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October 2008

IELTS exam in Vietnam – October 2008 (Academic)

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Here’s what P. from Vietnam told me about his exam last Saturday:

Listening

Section 1: Filling a form for a child to learn piano. My first 3 answers were piano, guitar, and drum. Oh my God, I almost forgot how to write the word guitar. Luckily, my guess was right.
Section 2, 3 and 4: I don’t remember exactly. But there were more multiple choice questions than last time.
Section 4 is about the impact of food on learning.

Reading

It was more difficult than the last time. There were 2 kinds of matching: matching heading and matching task in the test. It also had summary completion, multiple choice and familiar kinds of questions in IELTS test.
I don’t remember clearly about the content, just that it was about ancient human.

Writing

It was really difficult.

Task1 (Report)
They gave us 2 pie charts with different subjects, one is about Types of Language Training for Employees and the second one is about Purposes for learning a foreign language. But they asked me to compare and contrast since the 2 charts had nothing in common.

Task2 (Essay)
I can’t remember the topic very well because I didn’t understand it myself. It is about laws and society.

Speaking

I did a poor job because the examiner this time was difficult. Moreover, the candidate right before me did better job than me.

I was asked about tourism and had nothing to say about it, therefore, I answered like a crazy man.

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Two updates from General IELTS exam, in Dubai (UAE) and Malaysia

Today we had not one but two of our friends share their experience. One student from Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and the other from Malaysia sat for IELTS (General Training module) and here’s what happened:

IELTS in Dubai (thanks, M!)

“The test was not hard. I was panicking in the listening section, missed few questions, but in the Reading it was ok. So many True/False/Not given questions – around 9 questions, 4 in passage 1 and 5 in passage 2!

Writing

Task 1 (Letter)
You saw an ad in the news for a job and you are interested to apply.

Task 2 (Essay)
Some people think if the students are afraid of their teacher this is better, other think that having a friendly relationship with teachers in better, what do you think ?

Speaking

Questions about my hometown, cycling, food, cooking person that I know and healthy food.”

IELTS in Malaysia (thanks, S.!)

Writing

Task 1 (Letter)
“Write a letter to a teacher to thank her and explain why I could not complete the course and what you liked about the course.

What I did:
My first paragraph – thank her
Second paragraph – explain why I cannot complete the course
Third – how I ‘ve enjoyed the course
Lastly, hope I can continue again once situation improves and look forward to see her again.

Task 2 (Essay)
Car transport is taking place over rail services. Discuss the positive and negative aspects of this development. Is this development true in your country?

I gave reasons on the positive and negative aspects of the situation then continued to tell what it is like in my country. But I did not give my opinion as to whether I agree with the statement or not as the question did not ask for that.

Hmmmm, my biggest problem was to manage the time and also I would very much prefer to type on the computer.”