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[nomad soul]

Since the IELTS is a frequent topic on this forum...

Top 10 Myths about taking the IELTS exam
by Kristy Chase, English Outlook instructor
Source: http://www.englishoutlook.com/myths-about-ielts


1. Non-native speakers can’t get a band 9 on IELTS
Many students have said this to me - that it’s impossible for a non-native speaker to get a band 9. Of course, this just isn’t true. The test is based on how good your English is, not where you come from. The band 9 rating is described by IELTS as ‘expert user’. It’s perfectly possible for people who are non-native speakers and who are excellent speakers of English to get a band 9. Not only that, but the opposite is true too. Not all native speakers can get a band 9, even on speaking!

2. I have to keep practising tests to improve my score
This is a big myth but a very common one. IELTS is a test of English, not a test to test how well you know the test! The only way to improve your score, once you are familiar with the test, is to improve your English in all 4 macro-skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Doing more and more tests doesn’t really help you to improve. It just fills your head with answers. I know students who know all the answers to certain listening tests and can get 39 out of 40 but this doesn’t help their listening and on the real test they may only score 24 or 25 out of 40. Listening intensively to a variety of things - conversations, radio, news or even songs is the answer to improving your listening. Practise your listening micro-skills by going to the free practice exercise links on this page.

3. I need to learn long lists of vocabulary to be successful
Of course vocabulary is important for IELTS to get a good score but you don’t need to learn long lists. You need to be familiar with words in all their forms and be able to use them accurately and appropriately. This is far more important than knowing a long list. Knowing a good variety of words and using them well and correctly will be enough for most people to get the score they need. Common topics in IELTS include education, environment and culture. Look at IELTS course books which will give you a good idea of what kind of words you need.

4. They make the IELTS test too hard so overseas students can’t get into university
The IELTS test is an independent test of English used by governments and educational institutions to get information about a person’s English level. The governments and colleges or universities set the level themselves independently so that is why different universities have different IELTS test score requirements. IELTS is not connected with them in any way and has no influence on what band scores are required for different tasks or institutions.

5. If I don’t understand the examiner in the speaking test, I will get a low band
The speaking test is only about your speaking proficiency and listening is tested in the listening test. If you don’t understand what the examiner says, ask them to repeat or ask the meaning of a word. The speaking test only measures speaking proficiency, not listening.

6. Grammar is not important in the IELTS
It is true that grammar does not have a separate test in IELTS but of course it is still very important. You will need grammar for all the skills and it is specifically part of the assessment in both writing and speaking (25%). In reading and listening your knowledge of grammar can help you write in the correct word form in an answer so it is necessary throughout the test.

7. If I take the test in my country, I will get a better score
You may get a better score in your country if you take the IELTS test there, but this will more likely be due to the fact that you may feel more comfortable in familiar surroundings in your home town, rather than the test itself. All tests on the same day are the same everywhere in the world so the test itself is not any easier and is the same one you would have taken if you had taken the test overseas. IELTS examiners are highly trained to be reliable markers, so your score should be the same. If you are feeling a little more relaxed in your home town, you could get a better score, but this is a factor which affects you and your performance in the test. The test is not easier.

8. The examiner is looking at the clock in the speaking test so I must be very boring
This cannot possibly be true! The examiner has to keep to strict times so is looking at the clock to make sure he or she is within those times. Please don’t worry about those things.

9. There will be certain question types at certain times of the year for the writing
I heard this myth recently, where students were saying that a certain task comes up in May or June! IELTS would not be so predictable as to have certain task types on a given month of the year. Just prepare all your task types for the writing as normal.

10. Examiners at some centres are stricter than others in another centre
All examiners go through careful training and retraining throughout their examiner life. If they are too strict someone will notice! It’s not the examiner, but more likely your performance on the day just wasn’t as good as on a previous occasion or in class, due to nerves or illness or something similar. It is hard, I’m sure you’ll agree, to tell how well you did in an exam! Sometimes you think you did a good job, but in fact it wasn’t so good.

(End of article)

Comments?

[Bud Powell]

2. I have to keep practising tests to improve my score

If the prospective test taker uses the English language often in many capacities, this is probably largely untrue.

My experience with coaching SAT verbal to immigrant children in the U.S. is that the more often the students practice taking the verbal tests, the better they will do in the final test. This is especially true of those whose English abilities are borderline or who test poorly in school, or who have little association with native speakers over a long period of time. It isn't the act of taking the practice tests themselves that helps but the practice of reading skills and recall. The problem that many students (native English speakers and non-native English speakers alike) is that they have a deficit of experience using the English language in an academic context. They are not required to read critically, and they have little-to-no experience reading difficult text. This is why one sees adults and senior in high school reading Harry Potter books. They are written on the lower middle school level. Many don't/can't read beyond that level.

The best-case scenario is that the prospective test takers read widely to increase their reading skills and vocabulary, and engage in frequent formal conversation very often to improve his spoken English (and use of vocabulary). Unfortunately, such is not the case. That is why students use the preparation books to help them get up to speed. The preparation books themselves are intended to function as practice tests.

I know one Chinese girl whose English was excellent, close to the point of near-native ability. She bombed out on the first test. The second time was the charm. She knew what to expect, and she was much more relaxed. In her case (and I believe this to be the case of many IELTS test takers), she needed the prior test experience to enable her to relax and to concentrate on the task.

Someone in this forum made a remarkable observation (I forget who it was) that I could never articulate so well. He said that Chinese students regard the English language to be some sort of puzzle or code to be broken. I think this is an opinion held by many Chinese students of all abilities. Given the Chinese over reliance on/belief in luck, many students believe that taking the test many times improves their chances of passing. Improved scores with succeeding tests seem to support this theory when at the root of the improvement is less luck than just plain old practice.

I remember working with a group of students who just could not grasp the concept of analogies. These were really bright kids. The only thing that helped them was continual timed practice. Anyone of average intelligence who has taken the Miller Analogies Test knows what I am talking about. I took a practice test in preparation for entry into graduate school. I bombed miserably. That was when i got a thick book of practice tests. On the REAL THING I scored in the 98th percentile. Had I not practiced so many hundreds of tests and learned to form/recognize analogies, I might have not even made it into graduate school.

There was quite a long thread about memorization not long ago, but I'll bring up the topic anyway. I believe that too few preparation programs for all entrance tests --- not just IELTS--- fail to dispel the belief that one can succeed by memorization alone. The student must be impressed by the need to think critically, not dredge up "facts" memorized from previous tests.

Practice tests won't provide answers to the next practice test, nor will it provide answers to a real test. The practice tests provide practice, the repetition of specific skills.

For some strange reason, many academics eschew rote practice while others promote it. They preach it. How many of us would be able to sit at a grand piano (or a cheap electric Casio for that matter) and read Ligeti's Etude No.1 ? Not many, I'd guess.

[nomad soul]

Excellent points. Whenever students (in the Mid East) asked me about practice tests, I suggested they consider a variety of practice assessments instead of focusing only on one specific test.

[Sashadroogie]

Beware statements about tests when provided by private preparation course providers! : )

As has already been pointed out, practicing the test does indeed help test-takers to get a better score than they would get without such practice. Stands to reason, surely? Takers can often get a lower mark on the day of the test, simply because they were unfamiliar with the format, and didn't really know what was expected of them. This is especially true in the Writing paper, but also the Speaking test. How many of us have seen candidates eschew the one minute preparation time and dive straight into Part 2, only to splutter to a stop after 40 seconds or so? Test practice won't make an IELTS 6 band candidate transform into an IELTS 7. But it can help prevent an IELTS 6 band candidate from stuffing up, and only getting a 5.

Speaking of the Speaking test, you will indeed get a low mark if you don't understand the examiner and give a totally irrelevant answer. To say listening isn't tested during the Speaking test is to misunderstand the nature of these sorts of language assessments. Most tests sections assess combined skills. For example, in the Listening test, you need to be able to write and spell correctly, or marks will be lost, even though it is called a Listening test. Grammar and vocab are being tested throughout all four papers, even though it says this nowhere on the title of the test.

An examiner shouldn't be seen to be checking his watch or clock, which should be placed unobtrusively on the table, not in the candidate's view. Not sure what is the comment from the site refers to exactly, but this should be covered under the 'careful training' alluded to : )

There are many myths out there, though. My favourite is that IELTS is easier/harder than TOEFL : )

[kungfuman]

I've been teaching IELTS for over 8 years now.

Some common myths perpetuated among the Chinese students that I have encountered are:

That some IELTS centers are easier than others. I have had students tell me they were going to another city to take the test as they heard it was easier.

My explanation of what a standardized test is didn't seem to change their mind that going to another city was a waste of time.

I have had students take the test 5 or more times in the misplaced belief that they will do better each time.

My explanation that they need to focus more on speaking English practice as the only way to improve their speaking score didn't seem to impress them.

I had one very pretty and well endowed girl tell me that she flirted with the examiner and wore a low cut top and kept bending down so he could check out her boobs. She cited that as getting a better speaking score. I assume her ploy worked as it would have worked on me I am sure.

[asiannationmc]

[bograt]

LOL at number 4. Why would they want to make it difficult for rich overseas students paying over the odds to get into foreign universities? If anything it's too easy.

Also LOL at number 8, was the answer tongue in cheek? Yes we have to look at the clock occasionally to make sure the timing is right but probably look at it a lot more often for the other reason.

[Voyeur]

I'm wary of easy, one-size-fits-all 'rules' when it comes to these tests. It's complicated. For example, clearly not all examiners score the test the same. There may even be some centers that are easier than others. For a time. But such things are fluid. Even if you get accurate intel as to which center is 'easier', things can change before you get there to write your test.

Similarly, there may at times be certain effective tricks that allow you to overscore your actual English ability. But this too is fluid. The test makers are always trying to adapt to the strategies of prep schools. What worked 4 years ago may not work now. And even 4 years ago, for the say 5 tricks that worked, the prep schools would have taught you 20 (15 of which were worthless).

Students are smart. They know that sometimes tests have loopholes or weaknesses that can be exploited. Telling them that this is simply not true at all will only diminish your credibility. But what I do tell students is that at the moment, there don't seem to be any reliable ways to seriously 'game' the tests that are worth investing time in to. That could change, but right now I tend to support a fairly 'honest' approach to preparing for IELTS, TOEFL, and SAT.

The only exception being if say someone only has a short time in which to improve their score beyond a level that their English can support. In such a case, you might try the some of the older tricks of memorizing word strings etc....I have some decent anecdotal evidence that these old tricks do still work from time to in China, even though interlocutors and essay graders have long been trained to look for them. But the quality of graders is not even, so sometimes you get lucky. But I'd of course tell the student that they are going against the odds if they try this.

[Sashadroogie]

This has been discussed on this board before. But the upshot is, there is no real way of 'gaming' IELTS. There are just myths. Some of which even teachers, nearly always with no IELTS examining experience, fall for...

[JellyRoll]

[quote="kungfuman"]I've been teaching IELTS for over 8 years now.

Some common myths perpetuated among the Chinese students that I have encountered are:

That some IELTS centers are easier than others. I have had students tell me they were going to another city to take the test as they heard it was easier.



It's NOT a myth. I've had native speakers get 5.0 on the reading part of the exam. Myself included.
DO the tests. Can YOU answer all of the questions AND do 2 reads in 20 minutes? Didn't think so.
IELTS sucks. It is biased. It is bad. For the past 3 years I have been sending students out of province, because the test center here in Halifax sucks.

Do yourself a BIG favour - go through the current IELTS 9 Cambridge Test Papers...PM me, I will send it to you - it has over 200 errors in grammar alone.
This is English?
Sorry, not by a long chalk.
I tell all my students - switch to TOEFL. It's the smart choice, and it provides a solid foundation in all the skills necessary for academic reading and writing.

[Sashadroogie]

[bograt]

[Sashadroogie]

Remember that being a native speaker isn't enough. You need to be an educated native speaker. These tests measure how well a test-taker can use language in academic or professional contexts. A hillbilly from a swamp somewhere in an English-speaking part of the world would not be expected to score well.

[Phillip Schofield]

I'd argue that much of the IELTS test isn't even a test of your English ability.
I was teaching one student who had a fantastic level of English, yet couldn't read graphs or tables. Anything with numeracy or mathematics involved would completely confuse her.

As I'm sure you know, in the Cambridge Advanced IELTS book there is a section concerning reading and interpreting graphs.
The poor girl couldn't give a single correct answer.

This had nothing to do with her English ability, but more to do with her terrible graph reading ability.

I must say that I do find this somewhat unfair.

[Sashadroogie]

Yes, the graphs do appear to be a strange choice for an English test at first blush. But this is the academic module of IELTS. Most uni students are going to have to interpret or present data of some type at some point. So this is a fairly good guide to how well they can do this in English.