Recently I enrolled myself for IELTS exam. Many of my friends has already answered the exam earlier and provided their feedback to me. I need to get 7 out of 9 in all four sections. But 9 out of 10 friends advised me that I can get only 6, that is too if I am lucky enough to clear the speaking test. But I still started preparing for it with a mood to just answer it once to have an experience.
For those, who are not aware of what IELTS is for; IELTS is an English ability test and have four parts. Listening, Reading
So after hearing so much about the difficulty level of the test I start preparing for it. I had 4 weeks after my enrolment but due to heavy workload I was not able to concentrate for preparation. Still I give some time to it & found that my speaking & writing is very weak. Although I prepare for all the sections but I mainly concentrate on writing & speaking. Luckily I found a good website which use to analyse your written essay & letters and use to rate them according to IELTS pattern. I got enthusiasm to write more because I have someone to review & mark my mistakes. Using that site tips I improve my writing skills but the side effect of that website was that I use to spend most of my preparation time for writing only. It made me worried about other sections. In the final week I took two days leave & prepare for each section. My friends notify that my speaking is very poor as sometime no one can understand what I am saying. I try to make the strategy for it & I found that I use to speak very fast. So I prepared a tip for myself where I need to speak slowly & calmly.
On the final day I reach to IELTS test centre. It was a uncomfortable environment as there were so many people & invigilators were not so friendly. Finally I ot my desk in the room. I saw there were two speakers in the roof. I was sitting just under the second speaker. I was happy that now I can hear good in listening test (first test). When the listening test started I found that second speaker is not working & only front speaker is working. That was the time I thought my bad luck has started & I will not be able to clear the test. During the listening test, I was not able to hear properly. On one question I found I missed something & try to recall the last thing. Due to which I missed my next answer too. Second shock for me & my moral went down. But I push myself to answer the rest of the exam calmly without having negative thoughts. So all the questioned were answered after that. I found that I need to answer 30 correct answers out of 40 questions to get a score of 7 in listening. When I review my answer sheet I was confident about 28 which was the third ring to break me up. To avoid that negative energy part was very difficult for me but still I prepare myself to answer the next test. It was reading test & seems to be easy one till I reach to fourth section. Fourth section was to make people confuse about the answers. Paragraph was bit lengthy & answers were not direct answers. I read the whole paragraph 5-8 time to extract the answers. Reading test was good & I was little positive about that. I answered writing test after that. Most difficult type of letter for me was to write personal letter, and guess what, I got personal letter to write. I write it & then essay but I was so saturated that I did not re-check my answers for writing. During my practice I discover that re-checking your answer leads to correct many mistakes & apparently you can get higher score. But still I did not give a damn to it & return the answer sheet without re-checking it.
Now comes the time to answer the speaking test. As per the rumours it is the most difficult part of IELTS test & you can never score a 6 in this part. I got an appointment of 4:45 PM, which means I need to wait for 5 hrs. That was terrible for me because I was not aware how to kill those 5 hours. I spend those 5 hours in real pain, moving here & there...trying to sleep, go to mall etc. Finally I went to the room where I need to answer the test and that was my final shock. I got nervous & forgot all my tips. Lady was so rude that she did not smile even once during the whole 15 minute speaking test. She asked me many questions & answers each of them without following any tip & in my usual speed. She asked the questions & immediately without any pause I answer them. At the end she gave my feedback on the spot by saying "What did you say, rail or road...I think rail. So tell me why rail transport is better". Right at that moment I understood that I have been f**ked up & not going to crack IELTS in first attempt. I came out of the room under depression & abusing my self. My score would be coming after 13 days. Although I was aware about the outcome but still I was curious to know if I am lacking in some other section also (except speaking).
During those 13 days I become so short temper & a small noise can irritate me. Those 13 days were terrible for me & my room mates. I did not go anywhere, have not done any thing good. Finally, on the result day I opened the website to check my score. You won't believe it I cracked IELTS. OMG...I close website & open it again & same score. I match my name & roll no...yes it was my score and I got 7.5. I reboot my laptop & open the site again. Again the same score. I was so happy cum shocked that how come I got that much score. My score was Listening 7.5, reading 8.5, writing 7 and speaking 7.5. Overall score 7.5. I was very happy at that point of time & I was not able to believe it.
That was the terrific moment of my life. I never get so excited & happy about any of my result. I thank god for this timely gift.
