IELTS Commentry

Sunday, 4 October 2020

IELTS for people with disability

IELTS is well known for being a time-intensive test, because there is so much to do and so little time to do it. This presents a problem even for native English speakers, who can read and write quite fast, so it isn’t surprising that students with English as a second language struggle even more. But there is a large cohort for whom IELTS is even more challenging, and that is people who live with a disability that affects the way they read, write, speak or hear.

Anne D., as a person who has difficulty using her hands, faced many problems while taking the IELTS exam. She is a true champion, and because of her amazing determination and resilience she got Band 8 in the test – but to get there she had to go through a lot. In this blog post she is telling her story, to help others avoid obstacles that got in her way.

Anne D. wrote in an email,

“I am a disabled person, a quadriplegic who has difficulty using all four limbs, and that’s why I require more time than the other candidates to write or type. I live in New Jersey, USA. I took the IELTS test for Academics on September 19, 2020 at Manhattan, New York. I faced a lot of challenges when I asked for extra time and I thought I would document my experience so that other disabled students won’t have to face the same problems that I faced.

When I registered for the test in the month of August, the official website gave me two options in New Jersey – one was for a Paper Based Test (PBT) and the other one was a Computer Delivered Test (CDT). The PBT test center was defunct and anyways my first option was to go for the CDT so I chose Newark and registered for October. The website didn’t give me an option to ask for extra time at the time of registering.

After this started a spate of frantic emails and calls to British Council, British Council USA and IELTS USA. I even posted on their Facebook pages. They had the same answer “Sorry, we can’t help you. Please contact your test center.”

So, I called and emailed my test center and they replied after a few days. They redirected me to a test center in New York saying that it wasn’t possible to deliver a CDT with extra time. I was told that I would get a full refund if I cancelled my test well in advance but they deducted $60 from the registration fees when I cancelled the test at Newark.

The test center at Manhattan offered only PBT but there was an option to opt for extra time as well as ask for a word processor while registering so I selected that but the center informed me that to take up a CDT with extra time, I needed to give at least 3 months’ notice to the board. This places a highly unfair restriction on the candidate as University application deadlines don’t allow for that kind of a time frame. Also, the process for obtaining extra time involves a lot of email communication that is time consuming. I had to send a medical certificate not older than a year for the board’s consideration and they took a few weeks’ time to get back with an answer. Finally, they approved me for 25% extra time which was sufficient for me but I had to go through the stress of practicing my handwriting. My handwriting is not legible due to my disability and the whole process caused me a lot of unwanted stress.

While the test center made all possible efforts to accommodate my special request, I was disappointed that I couldn’t take the computer based test as extra time was allowed only while writing the paper based test.

It would be great if the IELTS board can make the process of obtaining extra time for disabled candidates more straightforward (for example, they can give a provision to upload medical certificates while submitting the IELTS application just like they ask for ID) and allow for extra time on a computer based test. They should also make the whole process quicker.

My advice to those who are disabled:

1. Keep a medical certificate explaining your disability handy. It should not be more than a year old.

2. Email and call your test center well in advance.

3. Time. You need a lot of time. Book your test at least 6 to 8 months before your deadlines.

4. Remember that the results take time too, so you need a buffer for that too.

5. Practice writing on paper just in case you’re forced to take the PBT like me. “

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Thursday, 1 October 2020

Two successful students explain what it takes to get Band 7.5 or higher in IELTS

Sometimes the inspiration you need to achieve your dreams can be found in a few simple words of wisdom, and that is exactly what we have for you today. We would like you to meet two winners of our monthly IELTS results competition, because there is a lot you can learn from their experience.

Kourosh Moini lives in Iran, he is a native Farsi speaker who got Band 7.5 in Academic IELTS. When we asked Kourosh how he scored so well, he said:

“In my experience, knowing where your strengths and weaknesses are is the best guide you can have. So the first step is to identify those and be truly honest with yourself. I achieved this simply by taking standard practice tests at home. After 3 tests, I recognized very clearly where my skills came short and needed improvements.

Then you can parcel the issues and come up with a solution. In my case, my strength is listening and my weakness was writing. So, I started searching for information on how to improve my writing skills and I found out that collocations and the ability to write in the appropriate structures are of great importance. Then, I studied this book called “Collocation in use” by Cambridge publications that helped me a lot and started watching some online courses on how to use the appropriate structure in regard to various writing questions.

I can also recommend, when practicing your reading skills, pay attention to how native authors paraphrase a concept because it is very useful. This can fix many errors in this section and it gives you the ability to imitate native authors’ styles when writing your own material.

In www.IELTS-Blog.com there are many speaking questions from actual recent IELTS tests – that can be very effective and helped me a lot to prepare for my speaking session with the help of a dear friend. Actually, Part 2 of my speaking was somehow similar to a previous test I found on IELTS-Blog.com.

Hope what I wrote helps others and wish you all the best possible results in your IELTS exams.”

Amir Ebrahimi also lives in Iran; he got Band 8.0 in General Training IELTS. When we asked him what others could do to increase their IELTS score like he did, he put together quite a few handy tips:

“Firstly, I suggest that candidates increase their connection with the language they are trying to learn. To do so, I used to listen to at least 10 podcast channels with varied accents. In addition to that, I switched my bedtime reading from Farsi to English. I also used to watch TV series with English subtitles to improve my reading comprehension and listening at the same time. All in all, you shouldn’t miss any chance to be a professional English consumer 🙂 .

Secondly, I was wrong thinking that I can get the required score purely by self-study, which led me to fail in 3 exams in a row. That was when I started to consult with IELTS teachers and successful candidates to get familiar with my weaknesses and get feedback on my essays and speaking skills. Therefore, I asked a local teacher for help with the writing section and bought the writing correction service from IELTS-Blog.com to have my essays revised by a native IELTS expert. During my preparation, I had collected all the mistakes I was made aware of, and reviewed them the day before the exam to avoid repeating them. Therefore, do not forget to ask an expert for help in order to get your desired score in the first attempt.

Finally, use the official IDP and British Council resources to get ready for the test condition. You can’t get a high band without knowing the tricks and techniques to face different question types, even if you have decent language abilities. I also suggest that you read the Writing Band Descriptors very closely, as it’s the most important document used by IELTS examiners to mark your essays.

I hope reading these will help other candidates overcome their IELTS challenges.”

A very big thank-you to Kourosh and Amir from us all for sharing their knowledge.

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Friday, 25 September 2020

IELTS grammar: when to use the Present Perfect (and how it is different from the Simple Past)

In this week’s video Adam is talking about the Present Perfect tense, that you would use to describe experiences. Why experiences? Because that is the most popular and common use of the Present Perfect! What are experiences? They are things you’ve done, places where you’ve been, meetings with famous people that you’ve had, and so on.

Today Adam will show you the differences between Simple Past and Present Perfect, and after watching this lesson you won’t be making mistakes or mixing these tenses up – you will know when to use the Simple Past, and when to use the Present Perfect. So if you know in theory what Simple Past and Present Perfect are, but you’re often unsure which one to use and when, this video is perfect for you! Getting rid of mistakes in verb tenses will help you score Band 7 or higher in IELTS.

Watch the video on YouTube here

Go here to check YOUR own Speaking score

A quick recap from the video:

– I tried sushi (Simple Past)
– I tried sushi last year (again, Simple Past)
– I have tried sushi (Present Perfect)
– I have tried sushi ~~last year~~ (Using a time expression with Present Perfect is a No-No!)

And now to the difference between the Simple Past and Present Perfect.

The Simple Past is about things that were done and finished in the past, before this conversation started. This is its key characteristic – the actions are 100% finished.

Some examples:
– I woke up early this morning.
– I ate breakfast.
– I went to bed late last night.

The actions in the Present Perfect do not feel ‘certainly finished’.

“I have received many good comments so far.” This sentence means that some comments were already received, and some more may be received in the future.

If we say in the Simple Past “We didn’t receive any good comments on it.”, we mean there weren’t good comments in the past and that’s it, there won’t be any good comments in the future.

Some more examples to show how to use the Present Perfect for experiences:
– I have been to Canada.
– I have seen that new movie.
– I have met that celebrity.

Also in the video – Adam explains the grammatical structure of a sentence in Present Perfect that says something positive, something negative or how to ask a question in the Present Perfect.

And now it is time for a quiz!

How perfect is your your knowledge of the Present Perfect?

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Thursday, 24 September 2020

IELTS Sample Reports of Band 8

Here you can find IELTS Sample Reports of Band 8, written by students and graded by an IELTS teacher.

Last updated: September 24, 2020

The topic of each report appears when you hold the mouse over the link. Every report is checked, marked, has comments and suggestions. Hold the mouse over to see suggested corrections. The teacher’s summary is at the bottom of each report.

IELTS writing – sample report 1

IELTS writing – sample report 2

IELTS writing – sample report 3

IELTS writing – sample report 4