British and IELTS... typical score?

[barkface]

Hi Everyone,

Maybe I shouldn't be concerned about this, but I'm assuming that even British nationals need to take the IELTS test if they wish to be considered for Express Entry. Is this correct?

If so, what are typical scores for UK citizens of an educated background - i.e. degree level and 15+ years commercial experience?

From what I can tell it costs £150 to take the IELTS test in the UK, so my wife and I intend to take this test ASAP and then apply for Express Entry.

Thanks in advance! :

 

[Johnny31]

Hi Everyone,

Maybe I shouldn't be concerned about this, but I'm assuming that even British nationals need to take the IELTS test if they wish to be considered for Express Entry. Is this correct?

If so, what are typical scores for UK citizens of an educated background - i.e. degree level and 15+ years commercial experience?

From what I can tell it costs £150 to take the IELTS test in the UK, so my wife and I intend to take this test ASAP and then apply for Express Entry.

Thanks in advance! :

You still need to take IELTS even if you're from the UK

Don't worry about what others are getting - just do your best

 

[Cubiscus]

Mine as a British citizen:

Listening: 9.0
Reading: 9.0
Writing: 8.5
Speaking: 9.0
Overall: 9.0

 

[Johnny31]

Mine as a British citizen:

Listening: 9.0
Reading: 9.0
Writing: 8.5
Speaking: 9.0
Overall: 9.0

That's not a "typical" score - don't mislead people

 

[PMM]

Hi

That's not a "typical" score - don't mislead people

S/he isn't misleading anyone. That is probably the typical score for a person whose mother tongue is English.

 

[Cubiscus]

That's not a "typical" score - don't mislead people

I never said it was, I have virtually the same attributes as the OP so just gave mine as an example.

If your mother tongue is English I would say 8+ is reasonable to expect, 9 in speaking.

 

[Johnny31]

I never said it was, I have virtually the same attributes as the OP so just gave mine as an example.

If your mother tongue is English I would say 8+ is reasonable to expect, 9 in speaking.

I'm American and I also scored perfect - all 9s. But I would say expectations wouldn't become a reality unless the test taker thoroughly understands the styles of the test plus having enough practices.

Lots of native speakers think it should be a walk in the park for them just because they speak fluent English - if you think like that, the results aren't going to turn out as expected

 

[Cubiscus]

For speaking there's really no reason why any native speaker should be getting less than an 8, probably a 9. Listening should be ok and reading the information is right there in front of you.

Which just leaves writing which could potentially be tricky.

 

[Johnny31]

Hi


S/he isn't misleading anyone. That is probably the typical score for a person whose mother tongue is English.

Your opinion is base on what?

 

[White knight 22]

IELTS statistics show that a citizens with an english mother tongue don't go that far scoring!!
2013 test takers performance :
English as a first language test takers scored average of 7 academic and 7.2 GT
Australian : 6.9 GT average
Irish: 7.9 GT average
South african : 7.5 GT average

 

[journey21]

I'm from Singapore and I did my IELTS (GT) at IDP cos they were slightly cheaper than BC.

My results:
L - 9
R - 9
W - 7.5
S - 8
Overall - 8.5

Trick is not to over-prepare and if you have time to prepare for just 1 component, I'd say
pick either listening or writing to practise.

Good luck.

 

[Cubiscus]

IELTS statistics show that a citizens with an english mother tongue don't go that far scoring!!
2013 test takers performance :
English as a first language test takers scored average of 7 academic and 7.2 GT
Australian : 6.9 GT average
Irish: 7.9 GT average
South african : 7.5 GT average

Very interesting! I don't get how a native speaker would get less than an 8 in speaking, reading or listening but I guess writing can be difficult.

 

[seoultrain]

my advice would be don't underestimate the test. I just took General Training and scored all 9s but to be honest I was surprised I did so well. The speaking and writing are the easy parts. As a native speaker with an academic background you probably don't need to prepare for these two segments (I didn't).

But the reading and the listening can be tricky and there are exam techniques needed in my opinion to get full marks in both.

If you lose your train of thought in the listening you can miss questions quite easily as nothing is repeated and one or two points missed drops your score down to an 8.5 or 8. You need to know when to read ahead and you need to get used to writing down answers whilst continuing to listen to the tape and previewing the next questions to listen for the answers. There is an element of memory involved.

In reading, some of the questions are designed quite poorly. If you approach them from an academic/logic perspective you may struggle with the True/False/Not Given questions; I know I did. The only solution is to do a few practice questions and get a feel for what the examiners are trying to test (general understanding not Spock logic). Also, if you haven't taken an exam in a while you may have lost that attention span needed for some of the longer reading passages which can result in careless answers.

There are highly educated native speakers who don't get full marks just because they probably should have done a few more practice questions.

Put it this way, I got all 9s but if I took the test again tomorrow I would not be confident I could repeat the performance. If I took the test without having done any prep I would be surprised to have score anything more than an 8.

 

[arowberry]

Mine as a Brit:
Listening: 8.5
Reading: 9.0
Writing: 9.0
Speaking: 9.0
Overall: 9.0

It was early and I kinda nodded off during the listening exam for a second and missed a question.

Obviously most natively English speakers score highly; though it does vary significantly. An Aussie hairdresser friend of mine scraped through by 0.5 points on the writing exams, but most score 7 - 9 overall.

Native speakers often score lower than they should in the speaking test, because they give short responses to the interviewers questions, assuming that being able to respond is all the interviewer is looking for. You need to demonstrate your command of English, so you should respond with relatively lengthy answers, whilst demonstrating your vocabulary range (without going over the top).

It is most definitely worth having a look at an example test, if only so you know what to expect. I would have been disappointed if I'd scored lower than a 9 overall.