IELTS and Pearson PTE : Feel like giving up!

[HappyIsland]

I've written the IELTS test twice, with a third exam booked for the end of the month.

I need to get 20 points (score of 8 on each of the IELTS sections)

The first time I wrote the IELTS I got Listening 7, Reading 7.5, Writing 8 and Speaking 8.5.

Second time around I got Listening 6.5. Reading 9, Writing 8 and Speaking 8.5

This morning I went to go and write the Pearson PTE test and what a nightmare. 4 people sitting in a small room all talking at the same time, whilst trying to listen. You really need to concentrate as some sections you need to summarize recordings etc. Other sections you need to repeat long sentences. Imagine doing this whilst 3 other people are speaking at the same time as you're listening to a recording, let alone trying to concentrate and trying to recall a sentence while 3 people are talking very loudly in a tiny exam room (1.5m x 3m).

In the end all but one test taker left the exam after 10 minutes as nobody could hear or concentrate. The receptionist then told us this happens with every test - people get up and leave.

I was very hopeful of the Pearson test as I felt that the IELTS listening test was very tricky and difficult - it's possible to score a 7 on the listening, but I personally feel that to get an 8 is very difficult.

I guess it's back to the drawing board. Did anyone else find the listening test on the IELTS difficult (those aiming for score of 8)

Any advice?

Feeling very run down with all these IELTS tests. I really thought it would be a quick and easy test. It's been several months later and I'm still writing them at R2500 a pop.

[Donnyvcpt]

Wow..... I feel your pain. I had a rant about the Pearson test as well. What a load of nonsense. I was aiming for 8 across all bands as well, but it wasn't absolutely necessary for me. From what I recall the listening in the IELTS was pretty straight forward. Just keep at it. You've done really well in the difficult part of the test(writing) and you're so close to that elusive 8. I'm sure you'll get it next time round.

[Parks]

Hey HappyIsland,

My hubby wrote 9 times and the elusive 8's never happened. He was always below by only .5 and in a different band each time. So frustrating, but don't give up. Maybe you could explore other options, we ended settling for the 489 regional sponsored skilled visa which gave us the extra points. We have been in Australia 6 months now and love it.

Best of luck

P.S Think IELTS is a money making scam.

[Donnyvcpt]

While I can see where you're coming from Parks I will have to respectfully disagree. In order for IELTS to be a money making scam they would have to know how many points you require. I think that the Aus government should also be realistic about things and allow you to hand in 2 sets of results. Clearly there are inconsistancies in the way you're scored. How can you drop in the speaking band for instance. Perhaps IELTS should allow test takers to try improve their marks by rewriting only the bands they need to improve on instead of the entire test. Unfortunately though, standards are standards and we can't expect them to drop to accomodate us.

Do you absolutely need 20 points to meet requirements for your visa application Happyisland?

[HappyIsland]

While I can see where you're coming from Parks I will have to respectfully disagree. In order for IELTS to be a money making scam they would have to know how many points you require. I think that the Aus government should also be realistic about things and allow you to hand in 2 sets of results. Clearly there are inconsistancies in the way you're scored. How can you drop in the speaking band for instance. Perhaps IELTS should allow test takers to try improve their marks by rewriting only the bands they need to improve on instead of the entire test. Unfortunately though, standards are standards and we can't expect them to drop to accomodate us.

Do you absolutely need 20 points to meet requirements for your visa application Happyisland?

I can go ahead with 10 points, but will then need to go sponsorship route. I have 1 more IELTS exam booked, so will see if I can get the listening part sorted.

Wow..... I feel your pain. I had a rant about the Pearson test as well. What a load of nonsense.

How can Pearson offer an exam in an environment that is not quiet? No credible institution will allow you to write an exam in situations where everyone is doing speaking tests at the same time - 4 people speaking over each other in a small room is absolute madness.

[GandTash]

HappyIsland, I would recommend practicing the online IELTS tests available on the portal - this is what I did for preparation and helped a lot, you can also google IELTS help and there are many sites with samples questions etc.

Good luck !

[GaanBos]

Hi,

Google IELTS buddy, very good website and also Simons tips for IELTS.

Good luck!

[EmNew]

You can also get books/cd's off Amazon that have full exam papers to practice on - Cambridge English 8 IELTS and Cambridge English 9 IELTS will be best.

You get full tests in exact exam conditions. I found those invaluable.

There is always at least one red herring in the listening test too - where they get you to believe the answer is initially x, and then the speaker says they made a mistake with date / time etc and it's actually y - a lot of people hear x and then tune out, scanning the next question already.

The best way to get over this is with practice.

Also ensure that you get the spelling of every word you write down correct, as if the spelling is incorrect, even if it's clear you heard the correct word, it's marked as incorrect.

All the best for the upcoming test, and praying it's the last one you need to write! The Pearson one sounds like a real nightmare - the IELTS admin might be a pain and they're impossible to communicate with, but at least you get decent examination conditions and venue!

[HappyIsland]

You can also get books/cd's off Amazon that have full exam papers to practice on - Cambridge English 8 IELTS and Cambridge English 9 IELTS will be best.

You get full tests in exact exam conditions. I found those invaluable.

There is always at least one red herring in the listening test too - where they get you to believe the answer is initially x, and then the speaker says they made a mistake with date / time etc and it's actually y - a lot of people hear x and then tune out, scanning the next question already.

The best way to get over this is with practice.

Also ensure that you get the spelling of every word you write down correct, as if the spelling is incorrect, even if it's clear you heard the correct word, it's marked as incorrect.

All the best for the upcoming test, and praying it's the last one you need to write! The Pearson one sounds like a real nightmare - the IELTS admin might be a pain and they're impossible to communicate with, but at least you get decent examination conditions and venue!

Thanks, yes I did extensive practise on roadtoielts and I bought the Cambridge IELTS with Answers book from Amazon.

I found that to get 7 on the listening is achievable, although 8 is much much harder on the listening. The multi choice listening test really gets me, it's like a domino effect, once you miss one question you really fall behind. The listening test is really a memory test. I gave the practise tests to my wife and she also struggled to get anything higher than a 7.

8 on the listening is actually 90% if you convert the points as you must get at least 36 / 40. For band 7 you only need 30/40 on the listening, which equates to 75%, so the difference in listening is 75% for band 7 vs 90% for band 8.

Edited May 19, 2015 by HappyIsland

[missj]

I did the ielts exam and got 9 for listening, 7 for reading, 7.5 for writing and 7.5 for speaking. I wrote the academic exam. I paid for a remark which wAs sent to London and my speaking increased to 8.5. I highly recommend a remark for writing or speaking as they are subjective. I now have the scores I need for my skills assessment. However, I am writing the general in July as I need all 8s as well.

[RedPanda]

We also found that some of the test sections were testing anything but English. For example some of the writing or graph interpretation where they basically want to test your maths literacy, and some of their answers were just plain wrong! (we know, because I did engineering and hubby did stats) And then you wonder: "What has the test's incorrect interpretation of the closest fraction to a certain percentage got to do with understanding the language? They can ask that stuff without any language at all!

And we agree that the listening was an exercise in multitasking listening-reading-writing... I doubt many people could score 9 in their home languages! This surely should be an indication that something is slightly amis? Unless they are also testing (unofficially) a person's "talent" or linguistic aptitude. Which I find kind of sneaky. Because then you might as well start checking people's IQs.

But it is what it is. At least they increased the validity period to three years.

Good Luck HappyIsland, and just keep practicing, perhaps you can increase your skill (at performing in their test) if you just keep at it relentlessly.

(Sorry this was a rant, but we were really NOT impressed by the 'mechanics' of the test)

[qwerty]

We wrote the IELTS test in early 2008... Hubby scored 7.5 overall and I scored 8.5... we're both Afrikaans. I'm wondering whether the test is now more difficult than it was when we wrote. So perhaps the standards have gone up significantly?

Crossing fingers and holding thumbs for all of you!

[RedPanda]

qwerty, did you get those scores "overall" or for every band? Because that's what most people are struggling with, eg you can have 8 overall, but as 7 8 8 9, and they will only give you the 7, in fact if you get 7 9 9 9, you will still only be able to claim for the 7.

[TashyL]

HappyIsland, I would recommend practicing the online IELTS tests available on the portal - this is what I did for preparation and helped a lot, you can also google IELTS help and there are many sites with samples questions etc.

Good luck !

GandTash, did you make use of the "free" online tests or did you purchase the online package? I am writing 11 July and have made use of the tests online, but I am wondering if purchasing the additional tools will be of value to me.

[GandTash]

Hi TashyL

I just used the "free" online test preparation material and it was sufficient for me to pass so I cant comment on the the additional material you can purchase, English is my first language so it wasn't too bad but I can imagine if English is not first language the test would be more difficult to pass as the marking seems to be quite strict - additional material might be of value in this case.

I found the listening the most tricky part as you basically have to multi task by listening, reading questions (you can read question before the audio starts as well though) and writing the answers, my advice would be if you get stuck on one question then skip it and carry on listening otherwise you may miss more answers - the audio is only played one time.

Good luck !

[HappyIsland]

Ok, so I just got my test results for the third IELTS test I wrote. I spent a lot of time preparing for the listening test, and this time around it paid off for the listening. However, I missed out on my reading and writing scores with only half a point each.

My first test scores were : Listening 7, Reading 7.5, Writing 8 and Speaking 8.5. Overall score : 8

My second test scores were : Listening 6.5. Reading 9, Writing 8 and Speaking 8.5 Overall score : 8

My third test scores : Listening 8.5. Reading 7.5, Writing 7.5 and Speaking 8.5 Overall score : 8

I've got another test tomorrow - I am sure I will ace it with 8 in each category soon. It's not as easy as it sounds to get 8 in each category, believe me.

[Donnyvcpt]

How FRUSTRATING!!! Best of luck for tomorrows test Happisland. I'm sure you'll nail it this time round.

[RedPanda]

Well, you certainly get 10 for perseverance, HappyIsland!!!
I also heard that you can request a remark, don't know if that might help you with the halfs that you are missing?

[missj]

I have just had a remark for my speaking and it went from 7.5 to 8.5 and I got my money back as it went up. I have heard it is recommended to get a remark for speaking and writing as they are subjective, especially if you only need half a point. The cost is R1100 and you can request for any number of sections to be remarked. I would suggest it.

[HappyIsland]

Well, the one thing I've learnt about the IELTS is that you need to prepare adequately if you're looking for an 8 in each section, whereas it's possible to get away with little to no preparation if you're just looking for a 7 in each section.

For instance, for the first test I wrote I spent a lot of time preparing for the speaking section (and my scores have been a solid 8.5 for speaking since then).
The second test I didn't do any additional prep work.

For the third test I spent 2 weeks preparing for listening - I did all the practice tests I could find and I got rewarded with a score of 8.5 (up from 6.5 and 7 respectively).

The only thing I haven't prepared for adequately is the reading (only spent 3 hours doing reading practice tests) - and I am now putting down 2 weeks of studying for the reading.

My writing is usually very good (never scored less than 8 except for last one) - I don't know why the last writing score went down by half a point, possibly a spelling mistake, but nothing a bit of practice can't fix there :-)

Yes, you can ask for a remark, but this won't affect your scores on the reading and listening parts of the test - only the speaking and writing parts as these parts are somewhat subjective, and if you're missing half a point in either it might be worth asking for a remark.

Edited June 13, 2015 by HappyIsland

[WernerS]

Being not entirely sure if it would even be possible to move to Australia, I decided to take the PTE just for the sake of practice. I was worried that it would be difficult and I want to tick off as many things as I can while I can. Because I just don't know anymore...

Anyway, the IELTS academic only had two dates for this year and thinking that I had to get as much practice as I could, I booked those dates. I did it a few years back and did fine. Then I heard of the PTE on this forum and had a look at the www.immi.gov.au website and confirmed that its accepted.

The PTE had a date for this past Monday, I booked and went for the test. I also read that people complained about the difficulty level and being Afrikaans, this obviously concerned me. But what the heck, its a practice run.

Now you wont believe this. I finished the test at 18:03 on the Monday evening and the next morning at 07:48 my results were available online and ready to be printed. Amazing!! I remember how I waited weeks for the IELTS a few years back.

So, with the PTE, your turnaround time is much better.

And before you ask: No, I did not buy any practice material as its all sold in USD...I saw the test itself as the practice.

My scores were 90 on all 4 bands. So, this Afrikaans boerseun has Superior English under the belt. Hell, who am I to argue? And best of all is that this can now be ticked off the list...

[qwerty]

@RedPanda - Sorry for the late reply! My test results were Listening 8.5, Reading 8.5, Writing 8 and Speaking 8

Edited June 27, 2015 by qwerty

[Shanette]

How do we book such a test and how long does it take to actually write it?

[RedPanda]

I don't know about the PTE, but with IELTS you can book online, and it takes about half a day for the whole test. I don't know if smaller groups would make that shorter.

http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/locations/south-africa

This link should answer your questions about IELTS.

[WernerS]

Hi Shanette

You can book the PTE online at a cost of $210 USD. I don't have the link now, but just google PTE academic. It seems that they have exam sittings every 3/4 days or so. So the turnaround is much quicker than IELTS. And with IELTS, ie the British Council where they employ locals, the frustration caused is high as they just do not answer their phones.

For the PTE, they allow 4 hours, but I completed it in 3.