Substitution for IELTS

[Leon]

It's mostly for skilled worker.  You need 67 points to qualify.  You can get up to 24 points for languages, up to 16 for your better language (English or French) and up to 8 for the other one.

[jhalmuri]

I am an immigrant to the U.S. with a U.S. high school diploma and a U.S. Bachelor degree in Engineering. I am planning to take the GRE exam for my masters and wondering if I could substitute the English GRE score for the IELTS exam. Any thoughts on if it'll work?

[Leon]

From what they say in their application guides, the only exam that is transferable into concrete points is IELTS (and CELPIP but you can only take that in Canada).  If you take anything else, you can use that as a part of your documents claiming English proficiency but that means they can give you whatever points they want.  If you need points for English, take IELTS.

[Neyo]

Leon , I really salute your contributions, you have actually hit the hammer on the head, I don't think , there is any option left for the Gaza man that the ones stated, however, I will choose the option that shows his/her effort to travel out of Gaza to do ielts and the explanations giving by ielts coordinator in Gaza rather than doing TOEFL which, I personally think is more difficult than ielts. Whichever way, I think he could be considered for interview, alternatively he could also claim moderate proficiency and may be just fine.

[Leon]

In a case like somebody stuck in Gaza who can not take IELTS because he can't travel, he should take whatever test he can get (TOEFL) and write a cover letter for his English proficiency as well as to explain why he can't take IELTS.  Letters from teacher/employer or somebody supporting his claim of English proficiency would also help.  I would like to think that the visa officer would show understanding of the situation and give him at least some points but like I said before, IELTS is the only test that is concrete transferable into points.  Everything else depends on the visa officers decision.

For people who have access to IELTS but just don't feel like taking it because they don't want to pay or they can't be bothered, I would say, if you want to gamble, go for it but don't come here crying if they don't give you any points.  For people who can not take IELTS because they are stuck somewhere and can't travel, they have to pick the next best option and hope for the best.

[ADA]

 @ laizagrc

Are you joking?
There is no standard for this...And you are looking for shortcut!!!

If you want one, write it yourself. Do it in Microsoft work, eliminates all spelling errors and basic grammer errors. Then use a web based tool like spell checker and correct it further for serious grammatical errors.

But boss, you have to explain your reasons for not taking IELTS.. Dont send others letters.