Lo Odio IELTS

Hey you are listening to English Made Simple number 14 numero catorce welcome!

Hey guys! My name is Milena, how is everyone doing? Hope you are doing gooooood.

Alright. Haha

I want to just keep this episode really short and I want to continue from my previous episode about this very ugly exam IELTS and toefl hey I want to talk about how much I hate this to them they are pain in the ass, son un aji en el culo. Los odio. I hate them.

So I just want to complain I want to use this opportunity in this episode I am going to complain me voy a querja del IELTS. Hmmm

First of all if you haven’t listened to my previous episode IELTS stands for significa International English Language Testing System and the other exam that I mentioned TOEFL which means Test of English as a Foreign Language.

But I want to complain about IELTS it’s a major pain in the ass! But look no one likes exams ok I understand that nobody likes exams… I don’t like exams…Alright. Nobody likes exam, I feel your pain! These two exams, it’s just something you have to do. If you are moving overseas al extranjero, if you are going to study in an English speaking country, you know you have to do those exams because that’s what the requirement is.

Barker requirement very different acquirement is different depending on what you want to do you want to study you want to get a minimum score in IELTS you don’t need to score the highest Mark for example which is a 9 for example  so the IELTS scoring goals from 0 which means you haven’t done the exam you haven’t been present to 9, nine is the highest (numero nueve) that’s the highest mark you will get in the IELTS So..

I just want to complain because I have I have friends I have some students who have done IELTS and it’s not an easy thing to do you have to prepare you have to prepare even if you were a native speaker they will have to prepare for IELTS if they need to do it, alright if they EVER need to do it.

They will need to also prepare. IELTS and TOEFL they have a structure, and you have to follow the structure. The writing part of the exam you know. It has to have has to be an academic essay, you have to prepare an academic essay.

What I want to complain about basically is just that you know there is no consistency in marking. I have friends who have done it more than once, they had to do IELTS twice or three times in some cases, because they just missed one skill, so they needed a 7 in Listening but they got a 5 for example so they had to go and sit the whole exam. To sit an exam, dar el examen o test. They had to do the whole exam again. So you have to do all the 4 skills again.

My point is why can’t you just repeat one skill if you’re happy with points you got in the other skills why can’t you repeat one skill. So they’ve done it twice and the results are completely different.

And some are worse not so good if you do it the second time so my frustration is that depends who marks you on the day depends who is marking you on the day your scoring depends on that actually that’s what I think you may not agree you may agree or disagree and there is no feedback with the scores there is no concrete feedback what exactly, why did you qualify for a 5 not a 6 or a 7 or an 8 or a 9 .

I know there is a marking criteria but it’s very vague it doesn’t apply to use specifically about what I don’t like there is no transparency no feedback there is a lot of pressure it’s very long 3 hours almost 3 hours long. Yeah… it’s a very stressful situation very stressful atmosphere.

You also get marked you..look mira…. you also get marked on for your writing your writing part when you do the writing part of IELTS, it’s actually handwritten, escribir a mano.

You have to write with your hand. So, it’s you know, if you have a really bad handwriting, si tienes mala letra, Then you know bad luck! Bad luck you know you might miss out on some scores the person who is marking you might not be able to read your handwriting. Mala cueva you know what I mean. Bad Luck!

But you know it’s not the end of the world as it’s not the end of the world! Here are  my recommendations guys…. how to pass IELTS, what do you need to do to pass IELTS? First of all stop feeling sorry for yourself … there’s millions of other people out there in the world who are doing IELTS right now, and they are also in the same situation as you are NOW. They are stressed! Remember even a native speaker would not be able to do IELTS first time. They also have to prepare and practice for IELTS and understand the structure. Remember guys also, read in English as much as possible. Use collocations, phrasal verbs, I am going to introduce more phrasal verbs in the next episodes, in the next coming episodes. And the last one, guys, I want to give you a tip! Be confident, be confident when you are taking the exam, if you are not confident, if you don’t think you can be confident, it’s really hard to be confident in a stressful environment, when I say stressful, basically it just means estresante.  A stressful environment.

Pretend to be confident! Can just pretend imagine imagine you are a Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movie, the boxer in the Rocky movie or Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator be the best you can be! Alright you can do it!! Relax, Smile, be polite keep smiling… keep smiling.

If you need somebody to review your writing and your speaking when you’re practicing for IELTS I can do that for you! Yo me dedico a revisar examenes de IELTS, to soy profesora y revisora del IELTS, guys, I can do that for you. And send me a message, go to my website, www.www.englishmadesimple.net, and send me a message. Ok, so that’s it! Look hang in there! best of luck, best of luck if you are doing IELTS this month. And I’ll speak with you soon. Keep listening to podcasts, keep reading in English and keep speaking in English if you can. It’s going to help you a lot. Speak with you soon. Ciao amigos!