Love it or hate it, IELTS is the standard English assessment for non-natives who want to do things in English speaking countries.
I have had hundreds of students study for the IELTS, and because my wife is Afrikaans, I have also seen close family members go through the IELTS process. Some with success stories, some with only failures.
Before we tackle this topic, let’s outline what we’ll discuss, so you are clear on what I am saying and why. Today, we’ll talk about what IELTS is. In the next post, the dangers and pitfalls ELLs succumb to. And in the third post, we’ll discuss a healthier approach.
We’ll do it in three posts. Otherwise, you’ll feel like I dumped a load of dirt on your head.
So what is IELTS really?
We don’t need to resay everything else has already said. It’s an English exam that you probably need to take.
(If you don’t need to take the IELTS exam, why are you reading this? Your life is short. Go read something meaningful, crazy human!)
You can find lots of information about it all over the place, and unfortunately, lots of this information is bent because of English companies trying to make money off of you and test takers’ negative experience with the test.
So, let’s look at another side of it and get a more realistic view. Whether you like it or not, the world needs IELTS. It’s not safe for ELLs to go to an English-speaking country unprepared, and it’s not good for an English-speaking country to allow a flood of poorly speaking people into the country.
I’m sorry if you disagree, but it isn’t fair to the people that live there and it makes huge headaches for the government, schools, businesses, and anyone else involved. It’s like forcing someone to go to a place where they can’t communicate well, but the other way around.
So we need IELTS. And IELTS needs us. Well, our money at least. Who is going to spend their time interviewing strangers every day for the rest of their lives and rack their brain trying to figure out what they are saying and analyze what level they are? It takes a special kind of person. And they have to be paid to do it. I’ve had to do this task, although not for IELTS, and it’s not easy.
Does IELTS purposefully fail people to get more money? I don’t know. Maybe there is a few corrupt people in a few corrupt testing centers who do. Of course, there are bad people out there who do bad things, but in my experience with IELTS, it’s rare. I know the scores my students get, and I rarely disagree with them.
We have to remember that IELTS is a company with a reputation. The most important reputation it needs to maintain is it’s reputation with overseas institutions, not with ELLs. If IELTS can always deliver consistent scores of English abilities, then institutions will continue to require you to take the IELTS test. If they give everyone 9’s because they are nice, then soon, no one will want you to take the test, and they will go out of business.
(And then a new testing business will become the number one and give us a new set of problems!)
They have to be consistent and make sure that the kind of English speakers people are asking for are the kind of English speakers they get, and so it’s safer for the student and for whoever is inviting you overseas if you are scored .5 lower than you actually are than if they scored you .5 higher. Everyone would rather have an overperforming 5.5 than an underperforming 6.5, except us who pay for the exam.
I know that’s not nice to hear because it’s our money that’s being spent to take the test over and over again if we don’t get the score you want. But we’ll talk about having a healthier mindset in a later post.
So, IELTS is necessary, it costing money is necessary, it being strict is necessary, and that doesn’t always feel good. My simple advice so far is this: be positive. If you start to see the IELTS as the enemy that takes your money and stresses you out, it will take your money and stress you out. If you see it as the logical step before you go overseas that’s safe for you and others, you will be on your way to a happier English learning path, a sustainable, growing English.
Next time we’ll talk about the dangers and pitfalls ELLs often lose to, but until then, here are some practice activities!