IELTS Exam Experiences and Details

Express Entry
19

I gave my IELTS almost a year and a half ago so dont know if things have changed since then. But here’s my experience:

I had applied for the Phoenix center but they took the test in my hometown of Salt Lake City which was pleasantly surprising; saved me on Airbnb and car rental.

My first impression was that they are STRICT about their protocol. And I mean Defcon level 1 strict! They don’t even allow water bottles with labels on them, or waterbottles that are not completely transparent :no_mouth:

You need your passport for the examination (without that you don’t exist), you have to be on time, you can’t carry anything inside except your passport, phones and other things should be checked in, and forget about the VitaminWater you just bought at the vending machine!

The first section is usually the listening section. You have to listen to an audio clip about a conversation between two people and answer the relevant questions. They make it very clear, you are not allowed to even visit the restroom until the listening section is over! To visit the restroom during other sections you have to ask permission and they give you a tag or something like that…felt like I was back at school again :face_with_monocle:

Then comes the reading and writing section. In reading section you read an essay of some sort and answer the relevant questions. The questions are not 3rd grade level and you have to actually revisit the essay and make sure the answer you wrote is the correct one (the context of the question and the relevant lines in the essay are important). It’s important to keep an eye on the watch (sorry, you’re not allowed your own watch; the one on the wall) since I almost ran out of time.

That being said, for any English users like us, listening and reading section should not be too tough.

Then comes the writing part. This is tough since we’re not used to writing on paper anymore, especially software ppl. You have to write a letter and a passage about something random. Shouldn’t be too tough, although you have to use the given space properly and use pencil (that they give you).

After these sections are done, comes the speaking section. They will assign you time slots when you have to come in and talk to a real person (the test-taker) about some random topic that they give you on the spot. For me it was my favorite sportsperson (easy: Sachin!). I was lucky; some people get topics that are vague and not easy to blabber on for 5 minutes and you have to think what you are going to talk about. But really what they are looking for is whether you can speak English and get your ideas across in a comprehensible manner, not whether the content is right or wrong. I decided to wait for my turn without leaving the center (the hotel banquet room they had booked), and luckily, they invited me sooner since a few people were awol at the time. So keep this in mind, you might get your speaking turn earlier than anticipated.

I got my result 13 days later in the mail (you can also access it online after a certain number of days.)

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20

I gave my IELTs a few weeks ago. I currently stay in the bay area so this write up is focused on IELTS in the bay area. Specifically on ILSC SFO.

Unlike the many reports here and also elsewhere - ILSC does in fact provide headphones for the listening section. This is awesome for when it works. Unfortunately it doesn’t work all the time. The headphones are 80’s technology and are analog radio frequency based. This means just as the test speaker is saying the thing you want to jot down - there can be a bout of static. This doesn’t happen to everyone, but it happened to enough number of people on my test (including me). Nevertheless, this distraction did not cause me to loose any points on the listening section.

Nothing much to be said about the reading and writing sections, these were fairly routine. For speaking however, you can end up spending 3 - 4 hours waiting for your interview. I had not budgeted for this much time and may have planned my commute differently had I known this. So please keep this in mind if you are choosing a SFO center on weekends.

Also anshul’s observation on ridiculous adherence to protocol by test invigilators holds true for ILSC SFO. It got to the point of minor irritation. Definitely be physically prepared to sit in one spot for three hours.

ILSC is otherwise conveniently located in the heart of SFO downtown close to the bay bridge. They validate parking on some of their test dates (weekend) which is very convenient.

Some words on preparation:
I agree with the sentiment expressed by others on this thread - this is essentially a test of middle school grade English. For most folks on here, the real differentiation would be (some) practice.

I would change two things about my practice habits - firstly, I would take a couple of exams in the same sequence and back to back as the actual IELTS exam. Practicing in one hour stints each for reading, writing etc. doesn’t exactly mirror the actual exam setting. Secondly, I would focus a bit more on writing - specifically the physical act of writing, erasing, re-writing etc. I hadn’t done this for a decade and my hand was actually paining in the real test.

IELTS Liz is a great resource. The videos are super helpful to get an overall idea of what the test expects. However, the examples used on that website are not high fidelity. The IELTS is a standardized test and it is most beneficial to practice material that closely conforms to their standardization. Some of Liz’s examples frankly - aren’t representative at all.

The cambridge IELTS tests (these are different from the official test practice materials) are a high fidelity representation of the actual test and I recommend practicing a couple of those tests, in addition to the official tests. Practicing any more than 4 full length tests is going to be a waste of time so far as reading, listening and speaking are concerned. However, I do recommend practicing writing a bit more (e.g. 6 or 7 each of writing task 1 and 2) on actual exam answer sheets (you can find these online).

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21

I gave my IELTS on 01/20 and got my results 02/05.
Had to book at ELS in Manhattan, which is the only authorized center for all of NYC!
My experience was exactly the same as @anon25417004.
Rather annoying and makes you feel like a schoolboy!
But it was pretty easy, save for the writing, which is pencil-based! I bet it was my horrible handwriting that cost me the writing score.
I mean come on! Wish they let us use computers, especially for us developers!!

Order of sections:
// Speaking (scheduled the day before, which is a good thing for manhattan ELS)
Listening
Reading
Writing

So here’s my result:
Writing: 7.0
Speaking: 7.5
Reading: 8.0
Listening: 8.5
Overall: 8.0

1 Like
22

I gave my IELTS on the 20th as well and got my result on Feb 2. Honestly, I came close to collapsing out of boredom for most of the test. My center was CSU East Bay at Hayward, and it’s probably the most convenient Bay Area center for the South and East Bay, with tons of parking and a pretty nice drive up.

Listening was surprisingly good. I was a little concerned about the lack of headphones, but we were in a lecture hall which had fantastic acoustics and the sound was very clear. I almost missed a phone number question because I didn’t realize it was important, but luckily I was reflexively jotting down anything that sounded important, and managed to get that right.

Reading was the most boring section for me, so I was shocked I lost half a point. Maybe because I overthought one answer? Not sure. I finished way too early and took a bathroom break and got super bored watching the minutes tick slowly by.

Writing was great. To pad the time, I wrote way more than I should have for both tasks. The letter topic was to help a friend settle into your hometown, and the essay topic was an opinion piece on whether people buy too many material goods these days.

My speaking test was around 2 hours after my writing test, which gave me time to go off campus, grab a bite, and just take a walk around CSU. Speaking was pretty relaxed, I was asked about my hometown, what I like to do, my thoughts on computers, the internet. Task 2 was about a tourist location that isn’t visited very frequently, and then transitioned into a conversation about tourism and space tourism. I made a few puns and I’m guessing that helped quite a bit. Pretty good experience overall.

Got my score on the 2nd. L9, R8.5, W9, S9, Overall 9. Got the max CRS points, which is all I wanted, so no complaints :smiley:

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23

Wow @anurag.rb10 that’s some serious score also you’re lucky to get that location. It was booked up when I tried had to drive 3 hours to central cali for my test. It was a beautiful drive with the early morning fog but even then.

I was asked about music choices etc and the lady had clearly never heard good trace music so I ended up throwing in Beatles and Springsteen just to keep her happy.

1 Like
24

Appeared for the exam on 20th Jan, 2018 in Bengaluru, India.
The process was smooth but reminded me of school days.

Order was
Listening: Had headphones. Initially, found it pretty simple. But, the speed picked up all of a sudden, and I missed couple of pointers.
Reading: It was pretty simple.
Writing: The most difficult one. Had barely written anything since years, and mis-managed time. Got the feeling that I screwed it.
Speaking: Was a pretty normal discussion, but I realised that I spoke too much, too fast.

Score was expected on 2nd Feb, but I got a mail that it will be delayed and they are doing a quality check. Researched about it and found that this could happen, if there is a difference of 2 or more points between the score of any two sections. It could also be because of more sinister reasons, but there is nothing one can do, but wait.

Finally, got the results on 13th Feb.
Listening: 8
Reading: 9
Writing: 7
Speaking: 7
Overall: 8

The test is easy in general, and one can easily score the highest possible CRS score, which I fell short of.
One should prepare a little. My overall prep was googling some FAQ/expert advice, during the 30 mins cab ride. At least, practice some amount of writing. Holding a pencil all of a sudden and with the clock running, things do get a little tight. Also, in the speaking test, don’t go too fast and speak clearly.

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25

Anyone here knows if this is possible?

the result is not showing up on results page of BC India website…
but when i log in to my BC online account then it shows result there…
is that my real result or showing some dummy results…

26

Ok guys… so now i am able to see results even on BC results page…
I got L8.5, R7, S7, W7

  1. I have masters but i need help from you all guys now to prove my experience of college teaching… Is teaching good to go for PR?
  2. my ECA probably will come in another 10-15 days from WES…
    but my husband still going to appear for ielts and will take perhaps 2months more to get his ECA…
    so can i create only my EE profile for only me?
    and later we add husband or create his profile separately a new one later…
    i am alone getting approx 441-442 points… last cutoff was 456 sadly increased too much…what do you suggest?
  3. Is there any scope to increase my CRS score by improving IELTS score more?

@anon25417004 @avj and others anyone.
please suggest

27

IELTS will help improve your own crs score.
You can create and submit EE profile and wait. Maybe cutoff will drop below your score. But I’d recommend if your husband gets better crs score then cancel and submit new EE profile with him as principal applicant.

28

yes thats the plan… if he gets required 8777 score then he will be primary as he has more experience than me… but my question was that can i create EE profile for me only without including him… as it will drop my score if i include him without his ECA (which will take abt 2 months more) and add him later after 2 months… what if i get ita within these 2 months… can i add him after ita… or can we have two separed EE profiles… one for me now and one for him after 2 months…

29

If you’re married and did not declare that you have a spouse, in your application then that is misrepresentation. If you try to add him later they will know you were married when you submitted EE and will definitely charge you with misrepresentation. You need to submit marriage certificate and all that when you submit final documentation.

These things should be obvious.

Do not submit your profile. You should modify/create a new one and add ALL the information truthfully. Any misrepresentation can result in a 5 year ban from Canada and will affect all future applications.

1 Like
30

Sorry but how is it misrepresentation…
we can simply declare i am married… but to the question about if spouse is going to travel with me to Canada, we can simply select No.

So in future this can be changed to Yes because then spouse would change his mind and will come to Canada with me… or if we still keep it No and spouse can create his own application later…
is anything wrong here?

31

Ok then it should be fine as long as you’re declaring that you have a spouse. I thought you meant not declaring him at all.

In this case you should add him later with his ielts and ECA and hopefully that will increase your score. In an earlier post it was also discussed that your score shouldn’t reduce below threshold (of when you got ITA) after you add spouse (with or without credentials and ielts score), else your ITA can be canceled/you should decline it.

If you add him later and the above condition holds then you’re fine. If not then you can do the landing and become a PR and then sponsor him in family based track (this will obviously take longer for him to arrive in Canada). @anon25417004 this is correct?

Note that a PR has to be physically in Canada when sponsoring family members; only Citizens can sponsor from abroad. They also have to show that they have the financial means (a.k.a. a job) to support them.

It might just be quicker to have both on the same application (with accompanying spouse) and both will get PR at same time with a couple of months’ delay.

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32

thanks… by sponsoring you mean my spouse will not need CRS score or ITA process etc. when you said PR needs to be physically in Canada when sponsoring family members… or sill same CRS cutoff etc. he has to go through and he will just get 15 points extra because of me being a PR that time… ?

yeah. right …best is to apply both together… i was just getting concerned of missing many draws if we wait for his eca etc. and without eca he reduces my points… :slight_smile:

33

Yes I mean completely different track: family based immigration. In that case you’ve to show relation, proof of funds to support family members etc.

I don’t really know what happens or what the procedure is if you’re a PR in Canada and he decides to still go through the EE path.

34

I did some more reading on google and it seems that both the husband and wife can create separate EE profiles with all the correct information. If both get the ITA then you decide whose profile is stronger and use that person as principle applicant and do the final submission with one profile.

1 Like
35

thats great information anshul… thanks for verifying that…

so both EE profiles can co-exist at the same time and be part of draws?

Another question… can i add spouse education as bachelors for the beginning (as WES is quicker) but later update it to Masters (after we receive his masters ECA from IQAS or ICAS in few months)…

thanks again

36

Yes but then you’ve to decline one ITA if both of you get it.

If his bachelors eca gives you more points then sure.

37

It seems it will not work…someone mentioned:

"You can edit your post ITA profile to indicate that your spouse is accompanying - a short LoE would be in order to explain this change. Remember that your score will be recalculated if your spouse is ‘accompanying’ and your ITA will be void if the recalculated score falls below that draw’s cutoff.

Also remember that while recalculating the score, IRCC would consider as valid only those elements of your application which were in place as on the date of the draw - your spouse’s IELTS and ECA wouldn’t add to your recalculated score if they were received AFTER the draw date. In such a scenario, your spouse’s inclusion would reduce your overall score."

38

Guys… What documents are required to be taken to exam in US…?
just passport?

what about any printout for any confirmation email or any other document?
also do they give pencils/eraser/sharpener there or should we need to take ours?