academic IELTS is horrendous

[Claire1987luck]

Has anybody here taken academic IELTS, aibu in saying it's unbelievabley difficult to score over 7.5 in all components ?

I used to teach it. It really is very difficult. All credit to anyone who gets 7.5

7 in the writing element, which I was gutted about, but a 9and two 8s in one of the others, so an 8 overall. It was harder than I'd expected.

I rrally have to ask...
I hear they are difficult, but... My classmate has them. Passed them. Yet she doesn't understand most of a normal conversation and gets massively confused. How is that possible? I dreaded them, but luckily didn't have to do them in the end.

Native speaker and ignorantly thought that 2 weeks of practice would suffice. At around £180 pounds a pop, it's not cheap! No idea, how to improve, really struggled with timings and task 1 writing in general. Any tips or tutor recommendations would be very welcome.

@InspectorClouseauMNdivision, agreed. I know many who have achieved 7.5 + (non natives), but honestly it feels like an impossible task. I can't see how most natives, even educated ones, would each a band 9.

get the ielts revision book, i achieved 8.5 i lost some in speaking . good luck .i sat and practised tests available on the internet.

Got 8.5 a decade ago, did not find it particularly difficult (and my English is very very far from perfect).

@InspectorClouseauMNdivision
IELTS is to a great extent about the exam technique and having a particular personality style (nerdy/ logical, to answer yes / no / not given questions correctly). My ielts score is good, but there are basic informal conversations where a significant part still flies past me.

What do you require it for? Some institutions accept IELTs equivalent depending on where you are from

@silvercuckoo, haven't heard a single person saying" it wasn't particularly difficult" TBH. Also, non natives master a language, natives just absorb. Please englighten me with regards these techniques, as everyone talks about these, yet nobody can put their finger on what it is. I speak mostly about the writing component, the reading is fine, especially if you are lucky And get short passages.

@silvercuckoo your writing is great and makes sense. Si you are obviously ok. What I was talking about is really quite an extreme imho. I remember myself being like this when I first came to Uk and worked through language issues. Certainly wouldn't expect a person with academic IELTS to actually derail conversation normal or in class because they can't understand what we are all talking about.

Why do natives need IELTS? It's for non English speakers? You guys have GCSE and such, don't you? Or the life skill thing if you don't have GCSEs?

I need it because I did my degree abroad (albeit in English), but it’s an EU rule for the governing body of the organisation I will work for, so basically any student coming out of Europe has to do it, no matter what language they studied in.

Look at IELTS Liz. Honey- google that and there are masses of tops.

Meant honestly not honey!!

IELTs is a technique, some people can pass first time. I sat it it as I needed it to work in Australia, I am a native U.K. citizen, with a degree and post grad study. Lots of people ( natives) fail even the non academic test.
Do a search on the internet and do buy the ielts test book , if you go on the poms in oz forum you will find suggestions. Non natives pass because they practice, I found natives thought they should pass just because they were native.
Good luck, I did not practice long but looking at examples meant that I knew what they expected.

I used to teach it. I suggest that you by the teacher's book to accompany your textbook. They usually provide useful insight into scoring and technique - particularly for writing.

That's interesting to know that even native English speakers have to do it.
Good luck!

I've taught it, marked it and I've written materials for it. Imho, it's all about technique and practice. Using the teacher's book is a great tip!
Also, and I hate to say it, give the examiner what they want, be clinical and dispassionate when approaching the topic and don't worry about using your imagination

Haha, just realised that I wrote 'by' instead of 'buy' on a thread about learning English. It was a phone autocorrect I promise!

@Claire1987luck
Pretty much the same as any other exam technique, I.e. ability to work under time pressure and plan your work with the aim of maximising the total exam score.
For the writing, I think it is more important to have solid essay writing skills (even if in another language, e.g. your native one) rather than a perfect command of English.
I sat IELTS with very little preparation and all my English is self-taught (learned German as the second language in school). However, I had decent writing skills in my native language (even published occasionally) and had experience of sitting professional exams.
I looked out of curiosity at the GCSE English papers later - probably would not have even gotten a C.