Hi! I'm Clever Apple!!
Today, I will write about my study at Wollongong university in Australia.
Today's topic is about 'My first IELTS exam'.
After I decided to study abroad in Australia, I started to study IELTS, which is the academic requirement to enter a graduate school.
The reason I decided to study abroad is written in the article below.
■Please also see this!!■
I hadn't taken many English exams, so what I did at first was to buy a wordbook to increase my vocabulary size.
I had difficulty memorizing a lot of unfamiliar words... (I will write about how to learn vocabulary in the future.)
Through studying English vocabulary, I noticed I need to learn more new words, but I personally think that it is not too late to buy a wordbook after solving problems in an official IELTS textbook.
This is because it is more efficient and effective to study what you can't do well.
For example, if you realize that you are not good at listening through solving some problems in the textbook, you should focus on listening practices.
If you have enough vocabulary size to answer the questions of the textbook, you may not need to study vocabulary.
I would tell the old me to try some problems and find what you have to study.
I began to study for IETLS exam from December 2018.
In terms of listening and reading, I solved problems in some textbooks as many as possible.
Regarding with speaking, I remembered some answers to some specific topics.
For writing, I copied the model answers after writing my own answers.
However, these studying strategies are not enough to meet the academic requirement.
In May 2019, I took an IELTS exam for the first time. I couldn't fall asleep on the night before the test because I was so nervous.
I wanted to get overall 6.5, because the exam fee is ridiculously high and I can't afford to sit for the test many times.
By the way, if you can't sleep, please try to inhale from your nose for 4 seconds and hold your breath for 2 seconds, and exhale from your mouth for 6 seconds.
You can probably sleep well!!
Sorry for getting off track.
On the morning of the exam, I went to Nihonbashi in Tokyo by train.
That was the first trial for me, and I had never been there, so I arrived at the test center 30 minutes prior to the opening time. I was the first person who arrived there.
At the test center, I put my bag into a plastic bag to leave it a room, and did fingerprint authentication and was taken a picture for the certificate.
It was not allowed that bangs end at eyelashes to take a valid picture, I took time to take the picture.
After identity confirmation, I entered the room for taking the exam, but I had no choice but to see my passport, because test takers can have just writing utensils, a bottle of water, and their passport.
Now, I think I should have studied more before entering the room.
Finally, the exam began! I took in the order of writing (The task 1 was about a line graph), reading, then listening, but in the listening test, a problem occurred!!!
The problem was that.....
I felt hungry!!!!!!!!!!
I had breakfast, but my stomach rumbled because I left my house early in the morning!
Because of the feeling of hunger, I lost my concentration, which is especially important for a listening exam.
Some people will have a stomachache or feel sleepy, so it depends, but I personally recommend to eat a lot before IELTS exam!
The total testing time for reading, writing, and listening is 3 and half hours, and you can't eat anything in the test.
If you can concentrate on exams regardless your feeling of hunger, please ignore this haha.
2 to 3 hours after the 3-subskill tests, I took a speaking test.
The time between the 3-subskill tests and a speaking test depends on test takers.
During the waiting time, you can relax or study for the speaking test.
If your friends also take the exam, you can practice with each other and talk to be relaxed. (I have few friends so I took IELTS alone...)
In the speaking test, one of the questions was 'What is the famous group that you respect?'.
I prepared an answer for a question, 'What is a famous person you respect?', but didn't do for a group, I was so confused and couldn't answer appropriately...
In this way, my first IELTS trial ended.
On the night before the announcement of the results, I had a dream. In the dream, my IELTS overall score didn't meet the required score. Maybe, I unconsciously felt my score would be low.
On the next day, that bad premonition came true.
Listening: 6.0 Reading: 7.0 Writing: 5.5 Speaking: 5.5 Overall: 6.0
Writing, speaking, and overall scores were too low to get an admission letter.
I found some articles about IELTS exam, and some of the writers said 'I took the test over 10 times' and they made me shudder.
'How many times do I have to take this really expensive exam to get enough scores?'
So, I strongly felt that I need to change my studying strategies to get overall 6.5 score in the next trial.
In the next 4 months, I studied IELTS with in other ways. The new strategies are the articles that I wrote in this blog.
Please check them!
Next time, I will write about 'The second IELTS exam'!
Good luck with the exam :)
