Blog #8 IELTS TEST

 Hello everyone!! This is Chiaki Tochihara. Today is the last day of my long summer vacation, but I really want to see my friends, so it’s ok for me. I hope you had a great summer vacation, too:*

Today, I’ll introduce to you about an English examination called IELTS, which means International English Language Testing System. Do you know about it? Or Have you ever taken the exam?? I have taken the exam twice, and I felt the test was terrific test that I have never taken before.

Nowadays in Japan, TOEIC test is very common and we had such an exam when we entered this university. Most of Japanese people would know TOEIC because when we start to find a job, almost all companies ask us about the scour of TOEIC test, so university students try to study hard and get high score of TOEIC test. Basically, thought TOEIC test has two sections, listening and reading test, it becomes to have other section, speaking and writing test. Unfortunately, however, we cannot use the score of TOEIC test for studying abroad.

On the other hand, recently, IELTS becomes popular all over the world and same as Japan. The test is suitable test for people who want to show their English skills for study abroad and study training, or who apply for their transmigrations. IELTS is admitted by some institution of higher education in UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In America, it is getting to be accepted for the entrance exam, and the candidates all over the world have been getting increase.

Speaking of study abroad, TOEFL test is very common one, but TOEFL test has many difficult specialist vocabularies and examination candidates have to take the exam with using a computer, so that means, in speaking section, we speak to the screen of the laptop. I think it depends on the person which exam is good for them but there are three advantages of IELTS test.First, we don’t need to have specialist vocabulary’s knowledge. Of course we need to learn many vocabularies, about 10000 words, but even if we are lack of the specialist vocabularies, don’t worry because we can figure out such a difficult meaning word by reading sentences around the word, we can guess its meaning. In TOEFL test, if we have not learned a special field, we cannot get high score even if we have high English skills. But in IELTS test, we are equal on the situation weather have learned a special field or not, so it is easier to get high score. Second, we can test our real English skills for all four sections. IELTS test has four sections, listening, reading, writing and speaking, and we have to write the correct spelling of the answers even on the listening test, it means it’s not a mark-test. Of course there are also some questions for the test-taker to select among, but we are needed to write correct spelling and the singular and the plural, so it will become our real English skills because nowadays writing on the paper becomes less than before because of the computer or some convenient devices, many people, even native people, cannot spell correctly today, so IELTS improves our spelling skills too. And especially on the reading section, some topics of the passage are really interesting and good for our life, we can get to know about interesting categories, so I have never felt tired as reading and studying for IELTS test. These new knowledge make us more clever and we can put our learning to practical use after entering the foreign university. Third, we can feel as if we were in other place outside Japan. The exam begins with an explanation which proctor gives in English. At the first time that I took the exam, I was surprised but I could enjoy the environment looks like foreign countries. In addition, there are many candidates, not only Japanese but also the people come from other countries. So I can also feel foreign environment. At last, we can talk with a British examiner during speaking test, so it is a sort of a good training of talking with native speaker. I cannot speak in smooth and fluent English but I like speaking section because of I can talk with them!!

In short, IELTS is an exam but I can enjoy taking this exam!! If you have never taken this exam, please try and know your real English skills. After taking the exam and getting to know which section is your weak point, you can strengthen that point!!

Oh, I have to say to you guys, please pay great attention, because this test has very strict surveillances: due date, show passport, expensive, identify fingerprint and many things that we should do before the exam….if you forget to do only one of these, you cannot take the exam even if you paid….the same as me….