seat151

For those who are doing it soon, its not something to take to lightly.

Its a long day, especially the morning, where yo are non stop for 3 hours.

Now the 13 days wait to see of I have passed.

Happy to answer any questions, where I can.

NikiL

Agree with you that its not something to take lightly. The assumption that its easy is to be made at the sitters peril!

Best of luck with the results

Niki

edie209

I sat mine today too, your right its a long day if your not expecting it but the exam is not too bad I think, really it's more a case of did I make any silly mistakes.

seat151

How do you think you got on?

knockoff nige

What is the written part like and how does it work? Is there a speed reading exercise?

seat151

You do the listening test first, 40 questions in 40 mins. It gets progressivly harder towards the end of it. Then the question paper is collected and you go into the reading exam. Again, starts of easy and gets harder. No speed reading test.

Finally, the written test, 2 to write, one was a letter, the other was abalanced argument.

knockoff nige

Thanks for that. My fear is my hand writing. Its rubbish. So it will take me longer. I tend to drop off in concentration aswell when listening to recordings so I guess I'll be drinking plenty of coffee. (do you get toilet breaks)

knockoff nige

Just 1 other question, is there a practice website you used that most resembles the exam you took today?

NikiL

The three hours is straight through. If you want to take a loo break you'll need to do it in the exam time I'm afraid. Your best bet is to take a break at the end of the reading section as that is the section you are most likely to have spare time on - listening (1st section) you have no spare time on, then reading (where you may well have time - I finished the reading section in 15 minutes then twiddled my thumbs & went to the loo!), then writing. You get monitored on loo breaks, so can't dash off for a coffee

With listening make sure you put no more the required number of words (not 3 of they ask for 2 etc). You get marked down for more, but not if you put less than the required number of words. On the reading section, particularly on the true/false/not given part make sure the answer is based on the information given. You may know something to be true, but if the answer isn't given, then put not given.

Get one of the books nige, it gives you practise material, or if you search on BE there are some links somewhere. Its not a tough exam if you familiarise yourself with the technique, but you do need to get used to the layout, style, and what they are looking for.
Best of luck
Niki

ausdreamer

i'm sure you done fine. could you tell me how much it costs and how many extra point you get cheers

seat151

It costs £100 .

I currently have 110 points, by passing the exam, this gives me 10 additional points.

NikiL

15? For a native English speaker you get 15 automatically (UK/Irish passport holder) but you get 25 for passing IELTS, ie 10 points extra.

seat151

Post edited...blame the man flu I have!

NikiL

edie209

I found it quite straight forward and will have only failed if I have made stupid mistakes

I think ANYONE taking this exam who has been born and breed in an english speaking country should be able to pass it quite easily buy the practise book that IELTS sell any you will be fine because my exam was almost exactly the same as the questions in the book I bought ( smae structure just different questions)

The listening test I took was 1 hour I have just checked the book and its says one hour there too. I think the trick for this exam is DON'T PANICK if you miss a question be ready for the next. I read somewhere to always listen for two questions at a time and I think that is really good advice.

The listening test was in 4 parts with a 30 second break inbetween each to check your answers so its no one big long exam, don't worry you will be fine, just relax. As for toilet breaks you were allowed to go to the toilet during the exam only but not in between or when there is only 5 minutes left, you don't get any additional time though be warned..

Oh and one last thing MAKE SURE YOU TAKE THE GENERAL TEST NOT THE ACADEMIC