IELTS is a joke

[global gypsy]

Recently I took the IELTS. It was such a disappointment. This much-touted test is so poorly designed. Personally I don't believe it tests the relevant aspects of knowledge of English at all.

Anyways, I scored 9.0 on it, so can't complain, but still feel it's an apology for a test. I'm sure IELTS staff benefited, given that I had to shell out £100 for it.

What a joke.

[herts]

congrats mate for scoring 9 pts in ielts. I also didn't knew much about ielts, and compared it with TOEFL, but when my brother gave the exam couple of months back by just booking the test and giving the test without studying anything I knew it wasn't that tough. It must be one more way to make good money. Won't be surprised if ielts fees gets doubled as well. British do know how to make money from people though.

[global gypsy]

I don't want to give the impression it's an easy test. You do need to prepare for it. But the point I was making was that it tests all the wrong aspects of English language understanding and usage.

To cite an example, in the listening section, you hear a voice that says something like "...and the lady's residence post code is XB4 4YZ" - then promptly have to write in 'XB4 4YZ' in the answer sheet where it asks for the post code of the lady's residence. What does this test? Remembering boring details? I bet even a native user of the language may not get things like this right.

What this means, of course, is that you do have to prepare well, and familiarize yourself with the format of the test. But the fact remains that the test itself is designed so poorly.