Ive just heard from N who recently took an Academic IELTS exam in Utrecht in the Netherlands and she wasnt happy about it.
There was nothing about the exam that she found too difficult, but the way that exam was administered and the interruptions from the test centre staff were really annoying and harmed her performance. Heres what she says:
“We had to wait outside for longer than 30 minutes in the cold (-10C) before they were able to get the keys of the building. We started the test more than 40 min late.
Listening test
The Listening went well, but during the test the supervisor started to fiddle with the blinds and I could not hear a surname and a telephone number.
When we took the Reading test I found it difficult to really concentrate as the supervisor from the other group came into our class to ask our supervisor some questions. This happened a few times!!! Our supervisor left the classroom with the door wide open while the other class was still busy with the listening test. At this moment I’m not very positive and feel that we didn’t get a fair chance
Writing test
Task 1 (report)
Table about adults enrolling for educational classes in the UK over a period of 4 years.
Task 2 (essay)
The topic was about the influence of higher living standards in cities (your experience and what problems this might lead to).
Speaking test
The lady who did the interview read every question from a piece of paper and I didn’t feel that she was interested in what I had to say. She was to busy with her papers to really listen to what I said.
The questions were about the Internet and things I would like to change in my life.”