Is IELTS getting harder these days?

dave787 · Jun 5, 2008

they folow there own standard. you cant simply judge that the previous exam is difficult from the presnt exams.

drez21 · Jun 5, 2008

Hello again!

The IELTS isnt a test of knowledge. Its a test of how well you understand the instructions given to you and how well you can communicate the info/data that you've got.

All IELTS exam are the same! It just comes in different settings or topics but the format is FIXED.

Those review centers are just irritants!

TIP: For Academ-writing 1: memorize the words necessary to describe a graph---ex: Increase,decline,etc...by doing this you will have more time in your Academ-writng 2 wc is a lil bit harder.

http://www.ieltsprepinfo.com/ielts_study_guide.htm

http://www.aippg.com/ielts/strategies%20for%20speaking.htm

Just practice this format and you will be SAFE and also search the web for some practice tests.

I hope this helps---GOODLUCK!

misspowers · Jun 6, 2008

I just finished my IELTS exam (to be exact just today). I took some review classes in a review center. This is what I have noticed. There are English instructors who dampens your spirit instead of encouraging you to develop the confidence in speaking. Sad to say many of my classmates "backed-out", because of a very demeaning comment by one our instructors. IELTS is not a contest. It is a proficiency exam. You are not training for a beauty pageant!!!! I always tell my classmates to be positive about improving their command of English.

So far I think I have answered well in my Listening, Reading and Writing subtests. The materials that we are using in the review center are way to hard compare to the materials in the actual exam. I think the key to developing confidence is practice, practice and more practice!!! I'm glad that I encountered other instructors who knows how to motivate students. Also, train your ears not to listen to "horror stories" about IELTS. You know the story of a certain Filipina interviewer who makes the life of the candidates a misery. (I choose not to elaborate). I am so glad to encounter a very charming Old lady as my interviewer. She is a Filipina but she is sooooo nice!!! We were just like talking. You know the casual talk you have with your friend. The whole experience just breezed through so fast, I didn't noticed the time.

Pointers:

1. Practice, practice, practice:up:

2. Stay away from negative people

3. Pray, pray, pray:saint:

4. Smile

5. Have fun

apples101 · Jun 6, 2008

Hello again!
The IELTS isnt a test of knowledge. Its a test of how well you understand the instructions given to you and how well you can communicate the info/data that you've got.
All IELTS exam are the same! It just comes in different settings or topics but the format is FIXED.
Those review centers are just irritants!
TIP: For Academ-writing 1: memorize the words necessary to describe a graph---ex: Increase,decline,etc...by doing this you will have more time in your Academ-writng 2 wc is a lil bit harder.
http://www.ieltsprepinfo.com/ielts_study_guide.htm
http://www.aippg.com/ielts/strategies%20for%20speaking.htm
Just practice this format and you will be SAFE and also search the web for some practice tests.
I hope this helps---GOODLUCK!

Thanks for the tip! I should have just enrolled at scottsenglish :chuckle

apples101 · Jun 6, 2008

I just finished my IELTS exam (to be exact just today). I took some review classes in a review center. This is what I have noticed. There are English instructors who dampens your spirit instead of encouraging you to develop the confidence in speaking. Sad to say many of my classmates "backed-out", because of a very demeaning comment by one our instructors. IELTS is not a contest. It is a proficiency exam. You are not training for a beauty pageant!!!! I always tell my classmates to be positive about improving their command of English.
So far I think I have answered well in my Listening, Reading and Writing subtests. The materials that we are using in the review center are way to hard compare to the materials in the actual exam. I think the key to developing confidence is practice, practice and more practice!!! I'm glad that I encountered other instructors who knows how to motivate students. Also, train your ears not to listen to "horror stories" about IELTS. You know the story of a certain Filipina interviewer who makes the life of the candidates a misery. (I choose not to elaborate). I am so glad to encounter a very charming Old lady as my interviewer. She is a Filipina but she is sooooo nice!!! We were just like talking. You know the casual talk you have with your friend. The whole experience just breezed through so fast, I didn't noticed the time.
Pointers:
1. Practice, practice, practice:up:
2. Stay away from negative people
3. Pray, pray, pray:saint:
4. Smile
5. Have fun

Hi! i appreciate your advice. thanks! Lately ive become so panicky with everything. I only have less than a month to review and the review materials are just so hard to understand. The more i absorb the concepts the more complicated it becomes. :banghead:

We share the same views with regard to how they make the students speak like we are in a beauty pageant. They keep saying that content is not the top priority when you have your speaking test, it's the delivery. But with the way things are going, It's the opposite. they make me feel as if i am bound for a second take. They dont motivate us, they intimidate us.

Anyway thanks for clearing matters to me. It made me feel better.

iamnomad · Jun 6, 2008

Hi,

I'm currently reviewing for the IELTS. Actually, when we had our diagnostic test, it seems very difficult. But as the real lecture unveils, it quite easier now. But it is really not so easy. Because we Filipinos are more acquainted with the American English. IELTS, however, utilizes a British type of English. That makes it difficult.

God Bless to us!

suzanne4, RN · Jun 6, 2008

Sorry, but using either British English or American English is acceptable on the IELTS exam. The issue becomes one of pronunciation as well as the choice of words.

Am seeing more and more trying to use a vocabulary of words that has not been used in more than 200 years in both the UK as well as the USA and this will not help one in passing of the IELTS speaking section.

If there were not issues with the English being spoken in the Philippines, then there would not be a requirement for the English exams and with the fact that not all are passing the first time, just proves my point.

And if you are taking English review there, make sure that you actually have a foreign-born speaker for your class, not someone that was born in your country as a start. This is the same thing that should be followed no matter the country that you take your classes in.

And I still think that www.scottsenglish.com does the best job of all in preparation and they are based right out of Australia.

iamnomad · Jun 6, 2008

Sorry, but I didn't emphasize that the difference in American English and British English can be felt on the listening module only, for the same reason that we are more familiar with the American English. And there's no doubt that Filipinos are capable of understanding the language. It's just we are not using it everyday, making it fade (somehow)...

suzanne4, RN · Jun 6, 2008

But my point is that whether one uses British or American English when they are testing makes no difference at all to the examiner. Actually used to teach English overseas so am well versed in what is required to pass this exam.

And there is still an issue with the number that pass the exam the first time as well as the fact that over 300,000 call center jobs got pulled from the Philippines over the past few years because of difficulties with language skills. This a fact, not something that I just made-up.

Changes in pronunciation of a word or how one hears a word, can prove dangeerous for a patient and that is why the exam is required. Accents can also proved to be a problem, and again cause for concern.

If one prepares properly for the exam, then there should not be an issue with passing it, but those that do not prepare and think that they can just waltz in and ace it are sadly mistaken once they get their results.

iamnomad · Jun 7, 2008

300,000 call center jobs maybe pulled-out but did you happen to know the fact that more than that figure came in?

And if you will just spend some time in reading some newspapers here, you will see that more call center jobs are in need of agents.

And when you said that it doesn't really matter if one uses American and British English, and it's relation to the IELTS, you maybe wrong.

The IELTS uses some word that is common to people of the UK, as far as British English is concern. And even some Americans have difficulty in understanding the British accent, that's a fact. I happen to read it on the internet, and it's from an American source.

suzanne4, RN · Jun 7, 2008

This is not the place to split hairs, I was only making a point. And each of my students that prepared with me, passed the IELTS the first time and I do not speak any British English.

This is a well known fact around the world that British English is not required for that exam. And that it is easier to pass the speaking on the IELTS series since one has a human in front of them, rather than the machine for the iBT.

Have seen it over and over again and still stand by what I have written. You are one person and I have been teaching for years and years. And am very aware of what the results are with different instructors as well and still stand by my statement that any review needs to be done with a native speaker, and not one from your country.

Your choice as to what to do. But the fact remains that there are many that do not pass the speaking English the first time and that is what things come down to, passing of an exam. And nothing more than that.