Hi All, I just sat the IELTS two weeks ago after a week of preparation, I am a native English speaker. I received my result back yesterday as 9,9,8,8. It's an awkward experience as a native speaker and from my point of view did require some prep and everyone should do some at least - there are many free practice papers on the net. If you are an educated English native speaker listening and speaking will be easy. Reading requires some practise in my opinion (depending on how strong you are with reading in general) and writing also has some technique to it. I am educated to a masters level but mainly deal with numbers at work, but do need to write documents for management and board level in my role. I would suggest taking the preparation seriously as a native speaker.
The test itself is also quite strange compared to the exams I have taken in the past (a lot). You have to wait quite a while before the exam and have your photo taken, even though you have photo proof of identity. All parts of the exam are one after the other, even though they are essentially individual exams in themselves (apart from speaking which is much later in the day). There are also quite frequent periods where you cannot leave the room, even to go to the toilet. As listening is played only once, you cannot leave without missing part of the test. When documents are collected at the end and you're all getting seated and documents are given at the beginning, you also cannot leave. In my opinion this was quite strange and not that comfortable, and could be handled better. Despite all this, I did get the result needed, so taking the exam seriously is the main way to ensure success. Good luck.
IELTS v.s Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) | My personal findings
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Hi All, I just sat the IELTS two weeks ago after a week of preparation, I am a native English speaker. I received my result back yesterday as 9,9,8,8. It's an awkward experience as a native speaker and from my point of view did require some prep and everyone should do some at least - there are many free practice papers on the net. If you are an educated English native speaker listening and speaking will be easy. Reading requires some practise in my opinion (depending on how strong you are with reading in general) and writing also has some technique to it. I am educated to a masters level but mainly deal with numbers at work, but do need to write documents for management and board level in my role. I would suggest taking the preparation seriously as a native speaker.
The test itself is also quite strange compared to the exams I have taken in the past (a lot). You have to wait quite a while before the exam and have your photo taken, even though you have photo proof of identity. All parts of the exam are one after the other, even though they are essentially individual exams in themselves (apart from speaking which is much later in the day). There are also quite frequent periods where you cannot leave the room, even to go to the toilet. As listening is played only once, you cannot leave without missing part of the test. When documents are collected at the end and you're all getting seated and documents are given at the beginning, you also cannot leave. In my opinion this was quite strange and not that comfortable, and could be handled better. Despite all this, I did get the result needed, so taking the exam seriously is the main way to ensure success. Good luck.