IELTS Registration, Preparation and Examination
Registration:
What you need:
- 13800tk
- Full Photocopy/1st 7 pages copy of your Passport (MRP/Old ones)
- Online access for registration and then printout of the last/summary page
Now go to Standard Chattered Service 1 bank. I went to Uttara branch in Sector 6. The sweet receptionist will give you a 4-page bank slip that you will need to complete. Then take a token and wait for payment. The cashier will take 2 slips and give you two. Then attach 3rd slip with clear photocopy of passport and your summary page printout and drop in the service 1 booth available in the right corner of the room and take the last slip (pink) with you.
You will get completed registration email in 1-2 days.
Preparation:
I passed my engineering in 29 January, 2014 and I thought it was the time to finally sit the IELTS.
My target was 6.5 (individually 6.5 in each section) so that I could apply in my selected universities in Canada.
What I did:
I completed IELTS Cambridge 8 and 9. I had done all listening modules and reading modules in these two books. I highly recommend anyone that you should complete IELTS 6-9. And about other books, they contain much harder test and listening sections which are irrelevant. I registered on 5 Feb and gave my exam on 26 Feb (speaking) and 1 March. So my Prep time was about 20 days.
I just want to say who watches movies and English TV series regularly, his/her standard of English is already much better than the average Bangladeshis. I highly oppose the idea of being admitted into coaching centers provided that you watch programs regularly.
I had only 20 days prep while I also was taking MSc classes regularly (5 days a week). So finding the time is upon you. One thing I must suggest to you that when you start to practice the reading section, you should complete the whole 3 section at once. I didn’t do that and I suffered from lack of attention and tolerance during the final test. So you must try to practice the reading section one at a time.
Another thing is that coaching centers/strategy guides says you to “skim” through the passage or first look at the questions first and skim. Well, I am against this idea. I suggest:
- You thoroughly read passage 1 and 2
- Then you apply skim for passage 3.
That way you can answer P1 and P2 with full attention and sufficient accuracy and allot less risks to last passage which most of the time is the easier one.
About listening section, it is the easiest part of IELTS and also tricky too. You know that Q31-40 tends to be the toughest. Well, it depends. If they are MCQ, then you need to apply more attention. In case of map questions, try to write the full list of tasks in question booklet, because, if you don’t you will lose track of your answers. The other answers tend to be easy.
Now for writing section, I followed www.ielts-exam.net and ielts mentor heavily. I read about 80 WR 1 tasks from IELTS-EXAM and all tasks from IELTS 6 -9. I tried to find synonyms of commonly used vocabs and the linkers. And also I used alternative forms of sentence rather than the forms given in the IELTS Cambridge answer sheets. For Task 2, I also followed IELTS EXAM 160 tasks. I am preparing a PDF Book that contains all the tasks (240 tasks in total) for making your study easier.
For speaking sections, I generated many examples from IELTS MENTOR website. But the ideas were in terms of my life. Don’t try to memorize in this section. Try to involve you real life conditions because you will never find any common answers in the real exam. Actually, I don’t talk much, so my hope for this section was not much higher.
EXAM:
You will receive your ielts speaking test center venue, time, and your Candidate ID no. about 5 days before your final exam and 2 days before your speaking exam. Speaking usually takes place 2-4 days before the final. My exam was in Bengal Inn in Gulshan 1. I heard most of the candidates gave speaking test there.
When you reach at the specified location in your given time, you will need to report yourself to representatives there (1st floor). They will check your passport and will tell you to sign to check in. Then they will take your photo with fingerprint of your index finger. Then they will assign you to a room in 2nd floor.
I got appointed to room 207 where an old lady was my examiner. The test will be recorded. There will be 3 sections. In S1, I was asked several questions about my hometown, cooking at home, and dictionary – online vs physical. It took about 5 mins, but it may vary as I was very nervous at the time. Then in S2, I was asked to describe a park in my town. Then in S3 there were many follow up questions regarding environmental impacts of parks/gardens in the city. I ran out of words after taking for 2 mins in S2, still the lady told me to keep going on. And I also ran out of words in 1 question in S3. Still the overall test was good.
Then on March 1, I arrived in Basundhara Concention Center 2 on 1000 hours. You should see the seat arrangement of candidates by the side of the road there. Then you will be asked to submit any electronic devices and sheets you have to the representatives there. Then you will searched again regarding the same issue. Then you will be verified by your fingerprint and passport. Then you may proceed to exam hall.
The first test will be listening. BC has good headphones and you will get about 20-25 trials to check if your headphone is working correctly or not. So no problem there. Apart from section 2, all other sections were easy. Section 2 contained geographic map and event map. You will also have additional 10 mins for transferring your answer.
Reading test will take place for 1 hour with 3 sections. In my case, the first section was very easy. But section 2 was taken from psychology journal and 3rd passage was from also a controversial issue about exposure of children to advertisement. The P2 and P3 was in particular very hard. But you should remember, correcting 38 doesn’t always mean 8.5 out of 9. Sometimes 34-35 correct answers mean 8.5. So you just have to concentrate on the task in hand.
Then about writing test, you can take notes in writing question booklets. In T1, I had a stacked bar graph about present and projected and previous populations in 3 megacities. I took implications from the graph and represented and compared various data and also compared the anomaly in the graph and used a lot of alternative vocabs and used a lot of complex sentences. In T2, I was told to discuss the issue that many resource are used to explore space, which could be used to improve standard of living in earth. One thing is that never repeat the question. You must come up with idea/line that only reflects the statement. I wrote about 350 words containing a lot of linkers, convoluted vocabs and supporting ideas, examples and contradictory ideas. The last thing to do is that never agree or disagree on the writing task. Always mediate between two arguments.
Then they will give some instructions about the results and then you may leave the hall.
Then on 14 March, I got my result in the afternoon.
I was expecting 6.5 as I thought my reading test had gone very badly. But to my surprise, I scored a 7.5 band (R-8, L-8, W-7.5, S-6.5).
Then I collected my certificate today from Fuller road, You must take your passport with you and sign there and they will give you the certificate, rather known as TRF, in beautiful and strong envelope.
You can send your score electronically upto 5 universities free of cost in 42 days after the result. The DHL/FEDeX will cost 2500Tk/address if done before 6 months after exam and 3000Tk/address afterwards. Every procedure can be done from BC in fuller road.
The reason I wrote this experience was:
- To eliminate the element of surprise for new exam takers.
- To eliminate as much as confusion.
- To provide some tricks that was very useful to me.
- To let everybody know, IELTS is not a test of vocabulary.
I just hope this was useful and I am preparing a complete PDF for writing task as I know many students in our country suffer in this section. I will provide about 240 essays.
Thanks you.
Regards,
Sumon Datta
Update: May 22, 2014: For getting so many requests for the files of essays, I am integrating the links with this document.
Update: May 22, 2014: For getting so many requests for the files of essays, I am integrating the links with this document.
Link: http://1drv.ms/1juY8df
Thank you, Sumon
(copy)
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