Update from an Academic IELTS exam, Vietnam
This is what our friend P from Vietnam had to say about a recent Academic IELTS exam.
“Oh my God, it was terrible!
Listening test
The listening test was quite easy, but I didn’t do well because I couldn’t concentrate.
Section 1. Don’t remember.
Section 2. About diving.
Section 3. About a man asking about a course in zoology.
Section 4. About a particular perfume.
Most of the questions were filling in the blanks except in part 4 where all the questions were multiple choice. However, part 4 was not easy. I lost concentrate from the very beginning, and it was a disaster (maybe because I have been sick).
Reading test
Reading test was even more difficult (in my opinion). The articles were simple, but the questions were not so simple. I could only do well in Passage 1.
Passage 2 I couldn’t understand. It pointed out some views of scientists. I was very keen on reading the whole passage, but I still didn’t understand. I wasted a lot of time on this.
Passage 3 was about English as an international language. I could understand this article, so I think I did the matching of the headings well. But in the matching task and summary completion I couldn’t do well (maybe because of lack of time).
Writing test
Writing Task 1 (a report)
We were given 2 bar charts, both had the same subject (the number of students studying each subject in a specific school), just different years (1990 and 2005). So I had no difficulty to combine, compare and contrast the information from the two charts.
Writing Task 2 (an essay)
Some poor students and students from rural areas find it difficult to get access to the university education. For that reason universities should make it especially easy for people from these backgrounds. In what extent do you agree or disagree?
Speaking test
Well, I hope I will be fine in speaking test. The examiner was very kind, she asked all the easy questions since I told her that I didn’t do well in the test.
However, I spoke pretty fast. If I’d slowed down, I would have paid attention to pronunciation. That is my weakness, I think. I made a lot of mistakes in grammar, but it seems the examiner understood what I said.
I am afraid that there is no certain topic for each test. There were 4 examiners in the speaking rooms, so obviously, each person would have a different topic. My topic was about education (pretty easy). My friends had topics about fashion and remarkable memories.”