Just today I received my IELTS test result. I have been planning to continue my postgraduate in overseas. I did my IELTS test on 28/05/2011 in the nearby IALF at Jl. Rasuna Said. The result is available after 2 weeks and could be checked in IELTS Website
IETLS test consists of four parts: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Conversation. The postgraduate degree requires overall score 6.5 and none of them below 6.0.
To be honest I feel this requirement is very intimidating after you tried an IELTS test. The test seriously… SUCKS. My initial score was 5.5. I scored low at writing and conversation because I wasn’t familiarized yet with IELTS writing structure, and I tend to be nervous when speaking.
IELTS preparation course is pricey, and actually you only need teacher to check your writing and practice conversation. You could do the listening and reading part by yourself at home. Buy an IELTS preparation book or rent at library.
Here are my tips for these who will take the sucky IELTS test:
Listening
Listening is fairly easy as long you keep concentration because most of time the speakers don’t talk too fast. Fortunately they don’t use a lot of british accent so it’s easier for non-natives to grasp. The worst part is probably the 3rd part, because there is conversation about something academic and you could be confused easily if you lost your concentration.
Reading
There are three passages in reading test. I recommend to finish the 3rd reading passage first because the content is academical and it’s the hardest. During my ielts test I was given article about ice layer in Mars. I was once given a passage about pedagogy and research for PHD, the latter seriously hard to grasp and I failed to score highly during practice. After finishing the 3rd passage, you could concentrate toward 1st and 2nd passage which are relatively easier.
Writing
The 1st part is easier because you are demanded to describe statistic/piechart/table/graphic. However if you are unfortunate, you might be demanded to write how-to manual. I suggest to write the 2nd part first because it will deplete your energy a lot. Be careful if your handwriting is illegible (because you haven’t written anything with pen for ages). You will also receive penalty if your writing is underlength.
Try to minimize grammatical error and use rich vocabulary as much as possible. If you are not confident with your writing skill, don’t use a complex sentence. If you forget the conjugation, you are screwed, so be careful.
Conversation
Honestly I think this is the hardest part. I don’t speak english a lot these days, my pronunciation is also not really good because my language cognitive skill has been influenced by other languages I have previously learnt (Japanese, and German) and English is one bizarre language where a letter sequence could have at least 16 different sound (for example the word ‘ough’).
The key to win this test is… don’t take it too seriously. The test demands you to speak in 2 minutes about certain topic. Sounds hard, but if you could make up story, it won’t be too hard. During my test, I was given sport as topic, so I created fake story about my sport life during high school. Speak in good fluency. Learn from English talkshow.
In the end I managed to score Overall 6.5 band for the IELTS, with breakdown as follow:
- Listening: 7.0
- Reading: 7.5
- Writing: 6.0
- Speaking: 6.0
I wasn’t really surprised when looking at the score. I was confident on the listening and reading part. But I did horribly for the writing part. I was taking too much time writing for the writing task 1 and got panicked when the time almost up to write the writing task 2. My handwriting was probably illegible… it’s miracle I didn’t get 5.5 actually.
For the conversation part, I notice I probably made few mistakes like giving wrong answer for the question (because I didn’t get the question right), or misspelling words (I said ‘Olimpiade’ during the test, while it should be ‘Olympic game’), ouch.
IELTS sucks, I think this is new form of language imperialism you must pay USD 195, and it lasts only for 2 years! Unfortunately we need it. I wish Indonesia could create similar academic test in the future so all the Indonesian non-natives could also experience the similar ordeal…
Anyway, I wish all of you manage to score higher than me for your IELTS test.
It may suck, but you passed. Congratulations!
I should not forget to mention this sentence I will not easily forget:
“Fortunately they don’t use a lot of british accent…”.
Isn’t correct English BBC-English or Ox-bridge English (that is British English)? In other wiords: by definition the one and only genuine English and not an accent
?
I’m not sure If I could answer that, what is the difference between them? ;D
A Calvin: To me there is no difference between BBC-English ( perfect pronunciation) and the English academics from Oxford and Cambridge speak ( perfect pronunciation).
The rest of the English world (US, Australia etc) don’t speak the original language, but some special kinds of English. And we, who learn English, as a second language will – with one or two exceptions- never learn to speak the language properly.
@Calvin,
Before I went to the UK, I thought I knew how British English should sound and I was pretty confident that I would have no problem. You know what? That wasn’t the case.
Non-native English speakers, say Indonesians, are not accustomed to hearing regional accents in the UK. There is this thing called the Queen’s English (or Received Pronunciation English or the perhaps the BBC English?) and this is what we know by the British English. Unfortunately, most of the people do NOT speak this kind of English. They speak English with their regional accents.
It’s quite similar to Indonesia. People in Sumatra, Java and Maluku all speak Indonesian but they have regional accents. Being native Indonesians, we clearly understand what they’re saying. But imagine if you are somebody from abroad who only learns the RCTI/SCTV/MetroTV Indonesian. If you speak like news anchors from those TV stations, people would think that you’re arrogant (the British people call it POSH) and then literally laugh at you.
I arrived in London and was completely puzzled by Londoners, especially the youths. They spoke crazy English. I don’t know what kind of English it was but it was a mix of (I guess) the Afro-American (or Carribean?) English and the British English. London is a melting pot. People from all regions and countries are there.
People in Newcastle are even harder to understand. Do you know that Cheryl Cole was kicked from the US X-Factor because the Americans couldn’t understand her? Can you believe that? They are all native English speakers.
Also, do you know that some British TV shows aired in the USA are sometimes subtitled? Can you imagine that?
So, bottomline, you don’t have to worry about your IELTS. If you’re going to the USA, you will be fine. If you’re going to the UK, you will be fine too, but it takes a while to get used to the accents.
@Colson,
The BBC English and the Oxbridge English sound similar to me too. However, the people from Oxford and Cambridge usually speak with a lower register, even the girls! And that’s so scary. But I think they speak the most beautiful English. I lived in Oxford for 3 months and that was the poshest time of my life.
thaks for sharing bel… I have gained some insight indeed. do these people in London speak like “my body is not delicious” or “little little I can”? hahaha.
i havent taken any ielts international test but i’ve taken something like prediction test and it scored only 6. it was like 2 years ago.
knowing that to continue your academic vocation, you need at least 6.5 or even 7 for master degree, it was so depressing.
anyway i’m planning on taking the international test next year. hope i could get a better result.
my concern is the other “unfortunate” people. if you read the latest news about world universities ranking, you’ll see that our education still lags behind than other nations’. if we, the ones who get a good education, could enter a good university, and are acknowledged as civilised people (for these 3 points, i hope it’s not merely my snobism), how about those who live in remote areas and could not access a proper education?
how could they pursue their desire to study overseas while they could hardly speak english?
many friends i met, they asked me about my plan to get master degree. and they said effortlessly “many scholarship opportunities there. why don’t you try one?”
believe me, i will try onessss. but going to study abroad is not that easy. for me in particular, since i cant afford to pay them myself. and yep, i need to get the scholarship or some funds.
moreover, recognizing that our education still lags behind than the others’, we need to work harder. could you imagine that we are, the graduates from ….th university in the world (i dont even know what our college rank is!), planning on pursuing our master degree in Harvard (rank 2 in the world, i guess)?
it’s not impossible, but the energy is required more.
…and i didnt mean to vilify our uni.
my point is (guess i’ve talked too much -___-) there are things to concern about if you want to study abroad. ielts is one of them. and indeed, it sucks but is hell important. i hope many people could have an opportunity to take and to learn about this kind of test (ielts, toefl, toeic, etc)
and more importantly, i really wish our education the best. so that we can catch up with the world.
saya nggak terlalu suka paragraf yang terakhir kalo merasa terjajah yang jangan diambil dong …
do I have choice?