Title: One man's story of an IELTS exam
Description: Warning: Long (maybe boring) post!
Description: Warning: Long (maybe boring) post!
Simon & Carol - August 4, 2007 12:53 PM (GMT)
Hi! My name’s Simon and this is the story of my IELTS exam.
Got the results this morning! Here’s my score breakdown:
8.0 for listening, 9.0 for reading, 8.0 for writing and 9.0 for speaking giving an “Overall Band Score” of 8.5 – Whoopee!
So, having spent more than a year working toward getting a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification, then jumping through hoops to satisfy the Australian Computer Society that I was indeed an IT Professional and not just some nerdy pleb, we were still 5 points short for getting our Skilled Migration Visa. Our original plan was to get an extra mortgage on the house and “buy” the extra points by investing the 100,000 AUD for a year. However, with the changes coming into effect in September we were left with the option of my taking the IELTS exam instead and then re-applying for the Visa assuming a successful exam pass.
I booked my IELTS exam at the Melton College in York (our closest IELTS exam centre). As I’m sure you can imagine, after taking 7 exams to obtain my MCSE, the prospect of taking another exam of any flavour was just far too appealing to pass-up! Consequently, when the confirmation letter for the exam arrived, I filed it without really reading it, secretly hoping that it might get swallowed up by some alternate dimension of reality. Alas, this didn’t happen, and when it got to the day before my exam I decided I’d better seek out this Melton College place so that I knew where to go the following morning. I knew it was a 9 o’clock or there-abouts registration time, so I couldn’t really afford to waste any time as I would have to drag myself out of bed early on a Saturday morning and drive a good 30 miles to York. Found the college – sorted, I thought.
Got home that Friday and decided, “Hmmm, maybe I should just double-check what I need for this exam” and pulled out the confirmation letter. Lots of lovely surprises waiting for me! Firstly, what I had originally thought would take just half of my valuable Saturday weekend day turned out that it could potentially take all of it. Secondly, I didn’t need to go to Melton College in the morning at all. Instead, I needed to go to All Saints School which, whilst in York, was somewhere other than where I’d gone the previous night. Frustrated? Not the right word to use – understatement! So, it turned out the exam registration, listening, reading and writing tests were all at All Saints School in the morning. Then, the speaking test was at some time in the afternoon that was yet to be determined – and this was at the Melton College site.
Saturday morning: Got up at stupid o’clock in the morning to ensure I would have enough time to locate the All Saints School and register at 9 o’clock as stated in the letter. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), I drove straight to it without issue, got parked up in the “limited parking” (loads of space, even later on after everyone had arrived!) and found myself with 50 minutes to kick around aimlessly and wait for the 9 o’clock registration. At about 8:45am I went to look for reception. Found it – doors locked – lights off. I kicked around aimlessly some more. I could see a bunch of people sat in a room, but figured they must be school residents or something. Eventually, some nerdy chap looked at me and asked if I was here for “IELTS”. I said yes, and he told me I could wait in the aforementioned room. Went in, sat down, and waited.
As time ticked on (9 o’clock came and went), I gradually realised several things. Firstly, I was in a room full of foreign people. At first, I had thought this wasn’t the case, as some of the people looked like they could’ve been English. However, it gradually dawned on me that these were probably Polish. I became suspicious and, sure enough, eventually twigged that everyone in the room was here for the exam. There were a lot of people! Probably about 70 all together by the time we eventually started the registration process. As far as I am aware, I was the ONLY English native. I had no problem with this of course, but it just struck me as slightly odd. I wondered why they were here. Do they have to take the exam to stay in the UK? Why on earth would they want to? Well – I guess perhaps there are worse places to be. I heard stories of people taking the exam for their 6th time, and how it was becoming a real problem that they couldn’t pass the exam. Slightly worrying, although on the flip-side of the coin, most people were not speaking any English and, when I bumped into a foreign lady in the Gents loo, I began to feel a little more confident that I would be okay in the exam.
When registration started, it took ages. Every individual person had to show their passport and get marked off a list. It was well gone 10 o’clock by the time we entered the examination room where we would sit for a total of 3 hours doing the listening, reading and writing parts of the test. This is very much an exam scenario. The usual rules; no mobile phones, paper, etc. allowed in the room, have to be accompanied to the toilet if you want to go during the 3 hour period (and you do this during exam time). I wasn’t even allowed to take my bottle of squash into the exam! “Only water” is allowed. Jeeze! What’s the problem here? Are they worried people might have some magical potion that turns them into experts of the English language? Perhaps a deadly toxin for those who decide it’s time to give up trying? Or perhaps an explosive substance – “If I can’t pass the exam, I’m taking all of you down with me!!!”
There’s no part of this exam you should enter into lightly. It’s no “walk in the park”, even as an English native. Now I might have seriously crappy English skills and be wrong in saying this, but I’ll let you decide that one for yourselves.
Listening: You get your questions before each section of audio is played out. You therefore have some idea what you’re listening out for. Be careful though, especially toward the end of the listening section! What can at first sound like an answer to a particular question can turn out to be a red herring. You can kind of tell when the audio is moving onto the next question (the questions generally seem to be in the correct order for the audio), so I found it best to wait until that happens before writing down the answer, just to be sure you’re getting the right information.
Reading: Similar to the listening section really, but you’re reading instead. Keep focused and don’t think it’s going to be easy-peasy! If you go into this exam thinking that, I would suggest that you could easily fall-down.
Writing: I was dreading this bit – mainly because I don’t normally “do” handwriting. I’m a QWERTY kind ‘a guy! As I understand it, there are some exam centres that offer a computer version of the exam, but not near us – in fact, Carol is now telling me that you don’t even get these in this country - urgh.
Two parts to the writing exam; first part in my exam was to write a letter inviting a native English speaking person to come and visit your English class and speak about what it’s like to live and work as an English native. Well – it might sound daft, but this completely threw me. I jotted some rubbish down, but it seemed to me this was not a task that was meant to be given to an English native. I ended up using all of the 20 minutes allotted for this first part of the written exam, which I hadn’t intended to do as in the second part, you are expected to write many more words (at least 250, if I recall correctly.)
Second part was to write about traffic congestion in cities, how it affects you as an individual, and what we can all do as individuals to help improve matters. Well, under normal circumstances if I were writing about such a topic I would spend some time planning what I was going to say, then rough something out, re-arrange it to make it sound really good, then re-write it neatly and in final draft. You get 40 minutes for this. As someone who struggles to hand-write anything, I just thought I’d better get on and start putting some stuff down! So, I just waffled on about commuting, pollution, the environment, working from home, using public transport, cycling, walking, the school run – you know the kinds of things – scratched out writing for the full 40 minutes until my hand had detached itself from my wrist and run off back to the car, a little bit like “Thing” out of The Addams Family!
On our desks we had a little card with our names and also our appointment times for the afternoon speaking test. Mine was at 3:30pm, and it was headed toward 1:30pm by the time we got out of the examination hall. Got some lunch and walked over toward Melton College. Walked around for a bit to kill time, and then decided to go into the waiting room just in case they called me early (they’d mentioned that they might, as some people hadn’t turned up, apparently.)
Got called in for my speaking test a little early at about 3pm. The speaking test was the one I had been dreading the most. I don’t normally “do” speaking, as anyone who’s ever met me will know. I’m more of a QWERTY kind ‘a guy, as you have no doubt realised by now! Best thing about the speaking examination is that it’s fairly quick. But, it’s also pretty intense. You get asked a bunch of fairly general questions. How easy or hard these are for you, probably depends on how “social” you are as a person in general. For a mushroom like me – complete nightmare! And then, the killer task. You have to speak about a particular subject (that they give you) for 1-2 minutes. Mine was to think of a person who has done a lot of good for others and talk about them. So – you’re in an exam situation. Stressed, nervous, worried – then you have this dropped on you! Who could I talk about? Princess Di sprang to mind, but – hmmm – what would I say? “Urrm, yeah – she’s done a lot of good, but she’s dead now.” For some reason, I then thought of Bob Geldof. Not much better really. You get about 2 minutes to jot down your ideas before you start talking. I think my paper said “Bob G”, “Live Aid” and “3rd World” on it. Still, I managed to struggle on for what seemed like a lifetime, though I strongly suspect it was about 45 seconds. Then, I just had to say, “Well – I think that’s about all I’m going to be able to say.” It was the best feeling in the world to know that the exam was over! Done and dusted! Phew!
So, after all that, just one question remains in my own mind. How in God’s name did I manage to get a 9 on my speaking and only an 8 on the listening! I think most of my oral output consisted of, “urrmm”, or “oh god”, “oh no” and similar. Ah well – who cares now? It’s over, and I passed. Just thought I’d share what was such a wonderful way to spend 1 of the 2 days in my weekend.
Good luck to anyone who takes it! Even more luck to any foreign people who take it (how they’re ever supposed to pass it is beyond me!)
That’s it from me! Toodle-pip!! :D
Simon.
Got the results this morning! Here’s my score breakdown:
8.0 for listening, 9.0 for reading, 8.0 for writing and 9.0 for speaking giving an “Overall Band Score” of 8.5 – Whoopee!
So, having spent more than a year working toward getting a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification, then jumping through hoops to satisfy the Australian Computer Society that I was indeed an IT Professional and not just some nerdy pleb, we were still 5 points short for getting our Skilled Migration Visa. Our original plan was to get an extra mortgage on the house and “buy” the extra points by investing the 100,000 AUD for a year. However, with the changes coming into effect in September we were left with the option of my taking the IELTS exam instead and then re-applying for the Visa assuming a successful exam pass.
I booked my IELTS exam at the Melton College in York (our closest IELTS exam centre). As I’m sure you can imagine, after taking 7 exams to obtain my MCSE, the prospect of taking another exam of any flavour was just far too appealing to pass-up! Consequently, when the confirmation letter for the exam arrived, I filed it without really reading it, secretly hoping that it might get swallowed up by some alternate dimension of reality. Alas, this didn’t happen, and when it got to the day before my exam I decided I’d better seek out this Melton College place so that I knew where to go the following morning. I knew it was a 9 o’clock or there-abouts registration time, so I couldn’t really afford to waste any time as I would have to drag myself out of bed early on a Saturday morning and drive a good 30 miles to York. Found the college – sorted, I thought.
Got home that Friday and decided, “Hmmm, maybe I should just double-check what I need for this exam” and pulled out the confirmation letter. Lots of lovely surprises waiting for me! Firstly, what I had originally thought would take just half of my valuable Saturday weekend day turned out that it could potentially take all of it. Secondly, I didn’t need to go to Melton College in the morning at all. Instead, I needed to go to All Saints School which, whilst in York, was somewhere other than where I’d gone the previous night. Frustrated? Not the right word to use – understatement! So, it turned out the exam registration, listening, reading and writing tests were all at All Saints School in the morning. Then, the speaking test was at some time in the afternoon that was yet to be determined – and this was at the Melton College site.
Saturday morning: Got up at stupid o’clock in the morning to ensure I would have enough time to locate the All Saints School and register at 9 o’clock as stated in the letter. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), I drove straight to it without issue, got parked up in the “limited parking” (loads of space, even later on after everyone had arrived!) and found myself with 50 minutes to kick around aimlessly and wait for the 9 o’clock registration. At about 8:45am I went to look for reception. Found it – doors locked – lights off. I kicked around aimlessly some more. I could see a bunch of people sat in a room, but figured they must be school residents or something. Eventually, some nerdy chap looked at me and asked if I was here for “IELTS”. I said yes, and he told me I could wait in the aforementioned room. Went in, sat down, and waited.
As time ticked on (9 o’clock came and went), I gradually realised several things. Firstly, I was in a room full of foreign people. At first, I had thought this wasn’t the case, as some of the people looked like they could’ve been English. However, it gradually dawned on me that these were probably Polish. I became suspicious and, sure enough, eventually twigged that everyone in the room was here for the exam. There were a lot of people! Probably about 70 all together by the time we eventually started the registration process. As far as I am aware, I was the ONLY English native. I had no problem with this of course, but it just struck me as slightly odd. I wondered why they were here. Do they have to take the exam to stay in the UK? Why on earth would they want to? Well – I guess perhaps there are worse places to be. I heard stories of people taking the exam for their 6th time, and how it was becoming a real problem that they couldn’t pass the exam. Slightly worrying, although on the flip-side of the coin, most people were not speaking any English and, when I bumped into a foreign lady in the Gents loo, I began to feel a little more confident that I would be okay in the exam.
When registration started, it took ages. Every individual person had to show their passport and get marked off a list. It was well gone 10 o’clock by the time we entered the examination room where we would sit for a total of 3 hours doing the listening, reading and writing parts of the test. This is very much an exam scenario. The usual rules; no mobile phones, paper, etc. allowed in the room, have to be accompanied to the toilet if you want to go during the 3 hour period (and you do this during exam time). I wasn’t even allowed to take my bottle of squash into the exam! “Only water” is allowed. Jeeze! What’s the problem here? Are they worried people might have some magical potion that turns them into experts of the English language? Perhaps a deadly toxin for those who decide it’s time to give up trying? Or perhaps an explosive substance – “If I can’t pass the exam, I’m taking all of you down with me!!!”
There’s no part of this exam you should enter into lightly. It’s no “walk in the park”, even as an English native. Now I might have seriously crappy English skills and be wrong in saying this, but I’ll let you decide that one for yourselves.
Listening: You get your questions before each section of audio is played out. You therefore have some idea what you’re listening out for. Be careful though, especially toward the end of the listening section! What can at first sound like an answer to a particular question can turn out to be a red herring. You can kind of tell when the audio is moving onto the next question (the questions generally seem to be in the correct order for the audio), so I found it best to wait until that happens before writing down the answer, just to be sure you’re getting the right information.
Reading: Similar to the listening section really, but you’re reading instead. Keep focused and don’t think it’s going to be easy-peasy! If you go into this exam thinking that, I would suggest that you could easily fall-down.
Writing: I was dreading this bit – mainly because I don’t normally “do” handwriting. I’m a QWERTY kind ‘a guy! As I understand it, there are some exam centres that offer a computer version of the exam, but not near us – in fact, Carol is now telling me that you don’t even get these in this country - urgh.
Two parts to the writing exam; first part in my exam was to write a letter inviting a native English speaking person to come and visit your English class and speak about what it’s like to live and work as an English native. Well – it might sound daft, but this completely threw me. I jotted some rubbish down, but it seemed to me this was not a task that was meant to be given to an English native. I ended up using all of the 20 minutes allotted for this first part of the written exam, which I hadn’t intended to do as in the second part, you are expected to write many more words (at least 250, if I recall correctly.)
Second part was to write about traffic congestion in cities, how it affects you as an individual, and what we can all do as individuals to help improve matters. Well, under normal circumstances if I were writing about such a topic I would spend some time planning what I was going to say, then rough something out, re-arrange it to make it sound really good, then re-write it neatly and in final draft. You get 40 minutes for this. As someone who struggles to hand-write anything, I just thought I’d better get on and start putting some stuff down! So, I just waffled on about commuting, pollution, the environment, working from home, using public transport, cycling, walking, the school run – you know the kinds of things – scratched out writing for the full 40 minutes until my hand had detached itself from my wrist and run off back to the car, a little bit like “Thing” out of The Addams Family!
On our desks we had a little card with our names and also our appointment times for the afternoon speaking test. Mine was at 3:30pm, and it was headed toward 1:30pm by the time we got out of the examination hall. Got some lunch and walked over toward Melton College. Walked around for a bit to kill time, and then decided to go into the waiting room just in case they called me early (they’d mentioned that they might, as some people hadn’t turned up, apparently.)
Got called in for my speaking test a little early at about 3pm. The speaking test was the one I had been dreading the most. I don’t normally “do” speaking, as anyone who’s ever met me will know. I’m more of a QWERTY kind ‘a guy, as you have no doubt realised by now! Best thing about the speaking examination is that it’s fairly quick. But, it’s also pretty intense. You get asked a bunch of fairly general questions. How easy or hard these are for you, probably depends on how “social” you are as a person in general. For a mushroom like me – complete nightmare! And then, the killer task. You have to speak about a particular subject (that they give you) for 1-2 minutes. Mine was to think of a person who has done a lot of good for others and talk about them. So – you’re in an exam situation. Stressed, nervous, worried – then you have this dropped on you! Who could I talk about? Princess Di sprang to mind, but – hmmm – what would I say? “Urrm, yeah – she’s done a lot of good, but she’s dead now.” For some reason, I then thought of Bob Geldof. Not much better really. You get about 2 minutes to jot down your ideas before you start talking. I think my paper said “Bob G”, “Live Aid” and “3rd World” on it. Still, I managed to struggle on for what seemed like a lifetime, though I strongly suspect it was about 45 seconds. Then, I just had to say, “Well – I think that’s about all I’m going to be able to say.” It was the best feeling in the world to know that the exam was over! Done and dusted! Phew!
So, after all that, just one question remains in my own mind. How in God’s name did I manage to get a 9 on my speaking and only an 8 on the listening! I think most of my oral output consisted of, “urrmm”, or “oh god”, “oh no” and similar. Ah well – who cares now? It’s over, and I passed. Just thought I’d share what was such a wonderful way to spend 1 of the 2 days in my weekend.
Good luck to anyone who takes it! Even more luck to any foreign people who take it (how they’re ever supposed to pass it is beyond me!)
That’s it from me! Toodle-pip!! :D
Simon.
ralph and bev - August 4, 2007 01:50 PM (GMT)
:clap: Well done Simon :clap:
Your the first person i know that's done the test!!
Congratulations on passing the exam.
One step nearer.
You do have a way with words, even if your a "qwerty" type of guy!!
I'd heard the exam was hard, glad Ralph wont have to do it, never was his strong point literacy , more of a manual type of guy!!
Were all the other people heading out to Oz? , did you find out?
Britain isnt all of a sudden getting people to jump through hoops , before letting them in are they!!
I'm sure that will be a great help to people having to sit the exam!
Its deffinatly not a walk in the park British born and bred or not !!
Bev :D
Your the first person i know that's done the test!!
Congratulations on passing the exam.
One step nearer.
You do have a way with words, even if your a "qwerty" type of guy!!
I'd heard the exam was hard, glad Ralph wont have to do it, never was his strong point literacy , more of a manual type of guy!!
Were all the other people heading out to Oz? , did you find out?
Britain isnt all of a sudden getting people to jump through hoops , before letting them in are they!!
I'm sure that will be a great help to people having to sit the exam!
Its deffinatly not a walk in the park British born and bred or not !!
Bev :D
mOZzy - August 4, 2007 02:24 PM (GMT)
thanks simon - that made good reading! (with lots of giggles :clap: )
i'd given you a 10 for the writing bit ;) (and of course you could have used your laptop if it was me :lol: )
i was dreading taking this exam - i am not an english native speaker - and altough i am not the main applicant i still have to prove my english - only basics but never the less ...
as it turns out i might get out of it if i could prove that i worked at least for 2 years here in the uk - fingers crossed! i am chasing the paperwork!!
so with 8.5 - will you get your 5 points?!?!?!
i'd given you a 10 for the writing bit ;) (and of course you could have used your laptop if it was me :lol: )
i was dreading taking this exam - i am not an english native speaker - and altough i am not the main applicant i still have to prove my english - only basics but never the less ...
as it turns out i might get out of it if i could prove that i worked at least for 2 years here in the uk - fingers crossed! i am chasing the paperwork!!
so with 8.5 - will you get your 5 points?!?!?!
Gotooz - August 4, 2007 02:55 PM (GMT)
Congratulations Simon! :bouncy:
(And Carol too! :D )
I'm so pleased for you. Get that visa application in and the champagne open! :bouncy: :bouncy: :yeehah: :yeehah:
Thanks for sharing your experience - it was very useful. We also need the IELTS for an extra 5 points. Your post has helped us no end - we know what to expect now and know it is possible to pass. Hopefully we can match your performance. :love29:
I have just booked our tests and the woman on the phone asked why on earth I needed to take the exam as I was obviously a native English speaker. I explained the new visa rules and she said, she would get ready for a rush of Ozzie migrants!
Congrats again - Carol I'll send you a PM!
Nicola
(And Carol too! :D )
I'm so pleased for you. Get that visa application in and the champagne open! :bouncy: :bouncy: :yeehah: :yeehah:
Thanks for sharing your experience - it was very useful. We also need the IELTS for an extra 5 points. Your post has helped us no end - we know what to expect now and know it is possible to pass. Hopefully we can match your performance. :love29:
I have just booked our tests and the woman on the phone asked why on earth I needed to take the exam as I was obviously a native English speaker. I explained the new visa rules and she said, she would get ready for a rush of Ozzie migrants!
Congrats again - Carol I'll send you a PM!
Nicola
Shelle - August 4, 2007 05:15 PM (GMT)
Well done Simon and Carol! Really glad to hear the test result was so good :sign61: Sounds like it was a 'fun' way to spend a day..
Simon & Carol - August 4, 2007 05:18 PM (GMT)
Simon said he's done his typing quota for the day so back to Carol again now. :) It's not very often Simon posts on this forum but when he does he certainly has a lot to say. :lol: Thanks for the congratulations. :D
QUOTE (ralph and bev @ Aug 4 2007, 02:50 PM)
QUOTE (ralph and bev @ Aug 4 2007, 02:50 PM)
| QUOTE |
| Were all the other people heading out to Oz? , did you find out? Britain isnt all of a sudden getting people to jump through hoops , before letting them in are they!! |
Don't know Bev, we never did find out why everyone else was taking the exam. Simon said that a lot of the people there seemed to know each other already. We don't know whether that's because they have taken the test and failed it so many times they have got to know each other by meeting at the college for the exam week after week or whether they attend some kind of language school or something. :unsure:
QUOTE (mOZzy @ Aug 4 2007, 03:24 PM)
| QUOTE |
| as it turns out i might get out of it if i could prove that i worked at least for 2 years here in the uk - fingers crossed! i am chasing the paperwork!! so with 8.5 - will you get your 5 points?!?!?! |
Hope you manage to get away without having to do the IELTS exam mOZzy :sign03: You obviously have no problem with English but if you can get away without taking the exam it will save you a day of your weekend and £95. :D
8.5 will get us the extra 5 points. The minimum mark is 7.0 in all 4 categories. :sign60:
QUOTE (Gootoz @ Aug 4 2007, 03:55 PM)
| QUOTE |
| I have just booked our tests and the woman on the phone asked why on earth I needed to take the exam as I was obviously a native English speaker. I explained the new visa rules and she said, she would get ready for a rush of Ozzie migrants! |
:lol2: Has Simon's post prompted you to book the exam too? Glad the post has given you inspiration. :D
Carol
Annette - August 5, 2007 02:19 AM (GMT)
Now THAT was a post worth reading... :clap:
Simon, please please please post more on the site - keep us updated on every small step of the way, please ... I beg of you! That was hugely entertaining :lol:
Carol, you can stay as well... ;) :love29:
Simon, please please please post more on the site - keep us updated on every small step of the way, please ... I beg of you! That was hugely entertaining :lol:
Carol, you can stay as well... ;) :love29:
shazrazmataz - August 5, 2007 03:40 AM (GMT)
Congrats Simon, think you deserve some sort of medal :D 
Maccaroo - August 5, 2007 03:59 AM (GMT)
Hi Congrats, you'll be here before you know it.
It reminds me of when we applied, we went throught all the usual bits and then had to have a medical, we had the chest x rays, and the doc who took them had a look and said everything was fine and if we didnt get throught it woudnt be because of our medicals, then we had a letter from oz house saying that although everything was okay with our medicals, on Deans xray it looked like he had been exposed to tb sometime in the past (Dean was baffled by this as surely he would have known if he had had tb) so when we arrived in Australia he would have to go to the chest hospital on North Tce for a further check up within I thnk it was 30 days, so obviously we accepted this and moved here. When Dean went for his xray, the place was full of indians not another nationality was there, he had the xray and the doc here said there was nothing on it, he didnt know what all the fuss was about. Heresay later on someone said that they had to randomly pick other nationalities to make it look non racist! um seems a bit unfair ...................
It reminds me of when we applied, we went throught all the usual bits and then had to have a medical, we had the chest x rays, and the doc who took them had a look and said everything was fine and if we didnt get throught it woudnt be because of our medicals, then we had a letter from oz house saying that although everything was okay with our medicals, on Deans xray it looked like he had been exposed to tb sometime in the past (Dean was baffled by this as surely he would have known if he had had tb) so when we arrived in Australia he would have to go to the chest hospital on North Tce for a further check up within I thnk it was 30 days, so obviously we accepted this and moved here. When Dean went for his xray, the place was full of indians not another nationality was there, he had the xray and the doc here said there was nothing on it, he didnt know what all the fuss was about. Heresay later on someone said that they had to randomly pick other nationalities to make it look non racist! um seems a bit unfair ...................
Simon & Carol - August 5, 2007 11:17 AM (GMT)
QUOTE (Annette @ Aug 5 2007, 03:19 AM)
| QUOTE |
| Simon, please please please post more on the site - keep us updated on every small step of the way, please ... I beg of you! That was hugely entertaining :lol: |
Thanks Annette, glad you enjoyed Simon's post. I will do my best to get him to post again at some point ... in the meantime, I'll have to do. :) I persuaded him to do the post because obviously it wouldn't have been half as amusing or informative if I'd done it ... I wasn't even there. We thought that anyone who's planning on taking the IELTS might find it helpful.
Maccaroo, Glad to hear Dean's X-Ray was okay. Unlucky he was picked out. I hope we're not randomly picked to do the check up :sign03: . Thanks for the warning though. Knowing this, at least if one of us is picked out we might not worry so much. :)
Carol
Delboy - August 6, 2007 12:05 AM (GMT)
That has got to be the longest post I have ever read on Adelaidebrits.
Anything over 6 lines I usually hit the back button :rolleyes:
Excellent post.
Would I have passed the test ? Not on your Nelly. :blink:
Anything over 6 lines I usually hit the back button :rolleyes:
Excellent post.
Would I have passed the test ? Not on your Nelly. :blink:
wizzywozza - August 6, 2007 02:10 AM (GMT)
Why does a native born English speaking person have to take a test anyway?
szopen - August 6, 2007 04:16 AM (GMT)
As I am not a native speaker I had to do the test for my qualifications assessment.
This was done in China. I was the only non Chinese at the test which was causing a fair bit of confusion: constantly being directed to the teachers room, a fair bit of fear in corridors as I was passing by, a lot of suspicion from the administration and organizers who I am and why am I doing this (I gave rather vague reasons) etc.
I had actually prepared for the test, there is a set of books and tapes that I have gone through and done a sample test, I needed a 7.0 score to get the qualifications assessment and ended with 8.5 average (9,9,9 and 7 speaking).
My speaking subject was : what do I see as problems facing young women in today’s society? A bit hard for a man to pour a lot of words about.
For anybody trying to I would strongly recommend going through the study materials.
BTW,
A lot of people from not native speaking backgrounds have to pass the test to get accepted into school, uni or other educational institutions so that’s the 90% or so attempting, visa seekers are just a very small group.
This was done in China. I was the only non Chinese at the test which was causing a fair bit of confusion: constantly being directed to the teachers room, a fair bit of fear in corridors as I was passing by, a lot of suspicion from the administration and organizers who I am and why am I doing this (I gave rather vague reasons) etc.
I had actually prepared for the test, there is a set of books and tapes that I have gone through and done a sample test, I needed a 7.0 score to get the qualifications assessment and ended with 8.5 average (9,9,9 and 7 speaking).
My speaking subject was : what do I see as problems facing young women in today’s society? A bit hard for a man to pour a lot of words about.
For anybody trying to I would strongly recommend going through the study materials.
BTW,
A lot of people from not native speaking backgrounds have to pass the test to get accepted into school, uni or other educational institutions so that’s the 90% or so attempting, visa seekers are just a very small group.
steve the pom - August 6, 2007 07:10 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (wizzywozza @ Aug 6 2007, 11:40 AM) |
| Why does a native born English speaking person have to take a test anyway? |
you beat me to it I was going to ask the same question :doh:
although strange as it may seem i have been asked a few times where i learnt english since i have been in Oz I think it maybe something to do with my Estuary English accent :sign68:
Flutterby - August 6, 2007 08:56 AM (GMT)
You will probably find that a lot of the people taking the exam with you who were not native english speakers were taking it for university entrance.
You are required to have IELTS to a certain level (don't know what it is!) if it is not your first language before you are able to enrol on a university level course.
You are required to have IELTS to a certain level (don't know what it is!) if it is not your first language before you are able to enrol on a university level course.
Simon & Carol - August 6, 2007 09:05 AM (GMT)
QUOTE (szopen @ Aug 6 2007, 05:16 AM)
| QUOTE |
| I had actually prepared for the test, there is a set of books and tapes that I have gone through and done a sample test, I needed a 7.0 score to get the qualifications assessment and ended with 8.5 average (9,9,9 and 7 speaking). My speaking subject was : what do I see as problems facing young women in today’s society? A bit hard for a man to pour a lot of words about. For anybody trying to I would strongly recommend going through the study materials. BTW, A lot of people from not native speaking backgrounds have to pass the test to get accepted into school, uni or other educational institutions so that’s the 90% or so attempting, visa seekers are just a very small group. |
You did extremely well as a non-native speaker to get 8.5 average score. I guess, native speakers assume there's no need to prepare or study for the test so could be in for a surprise if literacy is not thier strongest subject. :sign68: The study materials are probably a good idea. It sounds like you had a totally inappropriate subject for your speaking section too. :lol:
Thanks szopen and Flutterby for enlightening us about non native English speakers having to pass the IELTS to get accepted into educational institutions ... it's all starting to make sense now. :)
Carol
wizzywozza - August 6, 2007 09:09 AM (GMT)
Yes, but why does an Englsih born and raised person have to take this test? I'm confused.
Liz - August 6, 2007 09:44 AM (GMT)
I think that maybe it's because not all people born in England are raised with English as their first language. There are a few children at my daughter's school who were born here but do not speak English very well as their parents only spoke to them in their native language, and they are learning to speak English at school. They also offer free English classes at the school for the parents.
Simon & Carol - August 6, 2007 09:50 AM (GMT)
QUOTE (wizzywozza @ Aug 6 2007, 10:09 AM)
| QUOTE |
| Yes, but why does an Englsih born and raised person have to take this test? I'm confused. |
At the moment native English speakers automatically get 20 points towards the visa points test. From 1st September native English speakers will only automatically get 15 points but can increase the points to 25 by doing the IELTS test and scoring a minimum of 7 in each category. If you don’t need the extra points to meet the visa pass mark you don’t have to take the test.
We have already put a visa application in before the changes so can get the 20 points without taking the IELTS but we were 5 points short on that application so we were going to have to invest A$100K in a government fund for a year to get the extra 5 points. By passing the IELTS, if we re-apply in September we can now get 25 points for English, instead of 20, and won’t need to invest the money. :sign60:
I don’t know the thinking behind the changes, Perhaps, like Liz said, it's to do with English not always being the first language. I guess they’re trying to encourage people with good English skills. What I do know is that it will be a big help to us. :D
Carol
wizzywozza - August 6, 2007 10:48 AM (GMT)
Thanks for the explanation Carol. I appreciate your taking the time to make it simple for me to understand.
Sharon
Sharon
orrelljet - August 6, 2007 05:10 PM (GMT)
My wife (French) got 8.0 overall - an expert user of the English language, so she tells me.
When we 1st started down the immigration route we were 5 points short of the pass mark, hence the need for the SIR Visa - if they'd brought this into force earlier, we could have hit the pass-mark??!!! Damn.
When we 1st started down the immigration route we were 5 points short of the pass mark, hence the need for the SIR Visa - if they'd brought this into force earlier, we could have hit the pass-mark??!!! Damn.
max65 - August 13, 2007 06:12 PM (GMT)
excellent post!
my TRA application for 136 visa was posted on 28th june, recieved 4th july.i have 10 days left waiting for it to come back,if it doesn`t then it`s SIR or exam!
I have no idea what the SIR involves and i`m assuming the exam is preferable!!
any thoughts folks?
cheers
max
max 42 maint/fitter
nikki 40 finance assist
jamie 11 footy mad
abigail 3 mad
my TRA application for 136 visa was posted on 28th june, recieved 4th july.i have 10 days left waiting for it to come back,if it doesn`t then it`s SIR or exam!
I have no idea what the SIR involves and i`m assuming the exam is preferable!!
any thoughts folks?
cheers
max
max 42 maint/fitter
nikki 40 finance assist
jamie 11 footy mad
abigail 3 mad
Simon & Carol - August 13, 2007 07:31 PM (GMT)
Hi Max,
Welcome to Adelaidebrits. :D Glad you enjoyed the post.
I'm afraid I don't know much about the SIR visa but I believe that it is initially only a temporary residence visa and therefore you may not have access to social security benefits on that visa. I think you also have to live in a designated area on the SIR visa so it could restrict your job options if you couldn't find a job in that region. You would also have to apply for permanent residency later on. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that.
On the other hand, if taking the IELTS exam enables you to apply for a permanent visa I would definitely choose that option. In the unlikely event that you don't score enough for the IELTS exam you could still go for the SIR. :D
Best of luck with the TRA and hope you get the result in time to put your visa application in before 1st September to save you the hassle of the SIR visa or IELTS exam. :sign03: If you do end up doing the IELTS exam I hope this thread has been of some help to you.
Carol
Welcome to Adelaidebrits. :D Glad you enjoyed the post.
I'm afraid I don't know much about the SIR visa but I believe that it is initially only a temporary residence visa and therefore you may not have access to social security benefits on that visa. I think you also have to live in a designated area on the SIR visa so it could restrict your job options if you couldn't find a job in that region. You would also have to apply for permanent residency later on. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that.
On the other hand, if taking the IELTS exam enables you to apply for a permanent visa I would definitely choose that option. In the unlikely event that you don't score enough for the IELTS exam you could still go for the SIR. :D
Best of luck with the TRA and hope you get the result in time to put your visa application in before 1st September to save you the hassle of the SIR visa or IELTS exam. :sign03: If you do end up doing the IELTS exam I hope this thread has been of some help to you.
Carol
Elaine - August 13, 2007 10:47 PM (GMT)
Hi Max65, and welcome to the forum.
Now I'm no visa expert, but the basics go like this: the SIR is a temporary visa and has various restrictions as said above, you don't get the child benefit equivalent that you do on a permanent visa, and if your kids are older there are issues with tertiary education (both availability and cost), though you are fine up to school year 12. Also, you have a whole extra set of hoops to jump through when you come to convert that visa to permanent later on.
On the whole, if you can get a permanent visa initially, one way or another, that is the preferable route.
You will see some current threads (and some now tucked in FAQ) about the palaver that SIR visa holders have had to go through to get the conversion to permanent!
Do take a look at our FAQ and Links sections, you will find a mass of useful info over there :)
And :sign03: your TRA comes through in time... :happy45:
Now I'm no visa expert, but the basics go like this: the SIR is a temporary visa and has various restrictions as said above, you don't get the child benefit equivalent that you do on a permanent visa, and if your kids are older there are issues with tertiary education (both availability and cost), though you are fine up to school year 12. Also, you have a whole extra set of hoops to jump through when you come to convert that visa to permanent later on.
On the whole, if you can get a permanent visa initially, one way or another, that is the preferable route.
You will see some current threads (and some now tucked in FAQ) about the palaver that SIR visa holders have had to go through to get the conversion to permanent!
Do take a look at our FAQ and Links sections, you will find a mass of useful info over there :)
And :sign03: your TRA comes through in time... :happy45: