IELTS exam is one of the most awkward experience when you trying to migrate to an English speaking country. IELTS is a must when you are migrating to UK or Australia. New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, USA and other countries also require IELTS specially in academic purposes.
IELTS Exam is available in two formats.
A) General
B) Academic
I have done IELTS in General category for 5 times at British Council Sri Lanka. Each time i scored Average of 7 band score, but i needed to get 7 in each band.
Followings are the lessions learned and my advices,
Never do IELTS exam more than one time in a short period (Ex: 1 month) of time.
- You can register for IELTS exam for any number of attempts, but with my experience this is worthless. First question is that, “Will you be able to improve your English language skills to the expected band score in a short period of time? “. This is totally depend on your learning skills and the materials you refer.
- Secondly, there is a rumor that, whether you are confident enough about your English skills the examiner will not consider your answers are up to higher band level in a short period of time.(This applies specially in writing and speaking tests). Because once they have enter your passport number to the system they can access all your past IELTS results history. This idea may be a myth, but with my results i have this doubt as well. So why we take a risk to spend LRK 16500/= if we have enough time to prepare for the next attempt.
Never do Cheating,
- Never copy anything from anyone at the exam hall or never do any kind of misconduct in IELTS exam. (I don’t know about other exam centers but ) British Council invigilators are very strict on this. I’ve seen this on my eyes.
- Never send another person to sit the exam on behalf of you. Because they match the passport against the photographs that you’ve attached with the application and your physical appearance before the test. If your physical appearance and passport photograph are dissimilar for any reason(old passport, different haircut, any marks on your face etc.) the invigilators will ask some questions from you (for verification). This is pretty embarrassing on an examination condition and better to bring your national ID to prove yourself.
Just bring your Brain, Passport and some Stationary
- Don’t bring books CD’s bulky bags, calculators or mobile phones. If you are coming from your own vehicle, better to turn off your mobile and put all your stuff in the car other than stationary.
- Bring a pen, pencil, eraser and a pencil sharpener. Anyway British council provides a pencil and an eraser. Once I got a pen. But there is no pencil sharpener on your desk for individual use. You can ask from an invigilator when you need it. But don’t forget this because, definitely you will have to use a pencil sharpener 2, 3 times for the writing paper.