A day after my Speaking component, I found myself at at familiar site, Civil Service College for the other three components.
Paper was at 9am but you're expected to be there by 8.20am to register. I thought that was a tremendous amount of time for registration till I turned up at the venue. I do not think it would be an exaggeration to say that there was upwards of 200+ people at the test venue.
Registration was a breeze, just bring along the ID you used to register for the exam and you entrance slip. A middle-aged lady next to me brought her NRIC instead of her passport, her excuse being that the migration agent had not informed her which ID he had used for the registration. The British Council attendant on duty allowed her into the exam on the condition that someone bring down her proper documentation and arrive before the end of the paper so that he could verify her particulars.
After registration, I was directed to the baggage room where you leave all your belongings. That's right, no stationery, wallet or handphones. Only supposed to bring along your ID, water bottle (clear, transparent) and warm clothing (if needed). I then moved up to room 4.2, this was at 8.20am or so.
What followed was a wait of an hour, till the paper started at about 9.20am. During that time, I found myself looking at the other candidates and wondered if they were there for the same reason. For some reason, there were quite a few China students there too. Was there any other reason to take the IELTS test?
By the way, your $320 fee buys you those writing equipment shown in the photo.
Standard examination rules, no toilet breaks in the first 10 or last 10 minutes. No toilet breaks during listening component. No extra time given for taking any toilet breaks. If you do end up taking one, your exit and re-entry times are recorded.
Listening was really a chore. If you find your thoughts wandering, you can kiss goodbye to a decent grade.
Reading was decent. 40 questions scattered over 3 reading passages. Passages were not extremely difficult, neither were they for Sunday reading but that might have been because I was sitting for the
Academic paper.
Writing was made up of 2 tasks, the first being descriptive (based on some diagrams given) and the second, a standard 'discuss this and give your opinion' essay. Task 2 holds double the marks compared to task 1. I have horrible handwriting and was planning to rewrite my answers in a decipherable form but the one hour went by very quickly. 150 word minimum for Task 1 and 250 word minimum for Task 2. So, no rewrite. Again, I find myself hoping for the best.
As I walked out of CSC, I realised that I felt a sense of relief that it was over. Had I ever been that tense about any of my prior exams or was it because this would have a greater impact on my life?
Oh, before I forget, just prior to leaving the centre, the invigilator reminded us that the results would be available after 13 days, after 3pm. Not sure if that included weekends or not so no earlier than 4th October, I suppose.
Wishing myself good luck.
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