IELTS

Well, in short,

IELTS is the International English Language Test System whereby students intending to go to Europe or Australia for tertiary education have to sit and prove we are able to read, write, listen and speak in English. Irony is always those who barely and hardly ever use English score higher.

Anyway, there are four main components. Mainly, Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

In Reading,

Basically you will be given three passages. If it’s a killer question you will have four passages, each consisting of 10 questions. It’s basic comprehension. Most people practice the ‘See and Scan’ method. Well, it is basically just scanning the text for the answer by reading the questions prior to reading the text. I didn’t follow that. I read the whole text, fell asleep, read again and then proceeded to answer. Well, either way, you will have plenty of time in the end,, so what he heck? Just read the passages. They are all interesting anyway, and always a source of good, viable information. At least, I learnt from one of the passages that

‘A slight pain causes itchiness and a slight pressure causes a tickle!’

You only get stuck at the True or False or Not Given part. Differentiating True and False is like differentiating a girl and a guy in a class, although nowadays some may have difficulties in that due to ever-changing sexualities. But, differentiating between False and Not Given, my my. I hate it. I never got that. All I assumed after tones of practice was that if you think you can find it in the passage, and it doesn’t contradict a given statement, then its NOT GIVEN. If you can’t find it, but it does contradict a given statement, then its FALSE. Well, my assumption could have been correct as I obtained band 9 for this section.

Next will be Listening.

First you need to get a hand of their accents. British and Australian accents are fine, but an Indian accent, OMG. Sometimes, you just have no idea what are they saying. And you need to take care of the capitalization of your answers. Sometimes, you need to star with a capital letter, sometimes no. How to determine when, NO IDEA. Best clue, follow the example. If no examples, trust your gut feeling. If it’s the start of a sentence, Capital, if its in the middle of a sentence, c’mon, you should know, if not rewind back to basic grammar lessons. It wasn't that difficult when compared to my daily exercise in class. The ones we did in class were beyond anything, for they were talking in speeds equal to that of the light. The real one was cool. I scored 8.5. :D

Writing.

I hated this. It's not that I can't write, I can, if not there wouldn't be a blog. But, it was just damn bloody confusing. Especially when the question says, 'To what extent do you agree'. I was under the impression, if that kind of question comes out, make it into an argumentative essay, choose a stand, dun stand on the fence. But then, as time went by, a lot of rumours came in, saying this and that, and finally I was just too confused. I remember, on the day of the test, I was telling Naggy,

'I really hope a discussive essay comes out, just like this (showing our book), regarding televisions...it would be easy. Just list down all, discuss and end it'

Haha...guess what??? That was the question! OMG! I was like WTF??? Wow, God really heard me! Haha...At least I was glad it wasn't a typical argumentative. I love argumentative essays, you get to voice out your opinions in a better way with more conviction, but then, I was too confused to pray for that question. Anyway, I got a pathetic band 7. I was expecting 8 for what I wrote, but maybe, I wasn't up to par with what the IELTS standard. Well, I'm just grateful for I always got band 5.5 or 6 in school. (pathetic right?)

Finally, Speaking!

My favourite! As I love to speak, and mind you I am in Toastmasters! Well, I have been speaking in English from the very beginning of me learning how to speak. We never spoke in Tamil at home, it was always English and even my grandparents spoke in English! The whole family to be precise...there was a time my cousins and I will only converse in English. The whole speaking test lasts about 15 minutes. A one to one test, the examiner questions you while recording the whole conversation. I don't really remember my topic, but I think it was something to do with advertisements. Sorry, I can't really remember, especially my part 3. It went ok, not so well. I, well, I expected a higher band, but hey, I got only a 7.5.