A Crisis of Confidence

Where do I start dear reader with expressing my outright hatred for this part of the exam?

The part of the exam which cost me 20 points towards my Visa!

The part of the exam which leaves me £390 out of pocket!

To successfully earn 20 points towards our Australian Visa, I must achieve at least a band 8.0 in all 4 segments. 

During my revision, it was difficult to revise for the Writing and to be honest, I was very nonchalant (due to the reasons above) thinking that I had this part in the bag.

You are not provided with scores during the practice on your writing, which I think makes it easy to shrug it off, as you are not getting instant gratification like the other sections. 

There are two tasks in the writing exam –  a short task which takes around 20 minutes and a longer task, which carries more marks, and takes approximately 40 minutes. During my first exam, my questions were as follows: 

Short task– You have borrowed a guidebook from your friend for a destination you have just visited for a week. Your task is to write a letter to your friend, thanking them for the guidebook, telling them about your holiday and agreeing on how you will return it. (You must write at least 150 words) 

Longer Task– Many people believe that a law should be passed that states that all young people under the age of 18 should be indoors by midnight. Others disagree with this law. Discuss both arguments and provide your own opinion. Refer to your own knowledge and experiences. You should write at least 250 words. 

Other than looking up different types of possible questions, I didn’t rehearse any techniques or strategies for this task. I felt quite confident with my answer, using a wide range of sentence structure, cohesion and vocabulary. Although, I did write far too much. 

At first glance when receiving my results (which came through in less than 2 days via email) I thought I had done it and started to celebrate our extra points. I was quickly brought back down to earth after emailing my results to our migration agents and being told ‘No’. As a diagnosed perfectionist, who simply does not fail, this was a very low blow for me. But I wasted no time in re-booking for the following Saturday. Thinking that my issue was that I had waffled and I could fix it by writing less and doing some revision! 

I won’t go into the horrendous experience I had at the test centre. Let’s just say that the IELTS One Skills Retake, and I quote, brands itself as ‘saving time and money’ which is a complete lie.

I was still there for the entire test time plus an hour before to register. This did not make me happy but I was relieved to finally be in there and getting it done. Another 2 days passed and I received the same result.

Only this time, I spent the week revising techniques, structure, and different question types and made lots of notes to support my knowledge of relevant issues. 

To say that I feel deflated, disheartened and discouraged at this moment in time would be a huge understatement. There have been times today when I have just thought, let’s just stay in the UK as I simply cannot do this again. I would have to re-sit the full exam and pay another £220. I don’t have it in me. 

Cue the godsend that is social media. Where angels have come to my rescue with their positivity and our migration agent has suggested that I instead try the PTE exam. I have also emailed IELTS for some actual feedback that hasn’t been created by AI and will actually support my ability to improve whatever it is they think I am not doing. 

So I have one top tip for this blog and the writing section of the IELTS Writing exam. If you are able to, try the PTE as apparently, it is much fairer in terms of how it is marked and according to lots of ex-pats and soon-to-be ex-pats, it is also easier. 

Watch this space…and please cross your fingers!