hanu

How easy is to get a score of above 6 in IELTS in all the modules of reading,writing ,speaking and listening for a non native ?

viper

Pretty easy also U can make things complecated. It's a very well administrated exam. Things U have to pay attention are
*Listen carefully cos reading ahead @ the test may take off marks from U. They will tell U a range of ques U have to listen to.

*Don't try to read in full and then answer in the reading module.
it's skim reading that U have to do.

*Make sure U write to the point in the writing exam, there will be some important points U have to highlight when writing, pay carefull attention to them in the writing module

Good luck. I managed to get 7.5

hanu

Thanks for your info.
Viper,where are you from?

Lana

I am a non-native speaker, so here's my point of view:

As compared to other international tests like the TOEFL, the MTELP, and the
Cambridge, it's a breeze. If you've ever passed one of those, you don't need to worry
at all. I teach English as a Foreign Language so I take those other tests every 2
years for work references, and I must say the IELTS was the easiest of them. The oral
test was just general talking about your life, not questions with hard vocabulary,
the listening was reasonably slow and devoid of idioms, and the reading wasn't very
technical. There's no grammar test either (the hardest point for most people), you
only need to do a composition, so if you avoid making grammar mistakes there, you'll
do great. They also try to keep a mixture of British and American English, for a
"standard" English result. It's pretty funny cause half of the listening is spoken in
fake American English (British people faking an American accent)...

I think that unless you have problems in a particular area of English (like people
who have developed reading/writing a lot but hardly ever practice speaking, or the
opposite: people who learned through travel alone but never really studied English,
so they speak perfectly but can't write and don't know grammar), it is a very easy
test. If you studied the language and developed equally in all 4 areas, it's no
trouble at all.

Hope that helps.

Lana

ptlabs

Thanks for sharing, Lana.

I dislike going for English tests, partially because of the extra cost, and more so because I hate having to prove my English capabilities over and over again, despite the fact that I speak English as my first language. (I'm not considered a native speaker)

Just for those who are interested, if you come from a country where the standard of English is recognized to be on par with Australia's (you can use the Country Education Profiles to check that) and if your University degree was conducted fully in English, all you need is a letter from your University confirming that English was the medium of instruction in your course, and you're ok with the English part. This much was confirmed by DIMIA when I emailed them regarding this.

However, there's no indication that you will receive the maximum 20 points for competent English if you just show the letter.

And, I've read elsewhere that applicants who have Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi degrees (which are taught in English, with letters to go) have been asked to appear for IELTS. I guess it all depends on the CEP reports.

cheers,
peter

hanu

Hi Lana,
I got toefl score.....of 247.IELTS is fine.

hanu

Hi Lana,
I got toefl score.....of 247.IELTS is easier than toefl?I gave toefl in 1993 ,that time my score was 623

Google Groups

It might not be quite required but I bothered to buy the prepreation pack and
practiced. It helped to alleviate the anxiety about the exam and notice some simple
procedural mistakes which might have cost me points if I havne't noticed them while
practicing (didn't quite understand the not-quite-standard reading test instructions
and marked my answers in a wrong way).

So - read the instructions and listen to the examiner VERY carefully. Other than
thet, it's probably easy since I got 8.5 average on all four areas, and I never lived
in an English speaking country (visited Australia and N.Z. for a few months).

You can get more info about the exams in http://www.ielts.org.

I heard about a site which allows you to practice online, but can't find it now.

[email protected] (Lana) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > I am a non-native speaker, so here's my point of view:
    >
    > As compared to other international tests like the TOEFL, the MTELP, and the
    > Cambridge, it's a breeze. If you've ever passed one of those, you don't need to
    > worry at all. I teach English as a Foreign Language so I take those other tests
    > every 2 years for work references, and I must say the IELTS was the easiest of
    > them. The oral test was just general talking about your life, not questions with
    > hard vocabulary, the listening was reasonably slow and devoid of idioms, and the
    > reading wasn't very technical. There's no grammar test either (the hardest point
    > for most people), you only need to do a composition, so if you avoid making grammar
    > mistakes there, you'll do great. They also try to keep a mixture of British and
    > American English, for a "standard" English result. It's pretty funny cause half of
    > the listening is spoken in fake American English (British people faking an American
    > accent)...
    >
    > I think that unless you have problems in a particular area of English (like people
    > who have developed reading/writing a lot but hardly ever practice speaking, or the
    > opposite: people who learned through travel alone but never really studied English,
    > so they speak perfectly but can't write and don't know grammar), it is a very easy
    > test. If you studied the language and developed equally in all 4 areas, it's no
    > trouble at all.
    >
    > Hope that helps.
    >
    >
    > Lana

Lana

Hanu, it's much easier than the TOEFL. If you got 623 on the TOEFL, which is an
excellent score (a good score is 550) and 247/300 on the computer based TOEFL, which
is even harder, you'll ace the IELTS. I wouldn't worry.

If you want to practice a bit, go to the website. The test we need is the General
Training, not the more difficult Academic one.

Google, I got a 9 on the band, but only an 8.5 on the listening. The fake American
accent was really distracting, ha ha. I am glad I don't have to show that one at
work, I'd be slightly ashamed.

Lana

hanu <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > Hi Lana, I got toefl score.....of 247.IELTS is easier than toefl?I gave toefl in
    > 1993 ,that time my score was 623

hanu

How much is the salary of a software professional with 4+ exp in Brazil?Like in India a software professional makes abt 600 USD per month.Send me your email if it is ok with you.

Lana

Hanu,

The salary range here is USD$320-1,200 for a professional with 4-7 years experience.
But the range over $1,000 is only possible if you are in a management position. That
is gross, because income tax is 27,5% over that.

The problem is not salary as much as cost of living: it's the same as in Australia,
so that's quite high. So on average people are making USD$500 but dealing with very
expensive food, transportation, and rent.

How is cost of living in India?

Lana

hanu <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > How much is the salary of a software professional with 4+ exp in Brazil?Like in
    > India a software professional makes abt 600 USD per month.Send me your email if it
    > is ok with you.

hanu

Hi Lana,
Here are my views abt cost of living in India :-

cost of living in India is very high l.for example :
A 2 bed unfurnished aptt in New Delhi in an ordinary locality costs approx :- 50,000 USD or a rent of 150 USD per month .Foodwise it is cheap( monthly expenditure for a family of 4 who live on Vegeterian diet comes to $200 per month) but electronic goods( sony,dell,HP brands) costs more(30% - 40% more) due to the payment of duty when these companies import electronic goods from Manufacturing Units of Far East.The cost of a brand new cheapest car in India is : -
6000 USD.So for an IT person who makes around $600-700 USD per month in India,accumulating money for apartment ,car and other amneties for a decent life becomes difficult.Now,this is the situation for an IT professional, but in, other occupations like core Engineering work etc, the salary drops to 300-400 USD for a person with 4 -5 yr experience.And for people less priveleged ,constituting abt 75% of India,who earn abt 3-5 USD per day by working as daily wage labourers ,it is a no win situation.
How abt Brazil ?Is the situation as grim as India?

chartres

Well. I used to take both IELTS and TOEFL, and I must tell that TOEFL is much more wisely organised. It does test your language skills. IELTS tests some other skills, like attention, ability to listen and write at the same time. So, it's my opinion, but IELTS much more stupid and unpredictable, than TOEFL.
It doesn't mean however one can not pass IELTS. I did quite ok on both. Just hate the way IELTS is organized. 8-)
Anybody agree?

Lana

Hanu,

It sounds like the situation is very similar to India here.

A 2-bedroom apartment costs around USD$200 a month here. If you were to purchase it,
it would cost USD$20,000 or so. As a result of this, you see most people living in
little wooden houses that are one step above a shack (unskilled workers are mostly
living in shacks), because you can rent one of those for USD$80 a month. Temperatures
here drop to as little as -7ºC in the winter, can you imagine living in a wooden
house with no insulation in that cold? We manufacture cars, so they are a bit cheaper
- USD$4,700 for the cheapest new model. But still, my husband is in a management
position, I made a good salary (USD$400-800) when I was still employed full-time (up
to a year ago), and we live in a rented house and drive a 1983 car, because that's
all we can afford. We see no future here, because we both grew up in much more
comfortable environments. Growing up, our parents had their own comfortable houses,
brand new cars, traveled on vacation etc. These are all things that we haven't been
able to do. It's ridiculous when we think about it. As a child I went to 5-star
restaurants, now I wait to buy vegetables on the cheapest day of the week. We had
maids and cleaners to do all the housework, now I am looking at the possibility of
going to Australia and being someone's cleaner.

Transportation is the only cheaper part because you get bus tokens from your
employer, so you are only paying 50% and the employer is paying the other 50%. So
after rent, income tax (because someone who makes USD$500 here is "privileged" and
pays a lot of income tax), utilities, and food, you are left with nothing.

Other jobs like engineering and lawyers pay as much as IT - there are people making
from USD$200-1,500. Unskilled workers make minimum wage, which is USD$67 a month,
about the same as the India day labourers. Then you discount the bus tokens and they
are usually living on USD$55 a month.

So we are taking this big chance and selling the house I inherited to go to
Australia. Let's hope we're making the right decision, and that we get to go (my
husband has some health problems, so I'm afraid they'll deny our visa).

Lana

hanu <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > Hi Lana, Here are my views abt cost of living in India :-
    >
    > cost of living in India is very high l.for example : A 2 bed unfurnished aptt in
    > New Delhi in an ordinary locality costs approx :- 50,000 USD or a rent of 150 USD
    > per month .Foodwise it is cheap( monthly expenditure for a family of 4 who live on
    > Vegeterian diet comes to $200 per month) but electronic goods( sony,dell,HP brands)
    > costs more(30% - 40% more) due to the payment of duty when these companies import
    > electronic goods from Manufacturing Units of Far East.The cost of a brand new
    > cheapest car in India is : - 6000 USD.So for an IT person who makes around $600-700
    > USD per month in India,accumulating money for apartment ,car and other amneties for
    > a decent life becomes difficult.Now,this is the situation for an IT professional,
    > but in, other occupations like core Engineering work etc, the salary drops to
    > 300-400 USD for a person with 4 -5 yr experience.And for people less priveleged
    > ,constituting abt 75% of India,who earn abt 3-5 USD per day by working as daily
    > wage labourers ,it is a no win situation. How abt Brazil ?Is the situation as grim
    > as India?

Lana

I agree. IELTS isn't a balanced test at all, especially the reading and listening
parts. The only part that makes it a bit more fair is the speaking. The writing is
also not a good measure. They will only see how many mistakes you made, not the
standard of English in your writing. A person who writes with very basic vocabulary
and grammar and makes no mistakes will score higher than someone who writes in more
complex structures but makes a couple of spelling mistakes (which are usually the
same mistakes a native would make).

I still think the best test out there is the MTELP (Michigan University Test of
English Language Proficiency). It is not as long and exhausting as the TOEFL but it
covers all the areas of competency very well.

Lana

chartres <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > Well. I used to take both IELTS and TOEFL, and I must tell that TOEFL is much more
    > wisely organised. It does test your language skills. IELTS tests some other skills,
    > like attention, ability to listen and write at the same time. So, it's my opinion,
    > but IELTS much more stupid and unpredictable, than TOEFL. It doesn't mean however
    > one can not pass IELTS. I did quite ok on both. Just hate the way IELTS is
    > organized. 8-) Anybody agree?
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > Regards,
    >
    > Ed
    >
    > Alan Collett
    >
    > Tom
    >
    > Tom
    >
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com