Waggle

Hi, yeah it's a little annoying. My wife did her IELTS yesterday, we're hoping to submit in a few weeks. She suffers from mild dyslexia and also gets nervous at tests, so her writing and speaking were not as good as her reading and listening. But she has a 1st class honour's degree and a doctorate from English universities, it is a little insulting to have to do a test to prove her English language capabilities!

£108 on top of the £150 we've paid to get our supporting document copies notarized (and that was cheap!) and £70 for police certificates and we haven't even mailed our application yet.

Somebody somewhere is making decent money out of all this..

Wayne.

kat-b

Hi

Thanks :-)) Yes I'm going to send a written submission too, still gathering documents right now - wow its like a full time job! The travel section is a nightmare as I've travelled a lot! I won't stop stressing until I get my medical request :-)) Let me know how you get on!

Thanks
Katie

jamie677

Hi
We are nearly done,police check came back today,so only a few more bits to get,it is stressfull,prob going to post it all in sept.
Be glad to get it all done.
Good luck,will keep you updated
jamie

cityhog

I heard that someone with a PhD in English from Oxford was asked to take IELTS.

helcat12

We met a lecturer who was taking the IELTS test the same day as my OH.
I suppose if they take the view that you have to prove it, you all have to prove it. One rule for everyone. Also, no option of just paying an unscrupulous lawyer to write a letter saying that you can speak English, which I suppose prevents fraud.
Anyway, we see it as just another fence to jump in the Grand National of immigration application. Foinavon should be our middle name (if anyone is old enough to remember that!

Jim Humphries

I wrote the test some year ago at the same session as the Chairman of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants which is the regulatory body for those consultants. There have been many cases where the actual command of English is no where near that claimed on the application forms. I resented the need for the same reasons that anyone whose entire education and work history is in English but had to take it if I wanted to act as a consultant. I retired shortly afterward so for me it was a waste. For those wishing to immigrate to Canada though it has become a necessary step.

Zoe Bell

found this link on the Aussie forums

www.ielts-blog.com

IELTS has been a requirement for max English points for a while there.

helcat12

I completely understand why Canada has introduced this, despite it being a pain and an extra expense for us. It is very important that you can integrate when you immigrate and not just head for the nearest enclave of your own expats who speak your mother tongue. I'm sure many people overstated their competency in language, either intentionally or just through feeling more confident than they really were. The best person to judge your competency in any language is a native speaker trying to understand you!

CanadaJimmy

Listening: 8.5
Reading: 9.0
Writing: 8.5
Speaking: 9.0

Overall band score: 9.0

Wow that was really worth the 300 Dollars. I would never have thought I would storm an English proficiency test.

Zoe Bell

Congratz

Think having to do that is bad , Ben has to take an English language exam to get his private pilots licence.

You may think that's reasonable but he had to pass a practical radio exam to get his RT certificate before he could fly solo !

Jim Humphries

I once learned Morse Code for a license too. Anyway congrats on the overall 9.0!

CanadaJimmy

Haha, guess you're right, it can always be worse Sounds like you lead quite an interesting life there Jim! Consultancy and Morse Code stuff? Anyway, thanks guys.

mojovibe

Received my results today.

Listening 7.0

Reading 6.5

Writing 6.5

Speaking 9.0

Overall band score 7.5

I thought that I'd get a lower score on the listening test, because on the second part of it I didn't have enough time to choose an answer. Then the next thing I knew the dialogue had stopped, so I just put any old answers in there.

I honestly thought that I'd get a higher score in the other sections though, I was confident that I'd walked the speaking part, but suprised I got a lower score in the reading and the writing part. I honestly thought that they were easier than the second section of the listening test. But it just goes to show that you shouldn't count your chickens until your eggs have hatched.

Anyway... can anybody tell me if this satifies the proficiency in English speaking to get the full points, because if it doesn't I won't get enough points to qualify for the FSW. It doesn't actually specify the band score to be proficient in English.

rubberduckofdeath

Amateur radio?

christmasoompa

I don't think you'd get full points, as you'd only get moderate for your Listening.

But have a read and hopefully you should be able to figure out your scores (section 12.9 is what need). http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resourc...p/op06-eng.pdf