Should I retake the IELTS?

[AlexTamayo]

Hello there!

I've spoken English the entirety of my life, and I speak English as well (or as bad) as my home language. So it was quite surprising to me when I didn't get the marks I wanted and needed in the IELTS. I retook it, after studying intensively on my own, and didn't fair that much better. I don't get nervous on tests, and I didn't neither time. I've met plenty of people with OK to moderate English, that have done considerably better than me, because they took the preparation course.

I'm convinced that the IELTS is a cartel now, however, I can't change it, and it is the only test the CIC is accepting for English proficiency, outside of Canada.

I'm a single 30 year old with a Master's Degree, I've got 412 pts. in the CRS, and if I did as I wanted and expected I would have gotten 476 pts. My marks in the IELTS are: L 8.5 R 7.5 W 6.5 S 8.5. Apparently I don't know how to write and can barely read...

Regardless, I've noticed that the minimum marks in the previous rounds of invitations have increased significantly, going into the 480+. I wonder if it's worth retaking the test, I'd be taking the prep course this time, of course, or if I should try to get points another way?

Cheers!

 

[bellaluna]

Request for a remark of your Writing score. Search on this forum or contact your IELTS administrator. You need at least a 7.0 and your other results are fine. The remark fee is refunded if your score increases on the remark.

There's a lot of context clues in the Reading section, where the answers are implied rather than explicit. Maybe that's where you stumbled. They look for simple sentences and the fact you stayed within the word count for the Writing test.

 

[AlexTamayo]

Request for a remark of your Writing score. Search on this forum or contact your IELTS administrator. You need at least a 7.0 and your other results are fine. The remark fee is refunded if your score increases on the remark.

There's a lot of context clues in the Reading section, where the answers are implied rather than explicit. Maybe that's where you stumbled. They look for simple sentences and the fact you stayed within the word count for the Writing test.

Thank you, Bellaluna for your reply.

I thought about asking for a remark, but the person that administers them here in my country told me that none of the remarks that have been submitted have ever been remarked, and I don't fancy throwing 200 USD down the drain, over something I've got no voice or control over. Which is essentially what bothers me the most about IELTS. I don't trust the IELTS because they don't allow outside input, and do not explain why they give the marks they do.

 

[scylla]

Did you prepare for the test before taking it (i.e. complete practice exams, study the marking structure)? If not - that's most likely the reason for your lower scores. A very common mistake make by native English speakers is to walk into the test without bothering to take any time to prepare. Like any test, it pays to take practice exams, and understand the market structure and how to achieve maximum points. There's a great deal of information available online through easy searches about the marking structures - practice exams are available as well.

 

[scylla]

Exactly - I understand the frustration, but it's not true that it is intransparent what the marking criteria are based on. A common misconception is that it's only your vocabulary or grammar that is tested. That's not true. It also matters that you address the task appropriately (which even native speakers can fail on), and a host of other things.

Read this:
http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/IELTS_task_1_Writing_band_descriptors.pdf

100% agree. Information about the marking structure is very readily available.

Preparing properly will make a big difference. Again, it's no different than any other test. Preparation is key...

 

[AlexTamayo]

Did you prepare for the test before taking it (i.e. complete practice exams, study the marking structure)? If not - that's most likely the reason for your lower scores. A very common mistake make by native English speakers is to walk into the test without bothering to take any time to prepare. Like any test, it pays to take practice exams, and understand the market structure and how to achieve maximum points. There's a great deal of information available online through easy searches about the marking structures - practice exams are available as well.

I didn't study the first time I took the test, so that was my fault for being over confident and a little too cocky. However, I devoured the official Cambridge English IELTS 10 prep material for the second time. I did all the mock tests that came with the book and did quite well in most of them. I even timed myself. And still didn't do quite as I expected. In fact, I got 6.0 in writing the first time without studying and got 6.5 the second time, having spent a month studying every day.

I certainly must have done something not up to their standard. I just haven't got a way to clearly know what it was, because they don't say. The PDF that Dan_and shared seem a little too broad, and as far as I'm concerned I think I did meet all those criteria. But I can't know for sure, because I can't see the test.

However, do you think it's worth retaking it for the 476 pts in the CRS?

Cheers!

 

[AlexTamayo]

Of course it is. 476 points vs. 412 points will be the difference between receiving an ITA and not receiving one. Until very recently, 476 was a top score and it will very likely be one again as soon as the number of ITAs goes up.

412, on the other hand, has very little chance of receiving a direct ITA in the near future.

Language test results in general are basically the only chance to improve your score in the short term. Everything else will require a significantly higher investment of time or money (PNP, getting another degree, gaining more work experience).

Thank you very much, dan_and for your reply. I'll retake it as soon as possible then.

Say, how hard is it to get a PNP without a job offer?

Cheers, mate.

 

[JALT]

Depends on the PNP, but in general I would avoid PNPs if you have the option to score high with a better IELTS result. It's more expensive, takes longer and requires jumping through more hoops. Smash the IELTS test (it can be done, and many have done so before) and you should have no troubles.

I second that! The PNPs are like being sat in a corner waiting to die. And they also have quite specific criteria (the SINP have a very small occupations in demand list that your work experience must be in, and the OINP have closed for the time being unless you speak French). I think there will be some new PNP openings on the East coast next year (Newfoundland, New Brunswick etc) that might be worth keeping an eye on though.

For immediate purposes retaking the IELTS is the best way, but note that it's actually quite hard to get top marks on the writing. Having 7, or 7.5 as a goal is realistic, but having a 9 as a goal means you should probably be teaching English to English teachers!

 

[bellaluna]

Thank you, Bellaluna for your reply.

I thought about asking for a remark, but the person that administers them here in my country told me that none of the remarks that have been submitted have ever been remarked, and I don't fancy throwing 200 USD down the drain, over something I've got no voice or control over. Which is essentially what bothers me the most about IELTS. I don't trust the IELTS because they don't allow outside input, and do not explain why they give the marks they do.

I suspect we're from the same country...my friend requested for a remark and got her Writing score up from 6.5 to 8.0. It just took 2 months if I'm not mistaken. That's weird you were told that, I'd have expected the administrator will bring up directly with the higher-ups.

 

[johnjkjk]

Hello there!

I've spoken English the entirety of my life, and I speak English as well (or as bad) as my home language. So it was quite surprising to me when I didn't get the marks I wanted and needed in the IELTS. I retook it, after studying intensively on my own, and didn't fair that much better. I don't get nervous on tests, and I didn't neither time. I've met plenty of people with OK to moderate English, that have done considerably better than me, because they took the preparation course.

I'm convinced that the IELTS is a cartel now, however, I can't change it, and it is the only test the CIC is accepting for English proficiency, outside of Canada.

I'm a single 30 year old with a Master's Degree, I've got 412 pts. in the CRS, and if I did as I wanted and expected I would have gotten 476 pts. My marks in the IELTS are: L 8.5 R 7.5 W 6.5 S 8.5. Apparently I don't know how to write and can barely read...

Regardless, I've noticed that the minimum marks in the previous rounds of invitations have increased significantly, going into the 480+. I wonder if it's worth retaking the test, I'd be taking the prep course this time, of course, or if I should try to get points another way?

Cheers!

Your conversational skills (Speaking and Listening) are evidently sufficient- but if you speak as you write then your score in the Speaking section at least is higher than what you deserve and I would put this down to either a weak accent and/or a non-native Examiner.

You clearly seem to be struggling with Reading and Writing. From your text above, it is evident that you really need to work on your grammar. It comes across that you're clearly putting in a lot of effort to string together comprehensible sentences in an almost technical fashion, but they don't come across very well at all and ergo whilst not very poor, is nevertheless not sufficiently good and indeed reads like a poor translation from another language in some places.

Let's take your introductory sentence as an example:
"I've spoken English the entirety of my life, and I speak English as well (or as bad) as my home language."

It's very unusual to use the work 'entirety' in this instance. The correct usage of 'entirety' would require a 'for' to precede it, e.g. 'FOR the entirety', but note that the word 'entirety' is inappropriate here. You then follow this up with a comma before an 'and', which is not an acceptable use of a comma, which should only be used in the instance of separating a distinct element from a set (read up on the Serial/Oxford comma). 'Home' language is another example of perhaps a direct translation from your native language which makes little sense in English. It should be 'native' language, 'mother tongue' etc. I just glanced at your sentence " I don't get nervous on tests, and I didn't neither time", which is absolutely horrific grammar indeed. If this is representative of how you've written in your IELTS, I would say that 6.5 is very generous indeed given that native English writers often don't get more than 8 on writing, for want of fancy colloquialisms.

As to Reading, do bear in mind that written comprehension requires an adept understanding of grammar; You're going to struggle to extract relevant information from an article if you are misinterpreting what's been written there. 7.5 is also a very generous score in this regard- many native English speakers who aren't used to taking exams/dealing with time pressure, score 7 to 8 on this.

Perhaps there are English language/IELTS schools in your country which can help you 1 on 1 with this? I may be able to recommend a personal Skype tutor, PM me for details.

 

[bellaluna]

You then follow this up with a comma before an 'and', which is not an acceptable use of a comma, which should only be used in the instance of separating a distinct element from a set (read up on the Serial/Oxford comma).

http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/comma.html#compoundsentences

 

[johnjkjk]

http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/comma.html#compoundsentences

You want to refer to what is known as the Oxford or Serial comma. The rule of thumb is not to insert a comma before an 'and' at all, unless it's needed to separate out a distinct element from a former group.