IELTS! I am terrified

viiiolet · Feb 1, 2006

I am having my IELTS on 11th of march and since I scheduled my exam I've been having butterflies in my stomach. I purchaced the IELTS specimen materials but I am not sure that this is the only help I need.
Can you advise me on any helpful site that I can use?
Where can I get some tips about the exam?
The worst is that CGFNS requires the Academic module which is much more difficult than the General training module.
Please, share your experience about the English exam.
Thank you

are u in the philippines?if yes, then i suggest that you enrol in a review class, because of what i experienced a lot of examinees had difficulty especially in the listening part,. it takes alot of practice for you to understand correctly the conversations coz of the accents that are used in the exam.. and also if you know for yourself that you have difficulty conversing in english, try to have a mock interview(usually the review centers provide this) for you to have to have an idea on what'll happen on your interview. goodluck!

elenova · Feb 1, 2006

Thank you, Viiiolet! I am not in the Philipines, but I live in a multicultural enviornment and I am not bad with the listening, but I am afraid from the written part. What does MOCK stand for?

Have u had IELTS urself?

Thanx again

starbin, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2006

thank you, viiiolet! i am not in the philipines, but i live in a multicultural enviornment and i am not bad with the listening, but i am afraid from the written part. what does mock stand for?
have u had ielts urself?
thanx again

i would also feel the same way before actually taking the test. i was so scared specially with the speaking part...but it is not that difficult as we believe. all you need to know is be familiar with the exam...there are only two parts(writing and reading) that are different in academic module.

read more and more(professional journals, newspapers etc..)that will make your reading skills better and it will also help you in writing module.

if you have a good internet access take online course www.scottsenglish.com this is a very wonderful site. it will help you a lot. once you enroll, you can also send your writings to them for correction. the teacher will analyze your answer and send comment verification and corrected answer, word by word. if you need more information and if you want a copy of corrected writing task just e-mail me. good luck.

elenova · Feb 1, 2006

Thank you, Starbin. I feel better to know that I am not the only one with such a butterflies in my stomach. Do u have the writing task? I would love to have a look at it. I will look at the site u advised me to.

The reading part and the written one are going to be taugh. Did u go trough the IELTS? R they talking british English?

Thanx again :coollook:

starbin, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2006

thank you, starbin. i feel better to know that i am not the only one with such a butterflies in my stomach. do u have the writing task? i would love to have a look at it. i will look at the site u advised me to.
the reading part and the written one are going to be taugh. did u go trough the ielts? r they talking british english?
thanx again

there are varieties of accents, not only british..but australian and american also...listening was not that difficult. it was very clear,they paly an audio for the whole room. but fortunately the room was small and we were only 10-12 examinee, so it was very clear. i am not kidding but i was expecting to score 9 out of 9 in listening. the result was 8.

reading needs some practice to read fast, and scan..you have plenty time..you can prepare very well. just e-mail me whenever you need the writing stuff.

elenova · Feb 2, 2006

Thank u, Starbin! I bought some Specimen materials, which r the official study materials from IELTS. I took a self test yesterday in listening and got 36 out of 41. That was not difficult and I got the mistakes in the places that I was expected to write a word and I wrote 2 or 3 words...

Spoken part, I have the CD with this study materials and there r 3 conversations with a libian, korean and sweedish candidate. They r scored 4, 5 and 6 respectively. I got the idea and it doesnt seem difficult and the examiner spoke very slowly and with good expression.

I started reading an academic book to get familiar with it. Seems I understand the best only the nursing books:chuckle This is coz I read mainly nursing staff.

Thanx again for offering me help with the writing. I will consider it soon.

Regards:p

NYrnTX · Feb 2, 2006

I dont think there is any reason to worry about the Listening part of it. In fact, that is one of the section where most people score around '8' and would compensate for the '5' they score in Reading.

AFAIK, Reading is the most tricky one. Not because you dont understand english. Just because of the timing restrictions. You have to read a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng essay to answer the questions and normally you wont get enough time to complete all Qs. Thats the reason people end up with 5 OR 6. (some people advise to read the Questions first and then try to read the essay to answer it).

Also, a total score of 6.5 does not mean that you have to get a total of (6.5 * 4 = ) 26 to pass the exam. You can escape with 25. Here is the way it works :

Assume that you got a total of 25 (ofcourse, atleast 7 in the speaking part), then 25 divided by 4 will get you 6.25. IELTS cannot give you marks in quarters so they will round up (Yes, round UP) and make it 6.5.

CAVEAT : if your total is only 24.5, you'll fail. Because 24.5 / 4 = 6.125 and they round that DOWN to 6.

Having said that, I dont advise you to AIM at getting JUST 25. But, it should make you feel more comfortable. From my experience, one should aim at

Listening : 8

Reading : 6

Writing : 7

Speaking : 7

===========

28

This way, you can afford to lose 3 marks 'here and there'.

HTH.

Thank u, Starbin! I bought some Specimen materials, which r the official study materials from IELTS. I took a self test yesterday in listening and got 36 out of 41. That was not difficult and I got the mistakes in the places that I was expected to write a word and I wrote 2 or 3 words...
Spoken part, I have the CD with this study materials and there r 3 conversations with a libian, korean and sweedish candidate. They r scored 4, 5 and 6 respectively. I got the idea and it doesnt seem difficult and the examiner spoke very slowly and with good expression.
I started reading an academic book to get familiar with it. Seems I understand the best only the nursing books:chuckle This is coz I read mainly nursing staff.
Thanx again for offering me help with the writing. I will consider it soon.
Regards:p

elenova · Feb 2, 2006

So, every question counts!

How do u know if u got a band of 7 or 8? Isnt it right that u will get to know only when the score is released?

And what is the difference between an Academic and General Trainig essay.What r the requirements for the Academic?:chair:

aelsa3 · Feb 6, 2006

Hi, I took my IELTS in sept last year.

I was also very nervous!! I did the same as you did, bought some training material from IELTS. It was really helpful for me.

As I studied it over and over I came to the conclusion that the writing part really where going to fail me.

The speaking, reading and listening I was more confident of.

When I did the speaking part it wasn´t so difficult after all. I had gotten used to speaking english with my agency already maybe that helped.

Then as the test went on I was more and more nervous because I knew the writing part where coming in last.

And as I predicted- it was difficult for me! I didn´t even write the number of words that where required for each task, and I felt like an idiot leaving the test early.

But, I passed anyway! I got 7 on the speaking module and 6.5 overall band score! And that is exactly what is required to be accepted.

So good luck to you, study in advance and do your best and the rest will come to you!!

Anna

starbin, BSN, RN · Feb 6, 2006

so, every question counts!
how do u know if u got a band of 7 or 8? isnt it right that u will get to know only when the score is released?
and what is the difference between an academic and general trainig essay.what r the requirements for the academic?:chair:

hi just visit teh ielts website. there is a clear description of how the test result is interpreted. which area the essay is tested...how the reading and listening answers are marked..etc. it is very scientific.

the difference between general and academic writing is in academic writing, you will be intrepreting a graph/diagram(in writing task one) and giving your opinions/arguments for/against an issue.

i am not sure, but i think general traing task one asks you to write a letter or application..

just visit www.ielts.org for details.

elenova · Feb 6, 2006

I had TOEFL 4 years ago. Is IELTS (written part) similar?

And Starbin, thank you! I will come back to u for the written materials. Right now I am trying to read as much I can. I read books, about everything. Every time I reach a word I dont know, I look at the dictionary.

Have a good day