CharleyP

Alan Collett from Go Matilda has been great for me - after a chat about options he was very clear about exact costs and broke it down into what you pay for rather than giving just one large total amount. 

I’ve just been through the process of submitting a skills assessment and I would recommend getting a migration agent to help as they will be able to advise what to do in your case and what to provide. I’ve worked in interim roles ( as ltd company, through an agency and direct, and one company no longer operates) and I need maximum points too (my age also goes against me). I hadn’t kept any payslips and only had some documentation saved. As Paul has said above there are ways of doing it but I would advise that if you are serious,  you do it as soon as you can because it took me four months to get all my documentation together and it was a lot of hard work. Am now waiting for the outcome, fingers crossed.

On 16/01/2020 at 09:47, CharleyP said:

If you are looking to get an 8 or above at IELTS I would say don't bother with it, and go straight for the PTE. I sat the IELTS General test last week as I couldn't get booked on to a PTE on the days I had available. The writing is pretty much impossible to get an 8. I got a 7.5 and I write and edit copy everyday for my job. Here's an example of a 7.5: https://www.ielts-practice.org/psychological-illnesses-may-not-be-as-obvious-as-physical-disabilities-or-illnesses-band-7-5-ielts-essay-sample/. I'm sorry but I would say this is superior English and worth an 8. Particularly when you compare it to the simple questions on the reading and listening sections (I got 9 on those).  I joined a free webinar on task two before the test and the host told us that we would lose marks if we put information that wasn't relevant (and I disagreed with the examples she gave, I would argue they were relevant). So they are not just testing your English but your knowledge too? Sounds wrong to me. And very subjective. 

Plus, on the speaking I was asked to speak continuously for two minutes but I wasn't allowed to see the timer. That's really hard - and is no reflection of my English. I am sure I dropped half a mark here because I paused before the two minutes was up (I got an 8.5). 

I'm managed to get booked on to the Pearson next week, fingers crossed!!

I now have my PTE Academic results. I found the PTE content and questions much harder that IELTS and hated that I couldn’t go back and review my answers. But nevertheless I still scored R90, S90, L90 and W88. 

1 hour ago, Dean0703 said:

So to solve the mystery 

listening 9.0

speaking 9.0

reading 7.5

writing 7.5

overall 8.0 

Their Reading I can’t dispute as whatever they say the answer is is the answer. Although even doing all their practice stuff, there are some of the reading exercises where I find myself disagreeing with the answer, or finding that there could be two or three possible answers. Problem is they’ve decided there’s only one answer. 
 

I don’t agree with their writing score either. According to what they’ve sent me as their band descriptor of a 7.5, my writing lacks “understanding of some linguistic features,” and contains “occasional spelling and grammatical errors but not that make the piece difficult to understand.” 
 

Naw - that’s fictional. There wasn’t an error in my writing in any aspect of spelling, grammar or sentence structure. I do teach this stuff every day so I do know how to write. But in the eyes of the IELTS my English ability can only be described as “very good.” 
 

Of the four people I met on the day and kept in contact with, none of us achieved above a 7.5 in the writing and I was the only one of us to get a 9.0 in speaking. 
 

I’m absolutely convinced it’s corrupt! 

I agree on this! I don’t think the reading answers were clear enough to be right and wrong as you say, particularly as the final question I had was to pick the ‘best’ title for the text. There were three that would have been suitable!! Also I did not have a single typing error in my writing, and I stuck to the format they said you needed to follow. I think they need to review how they score the writing. It’s a general test not academic. 

4 hours ago, Dean0703 said:

In respect to that band 7.5 example in the link, whilst it isn't very well written in terms of the word choice and grammar, I think it should only a band 7.5 because their agreement of the point isn't clear enough. They say that they agree in the first paragraph and it's not referred to again. It is more descriptive of the various viewpoints rather than the adopted stance of the argument. That's a secondary school teachers opinion as well as a test taker! 

I don’t disagree that it’s not perfect. I wouldn’t expect it to get an 8.5 or a 9. But it’s hard to see why it didn’t manage an 8, when in my experience the listening and the reading was so unbelievably basic in comparison. 

23 hours ago, Bav said:

Agree....don't bother with IELTS as it's complete waste of time.

Just save your money and time and go with PTE... IELTS is designed to make you fail as writing with pen on paper is ridiculous these days.

PTE is far more practical and real life so I would recommend it anyday over IELTS.

Mt reasons below:

I had a similar issue where my target score needed was 8+, managed to get 9 on all other sections in IELTS but never managed to cross 7.5 in writing (simply because we have all become so used to trying on keyboard rather than writing manually, so no doubt writing will become illegible thereby not highlighting the real reason for the test which is command over English). 

So after 3 wasted IELTS attempts to secure over 7.5 in writing, I turned to PTE. And in one attempt, had 90.

Furthermore, if you want to retake IELTS, the nature of the test means you have to wait for a fortnight to book (not to mention the wait time to receive your IELTS score). So approx a month wasted before you sit another.

With PTE, you usually get your test results in 2-3 days (I got mine next day) so gives/saves you valuable time if you did not achieve your desired score the first time round.

PTE definitely way forward especially if you require a higher ecore. (And want to save money and time).

All the best.

 

Hi Bav - I actually meant to say that I did IELTS on a computer. Not all are computer based but there are some. Agree still better to do PTE if you can. 

If you are looking to get an 8 or above at IELTS I would say don't bother with it, and go straight for the PTE. I sat the IELTS General test last week as I couldn't get booked on to a PTE on the days I had available. The writing is pretty much impossible to get an 8. I got a 7.5 and I write and edit copy everyday for my job. Here's an example of a 7.5: https://www.ielts-practice.org/psychological-illnesses-may-not-be-as-obvious-as-physical-disabilities-or-illnesses-band-7-5-ielts-essay-sample/. I'm sorry but I would say this is superior English and worth an 8. Particularly when you compare it to the simple questions on the reading and listening sections (I got 9 on those).  I joined a free webinar on task two before the test and the host told us that we would lose marks if we put information that wasn't relevant (and I disagreed with the examples she gave, I would argue they were relevant). So they are not just testing your English but your knowledge too? Sounds wrong to me. And very subjective. 

Plus, on the speaking I was asked to speak continuously for two minutes but I wasn't allowed to see the timer. That's really hard - and is no reflection of my English. I am sure I dropped half a mark here because I paused before the two minutes was up (I got an 8.5). 

I'm managed to get booked on to the Pearson next week, fingers crossed!!

Thanks everyone, sounds like its worth paying for the full assessment then. I'll look into that and hopefully will know more after!

Thanks everyone for their advice

Thanks LouDYorkie! This is super helpful.

Thanks Ausvisitor - we had a few initial assessments done online but the agents coming back were quite vague and wanted to charge a couple of hundred quid to tell us more. I absolutely understand they can't give advice away for free and don't mind paying, but if there was no chance of being eligible then I didn't want to spend it. If you can recommend your agent then let me know and I will try to set up a call with them. 

OK thanks Paul, that's good to know, appreciate your response. Are you able to advise what other information I need to take into account or research? I've looked at the SA state occupation list and my occupation is on the list but doesn't state any threshold for points. I am not sure how likely it is that I would get state nomination if I put in an EOI. Am guessing as well I could only try for a 491 visa.  Sorry, I've done lots of research on the internet but its hard to know in practice how much of a chance I have. 

Hi, I have been trying to see what our chances are of emigrating to Australia are and have done a few assessments with Migration Agents but they all seem to say something different, and are a bit vague on the details. I am not sure what the best route is and what our chances truly are. Its myself and my partner, and I think I should get the following points. 

Age - 15
English - 20 (assuming, I work in communications/PR so would be ashamed if I didn't get this!)
Work Experience - 15
Degree - 15

My partner doesn't have many points as he only have about five years experience, and we've been told that he would need at least a HND in the same field as his work (Community Worker - he's a Housing Officer). He only has a Certificate of Higher Education in Sports Science. 

My other question is points for state nomination. If you need at least 75/80 to get state nomination, is that before the state nominates you or do you include 15 points in that total? 

Any honest advice is much appreciated. If we don't have any chance, it would be better to know now before we start spending money on applications etc.