Minimum Points to get into Express Entry

[sainathreddy]

About Language score, I think it doesnt make much difference, does it? Because in the end when you fill your EE account, it calculates the overall score. That's why when I wrote my IELTS Writing test was 6.5 i got the overall score 385. But when I change my IELTS Writing test to 7.0 just to see how much difference it makes, my overall EE points suddenly changes to 430!!!
But thanks for mentioning that.

There is a dependency on the Language score to skills transferability score. Even though the Language score may change little with the addition of 0.5, the transferability score jumps by leaps and bounds.
I am saying this because I was at the receiving end of this calculation or rather mis-calculation.
These are my scores and CRS values for the 3 attempts.
First attempt : L:9 R:9 W:7 S:6.5 --- CRS : 377
Second Attempt : L9 R:8.5 W:6.5 S:7 --- CRS : 392 (15 points for sibling. After the June 02 changes)
Third Attempt (Sept 09) : L8.5 R:8.5 W:7 S:7 --- CRS : 436 (w/ 15 points for sibling)

Detailed breakup and difference between the 2nd and 3rd attempt is as follows.
Not able to upload the picture . Will do it after I wake up in the morning

 

[hamid123456]

I should also add that I'm told that the speaking part of the tests are also hard for non-native speakers (maybe even moreso than the writing section, for some). Again, I'm not an expert on the IELTS, but my friends who have taken it say that the CELPIP speaking test is harder because you're talking to a computer and can't play off another human being, whereas with IELTS (or at least some versions of it) you are speaking to an actual person, who you can play off of, and who will ask you questions to help the conversation along. The key thing is to ensure you're not getting TOO hung up on what the question is asking you (still try to answer based on the content, to show that you understood the task/question but don't get flustered if you don't know enough about the subject matter to provide a proper answer (so, for example, say the question is about fine art, and you know NOTHING about fine art. Don't get flustered trying to recall information about fine art - just say, "Well, I don't know very much about fine art, to be honest, but..." and talk about your limited understanding of it, and maybe why you don't know more about it, or why you're not interested in it, or something like that). The point is just to talk and show you're capable of speaking in English, not to show your mastery of the subject matter being discussed.

Yeah, the Speaking test could be tricky too. The last time that I took IELTS my Speaking score was 6.5, and there were two main reasons for that. Firstly, The interviewer was a woman who interrupted me all the time and didnt let me finish my sentences to get my points across. C'mon, why are you so in hurry! You ask me a question about one subject, so let me talk about it for one minute at least!!!

Secondly, there was a very stupid question in the middle of the interview that screwed everything up for me! The question was: 'Do things always make you smile?" WTH?! what does the question even mean? Do things make me smile?! what kind of things? The problem was not that I didnt know how to answer it, the problem was that I didnt get the question and didnt even answer it! For the first time, I asked her to repeat the question, but again, I didnt understand it! I don't know why, but the question is so meaningless that my brain got into freeze mode at that moment!

Later i sent an Email to IDP and after a few Emails, they wrote me what the question was! I believe that was the most stupid question ever asked in an IELTS Exam! Do things always make you smile!! Ahahaha for God's sake, what kind of f#$%ing things are you referring to?!

 

[hamid123456]

There is a dependency on the Language score to skills transferability score. Even though the Language score may change little with the addition of 0.5, the transferability score jumps by leaps and bounds.
I am saying this because I was at the receiving end of this calculation or rather mis-calculation.
These are my scores and CRS values for the 3 attempts.
First attempt : L:9 R:9 W:7 S:6.5 --- CRS : 377
Second Attempt : L9 R:8.5 W:6.5 S:7 --- CRS : 392 (15 points for sibling. After the June 02 changes)
Third Attempt (Sept 09) : L8.5 R:8.5 W:7 S:7 --- CRS : 436 (w/ 15 points for sibling)

Detailed breakup and difference between the 2nd and 3rd attempt is as follows.
Not able to upload the picture . Will do it after I wake up in the morning

I dont know what you mean by skills transferability, but I think the reason was that in the 2nd attempt, you got CLB 8.0 and in the 3rd, you got CLB 9.0. So that could be why your last points was much higher,

 

[sainathreddy]

I dont know what you mean by skills transferability, but I think the reason was that in the 2nd attempt, you got CLB 8.0 and in the 3rd, you got CLB 9.0. So that could be why your last points was much higher,

The below is the comparison from the detailed CRS Breakdown as given by the CRS Calculator.

The only section I couldn't add in the picture is about the siblings and french points; for which I have 15 from sibling.

As you can see in the above comparison, getting a 0.5 increase in S or W gave an additional 7 points for the 1st Official Language and another 37 points for the Skill Transferability.

Hope this clarifies.

 

[hamgha]

Writing is the toughest part in English test. I don't know how they score it because the way we think and write is different than the way native think and write. My guess is that they scoring base on how closely you are to the native, not how well you are with your grammar. That's why only an extreme small fraction of non-native ever score 7 or above.

I think what they score based on is how well you followed the instructions: number of words, tone of voice (formal letter to your boss vs informal letter to your friend), the structure (introductory line, main body, conclusion), a good flow using transition words,no long sentences etc... I guess one of the main problem with non-native is they write as they speak. Both my husband and I are non-native and we scored 7.5 and 8 respectively on first attempt. So it's feasible. Best thing to do is to read a lot and watch English movies and series. All 4 sections of IELTS are interdependent when speaking from a language POV.

 

[mapleleaf987]

I have taken IELTS General test twice (the last was on 9 September), and both my writing band was 6.5. But I really believe that I deserved to get at least 7.5!

I dont know what the problem is, but I guess for some suspicious reasons IDP Australia is not willing to give the Iranian people a writing score more than 6.5!
And unfortunately IDP is the only organization that holds IELTS tests in IRAN, so I have no idea how I can handle this!

If I take IELTS test three months from now again and get a better result, Can I update my EE profile later?

Yes you can. You can submit your EE profile with the current ielts score, and if u get better scores which can bump your crs, you can update your EE profile with the new scores. There are no limits to the number of times you can give the test and update your EE. To be noted that EE profile expires after a year of submission, post which you create a profile again.