Language Exams

[Grimbold21]

I decided to make this thread out of curiosity, to get to know any possible experiences folks here may have had.

Have you ever done a language exam? As in, going to some sort of private institution to get your skills in a certain language certified? How did it go? Was it hard?

Im taking a IELTS english exam next week, at British School. Personally, English is as easy as my mother language is. I've dealt with and in it since my childhood, so it never has been a problem nor do i feel that much nervous about taking a test.

But, i've been conditionally accepted to a degree in Denmark, which requires me to provide certified proof of my language skills, hence the test.


Ever had similar experiences?

[Blueobelisk]

I know maddd kids (vast VAST majority Asian/Indian) who take TOEFL's to get into US graduate schools. Seems easy lol. Very basic stuff.

[Templar 331]

I took Spanish 1 and 2 in High School. Didn't really learn much, just enough to pass. I somewhat remember the suffixes of verbs.

Also the fact that you're taking an exam on English makes me want to correct your post, but we can't be grammar Nazis. :P

[I Push Buttons]

I took Spanish 1 and 2 in High School. Didn't really learn much, just enough to pass.

Pretty much this with me as well. Took some Spanish in high school, had to take even more in college as a general education requirement. Didn't enjoy any of it, don't remember most of it. Literally never needed Spanish ever in my life for anything.

[Knaar]

The usual english exam around here cost 250$-300$ so.... no never took one.

Had some fun taking a practice one, one day. Man, i laughed so much at some of the questions :')

[May90]

I took a TOEFL iBT exam in 2012, I think. I attended 4 weeks of preparation courses in Canada, but after that I hadn't spent a single second preparing, that's why my result was only 99/120. Easy exam, in my opinion, except for the reading part: that one was a nightmare. I got really funky texts; I was lucky with one of them, since I am a physics major and it was something about comets; then there was a historical text, that was somewhat bearable, albeit very vague; and the last one was some green peace article, which gave me cancer - they must have written it specifically for this exam, since no one could unintentionally put in so many words that don't make any sense in the context.

Oh, I also took GRE General twice; it has parts focused on language knowledge.

Plus, I took two exams on Spanish at university. Don't think I remember anything beyond "Como estas" though.

[Theodarzna]

I somewhat had to jump through hoops to get TESL in California, but a lot of that was out of my control. The written exam's were not hard, but there were some reading questions that were fairly complex. Possibly because English is not my own native language so it took me a long time to finish.

[Themius]

Pretty much this with me as well. Took some Spanish in high school, had to take even more in college as a general education requirement. Didn't enjoy any of it, don't remember most of it. Literally never needed Spanish ever in my life for anything.

You're not trying hard enough to use it! I use Spanish on a daily basis, then again I'm also in areas with a high Spanish population.

[Grimbold21]

except for the reading part: that one was a nightmare. I got really funky texts; I was lucky with one of them, since I am a physics major and it was something about comets; then there was a historical text, that was somewhat bearable, albeit very vague; and the last one was some green peace article, which gave me cancer - they must have written it specifically for this exam, since no one could unintentionally put in so many words that don't make any sense in the context.

This aswell. I think it's the reading part that's more annoying, that or it's the writing one, can't recall which one now, but according to the practice exercises, one of them is, since it involved doing math related exercises and i hate math.

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Also the fact that you're taking an exam on English makes me want to correct your post, but we can't be grammar Nazis. :P

C'mon now, my writing isn't that bad, perhaps with the exception of the excessive use of commas, but that's just an influence of my mother language :P

[Kalis]

I did a course for teaching English in Malta, which consists of three parts - a class based course that included written assignments and practical demonstrations, a written exam and an interview (one hour ish) with three examiners.

You only get invited to the interview if you pass the other two parts, apparently lots of people fail the interview as they have strict criteria. Most people that I took the course with failed at either the exam or interview stage.

I got a distinction in the interview, I thought it was a piece of cake and my tutor for the class based part said I should go into journalism, as he loved reading my written assignments.

Different people have different skills, the entire course played to a large part of my professional skill set (training others, writing reports and talking random shit), so I breezed most of it. The part I had trouble with, i.e. remembering technical terminology, is what I always tend to struggle with.

[Skayaq]

I took the IELTS last year. I dont recall there being a lot of math in there, the writing assignment was fairly technical but there wasn't any math in it. My main issue with the writing assignment was really not being used to writing by hand for such a long time, rest of the test was easy.

[Basemath]

The thing about the TOEFL and IELTS, speaking good English doesn't necessarily translate into a high score. You could have a native English speaker take the test and if they don't know HOW to take it, they might struggle. Average/good spoken English won't help you if you don't know how to look at multiple graphs and write a report about them, or if you don't know how to write a proper academic essay. That said, it all depends on how high you want to score in the IELTS. Some universities want a 5 and above. Others want 6+. Some 7+. If your aim is the bare minimum (5-5.30 out of 9), walking into the test blind will do. That's assuming your English (spoken and written) are average. A notch below fluent.

Now if you want to excel and not just do okay, a bit of preparing might do wonders. The listening part is the easiest, unless you have trouble with different dialects being thrown at you. The reading part is progressive in difficulty. You'll get 3 articles with the last being the hardest. That means if you waste too much time on the first or second, you won't have time for the hardest one. They intentionally use words they expect the average test taker to not know/understand, especially for the third text. Mostly to see how well you handle 'meaning in context'. The questions/answers for the Reading section usually follow the same order of the article's paragraphs, except for some questions that require an understanding of the text as a whole.

The writing part is a bit touch n go for some. You'll need to write a report on some chart or graph for question one. If they ask you for 150 words and you write 149, you'll lose some marks. You'll need at least 150. When you report you CANNOT add any information that's not in the given chart, and you cannot include your opinion about anything. You also cannot exclude ANY information shown on the chart/graph. Same for the essay. At least 250 words, and you must answer the question that is asked, i.e. "do you agree?"

If you already know all of this, sorry These are just some pointers and you can find more of them online and in youtube videos if you're more of a visual learner.

[Skayaq]

The thing about the TOEFL and IELTS, speaking good English doesn't necessarily translate into a high score. You could have a native English speaker take the test and if they don't know HOW to take it, they might struggle. Average/good spoken English won't help you if you don't know how to look at multiple graphs and write a report about them, or if you don't know how to write a proper academic essay. That said, it all depends on how high you want to score in the IELTS. Some universities want a 5 and above. Others want 6+. Some 7+. If your aim is the bare minimum (5-5.30 out of 9), walking into the test blind will do. That's assuming your English (spoken and written) are average. A notch below fluent.

Now if you want to excel and not just do okay, a bit of preparing might do wonders. The listening part is the easiest, unless you have trouble with different dialects being thrown at you. The reading part is progressive in difficulty. You'll get 3 articles with the last being the hardest. That means if you waste too much time on the first or second, you won't have time for the hardest one. They intentionally use words they expect the average test taker to not know/understand, especially for the third text. Mostly to see how well you handle 'meaning in context'. The questions/answers for the Reading section usually follow the same order of the article's paragraphs, except for some questions that require an understanding of the text as a whole.

The writing part is a bit touch n go for some. You'll need to write a report on some chart or graph for question one. If they ask you for 150 words and you write 149, you'll lose some marks. You'll need at least 150. When you report you CANNOT add any information that's not in the given chart, and you cannot include your opinion about anything. You also cannot exclude ANY information shown on the chart/graph. Same for the essay. At least 250 words, and you must answer the question that is asked, i.e. "do you agree?"

If you already know all of this, sorry These are just some pointers and you can find more of them online and in youtube videos if you're more of a visual learner.

I walked into it blind, I got an 8.0

[Basemath]

I walked into it blind, I got an 8.0

You're a god amongst men. Or goddess. Notice I said "assuming your English is average" right after the walking blind bit. Unless you're telling me your English is average and you got an 8?

[Templar 331]

C'mon now, my writing isn't that bad, perhaps with the exception of the excessive use of commas, but that's just an influence of my mother language :P

Lol, it's pretty good. I'm just nitpicky.

[primalmatter]

I did one for French and it was easy enough.

Mostly a verb test followed by a short conversation in the language