IELTS Speaking Part 2: website for work or studies

Let's consider some ideas for the task below.

Describe a website you use that helps you a lot in your work or studies.
You should say

- what the website is
- how often you use the website
- what information the website gives you
- and explain how your work or studies would change if this website didn't exist.

If you were thinking of choosing Google as your website, here's a suggestion: maybe it would be more interesting to describe Google Scholar instead. This is a great tool for university students.

Here are some ideas that you could use in your description:

• a free academic search engine
• it searches scholarly sources, such as academic publishers
• easy to use - the same interface as normal Google
• it finds article titles and provides bibliographic information
• e.g. author, journal, year of publication
• it finds both restricted and publicly available articles
• it provides links to related articles
• you can search by year of publication
• bookmark articles to read later

If you've used Google Scholar as a student (or teacher), try using the above ideas to create your description. Don't forget to add your own examples, experiences or stories to make the description more personal.

Comments

[Pachu]

How can we use this website 'Google scholar' and what type of information we find here ?

[Pachu]

Above comment from my name Pachu is written by another , not me the real Pachu.

[lily]

Hi Simon and everyone
I have a question about listening skills
that what would you prefer when doing the multiple choice questions, should I go straight to the question or just take notes while listening to the audio then choose the answers later.
Thank you

[Betty]

I am going to take ILETS next month, looking for a Speaking partner, Is anybody being interested for speaking practice on Skype..Let me know here:)

[Vishaal]

I'm also taking the test on June 29. I'd like to be your speaking partner.

[Betty]

That's great, Vishaal, let's practice together:)
my live:betty1115976912

[Mahdi]

Hi Everyone

This is my answer to this question. I am going to take the exam next week!

=================================Google Scholar=============================

What the website is:

I am going to talk about “google scholar” which is a freely accessible search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publication formats and disciplines. The index of this website includes most peer-reviewed online academic journals and books, conference papers, theses and dissertations.
[Some explanations are taken from Wikipedia]

How often you use the website:

I try to make a regular visit of this website because I need to get familiar with the latest results, findings, and methodologies published by other research scholars. I tend to use this website when the articles, papers, or reports seem important and innovative; it could be two or three times a week. I also use this website to find the relevant references while I am writing a paper.
What information the website gives you: This website features an online registration form that allows you to create your own personal profile. You then will receive the latest updates on publications related to your field of study by email, so you will become able to check the website whenever you want. This website also provides the available links to journal articles that enables you to download an online copy of the publications. One of the major benefits of this website is that you can search for authors to see a list of their publications. Then you can sort the author’s work out according to the year of publication or the number of citations. This unique feature enables you to find the most cited articles of many research scholars across the world.

Explain how your work or studies would change if this website didn't exist:

As a postgraduate student, I believe that this website has vastly augmented my literature review process. Without having access to this website it would be a tedious task to find the references I need. I still would be able to use other search engines, but any trawl of the internet reveals diverse and contradictory claims!

[The last sentence is taken from Reith Lecture 2010 by Martin Rees]