Scoring 8.5 in IELTS Academic
Last Updated: 10 January, 2021 | First Published: 14 October, 2012
"IELTS is the world's proven English test. More people go more places with IELTS....". This is what they tell about IELTS exam on their web site www.ielts.org. A little less pompous, neutral and community edited information about the IELTS exam can be found on wikipedia.
IELTS has 2 versions. Academic and General Training. I recently took IELTS Academic test along with a bunch of friends. My results are as follows:
Listening - 9.0 | Reading - 8.5 | Speaking - 8.0 | Writing - 7.5
Overall Band Score - 8.5 on 9.0
Pretty pathetic right?! I expected a 9 overall with at least 8.5 in each section. Considering the fact that I have learnt English right from kindergarten, it was very disheartening to see that the kind lady who took my speaking test gave me an 8. I was not surprised to see a 7.5 in writing (My hand writing was bad and it has become even worse after I started doing all my "writing" on my laptop).
There are plenty of resources out there on the internet that tell you what to do and how to prepare. Some of them are www.ielts-blog.com, www.ielts.org, and the British Council site. I am writing this article in retrospection, to analyze what I did wrong and what I should have done in the hope that it will come in handy for a fellow test taker.
I signed up with IDP to take the test. Once I signed up they gave me a book. A very nice book published by UTS Insearch, Australia. The book was good. It had 5 practice tests in each section. It even had 3 CD's which simulated the actual listening test environment (did a pretty neat job too). Lots of tips and tricks. A detailed explanation of the exam pattern. Picture based explanation of the answer sheets. I started preparing from this book. I used to take it up in the evenings and weekends and had soon read the book from end to end and completed all the practice tests.
- I never bothered to pick up another book or any other material to prepare. This was my 1st mistake. I should have picked up one other material (at least) and prepared from it too.
I was particularly scared of the listening section. With the exception of a few American friends, it was a long time since I had a discussion with any other native English speakers. So, I took a lot of listening tests available freely on the internet and looks like it paid off. Therefore, no complaints here.
The academic essays that are presented in the reading section are quite difficult. Also, more than 50% of the questions are never straight forward. I had never scored full in the reading section even in my practice tests. I'd definitely like to think that I have gotten only one answer wrong in the reading section but I'll never know. Since I am used to reading English newspaper every morning, I didn't think I fell short on preparation for this section. Therefore, I have no complaints here either.
Coming down to the Speaking section. My speaking test was scheduled to be held a day before the remaining sections. It was in an area in the city which I seldom visited.
- I never bothered to check out the venue before the exam, because of this oversight I had to almost walk a kilometer from my vehicle to the venue after parking, I was all sweaty, puffing and panting. This was my 2nd mistake. I should have checked out the exam venue in advance and found out the right place to park the vehicle.
- Having little familiarity with the place, I ended up miscalculating the time I needed to reach the venue. This was my 3rd mistake. I was late. I don't have to tell you what I should have done. But, it turned out that the speaking test for the candidates before me had overshot the schedule thereby making my late arrival go unnoticed :-).
- I had only read the transcripts of sample speaking tests that were given in the book, effectively not practicing for this section at all. I didn't think I needed to practice speaking. This was my 4th mistake. I should have caught hold of some friend or a family member and practiced one or two speaking tests with them. I could have used a recorder too. Though I am generally very articulate, when it came to an exam environment I think I had some issues in even telling something about myself.
- I was fast. I spoke too fast at times. This was my 5th mistake. I could realize that I was going too fast when I was answering some questions. At one point in time I think the examiner asked me to repeat. Though I handled the situation well, It probably added to the fact that I got only 8 on 9 in this section.
Lastly, the writing section. I love writing but like I said before I was not surprised when I saw a 7.5 in writing. I know I don't have the prettiest of hand writing but I do write legibly (Honestly).
- Scratches and rewrites. This was my 6th mistake. This is generally not a mistake, you know it is pretty common. But, given my hand writing I should have been more careful to avoid scratches and rewrites.
- I finished well ahead of time. This was my 7th mistake. You would think that this is a good thing right?! I don't think so. I now feel that I should have factored in that extra time to better my essay(s).
There... Retrospection complete. These are the mistakes I made in the course of getting an 8.5 on 9 in IELTS academic exam.
