important type of insurance you should take out is medical insurance. Falling off your bike and breaking your arm can be a very costly business if you are not protected by Insurance. Unlike the student union advisory service in your University, I’m not allowed to offer you the best advice on what insurance company to use. Now what about working? If you have a student visa for longer than six months, you can work for up to 20 hours per week during term time or 40 hours per week otherwise, without applying for permission from the home office. And if you have a UK visa based on a relationship to someone with a long-term visa in the UK, you will normally be free to take up any sort of employment in the UK.

1. Convenient
2. Co-op house 
3. Native speaker
4. Arrive early

“It can be very expensive, especially in London and the halls of residence in most universities are certainly not cheap. That’s what you pay for convenience. ”

For the second question, it is clear from the talk which goes thus:

“Probably the best thing for most of you, I believe it’s the first time any of you have studied in the UK is to try to find a vacancy in a co-op house with other students.”

For the third question, it is clear from the talk which goes thus: 

“ If you are keen to make maximum progress with your English, I would suggest that you try to find accommodation with at least one native speaker.”

For the fourth question, it is clear from the talk which goes thus:

“So how to find shared housing? Any housing? Arrive early.”