It looks like I will be lodging my skills assessment in september, does anyone know if this test is an easy test or a hard test, what it entails and what percentage is needed to pass
it's not too tough, but not really easy either... pay extra attention to your grammar. overall, i would rate it a race against time. in each listening and reading, if i remember correctly, you have to answer 40 questions. for you to get band 7 (if you are to claim 25 pts) you need 30 out of 40 correct answers. speaking and writing will be at the examiner's discretion. s/he has to look out for certain things, and you'll be assessed.
Agree with what Jenny says (Jenny Mifsud? Teaching your boyfriend English now for Oz?Malta) though native speakers often have difficulty with writing.....i.e. non native speakers study grammer, structure, technique etc. for writing when learning English as a Foreign Language but native speakers rarely have this advantage, generally trial and error during high school then receive a shock at university....especially males.... (well I did in Oz....).
In my opinion IELTS was not designed or ever intended for native speakers.....
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Andrew Smith
Cert IV Workplace Assessor & Trainer, B. Bus., Cert. TEFLA, Grad. Dip. Ed. & Training, M. Ed. & "Aussie Specialist" http://www.aiec.biz
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Andrew Smith
Cert IV Workplace Assessor & Trainer, B. Bus., Cert. TEFLA, Grad. Dip. Ed. & Training, M. Ed. & "Aussie Specialist" http://www.aiec.biz
We sat the IELTS test in Germany two weeks ago and got the results today. Nana had to take it as she is German and I took it to get the extra five points needed to be able to apply for the 175 visa as of September.
My band scores were 9, 8.5, 7.5, 9 and Nana’s were 9, 9, 7.5, 7.5.
As you can see, the hardest is the third part which is “writing”, although, it is all a bit stressful when you haven’t taken any exams for nearly 20 years.
The problem with the writing is that you have to write a letter (normally a complaint or an invitation), which has to be at least 150 words. Then you have to write an essay of at least 250 which is on a current topic. Our’s was about the amount of traffic in major cities and its effects. All of this has to be done is 60 minutes which might seem like a lot of time but when you are actually sitting there it flies by.
The test itself shouldn’t be a problem for native speakers if you practice and practice. Mainly just to get used to the format of the test and the time constraints. We used the “Action Plan for IELTS” book and CD from Cambridge University Press and also, we subscribed with www.scottsenglish.com for one month, which mainly based on the Academic Module and it cost 49 US Dollars (which is well worth it if you think that you’re spending over 2000 Pounds for the visa). As the exercises on Scotts are a bit harder than the General module test, it gives you a really good preparation. There’s lots of other internet pages which you can get advice from, but one that we also looked at and used especially for writing exercises is www.ielts-blog.com.
You need to get a band score of 7 in each of the four parts: For the listening it is right that you need to reach 30 out of 40 to get a band score of 7, but in the reading test you need to get 34 out of 40 to get a band 7. The 30 out of 40 for reading that Jenny mentions is correct for the Academic module but for the General you need 34.
If you’ve got any other question we are more than happy to help.
My husband is a Gasfitter/Plumber and due to new changes on gsm visa he only has 115 points and obviously we want 120. M OH is more than willing to take the test but I am concerned for him as he is not academic and hasn't had to write an essay etc. since his schooldays - over 20 years ago. I belive the test is slightly different for a tradesperson - is that your understanding.
So gutted as we were all ready to send off the previous 47SK form 10 days ago but we were waiting on successful TRA which we received on 29 August which didn't leave us enough time to get the form in by the deadline of 31st August.
