I am writing this little piece just to inspire someone out there, someone who has given up hope on IELTS. Personally, I got my desired result at my 5th trial.
I took my first IELTS in September of 2018 and scored LSWR 7.5,6.5,6.5,7 I felt bad as I wanted to pass this exam at the first sitting, I actually gave it my all at the time, guess my all was not good enough. Even though there is no pass mark for IELTS, express entry applicants can attest that LSWR 8,7,7,7 is considered the pass mark.
My second trial was a few weeks after this, I read my ass out and after all is said and done, I took the test for a second time and scored LSWR 7.5,7,6.5,6. When I saw the result, I wasn't so upset, at least nothing compared to how I felt when I saw my first result, however, there was a reason, I knew I was not going to pass the reading, I could not finish the reading test on test day. On the other hand, I thought I gave the other three modules my best. I still came out short in 2 (L & W). I had adopted Jay’s ‘super method for speaking’ to score at least 7 in the speaking module (Jay is a popular online IELTS teacher on YouTube).
After the second test, I rushed to register for the third, it was only 2 weeks away, so I prepared the best I could. This time, I made up my mind that I was not going to fail anything I had already passed in my previous tests (my assumed pass mark by the way is 8777 – LSWR as earlier stated), this will give me my desired CRS score, and this personal decision was key! I researched on YouTube on best ways to tackle some of these modules (And yes, I have always been researching), but this time it was different, I needed styles to tackle each question type. So I ran into a video by a random lady, she revealed that the key to passing reading was TIME, that whatever you do, ensure you finish questions 1-27 in at most 25 minutes, you need a lot of time in questions 28 – 40, simply because the questions become complex. Even though I passed the first reading which I scored 7, I was not comfortable of passing it again, until I saw that post. Mind you, my first three exams were with British council. Anyways, the third result came out and it was LSWR 7.5,7,6,7. I was sad again, but this time depressed as well so I decided this was it! And then I quit IELTS…
A colleague at work kept urging me to reconsider and retake the test, all fell to deaf ears at first. I did not attempt the test for 6 months. He was able to convince me and I decided to go back to the drawing board, by this time, I already had strategies for speaking and reading. These two I rarely revise because I was so comfortable that I can always pass them. I had to devise a strategy for listening, remember I have maintained a score of 7.5 in listening through-out the three trials.
So I took my 4th test, this time I switched to MOD-IDP Australia, I made up my mind that this is it!
I wrote the test on the 2nd of March somewhere in Lekki. I paid extra attention to the listening. I knew exactly what my problem was and that is “the section C”, the part that could have up to 2-4 speakers. So I used mini-ielts.com to prepare for this. One good thing about this website is that you can select the type of questions you want to practice, focus and improve on it. I did exactly that and I improved. Test results came out and boom I scored LSWR – 9,8,6.5,8. What a result right? But damn the writing messed it up. I went for a remark and the result of the remark came out the same day my wife went to labour for our first child; the result of the remark sadly didn’t change!
I felt horrible, had mixed feeling, it felt like the worst day of my life. My wife put to bed the next day, at least I had something to smile about and it took me out of my depression.
I prepared for my 5th IELTS, mind you by this time I had conquered LS&R, my only problem was writing, so I focussed only on writing. I picked April 6th for my 5th exam, I had about just over a week to prepare. My cousin gave me some videos by the popular online teacher IELTS Liz. This video by the way is different, it is not the ones you will find on her channel on YouTube. She calls them her “Advantage videos”. Basically, you pay her some money to access these videos. I didn’t pay anyway because my cousin had already paid for them. It has step by step process on how to tackle each question type. I did nothing for the 5th test but follow her instructions to the teeth, and it paid off! I did not try anything on LR&S, I just went for the test. My results came out on 19th of April, Good Friday and I scored LSWR – 8,7.5,7,7
. There is no adjective to express my excitement, I had the best Easter celebration, I went for a boat cruise with friends because it was worth it.
My takeaways, I took my time to write this for inspirational purposes. I know someone out there will be needing this inspiration. If you read closely, you will notice I passed them one after the other, you too can, even at once in your next trial!
I will respond to questions in this trend, if I get any. I can also share any material you might need. I will not be charging a coin because no one charged me a coin, all the materials I used I got them freely, freely I received and freely I shall share my knowledge and sources. The only paid material I used was Liz writing video, still I was not the one that paid for it!
My name is Mike, and remember, You too can be a success story!
